How was the 2015 Season for you?
Discussion
So, how was it for you?
I have to be brutally honest and say that its been the least exciting and enjoyable ever for me. And, yes I know there have been sparks of greatness, but overall I have been disappointed. For many many reasons.
At the root of it all is, I am convinced, the power unit technology and yes, the sound. Even though, I am interested in it technically. However, its far more complicated and multifaceted than that and difficult to put my finger on. Theres a 'falseness'.
I am seriously considering dropping it next year. My time is precious, and I am just not sure it figures that highly in my life now. I just dont know what its for anymore. Entertainment, money, saving the planet?
What about you?
I have to be brutally honest and say that its been the least exciting and enjoyable ever for me. And, yes I know there have been sparks of greatness, but overall I have been disappointed. For many many reasons.
At the root of it all is, I am convinced, the power unit technology and yes, the sound. Even though, I am interested in it technically. However, its far more complicated and multifaceted than that and difficult to put my finger on. Theres a 'falseness'.
I am seriously considering dropping it next year. My time is precious, and I am just not sure it figures that highly in my life now. I just dont know what its for anymore. Entertainment, money, saving the planet?
What about you?
Edited by mollytherocker on Sunday 29th November 22:54
s
te. Too many boring tracks, too much reliability, too much emphasis on engine maps, tyre deg and DRS bullst. Wanted Nico to win the WDC and Lewis to retire every race so obviously didn't go well. That combined with Alonso and Button trailing around miles off the pace made it a pretty poor year for me, and arguably the sport.
I've only watched bits of the last few races, and if next season starts the same I think I'll be watching less and less.
te. Too many boring tracks, too much reliability, too much emphasis on engine maps, tyre deg and DRS bullst. Wanted Nico to win the WDC and Lewis to retire every race so obviously didn't go well. That combined with Alonso and Button trailing around miles off the pace made it a pretty poor year for me, and arguably the sport.I've only watched bits of the last few races, and if next season starts the same I think I'll be watching less and less.
I've not really enjoyed this season, if it drops from the BBC I won't be following and will give WEC a go in 2016. Having followed F1 since the Mansell days, it's lost a chunk of its magic for me. The engine, fuel and tyre variables detract from actually getting people to race. Whilst these have always been factors, tracking fuel use is an absurdity. f1 needs to keep it simple and it's too far from that currently for me to enjoy most of the laps I see on TV.
I have to admit that for the first time in a while I missed multiple races and wasn't bothered at all by it.
It seemed to me that most of the time there was this sense that Hamilton was just plain faster and even if he didn't win on any particular weekend it wasn't ever anything he couldn't recover from. Put that together with the sense that it was always going to be a Mercedes victory anyway, anything different was them dropping a few levels rather than everyone else raising their level and it just mean't I didn't have the motivation to get excited about it. Oh, and I can't say I'm a fan of either Hamilton or Rosberg so that didn't help.
I recognise that there was some good racing by some interesting drivers further down the field, but I just can't really get that excited about that. An epic battle for 6th or 7th place is going to interest me, but it's not going to have me on the edge of my wheelchair like a battle for 1st would.
McLaren were a joke. I respect Button and Alonso for standing by the team, okay Alonso had a couple of moments but you can hardly blame him. Button has dealt with the year with grace beyond belief.
It seemed to me that most of the time there was this sense that Hamilton was just plain faster and even if he didn't win on any particular weekend it wasn't ever anything he couldn't recover from. Put that together with the sense that it was always going to be a Mercedes victory anyway, anything different was them dropping a few levels rather than everyone else raising their level and it just mean't I didn't have the motivation to get excited about it. Oh, and I can't say I'm a fan of either Hamilton or Rosberg so that didn't help.
I recognise that there was some good racing by some interesting drivers further down the field, but I just can't really get that excited about that. An epic battle for 6th or 7th place is going to interest me, but it's not going to have me on the edge of my wheelchair like a battle for 1st would.
McLaren were a joke. I respect Button and Alonso for standing by the team, okay Alonso had a couple of moments but you can hardly blame him. Button has dealt with the year with grace beyond belief.
krisdelta said:
I've not really enjoyed this season, if it drops from the BBC I won't be following and will give WEC a go in 2016. Having followed F1 since the Mansell days, it's lost a chunk of its magic for me. The engine, fuel and tyre variables detract from actually getting people to race. Whilst these have always been factors, tracking fuel use is an absurdity. f1 needs to keep it simple and it's too far from that currently for me to enjoy most of the laps I see on TV.
