What happened to F1?

[anonymous-user]

Just watched "Rush" again as you do on a Sunday and it reminds me of when I really enjoyed F1. In the 70s and early 80s the drivers were mental and the cars seemed dangerous. Haven't watched the sport for years, at what point did it become boring and corporate?

Apologies to any modern F1 fans....but it's not as cool as it used to be.

[anonymous-user]

stephen300o said:

Don't need deaths for excitement.

Not suggesting you do but there needs to be a sense of WTF? and how do they do that? To make it interesting. I grew up in 1970s and 1980s and I can tell you James Hunt, Senna, Barry Sheene, and even Nigel Mansell were heroes. Before them it was Mike Hailwood and Stirling Moss....

Who has a picture of Lewis Hamilton on their wall?

It's one of the reasons I still like motorcycle road racing so much.

[anonymous-user]

^^^ so true.

Also the rose-tinted specs thing going on is amazing. The 80's turbo era so fapped over these days produced some really tedious racing - about five laps in you'd get the dreaded phrase "and now we're entering the fuel saving phase" and it would frequently be completely processional until they turned the boost back up again for laps just before and after the pit stops.

[anonymous-user]

It is failing due to the fact it's controlled by an feckless governing body and corrupt little man. The 'sport' more about marketing and commerce than racing.

I thought I'd be bothered about it not being broadcast on regular TV but truth be told I haven't noticed. Only the qualifying is of much interest to me. The rest is all ego and which watch can be clamped onto the drivers overalls...and don't get me started on the 'personalities'

Moto2 and Moto3

/end

[anonymous-user]

Toltec said:

Being realistic what exactly do you think pays for the racing?

I agree, but we are in a situation now where if a very affluent middle eastern state opens their bank accounts the circus immediately rolls into town. No matter if the environment is unsuitable and the spectators are made up of from the top 2% of the population whilst the rest live in squalor?

[anonymous-user]

scarble said:

and despite all this whinging today's race was another absolute belter

Yeah, it was great, saw the last 10mins, nice not to have to waste half a day

[anonymous-user]

scarble said:

Not true, in Hungry we saw Ricciardo in an inferior car outdrive both Mercs and in Germany we saw Bottas in an inferior car outdrive Hamilton. That's not to say that Hamilton and Rosberg are inferior drivers, only that on those two days those two drivers drove better. I'm almost inclined to think though that we have more drivers of champion calibre than in the past, it's been obvious for years that Rosberg has the ability, Ricciardo and Bottas are clearly at that level, Hulkenberg and Perez have both shown flashes of brilliance.

You didn't see either of those races did you?

[anonymous-user]

simonpeter said:

It will be interesting to see how Honda land in F1 next year. Will it be like the 80s where they took some time to get up to speed or will they rattle the Merc runners from the off?

Or will it be like in the 2000s when they never got up to speed?

[anonymous-user]

m444ttb said:

REALIST123 said:

Or will it be like in the 2000s when they never got up to speed?

That all went wrong when they decided simply being an engine manufacturer wasn't enough for them. Things were progressing nicely with BAR I thought. It's a shame they couldn't have stuck with works engine supply to Jordan and made a regular success of things.

But the Honda engine was the weak link in the later Honda cars. One of the keys to 2009 was the Mercedes engine, which was well ahead of the Honda. No reason to suppose it will be any different this time around.