This week's Grapevine brings you information fresh from the paddock on: Improving the Spectacle Arrows Ride Again

Improving the Spectacle

As always, particularly as the European season comes to a close, there are discussions abounding on how to improve the Formula One spectacle. Most of the ideas are not new, but many have merit, and there is a reasonable likelihood that the FIA will shake things up again next season to continue improving the show.

With the parc-ferme lockdown of the cars following Saturday qualifying, the very nature of the Formula One weekend has changed. Those who turn up for the race on Sunday now see only the main event - the loss of the half hour warm-up session, whilst not even noticed by television audiences, has been a loss to the hard-core fans. The value for money of a race day ticket has, in fact, been reduced.

Similarly, the one-shot showdown approach to qualifying is not providing quite the spectator draw of the old format: whilst significantly better for television viewers - the convenient breaks appear to be good for tea-breaks, as well as the broadcaster's adverts - those in the stands generally have a mixed opinion.

Considering the circuits make their money at the gate - Bernie Ecclestone and the FOA control all the other opportunities, including track-side advertising - the organisers consider the sale of tickets absolutely key. Improving the spectacle helps drive sales, so they are continuing to lobby for any changes that would bring people to the race, rather than watch from home. So, Ecclestone's desire to see higher profile personalities, preferably top Hollywood stars, in the paddock fits the profile nicely: anything that raises the glamour factor is going to be good for business, but they would also like to see more on track action.

Improving the spectacle is not so difficult, either. The case for moving the Saturday qualifying session to Sunday has been made more than once, though for differing reasons, impacting costs, the spectacle and the practical implementation of the rules.

In the name of cost reduction, moving the race weekend to two competitive days offers some advantage: the teams then run fewer miles, require fewer parts, and have to spend less on staying at a location. As it happens, most of these reductions have actually been achieved by locking the cars up between qualifying and the race, so cost is no longer such a factor.

The race day spectacle would clearly benefit from gaining a qualifying session - and, presumably, the obligatory warm-up session that would precede it. It would also reduce the twin headaches of monitoring the cars between qualifying and the race and complaints of changing track conditions making the qualifying set-up inappropriate racing, as the sessions could be a couple of hours apart.

Of course, moving the qualifying session to Sunday makes a big hole in the Saturday program, so it becomes sensible to move the Friday sessions across. The obvious weekend program then becomes a free practice before (and perhaps after) a qualifying session on Saturday, with a warm-up, qualifying and the race on Sunday.

On the other hand, going to a two-day event would seriously upset the organisers, as they would lose a whole day of ticket sales. So, in order for them to countenance the changes, making Friday available for unrestricted testing for all the teams would be important to provide sufficient interest for the paying public to stump for entry.

The three leading teams have watched Renault making the most of the Friday morning sessions with some interest, as the French outfit have been able to compensate for a weaker engine by dialling in the car well enough to run softer rubber than their competitors. No surprise then, that Friday testing is something all the teams want: the more time spent at a circuit, the better the car and driver will be dialled in, and the less chance there is of an upsets with backmarkers embarrassing the sponsors.

On the downside, the more running teams get on the circuit they are going to race on, the more the race is likely to turn out processional: all the cars are fully balanced, and running at their own top speed. No-one makes any mistakes, and no-one makes any passes. Probably not what the doctor ordered for the spectacle, then.

Arrows Ride Again

When Tom Walkinshaw closed the doors at Arrows, one outcome he certainly did not envisage was his cars being run by arch rival Paul Stoddart and Minardi a couple of years later, and probably by the driver he sacked at the start of his last season.

The inevitability of the old Arrows A23 forming the basis of next year's Minardi PS04 was manifest from the first day Stoddart picked up the chassis: it is clearly leaps and bounds ahead of the current Minardi in terms of aerodynamics, takes the same basic engine and gearbox, and was based on a design concept that is ideal for the current rules.

One of the things that was really noticeable about the A23 when it raced last was that it used a small fuel tank. This feature was part of a design philosophy that simplified packaging - in the case of the fuel tank, by removing a lot of fuel - to enable the aerodynamicists to concentrate on making the car slippery and nimble. Indeed, these are the concepts that the last few Ferraris have emphasised. Where the car struggled most was in the engine department, as the Ford unit powering it was relatively heavy and underpowered, and race tactics, as the small fuel tank significantly limited the options open to the team.

Under the new rules, where most teams run a relatively light load for qualifying, it is normal to call multi-stop strategies, so a smaller tank is appropriate. The latest Ford customer engine, whilst not a front runner, is a fairly respectable unit, though next year's is supposed have a different form to accommodate the change in V angle. Apart from fitting Minardi's (titanium) gearbox and an engine that will last the whole weekend next season, the car is ready to roll.

Mind you, despite being a big step forward, this is still a three-year old design, and there is little Minardi can do to disguise the fact. Integrating the good points from the PS03 - improved brakes and gearbox, for a start - will advance the A23. Minardi will be quicker next year; maybe even enough to get off the back of the grid regularly, but it doesn't disguise the fact that Minardi's whole in-season development operation is dependent on a substantial increase in budget. Needless to say, that is not looking so positive.