Give us more laps (and stop whinging)
March 19th 2008 00:05
V8 Supercar drivers are joining together to call for an extended presence at future Australian Grand Prix race meetings. The success of the Sprint Gas V8 Supercar Manufacturers Challenge at last weekend’s AGP has seen a number of high profile drivers call for more laps per race for Australia’s premier race cars at the international event, with an ultimate view to making each race similar in length to a standard championship race meeting.
This is despite the fact that this year’s AGP saw the V8s race an extra ten laps when compared to their last visit in 2006. In total, 49 laps were raced in the Manufacturers Challenge, not too far short of the 58 laps the Formula 1 cars raced.
It’s not all about increasing the profile of the sport to an international audience but in addition, extending the lap count of each race would improve the viewing pleasure of the audience and increase the safety for the drivers by cutting down on safety car interventions during racing.
Short races often result in a mad dash to the line, right from the race start. Drivers don’t get the opportunity to settle into their natural racing styles, creating potential mayhem and increased safety car interventions. A situation that was played out in races one and three last weekend.
“Short races cause impatience with a lot of drivers,” said Jason Bright, Fujitsu Racing's owner and number one driver. “They push too hard and cause chaos. I fully appreciated this is a Formula One event, but a lot of people want to see our cars at their best as well.
“This is a great track for V8 Supercars. However, we don't get the full opportunity to showcase not only our car, but also the category here at the Grand Prix. If they gave us 25 lap races, instead of 15 or 19 laps, I'm sure the whole show would be a lot better.”
Ford Performance Racing's, Mark Winterbottom, agreed that the length of the races should be increased but there will always be drivers who still aren’t satisfied with the non-championship event, whichever way it’s organised.
“A driver always wants to do more laps but if you extend the races to 20 laps, the next guy might want 25 laps so you're never going to be 100 percent happy,” said Frosty, “but it depends on the person and how you take it. If you turn up and you're negative about it [the race format] straight away it's not going to be a good weekend for you. When we get to the AGP, drivers know what the weekend is [about] so there's no use trying to change the format.”
Ultimately, it’s not V8 Supercars Australia’s decision to extend (or not) the race format for the AGP non-championship round. As an inside source within V8 Supercars Australia commented:
“Having longer races is difficult at the Grand Prix because of what it is - a Formula One event - where time is limited for all non-F1 categories.
“We attempt each year to have our conditions extended and as much as we'd all like to have longer races, it's not a simple negotiation between V8 Supercars Australia and the Grand Prix Corporation. Everything has to go back through the FIA and Formula One for ultimate approval.”
Where most drivers were happy with the format of the AGP round for the V8 Supercars, even if they weren’t happy with their individual results, there were still some detractors who criticised it. One of the most vocal of these complaints came from Holden driver Russell Ingall who suggested that making the non-points round a competition between the two manufacturers was not the way to go.
A response from fellow Holden driver, Mark Skaife, basically told Ingall and others with the same attitude to stay at home in the future if they were unhappy with the format of the Albert Park round, commenting that the Red v Blue format was being tested to see just how successful it could be. It was a test, that’s it.
“It's a trial and if you treat it as a trial then it's okay,” Skaife said. “If you get frustrated by the way the meeting is run then don't come to the meeting.
“We've dropped spots because of the format but we all knew the rules when we came into it.”
Skaife went on to say that making the AGP round a points round would be a logistical nightmare. “We're with a different television network here and we clearly have some logistic problems that don't make for it to be an easy championship round,” he said.
“We are not in a complete pit area like a normal round and we are not able to service the cars properly. There are a number of stumbling blocks getting this round into that (a Championship round) format.”
Team Vodafone’s Craig Lowndes agrees with his former Holden team mate in his praise of the existing format. “I think the biggest issue the organisers will have if it becomes a Championship points round is they have to guarantee us sufficient practice time, qualifying time and racing time which I don't think the Formula One people will be happy with,” he said.
