Well, the future of motorsports looks very bleek tbh. F1 by 2010 is going to be boringly standardised and possibly with the economy as it is, concist of a grid less than the current 20 cars since Honda has already dropped out.

LMS and ALMS have seen the withdrawl of audi and also the changes to GT1 regulations to reduce costs but also reduce the quality of the cars (which needed to be done considering the entries in lms and alms).

Rallying is going to become S2000 possibly, which means no more nice looking cars and crazy 200 kph speeds through forests and 6 ft high jumps.

Getting into motorsports is going to be much harder considering the current economic situation for most of the world.

So is motorsports going to be anything like it is/was? Also what do you guys think it will mean for sim racing? The costs are less, and as a spectical it is fairly equal in terms of TV viewing, it will at least be more so in future with better computer technology however you can't go and watch it in person which is imo what motorsports is really about and where the true spectical is for the fans.

Would be nice to hear peoples views on where they see themselves regarding motorsports in the future and what they think will be the future of motorsports regarding the current, large amount of stupid rule changes and losses.

a friend that races in europe told me this "F1 is going down" and i think the crisis in the prices and economy... are going to hit F1 harder than expected

"The Tragedy That Is The SHORT Future Of Motorsports "

stuff like these happens, no need to dwell on it I guess......what I know is this may lead to a rethink in motorsport and open new and more affordable forms of it for average joe like you and me, and that's a good thing.

and i think it's a relatively minor thing we lost some flare in a glamourous PR practice compare to people in poverty and loosing jobs, some things in the world are more in need of these resources.

I still dont see what the big fuss is about S2000 in WRC is.

If the engine is turbocharged and the power is similar, What difference does it make for the fans?

ain't they NA?

Not the special WRC versions

They have quote, "optional control turbochargers". I dont know about the torque numbers but that should reach the 300-320hp group N limit easily.

Depending on the engine design you can make up to 400ft-lbs with that much HP based on what I have seen, plenty for rally cars.

The biggest hit with the change to S200 from current WRC is the torque. The current wrc Xsara for example makes almost 600Nm of torque, that's over twice the amount of the S2000 peugeot makes. And I'm pretty sure the Xsara torque curve is lot more flat than the torque curve of that NA engine.

Imho, I just don't find it credible in any way that the top off road racing series, WRC, has cars that make barely 300bhp and are made of some cheap touring cars. It lacks truck loads of credibility for the series. It's like making F1 series with formula fords... Maybe the true top offroad rally series is then some national rally series or some of the american stadium dirt race series...

Most, if not, all teams will opt for the "optional control turbochargers" AKA spec turbo system anyways.

What would you rather?

a) A cheaper race series that doesn't fit in with your personal opinion about what constitutes "exciting" racing.

or

b) No race series at all?


Motor racing doesn't exist in a vacuum, it's part of the world we live in. Unless you haven't got out of bed and opened your curtains for the last 6 months I can't believe anyone really thinks that what's happening in motorsport is of any consequence what-so-ever when thousands of average people with no savings to their name are loosing their jobs and potentially their homes too.

So to put it bluntly I couldn't care less about WRC or F1 rule changes brought about by the current economic crisis.

Future in what kind of scope? This economic crisis is not going to last forever. As soon as it's over motorsport programs are going foward again and F1 teams are again spending half billion in a year.

Long term future... motorsport is eventually going to get watered down more and more. Better just accept it now and save yourself from future disappointments. Right now because of economic situation but in next decade because environmental pressures (regardless of how much oil is really left).

At the same time motorsport can position itself "again" as a technological showcase. Engine sizes in various classes are going to get smaller and so on. At some point V8 roar stops and true petrol heads needs to adapt. But unless teleportation technology has a couple of major breakthroughs, motorsport won't die.

Quote from BenjiMC :

LMS and ALMS have seen the withdrawl of audi

I'd call it reduction of race activity. Audi is still committed to the 'category'. Unfortunately budget cuts meant sorting out priorities, competing in ALMS with Acura was apparently not important enough without compromising the big race in French countryside, which is obviously most important marketing wise.

Quote :

and also the changes to GT1 regulations to reduce costs but also reduce the quality of the cars (which needed to be done considering the entries in lms and alms).

Umm? Afaik GT1 future regs are not written in the stone yet.

Quote :

Rallying is going to become S2000 possibly, which means no more nice looking cars and crazy 200 kph speeds through forests and 6 ft high jumps.

S2000 plan was set go ahead long time before banks screwed the world.

Quote :

Also what do you guys think it will mean for sim racing? The costs are less, and as a spectical it is fairly equal in terms of TV viewing, it will at least be more so in future with better computer technology however you can't go and watch it in person which is imo what motorsports is really about and where the true spectical is for the fans.

