Is The Racing Season Too Long?

[Earth]

Formula 1 is a grueling 8 1/2 months. NASCAR is 9 1/2 months.

It always happens, at this time of the year, about 6 months into the racing season, I'm simply burnt out and do not follow racing closely or even at all. I usually just check the results later in the day or skip through the race on DVR.

I think this is simple burnout. I try and follow everything every racing season but the haul is just too long.

Thats why Im hoping the racing season is reduced to roughly 5-6 months, from March - August every year and thats it. Football season is just around the corner so I dont need racing competing with it on Sunday

If you look at other stick and ball sports, most of their seasons are much shorter.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Formula One is really the only motorsport I follow religiously and I'll watch most V8 Supercar events but I'm not too fussed about some of them. While there are a lot of F1 races and V8 Supercars is just five events short of what F1 has, I don't really find myself overwhelmed because I'm not trying to follow every racing series going on each weekend. NASCAR, though, simply has too many events for me to follow closely, not to mention the time-zone difference. I don't know how anyone can follow it week-in week-out from the couch let alone the teams themselves travelling across the US!

 

[Earth]

I can't believe F1 is barely over halfway through it's season. It feels like its been on TV forever this year.

Theres no way I'll watch the next 9 races live. I stopped recording the qualifying sessions but I'll continue to record the races and just fast forward through them.

I agree NASCAR's season is way too long and probably the most extreme example. About 15 years ago the schedule was only 28, 29 races but now there are 36 races. Formula 1 has bloated too, I believe the schedule use to be around 16 rounds but now is what, 20 or 21 rounds?

I know it doesn't help I try and follow everything, but I think it would be possible to do so with a 6 month season, which mean the championships would be wrapping up right now.

The best thing about (American) Football season is that its just 4 months with a 1 month playoff. By the time you start getting tired of football its playoff time and the excitment gets built back up again until the season ends.

Racing for the most part, outside of NASCAR, has no playoff, so there is no excitment boost from a "sudden death" scenario at the end of the season, fans simply have to cross their things theres a close points battle but more then likely someone runs away with it.

 

[F1 fan]

No. The season is not too long. The likes of football and hockey teams play every couple of days during the season. Not to mention all the practice they do. Personally, I hate the winter off season. I've followed every f1 season since 1990 when I was three and never felt burnt out once.

 

[Grand Prix]

Not too long for me, could be a little longer actually. Winter off-season is fun for discussing driver swapping and stuff, but gets a bit stale by the time the season opens.

 

[Shoe67]

I find out results from NASCAR and F1 and WEC after every race, but I don't follow them. Too much going on within all of the teams to keep track. I look for news and I'm interested in seeing my favorites do well. And yes, the season is too long for those series. However, I do local racing in real life. Our season is only 5-6 months. Starting in mid April and ending at the end of September or beginning of October (depending on number of rain outs throughout the season.)

 

[hawkeye122]

I dont think so. They shouldnt get much longer than they are now though. Somehow, I manage F1 (Recorded), ALMS (ESPN3 Replay, over the course of several nights) WRC(Daily Recap), Grand Am(Live), and the occasional Live, Road Course, Indy race.

In addition to the UCI ProTour Cycling events, 49er Football, Stanford Football, and (When applicable) the Olympics.
And How I Met Your Mother, Anger Management, Big Bang Theory, and Top Gear.
Wow, I watch a lot of Television. And yet I still have a social life? And I'm a student? Wow... I must manage time REALLY well.

I find myself missing it in the offseason. But I think having 1 and 2 week breaks is a good thing, gives you a chance to catch up.

 

[cgr-10]

I don't think so personally. I religiously watch F1 every Sunday without a second thought and try to catch the NASCAR/Sports car/Touring car races whenever I can; I can normally watch the NASCAR if it's a Saturday night race but if i miss them i'll catch up online. Motorsport's a constant for me, something interesting to me that is around for 10 months of the year nowadays pretty much and i only see that as a good thing.