I couldnt agree more.Used to watch all the races live. Last couple of years I've struggled with motivation. Can't be the competition or lack of it as such as I use to watch every race in the 'dark ages' and was never a Schumacher fan but there was still something about the spectacle.
Was it the noise, the fragility, the perceived danger, Murray Walker? The tracks?
No idea but this year all of that was missing. The cars look rubbish and too fussy, the engines sound stupid, the circus around the races seems false, the new tracks are mostly crap, in crap placs with crap atmosphere and no audience.
Who cares whether the MGU-K and the MGU-H are feeding the ES enough to aid the DRS and other stupid technobabble (yes I understand it all, yes it's quite interesting, no it's not interesting enough to dominate the dammed racing)
It feels too clean, too corporate, too contrived and too clinical. Sure, F1 has long (always......?) been that way but it was always well hidden.
Was it the noise, the fragility, the perceived danger, Murray Walker? The tracks?
No idea but this year all of that was missing. The cars look rubbish and too fussy, the engines sound stupid, the circus around the races seems false, the new tracks are mostly crap, in crap placs with crap atmosphere and no audience.
Who cares whether the MGU-K and the MGU-H are feeding the ES enough to aid the DRS and other stupid technobabble (yes I understand it all, yes it's quite interesting, no it's not interesting enough to dominate the dammed racing)
It feels too clean, too corporate, too contrived and too clinical. Sure, F1 has long (always......?) been that way but it was always well hidden.
Have watched it for innumerable years, but I am feeling fatigue about the politics, the corporate-speak, the tracks in dictatorships,the predictability of the outcome, the impossibility for a small team to be more than a training ground,the era of electronics that makes it difficult to determine talent.
Make no mistake, the worst of these drivers is massively better than the best driver I know, but I think we are at the intersection of computerization and human achievement.
I will have a look next year,but m ore out of habit than passion.
Make no mistake, the worst of these drivers is massively better than the best driver I know, but I think we are at the intersection of computerization and human achievement.
I will have a look next year,but m ore out of habit than passion.
Wow. This is a step change from the vitriol and "don't like it, don't watch itttttttttt!!!!!" that greeted comments like this about last year on here. It suggests a real shift as if the reaction here is negative, one can only assume it's moreso amongst more casual fans.
I agree, fwiw, and have hugely lost interest in 'the show'. In fact, I've found that I missed more than I watched and a brief check in with James Allen on a Sunday night gave me as much excitement as the times I watched the racing.
A real pity, and I hope they fix it.
I agree, fwiw, and have hugely lost interest in 'the show'. In fact, I've found that I missed more than I watched and a brief check in with James Allen on a Sunday night gave me as much excitement as the times I watched the racing.
A real pity, and I hope they fix it.
Gaz. said:
My only real bug bear was the awful tyres. LMP1 can lean on their tyres 100% for 4 x 45 minute stints and enable the cars to have multiple tries at attacking the car infront. The F1 tyres seem to have a memory and need to be baby'd. A single lock up should not go through to the canvas.
The noise does not bother me, to me it's as irrelevant as the uniforms worn by the waitresses in a restaurant.
Mclaren were sorely missed from the front end, the sport desperately needs their unique attitude to letting their drivers race each other but even when they have a good car they still snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
The racing in the main has been good from 4th-14th but with Merc neutering their drivers on Sundays and Raikkonen just not bothering at all, the racing in the podium positions has been pitiful.
However, the rose tinted brigade really do get on my nerves. Both BBC and Sky show the old races virtually on rotation so you can rewatch with fresh eyeballs that this 'golden era' never existed. People harping on about gladiators wheelbanging for 60 laps either are in denial or have st memories. The latter can be cured by watching the classic races again, the former will always be a glass half empty gobste. F1 has never, ever resembled the close racing of Formula Ford from 1987.
The other thing- WEC. I am a fan of both series, but anyone hoping to see wheel banging, loud screamers, full grandstands at legendary circuits with no fuel management is in for a very big shock. I bet there were more drivers in the cars than spectators in the grandstands in Bahrain. Japan spent 45 minutes behind the safety car because it was too wet (sound familiar?), the turn out in the USA was so low WEC are scratching their heads, 4 of the 8 races are at Tilkedromes - the same ones people bh about in F1 and LMP1H is just as quiet as F1, oh and there's st loads of fuel management too in all classes.
