Has F1 lost its mojo?

yup, unlike the US gp where they followed the manufacturer's advice.

A company that couldn't even make a tyre to complete a race. Brilliant. At least these joke ones when used as designed can complete the race.

And will somebody please give Kobayashi a seat for next year?

Once Vettel and redbull have wrapped up the title
I'd really like to see the random driver selection for the last race

The 'keys in a bowl' approach as mentioned by chris Evans the other morning

I'd certainly tune in to watch that

F1 should be a sprint. The fastest cars and drivers going at it for 90 minutes. It's now become an endurance event with tyre and fuel saving. You rarely see the cars at full chat and to me that was one of the most exhilarating things to see even if the race itself was slightly lacklustre.


Ironically, Le Mans has moved from being an endurance marathon to a 24 hour sprint in the current generation of super reliable cars!

I'm moving towards the position that the number of races is causing a bit of a problem.

It's only recently that we've had to have those counters at the top right of F1 websites to tell us when the next one will start. I used to remember the fixtures list.

It might be my brain going due to age, but I know have difficulty remembering incidents, at least which race they happened at.

On top of that, and I think most importantly, I used to keep every race sacrosanct. On race day my wife would organise everything around me: no trips out as a family, no journeys to the countryside. These were my days, (to be enjoyed together as she used to watch them as well, and if it was my turn to entertain our small crowd of enthusiasts, she'd kindly organise the buffet, ensuring that it went in stages so that us greedy blokes didn't eat everything at once.

That was when there were a dozen to 14 races a season.

It does seem as if there is nothing special about individual races now.

From 1966 until around 2005 (when I was seriously ill) I never missed watching a GP live, either by being there or, if it was live on TV, by seeing it. The only one I didn't see live was when Senna was killed, and that was because of the death of Ratzenburger. I've missed none this year, but have fallen asleep in two. But I can't see me even keeping Sky F1 next season, not with 22 races. If the BBC lose all of them, I'll probably just await the highlights.

So I think part of the mystique, the mojo in the words of the OP, has, at least for me, dropped away due to there being so many races. They are no longer quite so special.

That's one emotive picture of the Lotus.

Not true http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_FW15C

Besides, why would you lift the front to reduce drag when the rear is pushing the floor down? That's why DRS opens at the rear to allow free airflow

I suggest that this forum proves that F1 has lost something as there are relatively few posts in it. Now either everyone is working that much harder so has no time to post or they have lost interest in F1.

I suspect part of it is because there are less characters in F1, less balls out driving etc, but maybe thats just because I am older and regard the golden days as being Mansell, Senna, Prost.

I don't know what has happened to it this year. It isn't Vettel winning because I just put that to one side and then focus on who is going to be 2nd. But there just appears to have been a distinct lack of anything happening in many races.

I suppose it doesn't help if you are a Button/Mclaren fan and when they are doing so badly you lose interest.

I have actually fallen asleep during some of the races this year.

We don't even have Grosejean doing a Wacky Races moment any more.

I have enjoyed F1 since I was a kid, I'm in my late 50's now, but I feel I'm looking in on a private club full of expensive toys controlled by a hand full of gamers. Running out of patience.BTCC is at least a bit more real despite the common engines,etc.