📰 Auto News Report: Ecclestone wants fake rain to make F1 racing more exciting

[Mook]

the fuck?

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone seems to believe he has a recipe to make his sport a bit more entertaining, and it involves heaping buckets of artificial rain. That's right – no longer content to simply play with KERS and points systems, Ecclestone has reportedly turned his attentions towward bending weather to his will.

The F1 honcho says that overtaking in the dry is nearly impossible thanks to marbles on the course, but the instant things turn wet, the racing gets more exciting by the second. Some tracks are already outfitted with systems to water down the tarmac, and Ecclestone says that it would be relatively simple to fit other courses with irrigation.

While speaking with the official F1 website, Ecclestone said that he could imagine flooding tracks for 20 minutes during the middle of a race or for the last 10 laps with a two-minute warning.

Why not just drop Sebastian Vettel and the rest of the F1 gang in row boats and make them paddle around the Seine? We're sure that would be plenty entertaining, and probably a good bit safer.

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[SirMarco]

STUPID. Just my $.02

 

[Frank Dukes]

makes me think of that sly stalone movie about F1 where he crashes in the rain.

 

[IDAFC21]

I know someone that had this exact idea a year or 2 ago. Now hes rather chaffed that ecclestone "stole" his idea It would make things interesting thats for sure. I dont really know if its in the "spirit" of the sport, but rain always does make things interesting. The biggest problem youre going to run into is to find a way to COMPLETELY randomize it and take it out human control. Cuz the conspiry theorists would go absolutely bonkers if Racer A was leading the race the whole time, and then w/ 5 laps to go the sprinklers wet down a patch just in front of him and cause him to go off. Thats why I dont think it could ever work.

What gets me goin tho is now that they're running pirelli tires, they're speculating that racers may have to come in 3-4 times a race to pit and change tires, due to their degredation rate. Ok. I believe they outlawed refueling last year to 1. reduce pitlane accidents, but 2. mostly so that it would reduce the pit stops so the racers would have to rely on the track for overtaking instead of pit strategy. Well thats out the window now.

Its just funny. For every step they try to take forward to increase the "excitement" of the sport, they wind up taking 2 steps back.

 

[esteinmaier]

Why don't we also make them run over swords and shields too while we're at it?