F1 Sucks These Days

[Greeny]

AJB88 said:

it was an exciting qualifying that's for sure, just ruined it (for me) with Hamilton walking away with it in the end, watching all them other drivers who thought they had a chance, Max I think would of got it had he not screwed it on the 2nd to last corner.

Lewis was ahead of Max at the point Max lost it.
So, no, Lewis would have taken pole anyway.

[ellroy]

AJB88 said:

it was an exciting qualifying that's for sure, just ruined it (for me) with Hamilton walking away with it in the end, watching all them other drivers who thought they had a chance, Max I think would of got it had he not screwed it on the 2nd to last corner.

Well apart from LH being about another 5/10ths up at the point max lost it.

[dr_gn]

Nobody cares.

[Eric Mc]

TheDeuce said:

Yet you're on a forum to discuss F1, on an internet that didn't exist back when you liked F1.

How did that come to be?

Arrogant or what.

ALL aspects of F1 and Grand Prix racing, past present and future, should be open to discussion. You seem to think you call the shots on the F1 forum which I find wholly inappropriate, rude and ignorant. If I want to discuss racing in the era of Carraciola, Nuvolari, Clark or Mansell and compare it with the present I should be completely entitled to do so. How dare you castigate people for wanting to discuss F1 and Grand Prix racing in all its long history.

I am completely fed up with your assumption that I am not entitled to an opinion based on some dopey interpretation of what is allowed.

[Norfolkit]

Eric Mc said:

I'm glad you mentioned Stanley (although his Christian name was Louis not Lewis). He rarely gets mentioned when talking about the safety improvements that started coming in from the late 1960s. Perhaps it's because he wasn't such a nice chap in many other areas of his life and rubbed many people up the wrong way. Indeed, I sometimes wonder if his personality actually hindered the safety campaign rather than helped.

For those who might not know who Louis Stanley was, he became sole owner of BRM in 1970 or so and started fighting for some measures to make reaching safer - such as improvements to barriers and the introduction of a mobile medical centre. He was also the guy who introduced Marlboro to motorsport.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Stanley

Must admit I have a soft spot fot BRM, some of my earliest memories of F1. Produced some of the most beautiful cars ever built


and some of the ugliest


and if a 64 valve H16 engine doesn't float your boat you have no soul, it wasn't very good but what an idea.

[Eric Mc]

Yes - rather bonkers.

Partly inspired by the mad engines developed by Napier’s for the Typhoon and Tempest fighters.

[dr_gn]

Derek Smith said:

It's gone a bit quiet on here. I wonder if that has anything to do with the thrilling qually we've just seen.

Err, No.

It's just as quiet after another thoroughly naff race, confirming what's obvious to most I'd have thought - the racing itself is pretty much irrelevant for folks who appreciated a spectacle.

I actualy listened to it on R5 (while building a '80's model F1 car as it happens). So, so dull, like listeneing to cricket. The only thing that caught my interest was the reference to boxes on wheels delivering the trophies. Intrigued by this, I found a clip of it later, and it summarised the utter naff-ness of it all.

[coppice]

I've seen better races , but have no complaints about this one . Some terrific mid field dicing , some very ambitious overtaking and such a beautiful location too , so much nicer than the ghastly homogeneity of the usual suspects in the Middle and Far East - Japan excluded . obviously

[budgie smuggler]

I don't get the cricket comments.

I mean in terms of major incidents (from memory) first lap you have the ferrari thing, safety car, then george russell dicing it up in the mid field followed by disaster, sainz and perez flat out wheel to wheel for 3 or 4 corners - perez losing his front wing, bottas getting past verstappen using DRS only for ver to then go round the outside of bot and take back the place a few corners later, even right up to the end when you had perez and albon banging wheels, then right on the final lap we have a three way battle with ric, stroll and norris.

fking superb race to be honest, if you found nothing of interest there, maybe you've just grown away from the sport.

[dr_gn]

budgie smuggler said:

fking superb race to be honest...

I think we're so far apart in opinon that there's no point responding any furthern than this.

[budgie smuggler]

dr_gn said:

I think we're so far apart in opinon that there's no point responding any furthern than this.

You're right, if you can read that list of incidents I posted (and that was just the major stuff which I remembered, there were a lot more overtakes, battles etc going on) and still think it was "so, so dull", then I can't even understand what you want from a race, at all.

I mean what do you want from it?

We all know there are problems, the sound, dirty air, halo, etc, but the racing was excellent!

[Eric Mc]

For me F1 (and motor racing) was always much more about the ambience, character, setting, noise etc. Wheel to wheel battles are/were an added bonus. On their own, they only make one small element of the whole experience.

It's not that I have left F1, F1 has left me. And I am a bit sad about that but, so be it. I have enough other interests, including the history of F1 - so I haven't abandoned F1 completely - only its current iteration.

If they brought back some old style circuits and made the cars noisier and less planted on the road, I'd be back like a shot.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Forgot this thread existed!

Can I just express my thanks for you all keeping your comments to in here instead of clogging up the main race threads with your rose tinted moaning-it really does improve the enjoyment of race weekends to be able to discuss such exciting races with like minded enthusiasts.

If you could just get DeltonaS to join you it'd be perfect

[Smitters]

dr_gn said:

budgie smuggler said:

fking superb race to be honest...

I think we're so far apart in opinon that there's no point responding any furthern than this.

