Is F1 Real Racing Anymore?

[steveaki13]

A question I saw on the BBC website and I have thought about it for the last couple of years.

I have to say that todays race was a long time low light after years of watching F1.

For me real racing is anything pre 2010.

The last 2 years of F1 has made me feel sad for a sport I love.
All the aspects of F1 I have gotten excited about over the years seem to have slipped away in order to promote "the show" to moron fans who need a pass every corner to enjoy F1.

I was so angry after watching the race last week and now todays.

F1 was the pinicle of motorsport but I worry its becoming the Joke of Motorsport.

The Tyres are not helping with drivers no longer able to race for more than 5-10 laps of a race. Meaningless DRS overtakes mean nothing to me, yet this seems F1's main aim. That this short cut solution to the aero problems will appease fans.

F1 was brilliant for me for so many reasons, F1 Racing is about teams builing cars in lots of different ways, with Engines that perform at top whack. No rev limits, F1 is drivers driving as fast as they can to be the fastest, it was about passes late on the brakes all locked up and swarming battles of 3 or 4 cars weaving around battling hard, drivers Defending with all they are worth against a guy in a faster car to hold onto a decent result.

F1 has issues that make it seem now like a sport made to provide punters with wall to wall entertainment rather than provide them with high quality racing and top sport. Which in itself should be entertaining enough.

For me DRS needs to go as it is only a short cut to save having to look at the real aero issues which if solved would see racing get closer and following and passing become easier.

The main gripe I have with DRS is its unfair. If 2 drivers battle without DRS one passes the other can defend on an even level except for slipstream, then straight away the 2nd driver can use slipstream to repass or fight back. Now a driver is passed with DRS and thats it. No defense and no chance to fight back until next lap.


All in all F1 needs to remember that real Racing doesnt mean passing all the time, but quality drivers in quality cars battling hard. A race can be exciting with few passes but lots of battling and great defensive driving.

But today at Monaco we saw all the wrong things. F1 becoming such a conservative sport in terms of tyres, Engines & gearboxes and thus allowing no drivers to race.


F1 needs to change. Otherwise I may not be able to watch it much longer.

[wedge]

Thanks to Pirelli I have recently questioned my enthusiasm for F1.

I am close to the end of my tether but F1 drags me back because it is *supposedly* the pinnacle.

I specifically remember the likes of Whitmarsh saying that Pandora's Box wasn't supposed to be gimmicky and numerous overtakes and now they - Whitmarsh being one them - just can't get enough of it.

The likes of Gary Anderson who think one/two stop races are boring and don't create enough of a spectacle - sorry but with the rights tyres this was possible last year in Italy and Austin.

[Rollo]

If I was Grand Poobah and Lord High Everything Else, I'd seriously consider removing wings altogether (HA! Take that DRS) and make tyre companies produce a tyre capable of lasting the whole race.

I've always thought that wings on cars are hokey. I'd rather see cars skate about and drivers fight with actual mechanical grip of the tyres than push some button because they want to get past.
If no-one had wings, there wouldn't need to be DRS. If tyre companies were asked to produce a tyre which lasted a whole race, they would - they used to do it in the past.

[dj_bytedisaster]

As with everything there can be too much of something. Today we have too much artificial show. There was a time, when we had to endure Spanish GP's at Barcelona with a single on-track overtaking move all race. That was because the cars were so littered with bits an pieces bolted to it that they caused massive wake turbulence, effectively preventing another car to get near let alone overtake. On top of that Ferrari had invented something called reliability. Back in 1996 there was a joke in Germany: Henry Maske (boxer) is better than Schumi's Ferrari, because Maske goes over 12 rounds. (round and lap are the same word in German). 10 years later Ferraris and other cars simply didn't break down anymore. No more Minardis scraping a point because everyone else had gone up in flames. Hell there wasn't even Minardi anymore.
So the powers that be started to fiddle with the product. Problem was, they were a proctologist trying to cure a sore throat. First they made the cars ugly by mandating the ridiculously wide front wings and the puny rear wings completely putting the car's dimensions out of whack. This of course didn't cure the aero problems, but it gave us many a sliced rear wheel tyre. Then they wanted to bring back mechanical retirements by mandating engines and gearboxes to last a decade. That, however didn't bring back retirements, but it gave us teams calculating how fast they can go to make it to the next allowed engine change. Ever since then drivers start to 'pace manage' as soon as they are in the lead. Keep a 5-8 second gap and nurse the engine, tires and whatnot. No more Schumi lapping all but three drivers in torrential rain or Alonso winning by half a week. It's all about conservation now.
The ultimate insult however was the arrival of Pirelli. Asked to fiddle with the show they produced "tyres" that are deliberately crap and each year's generation is more crap than the year before. This is how the 'FIA Formula One World Championship' became the 'Greenpeace presents the G-Wizz delta-time Masters Series de-boned by Pirelli'.

What we need is to bring the old F1 back. Let the manufaturers decide how long they want their engines to last or how high they want them to rev. Award points for the fastest lap and the pole position and get back to awarding points to the first 6 places only. That'll be all encouragement the teams need to let their drivers go fast instead of tootling about 5 seconds off-pace deliberately, like shown in Monaco and Barcelona.

Vettels exchange with the Muftis behind the pitwall after his fastest lap (that was 4 seconds faster than what he had been driving for the few laps beforehand) pretty much summed it up. He got a ticking off because he went too fast and was reminded that there are no points for fastest laps. His sullen reply: "But it gives me the satisfaction".

That's what F1 is these days. Deeply unsatisfactory for both drivers and spectators - a bling-bling, but hollow shell of what it once was. NASCAR with engine technology from the correct century.

[faster69]

It has really changed much. You wouldn't call a wet weather race artificial because drivers have to drive within themselves. The drivers have to adapt to the changing conditions throughout the race.

[ShiftingGears]

It has really changed much. You wouldn't call a wet weather race artificial because drivers have to drive within themselves.

That isn't a valid comparison. In wet races when the lap times are much slower, drivers would be pushing the cars as close as they dared to the traction limit of the tyres.

That is not what we saw for most of yesterday.

[N. Jones]

For me it's the tires. Let teams run whatever tire they want. Sadly this started when Bridgestone was the only supplier and they cried of becoming "irrelevant".
GOOD! That is what you SHOULD be! Let the drivers show us their skills at driving, not being nursemaids to four pieces of "rubber".

Get rid of this and the show will be better.

DRS, I can handle it.

[wmcot]

There was a time when F1 was about innovation, designing the fastest/best handling car, allowing as many pitstops (or not) as you chose, teams choosing what fuel loads to run, how long their engine lasted, and on and on...

Now we have a contest to see who can design a car that is easier on its tires. Plus you have to run both good and crappy tires during each race.

It seems to be more like running the Olympic 4x100 relay with the first 3 runners barefoot on sharp stones and the last runner being a pathetically inferior runner. That would "even up" the competition in the Olympics!

Do I still watch F1? Yeah. Do I enjoy it as much? No!

[henners88]

The FIA need to admit they got it wrong this season. Pirelli are getting the bad reputation and I don't think that is entirely fair.

[steveaki13]

Wow my 3000th Post.

What a milestone.

Who would have thought I would make 3000 before Henners.

Im so excited

Cheers Guys

Keep up the good work.