On the other hand, competition improves the breed and hopefully WEC has been a massive wake-up call for F1 as FOM have rested on their laurels for far too long. Perhaps WEC has been the driver for the 2017 overhaul, either way 2017 cannot come soon enough.
Thanks for saving me the trouble of typing a response Gaz. Spot on. I'd simply add that the first couple of laps of every GP this season have more midfield action than I've ever seen before. Today's race was a good example of that. Without the presence of the works Mercedes I'd wager that the opinions on the season would be very different, too.The noise does not bother me, to me it's as irrelevant as the uniforms worn by the waitresses in a restaurant.
Mclaren were sorely missed from the front end, the sport desperately needs their unique attitude to letting their drivers race each other but even when they have a good car they still snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
The racing in the main has been good from 4th-14th but with Merc neutering their drivers on Sundays and Raikkonen just not bothering at all, the racing in the podium positions has been pitiful.
However, the rose tinted brigade really do get on my nerves. Both BBC and Sky show the old races virtually on rotation so you can rewatch with fresh eyeballs that this 'golden era' never existed. People harping on about gladiators wheelbanging for 60 laps either are in denial or have s
t memories. The latter can be cured by watching the classic races again, the former will always be a glass half empty gobste. F1 has never, ever resembled the close racing of Formula Ford from 1987.The other thing- WEC. I am a fan of both series, but anyone hoping to see wheel banging, loud screamers, full grandstands at legendary circuits with no fuel management is in for a very big shock. I bet there were more drivers in the cars than spectators in the grandstands in Bahrain. Japan spent 45 minutes behind the safety car because it was too wet (sound familiar?), the turn out in the USA was so low WEC are scratching their heads, 4 of the 8 races are at Tilkedromes - the same ones people b
h about in F1 and LMP1H is just as quiet as F1, oh and there's st loads of fuel management too in all classes.On the other hand, competition improves the breed and hopefully WEC has been a massive wake-up call for F1 as FOM have rested on their laurels for far too long. Perhaps WEC has been the driver for the 2017 overhaul, either way 2017 cannot come soon enough.
I have been watching since 1985, and while its not exactly setting my world on fire right now, I am going to persevere, the spectacle needs to improve, all the dirty air, can't pass, my tyres will die (or god forbid my fuel flows too quickly...) is not racing, F1 should be about foot to floor racing, 2hrs as fast as you can go. Reliability these days is frightening in comparison to years ago (unless you are driving a Mclaren...), but I don't think thats really the problem, Bernie and co seem incapable of recognizing there are multiple issues with the way things are, I have no real care about the cars being hybrids or using less fuel, I want to see the fastest cars in racing actually, erm, well, racing!!
I watch all the F1 coverage I can, practice, quali, race, all the interviews etc, this year I haven't even been bothered if I'd missed a whole race weekend or not... we've been robbed of 2 of the best drivers because Mclaren/Honda have forgotten how to build a race car, Nico didn't buck his ideas up until no one cared if he did or not, and the most entertaining element of the whole season has been Vettel taking the piss out of the Merc drivers in interviews.
Mercedes running away with the title based on their superior engine / car made it a poor year although there were some great battles outside the top 2.
Vettel was a real star, looks to be really enjoying his racing even though his car is nowhere near good enough.
Rosberg gifted the championship to Hamilton by bottling it under pressure so many times which made Hamilton look like a better driver than he really is IMO. I'd question whether you would classify Rosberg as a top 5 driver of the current grid especially when you look at the first 15 races yet he can give Hamilton a real go sometimes which I think flatters Hamiltons performance? I'm saying this as a non Hamilton fan, his off track attitude makes it hard to be a fan, especially after his car crash in Monaco where he was quick to tell everyone it was nobody's business yet he seems to love the limelight posting pics of his luxury lifestyle.
Vettel was a real star, looks to be really enjoying his racing even though his car is nowhere near good enough.
Rosberg gifted the championship to Hamilton by bottling it under pressure so many times which made Hamilton look like a better driver than he really is IMO. I'd question whether you would classify Rosberg as a top 5 driver of the current grid especially when you look at the first 15 races yet he can give Hamilton a real go sometimes which I think flatters Hamiltons performance? I'm saying this as a non Hamilton fan, his off track attitude makes it hard to be a fan, especially after his car crash in Monaco where he was quick to tell everyone it was nobody's business yet he seems to love the limelight posting pics of his luxury lifestyle.
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