So how was 2013 for you?

[Derek Smith]

Taking it as a whole, what is the general opinion of the 2013 season?

I've enjoyed it, but it was hardly a classic. There were some dire races but also some exciting ones, if we ignore the lack of battle for the #1 slot.

I felt there are too many races and I'm seriously considering dumping Sky sports and just watching the highlights and the occasional race on BBC, so that must say something about how the last couple of seasons have presented themselves.

Some exciting moments further down the field, with some battles that have been intriguing.

Tyres, obviously, are the elephant in the room, which everyone sees and everyone talks about. But thankfully, there was more to this season than them.

The worrying thing is that we might look back on this season as the last of the classic F1 races.

[Le Mans Visitor]

Derek Smith said:

.....I'm seriously considering dumping Sky sports and just watching the highlights and the occasional race on BBC....

already done that.

I am hacked off at the drivers running at 90% race pace to save fuel and tyres. it makes a mockery of the sport.

Racing, no its a parade once the 1st 2 laps are done.

The sport needs a new 'Bernie' with fresh blood and some spark.

[Eric Mc]

Lost interest for the last third of the season - for obvious reasons.

Next year will be interesting - but for how long?

[stew-S160]

I agree with some of your comments. The sport needs a refresh(new engines/car designs/new drivers).

I honestly think that the actual format of F1 races are what cause the biggest issue rather than tyres/engines/etc. It's neither a sprint nor an endurance race. It's a maintenance race. And that is the problem I believe.

Despite his massive car advantage, got to hand it to Seb for what's he has done this year. Some other drivers could also do with being dropped from F1.

[Hub]

Let's be honest here, it is all about winning. I don't mind if Vettel wins, as long as there is at least a chance that someone else may get there. When he is 30 seconds up the road that isn't going to happen and weakens any excitement.

It was not a classic season, but perhaps we were spoiled by last year's excitement, which culminated in a classic Brazilian GP and a race for the title.

[RGambo]

Le Mans Visitor said:

Derek Smith said:

.....I'm seriously considering dumping Sky sports and just watching the highlights and the occasional race on BBC....

already done that.

I am hacked off at the drivers running at 90% race pace to save fuel and tyres. it makes a mockery of the sport.

Racing, no its a parade once the 1st 2 laps are done.

The sport needs a new 'Bernie' with fresh blood and some spark.

So go back and look at some of those fantastic races of years gone by, you know the ones, when the turbo cars had fuel limits and drivers ran out of fuel on the final few laps because they got it wrong, those great years of refueling, when the teams managed to turn their car around faster than the opposition, thus wining the race in the pits. Do you remember listening to Martin Brundle waffling on about how great Ross Brawn was a winning races with fantastic pit stratigies.
F1 is a 2 hour race, not a formula ford race, at some point there has to be compramises in the pace of the cars.
The problem we have had this year is that 1 team just got it all right and the others have not.

[Tony2or4]

One thing that will stick in my mind about this season is the impression I'd formed during the last third that all the other drivers had decided there was no point in trying to win because it was a foregone conclusion that Vettel would take the victory yet again.

I stress that that was just my own impression.

[AJS-]

Pretty dull season in my view. No-one looked close to Vettel for most of it, and the best of the rest was fought out over races rather than laps.

The tyre and fuel situation has a lot to answer for, as it seems to mean that they're running at 90% all the time and any time someone pushes harder they end up losing ground somewhere else.

They can at least overtake now which is an improvement on a few years ago, but they don't seem able/willing to block very much, and it's more often a case of simply cruising past in the DRS zone than anything like a scrap.

It's a hard balance to strike, and I'm not hankering for some mythical "good old days" that never really was, in fact I think the past few seasons before this year have been as unpredictable as any time I can remember.

Interested to see what next year with the new engine regulations will bring. However I wish they would have a bit more variation amongst the cars so that things can develop over the course of the race - different tyres, different engine configurations etc. It seems like the current formula is so highly evolved that the differences are 100ths of a second, hinging on some trivial bit of bodywork or something which just means 22 cars that all wear their tyres and use their fuel at the same rate.

[944fan]

I found it mostly pretty boring.

I did, however, really enjoy Brazil. Shame we had to wait till the very end to get an exciting race.

[mchammer89]

RGambo said:

Le Mans Visitor said:

Derek Smith said:

.....I'm seriously considering dumping Sky sports and just watching the highlights and the occasional race on BBC....

already done that.

I am hacked off at the drivers running at 90% race pace to save fuel and tyres. it makes a mockery of the sport.

Racing, no its a parade once the 1st 2 laps are done.

The sport needs a new 'Bernie' with fresh blood and some spark.

So go back and look at some of those fantastic races of years gone by, you know the ones, when the turbo cars had fuel limits and drivers ran out of fuel on the final few laps because they got it wrong, those great years of refueling, when the teams managed to turn their car around faster than the opposition, thus wining the race in the pits. Do you remember listening to Martin Brundle waffling on about how great Ross Brawn was a winning races with fantastic pit stratigies.
F1 is a 2 hour race, not a formula ford race, at some point there has to be compramises in the pace of the cars.
The problem we have had this year is that 1 team just got it all right and the others have not.

On that note I was watching highlights of the 1994 Brazil race. Back in the good old days you know, where the winner managaed to lap every single car on the track at least once? And as far as I recall it was only second and third place that he only managed to lap once.

