Yep. To be one of the "best" you have to deserve your place in F1. If you get in because you have a lot of sponsorship behind you or you are a great deal for the team in terms of marketing (like Speed was) is not the same thing as getting into F1 because you have the talent, skill, ability to deserve your seat. If Speed was really one of "the best" then his team would never have dumped him and if they still had another team would have jumped at the chance to sign him. His team did dump him and no-one picked him up. I think that says it all.
Why is it silly to measure someone against their teammate? It's the only true reference point to how well a driver is coping because they have identical equipment to their teammate. You can't compare drivers from different teams without taking into account the differences in machinery. Unless you have a truly exceptional teammate (like Schumacher, Senna, Prost etc) then it's the only true measure you can take of a driver without qualifying your thoughts by taking into account the machinery.
Really, an F1 car is only fastest around what it's designed for?! A road course is the ultimate test of any car, it includes almost all the environments that a car will encounter. Going as far as to compare to off-road or drag racing is a completely different area.
F1 has always been about engineering the fastest car within the rules set. The rules have always been restrictive compared to the technology available when the rules were set. When technology changes, new areas of development are available that the ruling body had not imagined. New rules are then necessary to keep things under control and make things harder work for the engineers.
The technology is available that anyone could make a powerful engine, or electronics to control a car, or any number of things not allowed in F1. The thing that makes F1 the 'pinnacle' is that it's still the fastest even with the restrictive rules.
I was at Brands yesterday, where a 1994 Benneton (no electronics) was destroying DP01 Champ Cars and Indy cars. A 15 year old car! The cars are even faster now, so there's just no comparison.
That's because Superfund are the sponsor, IIRC they are some Austrian investment outfit. They tried having their own series replacing the lower F3000 one involving Judd V10s and a car that looks a little like the SF one, however it never materialized. Karl Wendlinger was the development driver for the series, and IIRC some pretty big teams (Durango, Astromega) were lined up for it.
Nah, if the rules are done properly with fuel flow, then high revving petrols will almost certainly be the order of the day. Diesels can't hold a candle to a petrol engine (unless your rules allow one of the to be turbocharged whilst the other isn't).
Not only does Max have Nazi fetishs but he can turn the Pinicle of Motorsport into a dud series within a few years, with rules completely stupid even the average joe could afford a team.
He's going to have to make some compromises, the current sets of rules are stupid, especially a two tier system, standing completely firm is just stupid.
Also because the FIA keep meddling with the rules, loads of new teams are signing up due to rule changes that will probrably end up not happening. The FIA is a farce.
I know he has been controlling F1 since the 90s but, now we don't know weather it will exist, when last year was probably one of the most viewed and challenged seasons for a Very long time.
And i haven't been watching F1 for very long since the early 2000s but im very imformed on whats happened for the past 20 years.
That's not going to happen really. There will only be 13 teams on the grid next year with 26 drives
As for Max's stupid new comment 'Going start your own series'. I wouldn't be surprised if the teams did. Bernie could let them use the name GP1 which he owns and off they go. I doubt that'll happen anytime soon though.
Ferrari wont leave F1 becaues they have a contract with Bernie. And without Ferrari, i don't think the rest of FOTA will leave. Max just called their bluff.