Around late November when the season is drawing to a conclusion, I'm already looking forward to the Rolex 24 @ Daytona. I'm that passionate about it and interested in all forms of it that I don't have the chance to get 'burnt out'.

 

[IceMan PJN]

Formula 1 is a grueling 8 1/2 months. NASCAR is 9 1/2 months.

It always happens, at this time of the year, about 6 months into the racing season, I'm simply burnt out and do not follow racing closely or even at all. I usually just check the results later in the day or skip through the race on DVR.

I think this is simple burnout. I try and follow everything every racing season but the haul is just too long.

It sort of sounds like you're a casual motorsport fan. I'm most passionate about Formula One, and right now I'm hating the long gap between races and at the end of the season the few months between seasons feels like an eternity. I enjoy a list of other motorsports, but don't follow them as closely, and most of the ones I enjoy aren't broadcast on Speed, at least not during the proper season (sometimes they've shown them in replay during the off season). Maybe you're just trying to watch too much, as you actually can have too much of a good thing.

 

[MustangManiac]

More events for F1, ALMS and Grand-Am, NASCAR needs to be cut by about a third, the races need to be shorter as well.

 

[gorsad]

I think 15-20 events is where a healthy series should be. Over 20 races per season is a bit too much in my opinion.

 

[gokartman78]

From a drivers point of view i want more. We race all 12 months of the year in karting and it's brilliant. The only thing stopping us racing more is budget . Suppose that could be said for a lot of people in motorsport

 

[CodeRedR51]

...NASCAR needs to be cut by about a third, the races need to be shorter as well.

I agree with this.

I don't think that the racing season itself needs to be shorter in terms of months, but fewer races wouldn't hurt. I know V8 Supercars has a long season as well, but they are spread out a bit more. (some races have as much as a month in between)

NASCAR doesn't need to have races every weekend. They also don't need more than one race at the same track each season either...

 

[Ardius]

Its not possible for me to watch NASCAR and even if I could I wouldn't watch even half the races, I'd probably only watch the most important races and the road-course races.
So I'm left with F1 and BTCC - there are no other motorsport series that are shown live 100% of the season. I can watch WTCC and FR3.5 but they are not always shown live because Eurosport generally suck. I also try to watch a fair bit of Indycar but its not always shown live and sometimes live is 3am in the morning.
F1 has large gaps in winter and summer. BTCC "only" has 10 rounds in the entire year.

WRC is constantly changing channels, LMS/ALMS seems to be mainly shown on Motors which I still don't have. I'm not sure how much is shown live on Motors either.

So personally its not a case of there being too much or too little racing, its a case of not enough being shown on TV or being easily accessible to the fans.

I voted for the entire year - as the racing season is basically all year already, you just have to look hard for it. Usually Eurosport show the Andros Trophy in January and there are some races held in the UAE or Abu Dhabi or wherever.

To be honest, I don't think I would actually watch more motorsport even if it was all on free channels that anyone can access. I just think more is better anyway, at least for the times when I've got nothing to watch on TV (frequently) and I could tune into some motorsport instead.

 

[JohnBM01]

I don't know how to respond to this. I mean, I usually think most racing seasons should probably start in late January or early February and go into mid-November. I usually look for November-January to be time to watch highlights of international racing series (especially on SPEED Channel). When I think of racing seasons and length, I usually think of driver fitness and having to financially prepare for each individual season and individual race.

I guess whether or not a season is too long or too short depends on the series involved. I am usually in for more races, but you have to have some sort of decent off-season and a chance to really savor the past season. I think NASCAR could probably benefit from fewer races or shorter races. F1 teams already spend loads of money going all over the world. I was always concerned about having a 20-race F1 season. Think about sprint car racing and World of Outlaws. They run like, what... a total of 60+ races for 10 or 11 months? It really depends on what you consider as being too long or too short. I don't think I can answer this question for all racing series.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

I don't watch other sports, so it's good for me. F1 races are pretty easy to follow since they're fairly short. I probably wouldn't the F1 season to be any longer due to the effect on the F1 teams having less free time. That said sometimes I watch highlights for other series. They can be a good replacement if I don't feel like watching a whole race.