F1 » JYS: 'Self-destructive' F1 is 'fundamentally rotten'

I'd agree that the sport is rotten, although the problem now is that the rot is now on display where before it may have been hidden away or simply tolerated.

In 1989 and 1990 the sport was pretty rotten when Senna and Prost were taking each other off. In the '90s it was pretty rotten when Schumacher and Benetton were riding roughshod over the rule book. And driving into other cars. Then there's Tyrrell and the funny water tanks in 1984, BAR and the fuel-as-ballast a few short years ago. The big problem now is that the press can get hold of a story and make a big fuss over it, publish all the details within hours and suddenly you've got a storm in a teacup.

The fundamental problem is money. The amount of money that can be gained by cheating, playing political games and investing in ideas that go beyond the rulebook.

There is too much money to be gained. And the sport is governed by organisations who can loose too much money if they change it.

there has always been forms of cheating in F1. driver disposable ballast, adding heavier wings after race (before parc ferme rules), shuffling positions, driving opponents off the road etc, but this is in all forms of motor sport. look at wtcc where cars will drop 8 places,so the main challenger can get extra points. wrc where drivers slow up and stop, to gain an advantage. all these are as heinious as each other. but i am still trying to get my head around "picket gate", as a lot of the info in the public domain just doesnt add up. i DO hope that the real truth comes out, so that we can really judge the event.

I can't get my head around Shumi openly deliberately crashed out Hill to win a WDC and continued bad sportsmanship yet revered by many to this day.

F1 sure is rotten and has been for a long time.

In every form of motor sport competitors will "adjust" the rules to gain an advantage. I used to race twin engine karts and i have seen people using fuel octain booster to gain more power (not forgeting they are using lawn mower engines so the power gain is relative)but all the same it happend. What happend at Renault is so serious because a driver crashed his car which could have injured others. Would Piquet still have crashed if there were other cars around him?

Fred 1

I cannot stop agreeing with you!

Going as close to the regulations as possible without breaking them has always been essential for any chance of competition in motor sport. A strong FIA is essential to control this.
Max and Bernie have developed F1 into the world sport it is today and this has been a huge achievement.
It is the commercial side and the big manufacturer teams that have caused the increase in serious cheating. Money has replaced innovation as the main motivator. Once brilliant engineers are now putty in the hands of criminals like Briatore.
Stewart is a hypocrite suggesting a commercial direction for F1 and the FIA. It was he who suggested one of the criminal bankers that stole our money for President.

More than the money, it's the presence of mainstream car manufacturers that has always been rotting motorsports, because racing is presented to the board as a way to improve the image of the brand and sell more cars: they are not in F1 to compete, they are there to achieve targets, and sometimes at any cost, including cheating.

In 1983, Bernie's (uhoh!) Brabham BMW has used illegal fuel to get the title with Piquet sr (uhoh!), beating Prost's Renault (uhoh!).

An artisans-only grid, like in the 70s, means less cheating and a better show.

Constructors NEED to win, and all ppl depending on them need to provide results or they lose their jobs and money. Too much pressure, less sportsmanship.

Max Mosley is the root cause of all the things in F1. He has shown cheating at the highest level and has never been caught. His special deals with teams and Bernie make me sick. Max has driven the Titanic right into the ground. Please leave early Max and do everyone a favor. And take the dwarf with you as he is the other part of the corruption that has ruled this sport. Take away those two pieces and the sport will slowly cure itself.

I have never come across such a greedy set of barstewards involved in sport they have taken a working mans enjoyment and turned it into a money making machine. It matters not who wins or loses as long as the commercial rights owners bag another few billions a year. Just who is running F1 why is that miserable dwarf chosing the circuits it runs on just to get the pick of subsidies? provided by government officials looking after their own pension. F1 is now travelling to venues with crowds of less than 10,000 whilst the true fans in the west are bled to death by the cost of tickets alone. I hope the whole sorry business collapses and the money men get burnt it may stop their interest in F1.