Sometimes you want to watch a movie where you get action all of the time. Sometimes you want The Usual Suspects. Yesterday's GP was The Usual Suspects. I can't remember the last time I actually bounced in my seat and clapped watching F1, but I did yesterday, on the last lap (nay last corners of the last lap), having invested in watching the race.

I freely admit that to enjoy F1 you need to invest in it - get into the backstories, understand a bit about the drivers and the dominant and less dominant cars, but surely that's the same for anything you're passionate about - it's not a superficial interest. Was Leclerc's move on Vettel optimistic? Maybe. Was it made all the more interesting because I watched last week's race and have an bit of an understanding of the drivers in terms of how they intend to race the season, the overall performance of the car and so on. Absolutely.

If you just want action - watch Youtube clips.

[NewUsername]

Eric Mc said:

Nice summation. I think "visceral" has to be part of the experience. And the expletive "bloody hell" should be heard frequently, trackside.

I was watching Qualy at Silverstone in 2018 and lots of us were going "Bloody Hell", particularly when Alonso appeared wringing every last ounce out of the Mclaren

The cars sound like a cross between a racing car and an X-Wing trackside and looked very exciting, visibly more so than the time fillers of F2/F3

There were also sessions for classics from 60's through to late 80's and altho fun the current cars were superb!

The only peeps who declare the modern stuff not to be exciting trackside are those who havent seen it at all or may those that have seen it all for too long and too often.

[Eric Mc]

The fact that I can hear the tyres running on the rumble strips from the trackside mikes indicates to me that the engines just aren't loud enough. And I just don't like the sound they make either - just not gut wrenching or spine tingling enough.

Of course, the modern cars really ARE fast - but on TV they just don't LOOK fast. And as most of us watch F1 through our TVs, that means a lot.

[NewUsername]

Eric Mc said:

The fact that I can hear the tyres running on the rumble strips from the trackside mikes indicates to me that the engines just aren't loud enough. And I just don't like the sound they make either - just not gut wrenching or spine tingling enough.

Of course, the modern cars really ARE fast - but on TV they just don't LOOK fast. And as most of us watch F1 through our TVs, that means a lot.

t

I was responding to your point about peoples reactions trackside.......

IMO if its loud cars that make you excited then its the wrong sport, the cars look and sound fantastic trackside so in my view its up to F1 and the broadcasters to convey that better. Some of the camera angles when there are multiple changes of direction such as that swoopy section at COTA really deliver in that respect.

I cant see how the cars are to blame though, they are sensational in the flesh on the move

[dr_gn]

NewUsername said:

Eric Mc said:

The fact that I can hear the tyres running on the rumble strips from the trackside mikes indicates to me that the engines just aren't loud enough. And I just don't like the sound they make either - just not gut wrenching or spine tingling enough.

Of course, the modern cars really ARE fast - but on TV they just don't LOOK fast. And as most of us watch F1 through our TVs, that means a lot.

t

I was responding to your point about peoples reactions trackside.......

IMO if its loud cars that make you excited then its the wrong sport,

...but it didn't used to be the wrong sport for that, hence one of the reasons why "F1 Sucks These Days".

[Norfolkit]

NewUsername said:

Eric Mc said:

The fact that I can hear the tyres running on the rumble strips from the trackside mikes indicates to me that the engines just aren't loud enough. And I just don't like the sound they make either - just not gut wrenching or spine tingling enough.

Of course, the modern cars really ARE fast - but on TV they just don't LOOK fast. And as most of us watch F1 through our TVs, that means a lot.

t

I was responding to your point about peoples reactions trackside.......

IMO if its loud cars that make you excited then its the wrong sport, the cars look and sound fantastic trackside so in my view its up to F1 and the broadcasters to convey that better. Some of the camera angles when there are multiple changes of direction such as that swoopy section at COTA really deliver in that respect.

I cant see how the cars are to blame though, they are sensational in the flesh on the move

I would have to agree with that. We went to Monza in 2013 and 2014, so the last year of the V8s and the first year of the hybids. Due to Monza being roaming on Friday we sat at various spots around the track and in 2013 you had to wear earplugs as they were so loud, in fact if you sat around the start/finish line (so the sound was bounced back off the grandstands), even with earplugs is was too lound, without them it was actually painful (I know, I was stupid enough to take out my earplugs to see what it souded like).
Roll on to 2014 and the noise was much quieter, too quiet in fact, I made a comment on here at the time that the F1 cars were the quietest all weekend, GP3, GP2 and the Porsches were all much louder which was the wrong way round. Having been to a race each year since then I'd say they've fixed that, they are the loudest cars of the weekend again, not as loud as the V8s but plenty loud enough.

I'd agree the cars are sensational, their ability to change direction is astonishing.

As for the circuits Derek, the ambience and setting are much as they ever were, Spa is as atmospheric as it gets and looks intimidating even as a spectator, the Red Bull Ring must be the most scenic racetrack in the world with an amazing atmosphere at the moment, the Hungaroring is charming, I love the place (we were going back this year, all booked but not happening) and Paul Ricard is an utter dump in a beautiful part of the world, no atmosphere at all, none, a club day at Snetterton has more atmosphere and more overtaking.

[Eric Mc]

Red Bull Ring is a perfect example of where F1 went wrong. It's a pale shadow of the circuit it replaced.