YAWN! F1 should be on at night to help insomniacs
Discussion
Gazboy said:
Just watched the very badly edited highlights, so bad I had no idea what was going on!
Why oh why does the scandanavian cyborg keep blowing engines?
DC is a cyst. Which in the Medi dictionary translates to: A useless sack of fluid!
IMO DC is a smooth consistant driver, where Kimi's a bit more of an animal (in actions if not in words...).
That's why the Fin keeps blowing his engine where the Scot's stays in check. Of course this also means that DC will never venture from the middle of the field. He's a bloody good driver but he lacks that last 1% to make him truely special. In anything less than the best car on the track he's not going to worry anyone.
Frik said:
That's kind of my point. In a good car he can win races but he lacks the kind of risk taking needed to consistantly do it, if that makes sense
One year in Monaco he was stuck behind Bernoldi (I think) in an Arrows for about half the race
I mean, if you are going to be an F1 driver you have to be good at least. I think he's to sensible
In F1, you have to take risks
shadowninja said:
You mean... you still watch it???
Why can't they replace it with some sort of GT race eh?
If you don't want to watch it, then don't watch it then you can stop moaning
Even though I think there are other raicing series better than it, I still watch it. >> Edited by murcielago on Sunday 2nd May 09:52
I can't NOT watch it - I'm an addict after all. BUT, at the moment, the product is just not that good - as a sport.
I've been watching my recordings of the 1994 season over the last few nights and WHAT a difference, I'd forgotten how unpredictable F1 once was. OK, Williams and Benetton were slugging it out that year but Ferrari got in there and won a few races and what surprised me was how often "lesser" teams like Tyrrell, Jordan, Minardi and Ligier were able to get amongst the front runners and pick up points - even make the podium at times.
The only "big" team that was failing really badly in 1994 was Mc Laren who were having a woeful time with their Peugeot engines. Plus ca le change.
Also, watching Berger hustle his Ferrari, all skittish, oversteering and understeering, often in the same corner, was a bit of a revelation. I'd forgotten how exciting he could be to watch.
Nope - at the moment, F1 is DULL DULL DULL - but I'll still watch it.
>> Edited by Eric Mc on Sunday 2nd May 10:05
I've been watching my recordings of the 1994 season over the last few nights and WHAT a difference, I'd forgotten how unpredictable F1 once was. OK, Williams and Benetton were slugging it out that year but Ferrari got in there and won a few races and what surprised me was how often "lesser" teams like Tyrrell, Jordan, Minardi and Ligier were able to get amongst the front runners and pick up points - even make the podium at times.
The only "big" team that was failing really badly in 1994 was Mc Laren who were having a woeful time with their Peugeot engines. Plus ca le change.
Also, watching Berger hustle his Ferrari, all skittish, oversteering and understeering, often in the same corner, was a bit of a revelation. I'd forgotten how exciting he could be to watch.
Nope - at the moment, F1 is DULL DULL DULL - but I'll still watch it.
>> Edited by Eric Mc on Sunday 2nd May 10:05
Eric Mc said:
Nope - at the moment, F1 is DULL DULL DULL - but I'll still watch it.
Eric, I would never disagree with you just for the sake of a disagreement, but I would argue that the apparent dullness is almost entirely down to technical progress.
If you look at the sport as it was twenty years ago there were endless retirements and major driver errors, so it is little wonder that results were far less predictable, with a much greater 'mix' of podium finishes.
The retirements came from mechanical unreliability, and more often than not driver errors were caused by less advanced standards of chassis design, which caught out the 'average' driver with embarrassing frequency.
Nowadays the cars are so perfect that they don't break and don't behave like ill-tempered horses. This takes nothing away from driver skill - absolute precision is required to extract the last hundredth of a second on every lap, but it naturally looks bland and unexciting.
No driver can afford to 'hang it out' or slipstream within an inch of another car - the penalties in time lost would send any team manager into paroxysms of rage, and blight the driver's reputation for life (vide Massa)!
What does all this mean? Generally that most cars are driven very close to their potential, and the outcome is processional - enlivened by the occasional pit stop. Dull perhaps, but if you have the interest to follow F1 closely it can never be boring.
As they used to say "the only worthwhile seat in the house is the driver's seat" and for many viewers and spectators that is even closer to the truth today.
Mc Nab - you are absolutely correct. The technology at the top end of motor sport is so "perfect" and (increasingly) reliable, the unpredictability has been ironed out of it. However, it is unpredictability that makes sport interesting. Arsenal can be sometimes beaten, the Williams sisters don't always win, Tiger Woods can go off form.
At the moment, F1 has become not just processional. but predictably processional - which is even worse. Changing the regulations FUNDAMENTALLY needs to be done every four or so years to, almost literally, throw a spanner in the works.
Testing also takes up far too much of teams' time and budgets - with no benefit for the fans. A lot of it is behind closed doors so no one sees it anyway. I'd say, ban testing full stop. Just turn up for the first race of the season with a total unknown quantity.
Make the teams make their mistakes in the sporting arena - and give us all the benefit of their frustrations, panics, exasperations, anger etc etc etc.
At the moment, F1 has become not just processional. but predictably processional - which is even worse. Changing the regulations FUNDAMENTALLY needs to be done every four or so years to, almost literally, throw a spanner in the works.
