good or bad idea?

clicky!


personally, I think bigger numbers placed in the engine cover would be great, but not having a driver with the same number all his career... i would keep the current system to number the cars, or even go back to the old days when the teams had the same numbers assigned unless they have become WCC (in that case, they would trade numbers with the teams that had got numbers 1 and 2 in that season... thats the reason why Ferrari had numbers 27 and 28 until end of 1995, the had 1 and 2 in 1980, winning team was Williams (no. 27 and 28) and Ferrari´s next championship arrived 21 years later when the system was already changed)

I too had a soft spot for the old numbering system (Ferrari 27 was always one of the most passion-filled seats on the grid), but in the grand scheme of things, I don't really care.

If a driver changes his helmet design every 5 minutes, then a number isn't going to do much for him.

There is the culture issue of certain numbers thought lucky and unlucky in certain countries, but I guess that wouldn't be too difficult to get around... so long as we don't have drivers complaining their career was doomed from the start because they were allocated the number nine!



As for the numbers on the engine covers, I don't care about that either, but I'd imagine teams and sponsors wouldn't be at all happy with that idea.

As Jackie Stewart once said 'We have small number decals because numbers don't pay'.

YES!!!!! Do it!!!!

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

I don't want a NASCAR style system, where the number 1 as meaningless, but I do want a return to the pre-1996 system.

But I'd also like better, simpler helmets which don't change every race/year.

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I think the helmet design they start the year with is the one they have to stick with for the whole year.

marcl Wrote:
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> I think the helmet design they start the year with
> is the one they have to stick with for the whole
> year.

Or have the opportunity to change it for their home race...?

I don't know whether the old numbering system would work nowadays. For F1 geeks (like most of us here :P) it would be easy and simple to understand, but now F1 is a worldwide, million dollar sport/business, new watchers may be confused to why Ferrari, one of the best teams on the grid (or at least the most famous) has number 27, for example.

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Changing the number system back to the pre-1996 system would serve no purpose other than nostalgia.

What we have now is fine. Having a number attached to each driver wouldn't help. Would you remember Sutils number? I don't think so. What you do remember is the base colour of a helmet, which is most of the time clearly visible. And still, you can recognize a car, so you'll have narrowed your guess down to two drivers anyway, I can't see the problem :P

the tv graphics used to display the car numbers untill 2003 (excluding 2000 with the free-to-view coverage) which helped matters, but since the new graphics in 2004 they have been absent.

I find it irrelevant, honestly. I think that is probably the less important consideration for people watching F1... I´ve never needed any special "visual help" to understand which driver was on the screen...

i think there should be a banner over every car with driver's name written

seriously,i would just change the number size and i would put as obbligatory the use of the number on the rearwing too

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My GPGSL Career

tbh dno if it's just me but

1 i can tell the difference between a red bull and a ferrari.
2 i can still visibly see that red bull has yellow toro rosso has a darker red bull

if that fails to help then you know where a driver is by the race positions


or if youve watched the race from lap 1 you know which driver is which from their track position.



or if you are a huge anorak, tell the difference between team mates by the way they are driving the car


numbers dont really come in to it. although i like the current system tbh cos it tells you who did well last year.

Vettel actually takes the piss with amount of helmet changes he makes. Ironic really, because they look like piss too.

Haha. I think Vettels Abu Dhabi helmet was cool, but other than that the rest are pretty similar :p

I guess it is like a kid with enough money to change his mind all the time :p

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

The t-cams are different colours for both drivers in a team; lowest number is red/orange, highest is yellow. So that's an indication.

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The t-cams are different colours for both drivers in a team; lowest number is red/orange, highest is yellow. So that's an indication.

Not a good one though, without a consistent numbering scheme. The team leader doesn't necessarily have the lower number. Even the commentators have to look at a cheat sheet.

The FIA (or rather, the commercial interests that seem to be running the FIA even though it is supposed to be a nonprofit) seem to want to get rid of the numbers entirely. It flies in the face of every tradition in any sport, but we know they don't care about that. If they're going down that route we need a satisfactory way to ID the drivers. Helmets don't work, they're too covered up to be seen anymore, and nobody has a distinct design.

The idea of writing the drivers names on the car in a huge font might seem a little weird, but rallying and sportscars have done it for a long time. It might be the best solution; it's certainly the most direct. Sounds like they are finally putting F1 in HD so reading it wouldn't be a problem.

Make the rear wing side numbers slightly bigger and chunky bold, like the 80's and 90's. Job done.


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

My thoughts are that "this is not Nascar" and that we don't need to have numbers plastered over the cars to tell the drivers apart. That's what helmets and common sense are for. Bah!

Do not want them to go Nascar style, however a number on the rear wing endplates is always welcome.

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Waiting for March.

Bold, same chunky font. Win.


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it