I recently discovered this thread for Olympic Auto Racing which led me to doing a little bit of research on the subject and I kinda love the idea of Grand Prix style racing as an official Olympic sport and wonder what the history of this would look like?
Olympic Auto Racing
- Thread starter nick_crenshaw82
- Start date
2019 FIA Motorsport Games - Wikipedia
Racing is an expensive affair, the costs involved are much more than those for bobsleds a d rowing boats.
Moreover, the FIA has been recognized by the IOC only in 2012.
Despite this, I feel that with the correct POD racing could be introduced as early as London 1908. It would be like GP racing at first, in modern day it would evolve into something similar to the motorsport games
Results of the 1904 Olympics in auto racing (replaces the 1904 Gordon Bennett Cup):
| Gold |
| Richard-Brasier |
|---|---|---|
| Silver |
| Mercedes |
| Copper |
| Turcat-Méry |
It would be a sport dominated almost entirely by Europeans until well after WWII, then probably see the Americans show up (the Olympic prestige is certainly greater than Americans' normal level of interest in Grand Prix racing) and then they'd probably have a period of domination before lots of other nations showed up with Grand Prix winners in the years after the early 1960s - Japan, Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, Argentina - and the games got wild.
The big challenge would be whether the games are specifically for drivers, or whether its drivers and constructors - a big question pre-war once the Nazis' massive support of the Mercedes and Auto Union teams resulted in them blowing their competitors into the weeds. If you stick just to drivers, what are their cars? If you use whatever the World Champion car is at the time for the best of the best, that will certainly give an advantage to whatever driver normally races that car - say in 2016, the 2015 World Champion car is the Mercedes-Benz F1 W06 Hybrid, and Mercedes would absolutely love to have its car used in the Olympics (though perhaps less if its technical advances are felt by drivers for other teams in Formula One....), but it gives a major advantage to Lewis Hamilton (presumably one of the United Kingdom's Olympic Auto Racing competitors) and Nico Rosberg (also presumably one of Germany's Olympians).
In addition, what about racers not in F1 at the time, and multiple racers of the same country? 2016 had four Germans - Nico Rosberg, Sebastien Vettel, Nico Hulkenberg and Pascal Wehrlein - competing. The UK has the same problem with Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Joylon Palmer, likewise Finland (Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas), Brazil (Felipe Nasr and Felipe Massa), Spain (Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz Jr) and Mexico (Sergio Perez and Esteban Gutierrez). In addition, what about nations that didn't have an active F1 driver at the time - Italy, Japan, Argentina, Canada, South Africa and the United States all had long histories of capable Grand Prix racers but none on the grid in 2016, and that's before you point out countries like India and China that would certainly want to be out on the grid.
If you're going for Grand Prix racing in the Olympics, the best bet may be to have a design of Grand Prix car built that is not used in Formula One, and have all of the drivers use that car. The Olympics is about athletic achievement, not engineering ones, so having it be a full team competition gives an unfair advantage to some. That's not all that difficult to find if you're prepared to spend the money to do so - remember that racing would not be a cheap enterprise, and the IOC only allows their sponsors, so the teams cannot have their cars with their sponsor logos on it. But if you could find the money for it, and you have enough of one kind of car to keep it strictly about driver skill, you may have the ability to make this work. It's also possible to have other forms of racing competition like the aforementioned FIA Motorsport Games. Get a major automaker to support the endeavour and you can have them showcase their products as part of the equal cars.
Then you have to decide what the categories are. Grand Prix racing is a given, but what else? Formula E would be ideal for a second open wheel category - electric race cars, lots of people would love that - and then you would need at least a Grand Touring and Touring Car category. A Sports Car category (think Le Mans Prototypes) would be one I'd advocate for, and Karting and Drifting would be great categories as well. I'd also add Rallying (if marathon events can use public roads as venues, why not stage rallies?) for sure, and I'd have a lot of other categories that would be worthy of consideration. Note that if you're gonna go for Olympic Auto Racing, you'd certainly have to have Olympic Motorcycle Racing as well.
Now, for furthering the idea, let's assume Volkswagen-Audi Group is the sponsor - they make ideal cars for a lot of categories, aside from Grand Prix:
Formula E: Audi e-tron FE06
Sports Car: Porsche 919 Hybrid
Grand Touring: Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo
Touring Car: Audi RS3 LMS TCR (alternately, you could use the TCR versions of the Volkswagen Golf or SEAT Leon, which are built on the same platform)
Outside of these, you could easily get another sponsor - Ford, Toyota and Hyundai make World Rally Cars and Drifting and Karting would be able to be chosen from a multitude of possible cars.
The big challenge would be whether the games are specifically for drivers, or whether its drivers and constructors - a big question pre-war once the Nazis' massive support of the Mercedes and Auto Union teams resulted in them blowing their competitors into the weeds. If you stick just to drivers, what are their cars? If you use whatever the World Champion car is at the time for the best of the best, that will certainly give an advantage to whatever driver normally races that car - say in 2016, the 2015 World Champion car is the Mercedes-Benz F1 W06 Hybrid, and Mercedes would absolutely love to have its car used in the Olympics (though perhaps less if its technical advances are felt by drivers for other teams in Formula One....), but it gives a major advantage to Lewis Hamilton (presumably one of the United Kingdom's Olympic Auto Racing competitors) and Nico Rosberg (also presumably one of Germany's Olympians).
