Why do people follow and watch F1?
Discussion
it's always been pretty boring, it's just that back in the 70s and 80s there was no internet and only 2 other tv channels to watch, so it filled some time on a sunday afternoon. the speed, danger and glamour made up for the lack of wheel to wheel excitement. but now we have ugly, ultra-reliable, super-safe cars, and lots of other stuff to watch, so the fact the races are boring is more noticeable i think.
markcoznottz said:
Things mattered more then, if you were into four wheels it was top gear and f1. Although if truth be told, touring cars showed how dull F1 was. I think what F1 gave people in the 70s-90s was glamour, I mean we still had holiday programs showing countries abroad as Sunday night entertainment, shows how big the world was then.
c6r said:
it's always been pretty boring, it's just that back in the 70s and 80s there was no internet and only 2 other tv channels to watch, so it filled some time on a sunday afternoon. the speed, danger and glamour made up for the lack of wheel to wheel excitement. but now we have ugly, ultra-reliable, super-safe cars, and lots of other stuff to watch, so the fact the races are boring is more noticeable i think.
You know what, I hadn't considered these points. But they are very good ones. Mid 80's to mid 2000's I would rarely miss a race, and would set the alarm for the Asia/ Australia races. Haven't done so for 5-10 years. Watch the occasional race, but there are a lot of series out there providing far better action, and better value for money.
In fact, the coverage F1 receives annoys me; it gets far more than it deserves - and for Joe Public/ Mr Sports Editor, the motorsport season has only just started. Really??
F1 can die a horrible death, and I wouldn't care; there plenty of motorsport out there without the over promoted, over hyped so called 'Pinnacle of motorsport'.
In fact, the coverage F1 receives annoys me; it gets far more than it deserves - and for Joe Public/ Mr Sports Editor, the motorsport season has only just started. Really??
F1 can die a horrible death, and I wouldn't care; there plenty of motorsport out there without the over promoted, over hyped so called 'Pinnacle of motorsport'.
I follow and watch F1 because I enjoy watching my 'hero' driver do his job.
If that driver left the sport, then I might not watch it so often.
Also I like the complicated machinery, and the effort involved to make the car the fastest around the tracks.
The racing is better now than it was 10 years ago in my opinion.
If that driver left the sport, then I might not watch it so often.
Also I like the complicated machinery, and the effort involved to make the car the fastest around the tracks.
The racing is better now than it was 10 years ago in my opinion.
I've only been watching properly for about 5-6 years and my interest in it is the same as when I started.
What keeps me interested is watching each team and driver develop and not just having one team or driver who I worship. The battle at the top between Lewis and Seb, Ferrari working their b
ks off to try and beat Mercedes, Red Bull occasionally getting in the mix again, Verstappen when he's on form, will Renault get back to the top again, can Haas's lack of experience keep up with a car better than the team running it, will Stroll prove to be any good, Honda's going bang, are Mclaren as good as they think are? etc etc....
That's just a handful of the many things that keep me interested in F1 and why I watch every race when I can. Yes, sometimes you can get a dull procession of a race but that's true for a lot of motorsport!
What keeps me interested is watching each team and driver develop and not just having one team or driver who I worship. The battle at the top between Lewis and Seb, Ferrari working their b
ks off to try and beat Mercedes, Red Bull occasionally getting in the mix again, Verstappen when he's on form, will Renault get back to the top again, can Haas's lack of experience keep up with a car better than the team running it, will Stroll prove to be any good, Honda's going bang, are Mclaren as good as they think are? etc etc....That's just a handful of the many things that keep me interested in F1 and why I watch every race when I can. Yes, sometimes you can get a dull procession of a race but that's true for a lot of motorsport!
I lost my original love for it during Vettel's dominance. I stopped watching for a good few years around then. However, if you can watch last years Baku race and not be entertained, then the sport isn't for you. That was one of the most exciting, unpredictable, entertaining races I can remember watching - since Hill's near win at Hungary in '97 (although that in itself wasn't exactly an exciting race, just tension filled).
