F1 Ideas - Closing the gap, and making it really fun :D

''Formula 1, the fastest car chase in the world'' - or something to that effect is said by the man who voice overs the opening of the F1 title sequence (UK - BBC)
This may be so, but despite the new rules and regs to ''transform'' the sport into wheel-to-wheel racing, as it was in times gone by...Jenson Button has won all but one of the first few races of the 2009 season. Not to take anything away from both Button and Brawn GP, they've done their job...but because other teams haven't made 'as good' cars, Button's victories are almost empty...fair enough he got the car from point A to B, but if it were somewhat closer between rival drivers the watching of it would be considerably better.

Here I list a few suggestions as to what could be done to improve things...

I've heard a few people say - ''it would be better if the slower cars were at the front, there would be more passing etc'', this may be, however I regard such an idea as impractical, moreover I can't see how you could enforce the rule, and that's not even taking into account how happy the Alonsos, Massas , of this world would be if they had to start nearer the back. As a compromise there should be one race (near mid season) hosted by Las Vegas (you'll see why) where by EITHER i) a lottery system is used to draw grid positions in order to throw to unpredictable grid together, however I prefer this - ii) Take the Drivers' Championship standings reverse them in order to create a ''one off'' grid, so e.g. as it stands the Brawns would be on the back of the grid. The Las Vegas thing is to do with ''gambles'' ''risks'' and etc. And just generally would be a good one off race idea.

Balast - Possibly, and I've seen it used in BTCC, the use of balast. The idea being if a driver wins, he would get ''X amount of weight'' added to his car for the next race( be it the whole weekend, or just race session, not too sure...) 2nd place would get ''Y amount'' and so forth for the top 8 scorers. It would reset itself after each race, so a driver who won 4 races in a row wouldn't be weighed down by (e.g) 40kg. It would be...

• 'Normal' - Race win + 10kg for next race.
• 'Normal + 10kg' - Race win + 10kg for next race
• 'Normal + 10kg' - Race win + 10kg for next race etc.

Unless anyone thinks it would be better if it just kept being added on regardless.

The possiblity of playing a ''joker''. For those who have ever watched ''It's a knock-out'' will be familar with the term. Still I'll explain. Every team awarded a 'joker' at the start of the season, which can be used at any track, however must be submitted before first practise session. The idea being this joker allows a team to double their points for any race points bagged, there is also the posibility that both your cars wont finish so no bonus. Try to imagine the following...

'X' circuit. Finishes before any joker consideration.

1st. Vettel - 10pts/ 2nd. Alonso - 8pts/ 3rd. Button - 6pts/ 4th. Webber - 5pts/ 5th. Hamilton - 4pts/ 6th. Sutil - 3pts/ 7th Raikonnen - 2pts /8th. Rosberg - 1pt.

Note: in this scenario Renault, and Ferrari elected to play their jokers....so points would be allocated as thus...

1st. Vettel - 10pts/ 2nd. Alonso - 16pts (joker)/ 3rd. Button - 6pts/ 4th. Webber - 5pts/ 5th. Hamilton - 4pts/ 6th. Sutil - 3pts/ 7th Raikonnen - 4pts (joker) /8th. Rosberg - 1pt.

As you can see, even though Alonso finished behind Vettel, Alonso bags more points due to played joker. And same goes for Raik. Piquet and Massa don't score joker points as they didn't finish in top 8.

Anyway that's all for now. thanks for taking time to read :u)

Callum.