DonTirri wrote:
I think I have a memory of a top level series which tried to focus its rules around manufuncturer teams and thought it could survive without privateer teams... now what was it called?
Oh right. World Sportscar championship. And guess what? It died after Privateers found themselves unable to compete in it due to the costs and manufuncturers who didn't have success left one after another.
I don't think that was really what happened to the WSC - essentially the change to the 3.5 NA litre engine formula which was supposedly a cost-saving measure (privateer teams could use "cheaper" engines based on F1 tech), that looks, in hindsight, like a transparent poly to move the manufacturers from WSC into F1 as engine suppliers (because they'd have been building something very close to an F1 engine anyway)- Which is what Peugeot and Mercedes did. effectively it died because of a rule change almost deliberately calculated to kill it.
The "golden years" of sportscar racing were those where it was specifically a championship intended for manufacturers. back in the 60s and 70s it was the "world championship of makes". Group C started from that point in 1982, though became almost a one-make porsche series through the mid-80s, until jaguar, then mercedes came on the scene. It did not help the category at all that Merc and Jag were unwilling to sell customer cars. and even in those years of manufacturer participation in Group C, one car was generally head and shoulders above the rest each year.
A succesful motorsport needs stability, and from the point of view of FOTA I can understand the anger that there's been a lack of that from the FIA in recent years. However it does seem unlikely that a FOTA series will be any better. manufacturers don't stay in championships so they can keep losing. and annoyingly, they sometimes don't stay after a long period of winning because it;s become, from a marketing perspective, boring (see honda's exit in the early 90s, and renault in the late 90s). maybe FOTA are relying on the new financial structure for the sport they'll put in place to make an F1 team, even an unsuccessful one, break even or make a profit, and that this will keep losing players in the game, but it seems unlikely.
I'm no fan of max, and think he's hugely mishandled this situation, but I do think his core point, that manufacturers can't be trusted to stick around, is valid. however it was him that got F1 into this situation in the first place, so it's a problem he's brought on the sport himself.