The OP's question is one I've asked myself on occasion and I've not yet come up with a satisfactory answer.
I used to be keep on sports car racing, this from the time of the D-Types at Le Mans. I'd seen a few sports car races and loved them - I can still remember Moss drifting a blue Scaliatti-bodied swb Ferrari 250GT around Clearways, right in front of me and my dad.
Then we went to my first GP, the British in 1966 and the excitement, the noise, the smells, the sheer fun of it got to me and from then on, for years in fact, nothing else would do.
It wasn't for some 18 years that I saw another top level, WEC as is, sports car race and, much as I enjoyed it there was something lacking.
Senna and Ratzenberger's deaths put me off for a bit over a season and then I came back to the Brawn/Ferrari/Schumacher years and I found it all a bit of an effort. I still went to GPs, paying a fortune, but still enjoying it.
Since the end of the domination of Ferrari/RB we've had some seasons that have been as exciting, if not more so, that any I can remember, even allowing for rose-tinted spectacles. Last race, last lap, last corner for the WDC; I'm not sure it could get any more edge of the seat stuff than that. A memorable season.
So why is it no longer a must see for me? For the first season last year I made no attempt to see all the races live, even once waiting to view the highlights on the Monday? This season I couldn't even be bothered to get up to view the live timing, let alone pay for Now.
I was wandering along the pits at Brands last Thursday for the Historic Masters test day and the F1 cars there looked so much better. How can one get a buzz from the mess of the front wings of today, and the bits sticking out from the body? Tyre management has always been a factor but I don't think I've seen so much cruising for a long, long time.
We can all criticse Merc's tactics of looking after the engine, and Alonso's main task being to keep other cars behind him and not to try and challenge those in front, but this is what F1 is all about.
F1 was never perfect, and at times it was worse than now. But come on, switching the engine to cruise control after the first couple of laps is going to make more people wonder why they follow and watch F1.
I used to be keep on sports car racing, this from the time of the D-Types at Le Mans. I'd seen a few sports car races and loved them - I can still remember Moss drifting a blue Scaliatti-bodied swb Ferrari 250GT around Clearways, right in front of me and my dad.
Then we went to my first GP, the British in 1966 and the excitement, the noise, the smells, the sheer fun of it got to me and from then on, for years in fact, nothing else would do.
It wasn't for some 18 years that I saw another top level, WEC as is, sports car race and, much as I enjoyed it there was something lacking.
Senna and Ratzenberger's deaths put me off for a bit over a season and then I came back to the Brawn/Ferrari/Schumacher years and I found it all a bit of an effort. I still went to GPs, paying a fortune, but still enjoying it.
Since the end of the domination of Ferrari/RB we've had some seasons that have been as exciting, if not more so, that any I can remember, even allowing for rose-tinted spectacles. Last race, last lap, last corner for the WDC; I'm not sure it could get any more edge of the seat stuff than that. A memorable season.
So why is it no longer a must see for me? For the first season last year I made no attempt to see all the races live, even once waiting to view the highlights on the Monday? This season I couldn't even be bothered to get up to view the live timing, let alone pay for Now.
I was wandering along the pits at Brands last Thursday for the Historic Masters test day and the F1 cars there looked so much better. How can one get a buzz from the mess of the front wings of today, and the bits sticking out from the body? Tyre management has always been a factor but I don't think I've seen so much cruising for a long, long time.
We can all criticse Merc's tactics of looking after the engine, and Alonso's main task being to keep other cars behind him and not to try and challenge those in front, but this is what F1 is all about.
F1 was never perfect, and at times it was worse than now. But come on, switching the engine to cruise control after the first couple of laps is going to make more people wonder why they follow and watch F1.
ArnageWRC said:
Mid 80's to mid 2000's I would rarely miss a race, and would set the alarm for the Asia/ Australia races. Haven't done so for 5-10 years. Watch the occasional race, but there are a lot of series out there providing far better action, and better value for money.
