Spare thread for people to post about their boredom with F1...

The trouble is it is more about the technology than the drivers these days. There are really only 4 or 5 drivers with a realistic chance of winning a race and if you are at the front of the grid, there is a strong likelihood it will be you.

It is all about the constructors these days and the money that is generated through sponsorship and brand enhancement. The answer to finding who is the best driver and getting some real racing happening is for them all to drive the same car (not the exact same car of course!), but that will never happen because of the above.


Mark

I prefer the Superbike races, much more exhilarating than the toffee nosed (boring) F1.

I was prompted to watch for the first time in goodness knows how many years by the phenonenon that is Lewis Hamilton, so I watched for the first time in years.
I woke up, as usual, when it was finished.
Fuck me..it's more boring than snooker!
Let's just face the facts......it's over.

Well, here goes:
1. Traction control is banned from next year. Good start.
2. Bring back proper manual gearboxes. That introduces a variable when 2 evenly matched cars are alongside each other at 180mph then having to brake for a corner.
3. Get rid of all the hideous aero-aids that these cars have sprouted over the last 15 years. They ruin the look and ruin any chance of out-braking someone by not letting cars follow closely.
4. Issue FIA standard front and rear wings that have limited adjustment. And make 'em small.
5. BRING BACK WIDE SLICKS!!
6. Pay all the drivers £25k per year, plus £100,000 per point. That might encourage more drivers to aim for the 'Big Prize'...
7. Give me a press pass for the British GP!

Tony

PS. Mark said "The answer to finding who is the best driver and getting some real racing happening is for them all to drive the same car ". If you watch the various one make championships, quite often there are just one or two race winners in each. Face it: If a driver is quick and knows how to set up his well prepared car properly he should qualify well, lead and win.

Spot on Tony. Why can't the FIA see that F1 is killing it's self. GP2 should be the clue as to how to make a high powered open wheel series work. Some one even over took going in to Lowes hairpin yesterday.I have to say also that good racing does not necessarily mean lots of overtaking but cars need to be able to follow and harrass each other through the corners.
Let's have a SLIGHTLY modified version of the GP2 cars for F1.
On ESPN classic yesterday they showed the 1968 Monaco race.During practice they banned the high wings that had so spectacularly failed in Spain a couple of weeks earlier. Also seeing people walking on the pavement coming out of the tunnel during the race,the small piles of sandbags in front of the lamp standards and even the pits on the side of the track with no barriers between track and pits makes you realise just how much else has changed as well.

Howard

Howard,

Have you seen the "F1 On Board" DVD that came out a couple of years ago? If you have, I suspect you get the same lump in the throat that I do. Until the last part.... A late Ferrari going round Monza at race speed looking as if it were on a slowing down lap.

Tony

PS. I might still risk the Masters Historics at Brands tomorrow. Old F1 cars in the wet!!

It has become a triumph of hype over substance. I gave up on F1 a few years ago and like some others decided to watch a race again recently with all the interest around Hamilton.

The ridiculous hysterical commentator seem to have deluded himself he was watching an exciting contest. He failed to convince me.

Monaco is a joke, someone should wake up to this. How can you have a race without overtaking!!!

Bruce

quote:

PS. Mark said "The answer to finding who is the best driver and getting some real racing happening is for them all to drive the same car ". If you watch the various one make championships, quite often there are just one or two race winners in each. Face it: If a driver is quick and knows how to set up his well prepared car properly he should qualify well, lead and win.

Then we're doomed, doomed... ! Tell you what, then. No driver should be assigned to a team, they should draw lots before the race weekend so that the driver/car combination is completely random for each race. That way you will get fast drivers in crap cars and slow drivers in the best cars and you might have a race on your hands. The best driver should then come through at the end of the season and so should the best car. It just might make it a bit more exciting along the way!

Mark

quote:

Monaco is a joke, someone should wake up to this. How can you have a race without overtaking!!!

Monaco has it's own very special needs and skills.
So every M/C race has overtaking all the time? One of the best races I have seen was J Hunt holding off Lauda at the Dutch GP in '75. It wasn't the cars that prevented overtaking just the cars being different at various parts of the circuit.
Surely M/C racing should be stopped at Daytona or Macau as they are unsuitable circuits but they continue as tradition dictates.
I've also seen races where the lead changes all the time and then you say to yourself "lets settle down to some racing" it can get as boring.

You asked for it ...

One of the reasons F1 is boring these days is because the cars are so reliable in comparison to 15-20 years ago. Even James Allen realised this in commentary when mentioning that a missed gear change was often the prelude to an overtaking move. I've been saying this for years so in agreement with all Tony's "rules" I'd go further and reduce testing to half a dozen days a year - this would reduce the need for a separate test team and thus reduce costs massively.

Also

Re-introduce Friday qualifying for 1 hour at maximum banzai speed (non of this shoot out crap) so we have qualifying over two hours over two days. It worked for years and gave the Friday paying customer more value for money.

Get rid of the dumb-arse endurance rules (two race engines bah). I think it was one C. Chapman who said something along the lines of "the perfect race car would cross the line first then fall apart".

Bring back the forest section at Hockenheim & allow H. Tilke to design circuits for Legoworld only. With apologies to Legoworld of course.

Replace Bernie with the Earl of March.

Supply me with return flights to the UK each year so I can go to Goodwood more often and see real race cars driven by real race drivers.

Do you think it's time I stopped ?

Cheers
Scott

I think the grid should be arranged in accordance with the championship table, in reverse order, so those doing best are at the back.
Whenever I think of what F1 should be like, I get that mental picture of Mansell & Senna side by side down the straight in Spain in 1991. I suppose we need to try and identify what made F1 so good back then.

From what I'm hearing on the radio news today, the whole thing is fixed anyway.
I think it's time to realise it's finished.

I wonder what the outcome of the enquiry into the 1-2 will be?

I can't help but feel ending fuel stops and removing some of the downforce aids to lower cornering speeds would be a good place to start.

No refuelling stops, and not quite enough petrol to last the race if they drive flat out all the way.

I seem to remember races without refuelling where cars would run out of gas in the last couple of laps. At Imola maybe?

quote:

From what I'm hearing on the radio news today, the whole thing is fixed anyway.

So one team is 1 second a lap faster than the opposition they should continue to fight themselves? I don't think so. You have the race sown up you settle the 2 drivers to bring both cars home and get maximum points for the TEAM.
It's not like Ferrari actually slowing a car down to let the other by is it?

As for giving them not quite enough petrol, well that will encourage racing won't it? No!

Team orders are hardly a revelation. Be honest, even if Alonso drove with the handbrake on it is not as though anyone could get past...

I agree that overtaking is not everything, what counts is the possibility of a contest. Once they had gone through the first corner can you honestly say the result was in doubt?

During the races how many places in the top ten changed from that first corner to the finish line I ask? (genuinely not knowing).

If the fastest drivers (on any given track/on any given day) start at the front of the grid how much overtaking can we expect? Even on a track where overtaking is possible, let alone Monaco.
This particular GP is only on the calender for the amount of business generated over the weekend, not because its a great track for racing.
And thats one of the major points. GP is a business far more than it being a sport.
As for the team orders (sorry, "strategy" ha ha), well it comes down to whether you want a particular team to win, or a particular individual driver. Obviously, the team principals concentrate on the team standings, whereas I would think the majority of fans follow a particular driver, more than a team. The Tifosi possibly being the exception?
Matt.