Quote:
Originally Posted by Simmi
Unless you have those manufacturer links, where are all bar two guys on that grid actually going? Especially when drivers from one, two, arguably even three rungs below are leapfrogging them into F1.
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that's pretty much part of the reason i think single seater racing as we know it including f1 will become irrelevant in the next 10 years. unfortunately, i see endurance racing edging into the same breed of mistakes that started to quicken the demise.
an issue i see for endurance racing in the next few years is the number of kids coming across from single seater racing. the guys who have moved before have indeed put relatively little cash into the teams, but there's a special set of circumstances for that, and they don't apply to the average young driver. there's been one or two this year, but you'll see more and more completely average drivers come over expecting to end up like the tincknells and hartleys of the world.
that's really going to upset the balance. i think there's going to be the attitude from a lot of kids that they're too good to bother with the gt side, or even lmp3, so as long as gp2 and fr3.5 continue to fail to increase costs.
the bit where endurance is losing the thread in the same way, imo, is failing to keep the amount teams are willing to spend on racing programmes under control, even on the privateer side. so the amount teams spend on multiple engineers and peripheral fluff increases, series become more expensive to compete at the top. the powers that be introduce a new low cost series at the lower end of the market, and the costs increase in that, and all that happens is that the top series and classes become too expensive for anyone but the big spenders (see: wec lmp1 & lmp2, gp2, fr3.5).
the peripheral fluff is in unnecessary staffing a lot of the time. because the balance of power is a bit odd in single seaters with the drivers and their entorage calling the shots, if x team has y engineers and his team only has y-1, driver wants y because he thinks it'll make him faster. driver is x seconds off the pace. driver demands his car be rebuilt overnight because he thinks it's in the car. it's in his head. cost of new parts for rebuild have to be absorbed in budget. result? higher budgets. team b turn up with some flashy garage boards. so does everyone else the following year because it looks impressive.
for example. to run a big noisy single seater you need a maximum of 8 people. answers on a postcard as to how many staff you think teams actually have... it's madness. the teams point the finger at the organisers for creating expensive series when the teams themselves are running with unsustainable overheads and trying to appease little derek and his nouveau riche dad who wants to see a flashy f1 style setup for his pocket money. they need to be realllllly careful that attitude doesn't creep into sportscars.
/rant