“For us drivers it's a great weekend in that we can relax with the racing. Because it's a non-Championship race you can have a bit of fun with it and the format is great for the spectators.
“You definitely would not promote this for a Championship race but for a one-off thing it's fine.”
This is despite the fact that this year’s AGP saw the V8s race an extra ten laps when compared to their last visit in 2006. In total, 49 laps were raced in the Manufacturers Challenge, not too far short of the 58 laps the Formula 1 cars raced.
It’s not all about increasing the profile of the sport to an international audience but in addition, extending the lap count of each race would improve the viewing pleasure of the audience and increase the safety for the drivers by cutting down on safety car interventions during racing.
Short races often result in a mad dash to the line, right from the race start. Drivers don’t get the opportunity to settle into their natural racing styles, creating potential mayhem and increased safety car interventions. A situation that was played out in races one and three last weekend.
“Short races cause impatience with a lot of drivers,” said Jason Bright, Fujitsu Racing's owner and number one driver. “They push too hard and cause chaos. I fully appreciated this is a Formula One event, but a lot of people want to see our cars at their best as well.
“This is a great track for V8 Supercars. However, we don't get the full opportunity to showcase not only our car, but also the category here at the Grand Prix. If they gave us 25 lap races, instead of 15 or 19 laps, I'm sure the whole show would be a lot better.”
Ford Performance Racing's, Mark Winterbottom, agreed that the length of the races should be increased but there will always be drivers who still aren’t satisfied with the non-championship event, whichever way it’s organised.
“A driver always wants to do more laps but if you extend the races to 20 laps, the next guy might want 25 laps so you're never going to be 100 percent happy,” said Frosty, “but it depends on the person and how you take it. If you turn up and you're negative about it [the race format] straight away it's not going to be a good weekend for you. When we get to the AGP, drivers know what the weekend is [about] so there's no use trying to change the format.”
Ultimately, it’s not V8 Supercars Australia’s decision to extend (or not) the race format for the AGP non-championship round. As an inside source within V8 Supercars Australia commented:
“Having longer races is difficult at the Grand Prix because of what it is - a Formula One event - where time is limited for all non-F1 categories.
“We attempt each year to have our conditions extended and as much as we'd all like to have longer races, it's not a simple negotiation between V8 Supercars Australia and the Grand Prix Corporation. Everything has to go back through the FIA and Formula One for ultimate approval.”
Where most drivers were happy with the format of the AGP round for the V8 Supercars, even if they weren’t happy with their individual results, there were still some detractors who criticised it. One of the most vocal of these complaints came from Holden driver Russell Ingall who suggested that making the non-points round a competition between the two manufacturers was not the way to go.
A response from fellow Holden driver, Mark Skaife, basically told Ingall and others with the same attitude to stay at home in the future if they were unhappy with the format of the Albert Park round, commenting that the Red v Blue format was being tested to see just how successful it could be. It was a test, that’s it.
“It's a trial and if you treat it as a trial then it's okay,” Skaife said. “If you get frustrated by the way the meeting is run then don't come to the meeting.
“We've dropped spots because of the format but we all knew the rules when we came into it.”
Skaife went on to say that making the AGP round a points round would be a logistical nightmare. “We're with a different television network here and we clearly have some logistic problems that don't make for it to be an easy championship round,” he said.
“We are not in a complete pit area like a normal round and we are not able to service the cars properly. There are a number of stumbling blocks getting this round into that (a Championship round) format.”
Team Vodafone’s Craig Lowndes agrees with his former Holden team mate in his praise of the existing format. “I think the biggest issue the organisers will have if it becomes a Championship points round is they have to guarantee us sufficient practice time, qualifying time and racing time which I don't think the Formula One people will be happy with,” he said.
“For us drivers it's a great weekend in that we can relax with the racing. Because it's a non-Championship race you can have a bit of fun with it and the format is great for the spectators.
“You definitely would not promote this for a Championship race but for a one-off thing it's fine.”
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