ALESI wrote:
“Liberty Media is working on it, to make it a more even playing field, I was told. Can you imagine if we were to have five or six teams that were able to win races? Wouldn’t that be awesome?" Gunther Steiner
On the face of it I do think this would be great, but I wonder if everyone feels that way? With 6 teams capable of winning races that would mean there would potentially be 12 GP winners... and I'm pretty sure that there aren't 12 worthy WDC winners on the grid.
I remember hearing him give that quote on NBCSN, and the context was that in a crazy or lucky situation, he feels a team like Haas should be able to win. Not that he thinks every team should be capable of winning every weekend, but that the gap shouldn't be so large that it is well and truly impossible for a midfield team to win, even if circumstances go heavily their way. And I agree with that much.
I personally feel that the big team / little team dynamic is something that's part of F1's DNA, like it or not - but there should be enough freedom to innovate that a little team can come up with something and temporarily flummox the giants. Right now they can't do that, and that represents something that's missing from F1, for me at least.
Blinky McSquinty wrote:
From my experience watching a lot of NASCAR and Indycar where anyone can win on any Sunday, have no fear. While individual races can be chaotic and anyone can win, in the long run, at the end of the season, the cream rises to the top and almost always, the best car/driver is the one who captures the championship.
In NASCAR I think you're right, anyone can win on a Sunday. I don't consider that to be a good thing.
As for Indycar, however, there's only 5 or 6 guys with a real chance to win on any given weekend, and they're all concentrated at the top teams. You have a situation like Steiner is talking about, actually; the big teams win when things stay normal, but it's close enough that the midfield has a chance if something unusual happens.
Artificial parity, however, I feel is bad for sports. I think it's built off of the mistaken belief that fans need the possibility for their team to win every time to stay interested, which the large following of teams like Minardi proves is not the case. Part of what makes a team like Ferrari special is that they're such a powerhouse in the sport; if they were just one of 10 teams, all with an identical chance of winning, they would be much less special.