https://www.planetf1.com/news/bernie-ecclestone-bloody-silly-engines/
Initially, Bernie went along with it. He must have been part of the decision process, and didn't make much waves then. He only started to raise his voice when he became disappointed by the noise after a couple of GPs. And then he jumped on the bandwagon of critics, and I partly blame him for the exodus of viewers.
No he didn't, he was completely against them from the outset. 2011: https://www.racefans.net/2011/03/17/ecclestone-anti-anti-anti-anti-2013-engine-rules/ January 2014: https://www.racefans.net/2014/01/17/ecclestone-hates-f1-needs-new-engines/
The promotor does not write the rules, William. I know you like to blame Bernie because that's who you believe is guilty and you like to poke fun at him changing his mind, but the absolute fact is that Bernie was against it from day 1. Another fact is that as the promotor his job is to promote the series, but he does not get to write the rules. I'm not sure what part of this is hard to understand. The FIA writes the rules. The promotor can only suggest things he believes better for the sport (viewership related mostly). Bernie did exactly that but Todt wanted these engines.
Are you trying to tell me that Ecclestone never had any influence in the writting of the rules during his tenure at FOM ? I don't want to discuss this any further; we have different opinions on this subject.
Influence is entirely different that writing the actual rules. If you bother to read the article, it very clearly says that Bernie was completely against it, and Todt completely for it. In the end Todt writes the rules. Todt doesn't care about the commercial side of it. There is no difference of opinion on this one. You claim Bernie was all for it, I proof that he wasn't.
Bernie has always admitted when he made a bad call. He's actually very down to earth. I cannot say the same for Todt
Yep....Todt refuses to admit his bad calls. He made his calls and keeps sticking with it in a vein attempt for it to succeed...
Bring back Flavio Briatore and put him in charge of F1. The cars will be loud, women with big breasts will be everywhere, they'll be plenty of scandal, there will be lots of ways to circumvent the rules, the women will be loud, and the cars will have big breasts. Life will be good again.
During the actual race no one is watching lap times from a historical perspective, especially if watching live in person. Visually you can not perceive the difference in 1-2 sec/lap difference (for a specific car). Same really holds true for qualifying, IMO. You aren't watching lap times when they are on inters or wets. Everything is relative on a given day.
Well, I suppose some are just more equal than others. (BTW, we're joking and not having a real disagreement, aren't we????) Kevin
Cars need to look fast, that's far more important. Cars from the late 90s may be some 6 seconds a lap slower (if we take Malaysia as an unaltered track example with mostly the same weather), but those cars looked so much faster, and of course sounded faster as well. These cars looked alive when driving. Light weight, lots of movement in the steering... The current cars look very stale. Yes, enormously fast, but boring and stale. So much grip from the tyres and aero, and the long wheel base does even more to balance the cars.