In addition, what about racers not in F1 at the time, and multiple racers of the same country? 2016 had four Germans - Nico Rosberg, Sebastien Vettel, Nico Hulkenberg and Pascal Wehrlein - competing. The UK has the same problem with Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Joylon Palmer, likewise Finland (Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas), Brazil (Felipe Nasr and Felipe Massa), Spain (Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz Jr) and Mexico (Sergio Perez and Esteban Gutierrez). In addition, what about nations that didn't have an active F1 driver at the time - Italy, Japan, Argentina, Canada, South Africa and the United States all had long histories of capable Grand Prix racers but none on the grid in 2016, and that's before you point out countries like India and China that would certainly want to be out on the grid.
If you're going for Grand Prix racing in the Olympics, the best bet may be to have a design of Grand Prix car built that is not used in Formula One, and have all of the drivers use that car. The Olympics is about athletic achievement, not engineering ones, so having it be a full team competition gives an unfair advantage to some. That's not all that difficult to find if you're prepared to spend the money to do so - remember that racing would not be a cheap enterprise, and the IOC only allows their sponsors, so the teams cannot have their cars with their sponsor logos on it. But if you could find the money for it, and you have enough of one kind of car to keep it strictly about driver skill, you may have the ability to make this work. It's also possible to have other forms of racing competition like the aforementioned FIA Motorsport Games. Get a major automaker to support the endeavour and you can have them showcase their products as part of the equal cars.
Then you have to decide what the categories are. Grand Prix racing is a given, but what else? Formula E would be ideal for a second open wheel category - electric race cars, lots of people would love that - and then you would need at least a Grand Touring and Touring Car category. A Sports Car category (think Le Mans Prototypes) would be one I'd advocate for, and Karting and Drifting would be great categories as well. I'd also add Rallying (if marathon events can use public roads as venues, why not stage rallies?) for sure, and I'd have a lot of other categories that would be worthy of consideration. Note that if you're gonna go for Olympic Auto Racing, you'd certainly have to have Olympic Motorcycle Racing as well.
Now, for furthering the idea, let's assume Volkswagen-Audi Group is the sponsor - they make ideal cars for a lot of categories, aside from Grand Prix:
Formula E: Audi e-tron FE06
Sports Car: Porsche 919 Hybrid
Grand Touring: Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo
Touring Car: Audi RS3 LMS TCR (alternately, you could use the TCR versions of the Volkswagen Golf or SEAT Leon, which are built on the same platform)
Outside of these, you could easily get another sponsor - Ford, Toyota and Hyundai make World Rally Cars and Drifting and Karting would be able to be chosen from a multitude of possible cars.
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I imagine ITTL Olympic auto racing would develop like other Olympic sport would set up a series of qualifier races outside of F-1 for those who are any and all drivers.
I like this idea but who would the designer of this car, would the host country. If so what about those country with no automotive companies. Would it be one single company and it change every Olympic games?
This could allow a defuncted automobile company to survive to today what which one?
What's the difference between this and F-1.
What the difference (sorry but I an American who doesn't follow racing)
I may be wrong but Le Mans seem to be more about the performance of the car from different manufacturers.
Makes sense.
Exactly. You would need a parallel with Olympic sailing - a single design, with all cars subject to detailed inspection. Personally, I'd favour something as simple as possible, without too many bells and whistles, to put the emphasis on driver skill rather than engineering.
Would this Olympic car be from the same company every Olympics? Which country would this company be from? Would the racers have that car the entire "season"?
marathag
Banned
Have Mexico or Brazil build Karmann Ghias with 2L bus or Porsche flat six motors for everyone
Should the cars be commercially available ones, to encourage local auto industries?
That could be a reason to make design part of the judging, so that some countries will make auto industries to be able to compete.
That could be a reason to make design part of the judging, so that some countries will make auto industries to be able to compete.
I'm now wondering I should allow the teams to mod their cars as long as they remain within a preset budget?
The team budget idea is great until you look at creative financing and think how can I make this work for me.
Using a fixed Chassis and Fixed engine with any modification to be done in a seperate event brings both the driver capability and the mechanic capability down to a quantifiable situation. Imagine having racks of engine parts, suspension parts and the like with crews able to choose from a range of the parts mixed and matched for what the team wishes to do and then have a set amount of fuel to travel a set distance. This means a crew that emphasises raw power may well run out of fuel while a good driver can manage the fuel better.
The classes for the one time motor racing was (sort-of) an Olympic event are wild: cars of varying seat numbers, taxis, delivery vans, small trucks, large trucks, and fire trucks. In the 7-seater car class, only a silver medal was awarded!
Looking at motorised events that made it into the Olympics as demonstration events, motor racing might well get motorcycle racing and powerboat racing as counterpart events, with various classes for each. In all cases, the classes will be defined by 'here is the vehicle you will be racing'.
Realistically, it'll be sailing rules. The car has to be built to a specified, pre-approved design by an approved builder, and examined for compliance before the race. The specifications will be so tight that essentially the only customisation possible is the colour that the car gets painted. As well as being the model for sailing, this was also the model for Olympic gliding - which never actually happened beyond a demonstration at the 1936 Olympics. It would have been an Olympic event in 1940, and the standard glider design was actually agreed for it. World events got in the way, of course.
Looking at motorised events that made it into the Olympics as demonstration events, motor racing might well get motorcycle racing and powerboat racing as counterpart events, with various classes for each. In all cases, the classes will be defined by 'here is the vehicle you will be racing'.
The open wheel category would no doubt use a Dallara chassis, same as every other open wheel spec series (what happened Lola? How did you drop the ball this hard?).