Is F1 Real Racing Anymore?

I think Spain and Monaco have proved that is come too far now.

It is too much about the tyres, and has been for the last few years. Granted, we’ve had good races, and I always watch them still – indeed I enjoyed the Monaco GP but not in the classic way I should be.

Drivers should be going flat out whenever possible. There has always been an element of tyre preservation, car preservation etc – but right now the tyres barely last a few laps before “falling off a cliff”. It is all about the tyres, when it should be about the racing. Drivers racing as fast as possible. With this, you will get boring races – but this tends to happen at boring tracks. Races like Canada, Silverstone, Spa always produced excellent races regardless of any of this fancy crap.

I like KERS. There is method to it in terms of when to use it to attack and when to defend. It engages the drivers brain and gives them something else to worry about.

I do not like DRS. It has taken me a while to decide, but I think it is un-necessary. It makes difficult but possible passes easy. They shouldn’t be easy. They should just be possible.

Effectively it was only brought in because of the 2010 Abu Dhabi race when Alonso lost the championship stuck behind Petrov. But that was Ferrari’s fault for a humungous tactical cock-up!

2014 we are getting a whole raft of changes, including turbo-charged engines?? (am I right or did I dream this?) – therefore I don’t see a need for DRS.

Pirelli know how bad the situation is now, so I’m confident they will fix this and bring back stronger tyres which can last a realistic amount of time.

The biggest issue has been the FIA requesting Pirelli to recreate something that was a one-off. It all kicked off due to the Bridgestone tyres and the track breaking up in Canada many moons ago. As it was unexpected, the strategists could not plan to drive at a percentage, because the other team strategists were in the same boat.

With the teams all now knowing how the tyres will behave, rather than going flat out and accepting there will be more pit stops (that was what we had in Canada and everyone creamed in their kecks over it so good was it that day) they all decided that a game of chess was how they should play it from now on.

I don't see there is any blame to be put on Pirelli's shoulders at all.

I agree that Barcelona was underwhelming, but I genuinely enjoyed Monaco due to the circumstances. Why? Because we had something like 10 or more cars in the train, who were constantly looking for a way through. Remember Webber-Hamilton? Pérez, Sutil, Button, others. Di Resta was all over Vergne.

You can just try to imagine, how hard it is to drive defensively for the whole race and not lose focus and crash. Or even more so, how hard it is to both attack and defend and keep your nose clean in the middle of the pack. I was just enjoying the incredible skills of the racing drivers there.

I wouldn't mind if they are 3 secs off the pace if they showcase their racing skills in such ways. But I know Monaco is a unique circuit and it's not gonna work like that in the future.

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Originally Posted by jens

Because we had something like 10 or more cars in the train, who were constantly looking for a way through. Remember Webber-Hamilton? Pérez, Sutil, Button, others. Di Resta was all over Vergne.

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Sorry Jens. I disagree with this.

I never felt from Lap 3 to about 30 or whenever the stops started, that any drivers were looking for a way past. I saw it as the drivers being told by teams, that after the chaos of the first couple of laps the drivers should stay 2 seconds behind the car in front. This happened with nearly every car. 2 seconds between cars.

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Originally Posted by steveaki13

Sorry Jens. I disagree with this.

I never felt from Lap 3 to about 30 or whenever the stops started, that any drivers were looking for a way past. I saw it as the drivers being told by teams, that after the chaos of the first couple of laps the drivers should stay 2 seconds behind the car in front. This happened with nearly every car. 2 seconds between cars.

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Well, okay... You may have a point about pre-pitstop period. But even then the gaps were small. If I remember correctly, 12th car lost about 14 seconds around lap 20. And commentators were discussing, how can the leaders pit if they all get thrown into traffic.

So this was an exciting period to me as well. For how long can they nurse those supersoft tyres - do they completely go off? When to make a pitstop? Because with the field being so tight, you can easily get held up after the pitstop, yet you can't go on forever.

Sorry, but I just found the race exciting all-around. Just my mindset of finding and looking for positives and excitement in anything you can. Better than complaining and concentrating on the negative. :)

We must never forget the big picture. The most boring race I can remember was Hungary 2004. This was the one I literally couldn't watch, I switched TV channel. Compared to that Monaco 2013 was a luxury. Got to enjoy. :)

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Originally Posted by jens

Well, okay... You may have a point about pre-pitstop period. But even then the gaps were small. If I remember correctly, 12th car lost about 14 seconds around lap 20. And commentators were discussing, how can the leaders pit if they all get thrown into traffic.

So this was an exciting period to me as well. For how long can they nurse those supersoft tyres - do they completely go off? When to make a pitstop? Because with the field being so tight, you can easily get held up after the pitstop, yet you can't go on forever.

Sorry, but I just found the race exciting all-around. Just my mindset of finding and looking for positives and excitement in anything you can. Better than complaining and concentrating on the negative. :)

We must never forget the big picture. The most boring race I can remember was Hungary 2004. This was the one I literally couldn't watch, I switched TV channel. Compared to that Monaco 2013 was a luxury. Got to enjoy. :)

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Well said.

I didnt enjoy the first stint, but after that it became an interesting Monaco GP.

I normally can do the same in terms of finding most races interesting in some way. It was just it disturbed me that the teams were almost telling drivers not to try, which is different from a normal dull race, where people are trying but nothing is happening.

This first stint went beyond a dull race into something funamentally flawed

The whole race was a farce. When the Merc engineer radioed Nico that 'your pace management is good', I felt like breaking something. Seeing van der Gaarde stomp in the fastest lap would have been hilarious if it didn't expose just what a huge ridiculous mess it had been. Monaco was too much even for some of the pundits, who so far were stubborn defenders of F1's new 'show elements'. That's saying a lot and I don't think this one will go unheard even by the change alergics in the FIA bunker.

F1 is very different now to 20 years ago but change (progress??) will always happen in a technological sport.

If it were up to me, I would give each team a box that the car must fit in, a set amount of fuel that is the only fuel that can be physically added for the race and let them get on with it: KERS, solar, DRS whatever. Let them innovate.

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Originally Posted by dj_bytedisaster

The whole race was a farce. When the Merc engineer radioed Nico that 'your pace management is good', I felt like breaking something. Seeing van der Gaarde stomp in the fastest lap would have been hilarious if it didn't expose just what a huge ridiculous mess it had been. Monaco was too much even for some of the pundits, who so far were stubborn defenders of F1's new 'show elements'. That's saying a lot and I don't think this one will go unheard even by the change alergics in the FIA bunker.

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No-one was stopping the drivers and teams going 6 seconds faster than everyone else, building a massive gap, and making more stops. It is the strategists that are the problem, not the tyres.

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Originally Posted by Knock-on

F1 is very different now to 20 years ago but change (progress??) will always happen in a technological sport.

If it were up to me, I would give each team a box that the car must fit in, a set amount of fuel that is the only fuel that can be physically added for the race and let them get on with it: KERS, solar, DRS whatever. Let them innovate.

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Could they agree on the definition of a box though......? ;)

Also, with a 'set amount of fuel', you realise they will pay the likes of Shell gazillions to make their fuel much more dense.

In fact, if they could, they'd put 'moon dust stuff' in the sidepods if they thought it gained a tenth........