Comments by "Clyde" (@Clyde-2055) on "Is Formula 1 About To Get Really Slow?" video.

  1.  @bodanerius  — The biggest difference in racing now and 40+ years ago is the “audience”. The roots of professional auto racing was about cars, speed, innovation and engineering excellence, and a certain breed of FAN was drawn to events. But as sanctioning bodies began to seek more profits, they attempted to expand their audience by broadening the appeal beyond the racing FAN. To do this, they started pursuing what they called “parity” in the cars, leading to events that continuously gravitated away from traditional racing to become gladiatorial-like completions between the drivers, while at the same time trying to maintain the illusion of engineering and manufacturer competition within the sport so not to chase away the racing FAN. In this very thread my point is made by @SHR, @lance, and @MrArctic, voicing the need for passing, close “racing”, with SHR even stating that we’d (the AUDIENCE) need BOP (balance of performance) to keep the cars close if they (F1) opened up the rules. Those people are not racing FANS, they are part of the racing AUDIENCE that see auto racing as entertainment rather than a proving ground for engineers and innovators. Societally, such paradigm changes are natural, as ideas, traditions and values and evolve and morph to follow the will of the masses. But sometimes, these changes backfire, and even consume the very entity from which they evolved. NASCAR is a great example of this; they tried to appeal to the masses, chased away most of their racing FANS, then the masses (the AUDIENCE) tired of the very thing that they clamored for to start with, leaving the sport struggling to stay solvent. The WEC series is trying to grow, recently employing BoP as a tool to artificially tighten up the competition in hopes of drawing a larger audience. Like with NASCAR, the initial response has been favorable. Let’s check back in 10-20 years to see how that works out for them. Note: As far as I’m concerned, using BoP in auto racing is like handicap golf: strictly for amateurs …
    3
  2. 😂
    1
  3. Yep …
    1