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BRYN LENNON/GETTY IMAGES
TOO EASY: The new rules should make it harder for Schumacher to dominate
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Changing The Formula |
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The audience is bored, so Formula One wants the drivers to actually drive their cars. Can such fast thinking bring fans back to one of the world's most popular sports?
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By KATE NOBLE | LONDON |
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It was always there in the rules. Article 61 of Formula One's sporting regulations states: "The driver must drive the car alone and unaided." One driver per car may be obvious enough. But what about all the gizmos devised to make the cars easier to drive? Launch control to guarantee a quick start, traction control to stop wheels spinning, fully automatic gearboxes, telemetry between car and pit that allows the garage guys to spot and fix problems as they happen on track.
They are so much part of modern Formula One cars that the term unaided sounds laughable; the sport has become as much a competition of technologies as of driving skill. "If we were not careful," says team boss Eddie Jordan, "we would be having microchips in helmets driving the cars."
So here's a radical idea: How about making the drivers actually drive the cars? That's what Max Mosley, president of the sport's ruling body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), did on Jan. 15 when he imposed dramatic restrictions on "driver aids." After all, something had to be done to get the sport out of the slow lane. Last year the public grew bored, as the best driver, Michael Schumacher, in the best car, the Ferrari, ticked off win after win — 11 of the season's 17 races — with metronomic predictability.
While Formula One remains the third most-watched spectator sport in the world, audiences have been turning away in droves — TV viewership fell off by around 16% once Schumacher had wrapped up the championship at the French Grand Prix in July. Formula One knew it needed to do something — fast.
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