In fact, the coverage F1 receives annoys me; it gets far more than it deserves - and for Joe Public/ Mr Sports Editor, the motorsport season has only just started. Really??
F1 can die a horrible death, and I wouldn't care; there plenty of motorsport out there without the over promoted, over hyped so called 'Pinnacle of motorsport'.
I was the same. I spent my money on going to spa, Monza, Monaco, Imola etc.. but then I discovered Le Mans and sportscar racing. It’s no coincidence that I’ve been to every Le Mans since 2003 but the last F1 race I went to was Monaco 2005. I don’t want F1 to die but part of me feels it needs to crash so that it can be reborn again. In fact, the coverage F1 receives annoys me; it gets far more than it deserves - and for Joe Public/ Mr Sports Editor, the motorsport season has only just started. Really??
F1 can die a horrible death, and I wouldn't care; there plenty of motorsport out there without the over promoted, over hyped so called 'Pinnacle of motorsport'.
Switched off half way through the highlights programme on C4.
The first GP of the year was always an exciting race for me, giving some kind of fix to the senses after a long session of cold turkey. I just didn’t get that feeling this year.
Having said that, I can’t see that situation lasting. There have been many boring races before and there has always been something to pull me back in.
The first GP of the year was always an exciting race for me, giving some kind of fix to the senses after a long session of cold turkey. I just didn’t get that feeling this year.
Having said that, I can’t see that situation lasting. There have been many boring races before and there has always been something to pull me back in.
When I was a nipper, my Dad worked as a model maker at Ford in Aveley. Next to his office was, at the time, Ford's PR department and Motor Sports division. They occasionally had a clear out and Dad would nab bundles of glossy 10x8 promo photos for me. These included road cars, concept cars and various rally and F1 cars. One that caught my eye particularly was a photo of Emerson Fittipaldi in the Lotus 72.
One Christmas, I got a 1:12 Corgi toy of the Lotus 72, complete with removable wheels. I loved the aesthetics of the car - still do. Then I watched a race on the telly and for the first time saw this previously inanimate object move as intended.
Upminster Library used to sell old magazines for a few pence so I used to buy month old copies of Motor Sport to look at the photos. The catalyst for me was when they had an old copy of Grand Prix International magazine.
And that was that. Hooked and remain so today.
Why do I still follow it? Because I enjoy it. It excites me and intrigues me. On track action is - for me - only half of what makes F1, F1. It's easy to consider modern F1 dull compared to the past but thinking back over the past 10 years or so, the abundance of truly epic races is greater than at any time previously. And in F1, there is rarely anything truly new under the sun.
amongst my vast collections of motor racing books is one written by Nigel Roebuck called The Grand Prix Years 1983-1984. In it, he describes the various political issues and turmoil facing the sport then; spiralling costs, dull racing with a lack of overtaking, a growing reliance on aero, over-complex engines, Ferrari getting all moody..... sound familiar?
One Christmas, I got a 1:12 Corgi toy of the Lotus 72, complete with removable wheels. I loved the aesthetics of the car - still do. Then I watched a race on the telly and for the first time saw this previously inanimate object move as intended.
Upminster Library used to sell old magazines for a few pence so I used to buy month old copies of Motor Sport to look at the photos. The catalyst for me was when they had an old copy of Grand Prix International magazine.
And that was that. Hooked and remain so today.
Why do I still follow it? Because I enjoy it. It excites me and intrigues me. On track action is - for me - only half of what makes F1, F1. It's easy to consider modern F1 dull compared to the past but thinking back over the past 10 years or so, the abundance of truly epic races is greater than at any time previously. And in F1, there is rarely anything truly new under the sun.
amongst my vast collections of motor racing books is one written by Nigel Roebuck called The Grand Prix Years 1983-1984. In it, he describes the various political issues and turmoil facing the sport then; spiralling costs, dull racing with a lack of overtaking, a growing reliance on aero, over-complex engines, Ferrari getting all moody..... sound familiar?
There's "follow" and there's "follow".
My enthusiasm for F1 has evolved over the decades - usually dependent on the ability to follow it in various media.