Testing also takes up far too much of teams' time and budgets - with no benefit for the fans. A lot of it is behind closed doors so no one sees it anyway. I'd say, ban testing full stop. Just turn up for the first race of the season with a total unknown quantity.
Make the teams make their mistakes in the sporting arena - and give us all the benefit of their frustrations, panics, exasperations, anger etc etc etc.
murcielago said:
You mean... you still watch it???
Why can't they replace it with some sort of GT race eh?
If you don't want to watch it, then don't watch it then you can stop moaning
>> Edited by murcielago on Sunday 2nd May 09:52
But I don't watch it and _don't_ moan about it. I do believe you're mistaking me for someone else
I just find it amusing that people do watch it and then moan about it. I also find it amusing that despite changing rules all the time, Schumacher still wins.
Schumacher constantly winning is not actually the problem - I don't remember anybody moaning that Mansell won four races in a row, or Clark or Prost. It's the lack of a challenge from anyone else and, even without a serious challenge, the lack of competive driving, risk taking, do or do manouvers etc that makes it dull. The terrible thing is that it is easily fixed - it's just getting teams to agree on revised technical specs that proves impossible. Vested interests get in the way all the time. The governing body no longer govern - they are held hostage by the teams. It's a situation which happens in all sports when the participants get more financial muscle than the body which ostensibly runs the show. Too many chiefs and not enough indians - in my opinion.
Let the governing body govern and the racing teams race. Simple equation really.
Let the governing body govern and the racing teams race. Simple equation really.
Eric Mc said:
Testing also takes up far too much of teams' time and budgets - with no benefit for the fans. A lot of it is behind closed doors so no one sees it anyway. I'd say, ban testing full stop. Just turn up for the first race of the season with a total unknown quantity.
I'd have to disagree with you there.
Where testing is open to the public it's free to go and watch. Some people may be F1 fans and can't justify the expense of a GP ticket...this gives them the opportunity to watch/ hear an F1 car on the track.
When I first saw an F1 car in 'real-life' action... it was at a testing session at Silverstone - I was so enthralled by it all, that I decided I had to attend the Brit GP
...even though the cost for a weekend was comparable to a 2 week summer holiday. I've spectated at many testing sessions at Silverstone - and consider my GP weekend ticket as part payment for all the times during the year when I've been able to get a real-life F1 fix
I think there should be more testing
No, I can't really agree with you on that Condor. Motor RACING is about RACING. Testing is something test pilots and research aircraft do. OK - watching somebody testing may be interesting but its not racing - and it's not on TV either, so 99.999% of F1 fans don't get to see it. And, after all this testing, if the net result is the racing is rubbish, then I think it should be curtailed.
Until the 80s, testing was a reltively minor element of the mileage undertaken by an F1 car and driver, Now it vastly exceeds racing mileage by enormous amounts. The balance is completely back to front. In fact, I think that the amount of racing done by F1 drivers is so little these days that they actually don't really know how to do it that much. As far as actually overtaking is concerned, most have forgotten how.
Until the 80s, testing was a reltively minor element of the mileage undertaken by an F1 car and driver, Now it vastly exceeds racing mileage by enormous amounts. The balance is completely back to front. In fact, I think that the amount of racing done by F1 drivers is so little these days that they actually don't really know how to do it that much. As far as actually overtaking is concerned, most have forgotten how.
condor said:
...and consider my GP weekend ticket as part payment for all the times during the year when I've been able to get a real-life F1 fix
With you 100% condor - for me the sight of just one F1 car on a fast lap is a real thrill.
All the rule changes in the world won't turn F1 into an automotive football match. Maybe yawners should just stick to 'the beautiful game' and let the rest of us enjoy something a little more subtle.
Eric Mc said:
Until the 80s, testing was a reltively minor element of the mileage undertaken by an F1 car and driver, Now it vastly exceeds racing mileage by enormous amounts. The balance is completely back to front. In fact, I think that the amount of racing done by F1 drivers is so little these days that they actually don't really know how to do it that much. As far as actually overtaking is concerned, most have forgotten how.
Really, Eric, you must calm down!
Machinery of any sort needs testing - go down your road and we'd end up with two runners at the chequered flag.
All the effort that goes into producing these cars would be worthless without testing, but if you want to ban it I'll tell Jean Todt (he's smaller than me!) and you can tell the rest.
>> Edited by McNab on Sunday 2nd May 17:59
Interesting ideas (including mine) but never likely to happen.
All I can say is that, when F1 implodes, as it surely will unless dramatic changes are made, at least there will be other forms of notor sport to follow - only we'll be back to having to read about it in Autopsport. TV won't want to know - or maybe I'll sign up for Motors TV.
All I can say is that, when F1 implodes, as it surely will unless dramatic changes are made, at least there will be other forms of notor sport to follow - only we'll be back to having to read about it in Autopsport. TV won't want to know - or maybe I'll sign up for Motors TV.
seaton said:
Been to Donington today to watch these,
All i can say is thay are fantastic, and i'd rather pay £12 to watch an 18 lap race of those, than ££££ to watch the currnt crop of cars.
Funnily enough the FIA Thoroughbred Formula One Grand Prix race was part of the recent Bahrain GP weekend. Suffice to say the F1 teams enjoyed watching their old machines battle on the track..................bless, it's the first time many of them had seen a dozen overtaking moves in one dry track race
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