Eanrhadrt Jr might show up on iRacing servers more often and Hamitlon might spend more time in McLaren's top secrect super duper simulator (testing limits and so on). But I can't imagine hundred million tv viewers sweating themselves because they're so excited watching people play a computer game.

Quote from deggis :

S2000 plan was set go ahead long time before banks screwed the world.

mate it was the governments who facilitated all the borrowing. Blame the banks, yes, but don't think the governments had nothing to do with!

Everything's a circle, it'll improve in time. Motorsport will never die because there's always people who live for speed

I can only hope things pick up again, remember that in 1993 international sports car racing almost died completely, luckily Ratel got the BPR series together and we now have FIA GT.

Just like now, that whole 'crash' was caused by idiotic governing body decisions, its high time some important series managing/ FIA people got kicked from their positions and replaced with less idiotic types.

I came across a copy of autosport from around 2000 in the loft a few weeks ago, and the massive headline on the front read "Massive costs will wreck F1", what goes around comes around it seems.

The annoying thing is that power and excitement can be achieved through low costs, just look at some of the hillclimb/sprint cars running in this country today, some of them have more Hp than a current F1 car yet are paid for by people almost out of their own pockets (obviously fairly wealthy!), with minimal sponsorship. A team can spend £90 million making a car perhaps only 20%more effective than a car developed on perhaps a few hundred thousand.

Quote from MR_B :

Motorsport will never die because there's always people who live for speed

Unfortunately the people who have all the power don't live for speed, they live for greed.

Personally driving a fast car does nothing for me, driving a car fast is a massive obsession. Of course we naturally want to drive/watch faster cars but the enjoyment is not directly proportional to the speed they get round a track/down a stage, whilst I would love to drive a Caparo T1 on the limit I don't think the experience would 500 times better than driving my fast Lada (or as hilarious a spectacle ).

Quote from MR_B :

Everything's a circle, it'll improve in time. Motorsport will never die because there's always people who live for speed

+1, Motorsport as a hobby won't die whatever happens. Tracks are gunna stay open, etc. However, as a career it might. But people will always be racing as long as they love it. I certainly am not going to give up motorsports if I have no hope of being famous for racing... I'd still do it in my spare time, go to the track, race, etc...

You think that the future of the top echelons of motor sport are waning?
Simple answer, get back in to the grassroots amateur stuff.

In Australia there is the Shannon's Nationals series which is ten odd different categories ranging from sports sedans to production based cars and open wheelers. More interesting than most professional categories.

I have to agree, this thread should really be called the future or top-level motorsport.

The club racing scene, especially in this country, has never been bigger, theres always some important event going on ever weekend.

I'd love to get into Club-level rally driving (or circuit racing), but I just know I'll never be able to afford it. So much crazy setup cost, then I'd need to get a trailer and something to tow it with as well

I don't have a problem with the idea of a standardised F1 car though - that way it comes down far more to driver skill than just who has the highest R&D budget. As I said months ago - how different do you think the driver standings would look if everyone switched cars? Obviously too many limitations can make it dull, but I prefer the idea of skill winning over technology.

I can honestly disagree, at least concerning the F1. While it may become boring from the engineers point of view, I hope it will become more exciting to watch, as the new cars should lead to closer racing, more overtaking and last but not least making the driver the winning factor, not the car.
Just look at the recent years, the F1 was one of the most boring things to watch (with the exception of the slow Monaco races)

hopefully we will see privateer dominated motorsports agian.

Quote from Mustafur :

hopefully we will see privateer dominated motorsports agian.

T'is nice to see a few manufactureres involved though.

Good lord, every new thread here reads 'X manufacturer pulling out of motorsport', damn.

Quote from Dajmin :

I'd love to get into Club-level rally driving (or circuit racing), but I just know I'll never be able to afford it. So much crazy setup cost, then I'd need to get a trailer and something to tow it with as well

I don't have a problem with the idea of a standardised F1 car though - that way it comes down far more to driver skill than just who has the highest R&D budget. As I said months ago - how different do you think the driver standings would look if everyone switched cars? Obviously too many limitations can make it dull, but I prefer the idea of skill winning over technology.

You could go as far as to say how different would it be if driver X had a different dad (and budget) to driver Y!

Actually I don't think we'll see an improvement in skill from the drivers. We have already seen from a now non-existent Honda F1 team they were chasing sponsor money over driver skill. 3 Brazilians in the frame! coincidence? considering who their new sponsor would have been I don't think so!.

A driver now will have to either be either GOD LIKE (Senna x10) in a car or bring ther readies to compete in F1. Don't expect to see it any other way.

Just consider that over the last few years you've been lucky to have Schumi/Alonso/Hamilton/Kimi/Vettel/Kubica all get to F1.