When I was a child i.e. the 1960s, the opportunity to watch F1 on TV was minimal - maybe one or two races in the season. Events were mainly followed by hearing about it in the news (often the tragic aspects of it), reading about it in magazines and the newspapers and also my local library - although invariably what was available to read in the library would be at least a couple of seasons out of date.
In the 1970s coverage on TV began to improve and we finally got full season (in highlights form) coverage with the advent of the BBC's "Garnd Prix" Sunday night programme. At long last I could see all the races for the whole season. From 1978 to 2000 or so, I was as keen as a keen thing and avidly followed all the GPs and tried not to miss any of them, especially if live.
Things started to change in the 2000s. The Schumacher era of domination was not helpful. The circuits also began to become rather remote and disconnected to what I had always associated with GP racing and the cars themselves began to lose their appeal to me.
Despite some interesting seasons in the intervening 18 years, my interest in F1 has been in decline and I don't see it picking up to be honest.
I am sure age has an effect on how avid a fan you can be. And, I do recognise that I am getting older (I'll be 60 this year). Consequently, I recognise that time is rather precious and that I have better things to do on a Sunday afternoon than spend three hours being disappointed.
Having said all that, I spent a goodly few hours the other weekend watching the Goodwood Members' Meeting live stream and thoroughly enjoyed it - so I obviously still love performance racing cars, especially historic ones.
My enthusiasm for F1 has evolved over the decades - usually dependent on the ability to follow it in various media.
When I was a child i.e. the 1960s, the opportunity to watch F1 on TV was minimal - maybe one or two races in the season. Events were mainly followed by hearing about it in the news (often the tragic aspects of it), reading about it in magazines and the newspapers and also my local library - although invariably what was available to read in the library would be at least a couple of seasons out of date.
In the 1970s coverage on TV began to improve and we finally got full season (in highlights form) coverage with the advent of the BBC's "Garnd Prix" Sunday night programme. At long last I could see all the races for the whole season. From 1978 to 2000 or so, I was as keen as a keen thing and avidly followed all the GPs and tried not to miss any of them, especially if live.
Things started to change in the 2000s. The Schumacher era of domination was not helpful. The circuits also began to become rather remote and disconnected to what I had always associated with GP racing and the cars themselves began to lose their appeal to me.
Despite some interesting seasons in the intervening 18 years, my interest in F1 has been in decline and I don't see it picking up to be honest.
I am sure age has an effect on how avid a fan you can be. And, I do recognise that I am getting older (I'll be 60 this year). Consequently, I recognise that time is rather precious and that I have better things to do on a Sunday afternoon than spend three hours being disappointed.
Having said all that, I spent a goodly few hours the other weekend watching the Goodwood Members' Meeting live stream and thoroughly enjoyed it - so I obviously still love performance racing cars, especially historic ones.
I've been watching for 25 years, and in that time have missed only a handful of races. Thanks to youtube and the internet I have also had the chance to see plenty of races from before my time. I can honestly say that on average, races used to be just as boring in the past as they are today. Sure there were some classics like Senna and Mansell in Monaco 92, Senna in Donington 93, Arnoux and Villeneuve in Dijon 79, Senna and Prost in Suzuka 89, or the chaos of Monaco 84, SIlverstone 87. The list goes on. But there are just as many brilliant modern races, such as Canada 2011, Abu Dhabi 2010 (that whole season was brilliant), Brazil 2008, Brazil 2007, Brazil 2012, Suzuka 2005, Baku 2017, Bahrain 2014...
Anyone who says that races were better in the old days really needs to take off their rose tinted glasses, because it really wasn't. What was better was the romance and glamour that went with F1 in general. And that is not entirely F1's fault. Times just change.
Anyone who says that races were better in the old days really needs to take off their rose tinted glasses, because it really wasn't. What was better was the romance and glamour that went with F1 in general. And that is not entirely F1's fault. Times just change.
Eric Mc said:
Are you saying romance is dead?
