I do think we need a general discussion about what to do to make the penalties actually hurt!
...The current Ukgpl policy of generally minimizing penalties, and being nice, doesn't seem to be working. We are an experienced pack of drivers, behaving like starts are something new. Let the punishment fit the crime - death to all offenders! Ok, maybe just back of grid or something, for this Season, so we learn. Also - 'Name and shame!' Add name of starting offender to the next race announcement, with his penalty, so we may stare and glare.
...
I think Martin has given you the simple answer. There is nothing you can do to eliminate problems for good, but you can certainly apply some pressure for a change in mentality in people who unfortunately need that. Instead, I think these matters have been handled with an excessively cautious touch in the last few years, as if moderators were afraid to lose drivers by forcing them to respect the rules (and, maybe useful to add, other people's time..). It seems to me that David's comment above confirms this impression
Maybe not a no qualification for next race (if we want to be more than 10 racers), but a start from the pits... ? (depending on the track, because it could be an advantage on some of them)
Maybe a more detached attitude would help: if the requirement of a certain etiquette (common sense?) in driving and the respect of the rules are going to scare off most people, then maybe the league and the game have run their course and it is time to move on to something different. It is going to happen sooner or later anyway..
When I started racing in S20 the entire Novice races were moderated. This resulted in me piling up 6 or 7 penalty points in the space of the first few races. As I wanted to compete for the championship, that was real bad news for me, as PPs mean lost positions in the final standings of races. In this way, even a minor touch with some other car at the beginning of a race, could have easily meant a 4th place as best possible finishing result for me, even if I had won on the track (1 position lost for every 2 penalty points, anyone remember that rule?). The deterrent was good enough for me, as I said, and I quickly changed my attitude on the track.
A couple of seasons later, we had discussions similar to the one you guys are having now. We concluded that one of the faults of the penalty system was that, for people who don't really care much about their final position in the points table, a couple of positions lost after a race weren't really that much of a deterrent. This is probably debatable, as I think losing, not 2, but 5 or 6 positions every other race (you just need to amass 10 PPs for that) would start annoying even the most stubborn 'diver' we have at UKGPL (and we do have quite a few of them..
). Still, it was agreed that
in addition to the lost positions in the final standings of a race,
in addition to the ban for one race due to an excess of PPs accumulated by one driver in any single division, PPs, once they reached a given amount, were
also going to produce more immediate (next race) penalties as L1 S&G and BoG starts.
So, the discussion has already happened. And, I would add, many, many times...Now the question is, where are those 'in series' penalties gone? Has
anyone ever actually served
any of them? I am pretty sure this is not the first time I ask this question, and somehow I just cant recall the answer.
