motorsportmania

On BBCF1 yesterday Charlie Whiting defended the introduction of standing restarts next year.

His claim that the most exciting part of the race was the start, and that the possibility of having multiple starts means more excitement and the chance of position changes is further indication that F1 is moving from sport to show.

In NASCAR they abused the competition caution (and the phantom yellow) to close the field up to a point where they seem, thankfully, to have pulled back from it a little, but we still have the ridiculous situation of them re-setting the championship table before the end of the season. Despite Brian France’s statement over the weekend, which was a masterful way of saying pretty much nothing, NASCAR still needs to take a bit of a look at itself or it will go the way of USAC and CART.

For F1 to reset the field behind the safety car cheats those who have established some sort of advantage, but making everyone restart from standstill potentially further risks their rewards.

F1 should be the pinnacle of motorsport, but it being dumbed down and it can’t trade on it’s name for ever. Until those running it get back to basics and drop all of these gimmicks the they are placing the sport in jeopardy. And they should be reminded that it is the sporting element that true fans want, not a motorised form of the stage management that is professional wrestling. We want racing, not blatant efforts to manipulate results.

Filed under: F1, Indycar, NASCAR | Tagged: autoracing, BBCF1, F1, formula one, motorsport, NASCAR, racecar |