As far as motorsports are concerned, I think there definitely is less romance surrounding them. And not just F1. Same goes for rallying, endurance races, the lot. The world is simply moving towards a consumer culture, where the purpose of racing is no longer simply racing for the sake of it, but to provide a "show", for "paying customers". F1 has no choice but to follow, or die. These sort of threads often get kicked out at the beginning of the season, as so much hype often does not reward the spectator..
For me it is a tragedy that Hamilton did not/ could not (delete as appropriate) try catch Vettel because:
1) Saving his engine for the next race - WTF!!
2) He could not overtake, as it does not perform well in turbulent hot air/ cars too wide and or limited chances to overtake!!
Don't hate the payer, hate the game, but these drivers want to race!
I don't pay any extra for Sky Sports F1, as it is one of those channels that spilled over for free, hence why I follow. However if I had to pay for it, I am not sure I would bother..
G
For me it is a tragedy that Hamilton did not/ could not (delete as appropriate) try catch Vettel because:
1) Saving his engine for the next race - WTF!!
2) He could not overtake, as it does not perform well in turbulent hot air/ cars too wide and or limited chances to overtake!!
Don't hate the payer, hate the game, but these drivers want to race!
I don't pay any extra for Sky Sports F1, as it is one of those channels that spilled over for free, hence why I follow. However if I had to pay for it, I am not sure I would bother..
G
Salamura said:
Eric Mc said:
Are you saying romance is dead?
As far as motorsports are concerned, I think there definitely is less romance surrounding them. And not just F1. Same goes for rallying, endurance races, the lot. The world is simply moving towards a consumer culture, where the purpose of racing is no longer simply racing for the sake of it, but to provide a "show", for "paying customers". F1 has no choice but to follow, or die. Are the consumers REALLY saying -
we don't want excitement?
we don't want glamour?
we don't want romance?
we don't want SOME element of danger and risk?
SeeFive said:
There have been many boring races before and there has always been something to pull me back in.
Why is that?There's always people moaning about F1, say they'll never watch another race but they end up doing so and moan again.
Apologies if I'm picking on you. I'm not having a go at you at an aggressive manner so hopefully it become a sensible/reasonable answer and discussion and not a slagging match
budgie smuggler said:
Applaud the effort for that VM, how about the number of overtakes? Does that correspond with the perceived glory days of Mansell and Senna slugging it out etc?
I mean it seemed like we didn't really get any overtakes of note at all in the race on Sunday.
For me the glory days of F1 were the era of the FW14B and MP4/6, I'd quite happily go back to an aero spec like that now TBH. Limit the number of wing elements, ban the winglets somehow.
Lose traction control and active suspension. Use a relatively simple engine that sounds fast. Maybe even with the manual gearbox. Anything that gives a chance to make errors under pressure. Job done. Maybe it's just rose tinted specs though.
I read the context of this wrong when I first read it and thought you meant ban active suspension and traction control from current cars but assume that you meant, take a 1992 car spec and dumb it down a bit? I do like the simplicity of that era of cars. As aero cars go, they look very 'clean' in terms of shape. Strange to see just how much tech an FW15b was packing in 1993. ABS, active suspension, traction control, semi auto, full auto and development of a CVT. That was about the time I was getting into F1 and I don't actually remember overtaking being all that easy then either and the cars seemed incredibly planted as you might imagine. I mean it seemed like we didn't really get any overtakes of note at all in the race on Sunday.
For me the glory days of F1 were the era of the FW14B and MP4/6, I'd quite happily go back to an aero spec like that now TBH. Limit the number of wing elements, ban the winglets somehow.
Lose traction control and active suspension. Use a relatively simple engine that sounds fast. Maybe even with the manual gearbox. Anything that gives a chance to make errors under pressure. Job done. Maybe it's just rose tinted specs though.
Edited by budgie smuggler on Monday 26th March 16:20
I too would love to see things simplified but I enjoy F1 in just about any format that's come our way. Love the technology, love the precision and planning and strategy. Love the drama, erm somteimes and the sheer spectacle of seeing these machines in action.
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