Fix F1 With This One Weird Trick!

Right, it’s time to talk about it. F1 are even considering it themselves now, as Imola is going to be a 2-day event. We need to get rid of F1 practice sessions.

WHY DOES F1 NEED TO GET RID OF PRACTICE?

Well Grands Prix are always more exciting when practice has been rained of – just look at Hungary. Teams don’t have reference points for tyre wear, haven’t perfected their setup, and don’t have mountains and mountains of data on how the car’s going to perform meaning that there’s more unpredictability and more chance for human error. This all leads to more exciting races as it leads to a variety of strategies, which in turn leads to more cars close together on track at different points in their strategies, leading to more mistakes under pressure and thus more overtaking and more overall drama. This effect would all be compounded come 2022 with all-new cars, all-new tyres, and the cost cap coming in to limit data analysis – plus cars that might actually be able to overtake!

BUT WHAT WOULD YOU REPLACE IT WITH?

I’m glad you asked! Of course, F1 has a number of options it can consider when replacing practice. It could add another junior series to the undercard, perhaps the W Series (which I would absolutely love), but people would still be annoyed with the lack of track time for the Big Stars (and I’ve got a plan for young drivers too!). Therefore, it would be really great if there was a one-make championship for the F1 drivers to participate in during a weekend. A seat for each F1 driver and make it mandatory, of course, to ensure the teams actually do it. Plus, you could have it like the Jaguar i-Pace trophy with guest drivers, or even a third car paid for by each team for a test/junior/reserve driver. Those 10 drivers could then have their own championship standings and it’d even have more than the 7 drivers per round required for Superlicence points! Of course, with all of the big manufacturer involvement in F1 you’d need a ‘neutral’ brand so that they’re all equally unhappy. Now, what about BMW? Mercedes: Probably not happy, but what are they going to do, quit F1 over a support series? I don’t think so. Ferrari: not in a position to complain about anything at the moment. Red Bull: already complaining about everything, who cares. McLaren: BMW are hardly in the same market as them, I’m sure they won’t mind. Renault: see Red Bull. Alpha Tauri: ditto. Aston Martin: probably still furious about Tomorrow Never Dies, so it’ll annoy a billionaire – another pro. Alfa Romeo: Probably delighted to not have to use a Ferrari engine to be honest. Plus they’ve got the BMW Sauber link, they could run a throwback livery, it’d be cute! Haas: who cares. Williams:

Remember Williams BMW? I’m sure they’d like to be back there too. So it’s decided: BMW.

OK FINE, BMW, BUT WHICH ONE?

Now when you think of space-age design, what BMW do you think of? The really cool looking ones, the ones that really t in with F1’s sexy new futurist image. The i8? Could do, could do, I’m willing to accept that as a compromise. But I’ve got a better idea, and it’ll keep the ‘purists’ happy too (for a bit, anyway). Giorgetta Giugiaro’s masterpiece, the pride of the M Division, the BMW M1. It’d be great fun! Teams could run their F1 liveries from the late 70s/early 80s (Haas could be blank) and, crucially, it’s already been proven to work. You see, back in 1979, there was a little championship called M1 Procar, run alongside 8 rounds of the F1 championship, featuring the likes of Lauda, Regazzoni, Piquet,

Laffite, Pironi, Jones, Surer, de Angelis, Fittipaldi, Andretti, and most importantly, Bruno Giacomelli. It was effectively a touring car championship – and they raced like it! Fast, furious, panel-bashing moves were not uncommon and that meant crashes too! It wasn’t a rare sight to see the F1 stars lose control of these beasts either – Hunt and Andretti famously both spun into the gravel separately at Hollywood Corner in the Donington round. Fast, difficult to drive, and beautiful; what’s not to like?! This also means there wouldn’t be any need for new cars to be produced as they could just reuse the old Procars. The cars fit in with F1’s image too, a weird hybrid of forging into the future and holding onto the past. And F1 loves bringing back old things! Fastest lap points, V6 turbos, Pedro de la Rosa, all conclusive successes, just like Procar would be!

– Look at it, magnificent! Source: https://www.mad4wheels.com/bmw/m1-e26-procar1979/car-wallpaper-262418

BUT THEY’VE GOT BIG PETROL ENGINES; THAT HARDLY FITS F1’S SUSTAINABILITY DRIVE!

And that’s where my genius is apparent. You see, with this many internal combustion engines on the roads today, it’s going to take decades before they’re all off the road. So we’ve got to do something to minimise their environmental impact. One of the easiest ways to do this is to just rip out the engines and convert them to electric power. And that’s what I’m proposing we do to the M1s. Think about it, the instant torque would make them even more difficult to drive, and they’d easily be able to reach the same speeds they did back in the 80s. It’d also provide big exposure to electric conversions as a way of reducing carbon emissions. Plus inline-sixes don’t sound that great anyway, so it would keep the leaf blower brigade at bay. Furthermore, the fact that they wouldn’t need to be any new cars produced would mean that there would be much less environmental damage from the initial setup of the series.

SO HOW WOULD THIS ALL WORK, LOGISTICALLY?

It’s easy! Get one of the junior series teams to run all of the cars, probably HiTech because they’re already doing it for the W Series. But HiTech don’t have the manpower for this, right? Now that’s where my genius comes in once again – F1 teams are going to have to lay o some engineers thanks to the budget cap so why not get them involved here! Each driver gets a car and the same number of mechanics and everything, with the junior drivers getting guaranteed seats for the whole season to fight for their own championship. Each car runs Pirellis , obviously, and can now be powered by BMW themselves thanks to their Formula E program, with the energy store provided by either McLaren Applied Technologies or Williams Advanced Engineering, whichever doesn’t have the Formula E gig at the time.

WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO ABOUT IT, HUH?!

Look all I’m saying, Mr Carey, is that this is clearly a good idea and, especially if you broadcast the Procar races on free-to-air TV, has massive potential to expand F1’s viewership. All of the original Procars are still in working condition and I’m sure it wouldn’t take much to get them all back. And it’d give you a little series to trial format changes in too! There’s no reason not to like it!