Lets go back to those days, forget about all this lapping within a second per lap for the majority of the cars nonsense!

[Derek Smith]

I agree that in the main the differences are down to 1/100ths of a second.

One thing that was said by a friend was how impressive the cameras are over the last few years. The overtaking yesterday was stunning.

So is it presentation over events, thrills over circumstances?

Whilst I accept that the comments about previous seasons and the restrictions placed on them, the circumstances are considerably different nowadays.

Harking back to one of the most exciting races I've ever seen, the 87 British, everyone knew what Mansell's tactics had to be. Even when, straight after his tyre stop, he was making little inroad into Piquet's lead, the laps times showed that he was on course. We realised what was going on and could understand the problems. There was the tremendous battle for the lead and also other fights further down the field.

Nowadays lap times are confusing.

There's a certain irony in the fact that we now can get lap and sector times all through qually and the race but, for the latter, they mean little.

The season has been a disappointment in some ways, and the main cause for this has been the tyres. It's all very well saying that it is the same for everyone but it fails to entertain.

Given that 2014 was always going to be a bit of an also ran given the radical changes to the formula next season, I don't think it was too bad. There were new bits being tested almost up to the final whistle.

[Otispunkmeyer]

Le Mans Visitor said:

Derek Smith said:

.....I'm seriously considering dumping Sky sports and just watching the highlights and the occasional race on BBC....

already done that.

I am hacked off at the drivers running at 90% race pace to save fuel and tyres. it makes a mockery of the sport.

Racing, no its a parade once the 1st 2 laps are done.

The sport needs a new 'Bernie' with fresh blood and some spark.

In fact SKY's highlights are even better. I missed most of the race yesterday as I had training at half four, but when I got back in around 6, I went back on the iPad app and they had highlights on a loop as one of the feeds. Was about 10 minutes long, which tells you all you need to know. Apart from Hamilton colliding with Bottas, nothing much happened and then Vettel won. The 10 minute review was all you needed to get the same effect as watching the whole race.

If the BBC's highlights show is an hour long, then its been strung out too long IMO.



The year was mostly a bit boring. Started off nicely enough with different winners but then something clicked on the RB side and that was that. Probably one of the first years I have not been bothered about seeing all the races live and instead gone out to do something else and come back to watch highlights later on on iPlayer. Part of me resents the BBC for selling the rights (claiming poverty just before dropping a load on that crap show the voice!!) but then part of me thinks they called it right... highlights was really all you needed this year.

[P-Jay]

It-is-what-it-is, the SV / RB combination proved to be the best again, especially after the summer break, but I think the other teams seem to be onto them now, the high rear, nose down stance, cylinder shut-down "torque control" and clever nose design will no doubt all be copied for 2014.

But that's next year, I don't recall too many boring races this year, there was some brilliant racing, just none of it for the lead, perhaps it's a stupid thing to say, but if Vettel wasn't there it could have been the greatest season of all time.

[HustleRussell]

mchammer89 said:

On that note I was watching highlights of the 1994 Brazil race. Back in the good old days you know, where the winner managaed to lap every single car on the track at least once? And as far as I recall it was only second and third place that he only managed to lap once.

Lets go back to those days, forget about all this lapping within a second per lap for the majority of the cars nonsense!

Indeed. People seem to focus too much attention on the front row and forget just how close the mid-pack is in terms of performance, and how the teams have been jostling for position throughout, with the variety of circuits each playing to the strengths and weaknesses of different teams/drivers. The fact that there were often split strategies within teams and a variety of strategies up and down the grid added some interest as we got to see teams/drivers who are out of their usual position relative to competitors and as a result we got to see some great dices between drives who otherwise wouldn't be competing directly.

In years gone by, not only is a dominantly superior car an almost constant factor, but the other teams used to finish two by two as well, often separated by laps, as the performance gaps between the teams were huge.

I feel that Red Bull's obvious dominance, while deserved, is a problem exacerbated by the fact that huge regulations changes are looming, and teams have been reluctant to develop their 2013 cars after the summer break. This is common knowledge. This is also one of the reasons for Vettel's reflective "enjoy this while it lasts" sentiments.

I have enjoyed 2013 and I eagerly await the changes 2014 will bring.

6.7/10

[mollytherocker]

Limited on excitement and ultimately frustrating.

Thats it really.

I have a good feeling about 2014 though. Given the huge challenges, I genuinely think we will see a shake up from the first race. However, within a few races the big boys will start to work out where the performance is and will catch up.

So, status quo for the 2nd half.

But, I am convinced that the first couple of races will be all over the place, perhaps even farcical!

Edited by mollytherocker on Monday 25th November 11:09

[McClure]

Crap. Bored of "thermal degradation" and "tyre metrics" and "don't push" and "we need to make these tyres last" and "don't fight him" etc etc and so on.

[ewenm]

It was OK, not a classic year, not the worst I've seen. Fortunately I treat F1 as a bit of light entertainment on a few Sundays a year rather than actually important in any way, so I don't mind Vettel winning as long as there's some sort of racing being shown from somewhere in the field, which for most of the races, there has been.

[bullies180]

McClure said:

Crap. Bored of "thermal degradation" and "tyre metrics" and "don't push" and "we need to make these tyres last" and "don't fight him" etc etc and so on.

This for me as well!

[Fire99]

Sterile, manufactured and neutered.

[350Matt]

dull