Is F1 Real Racing Anymore?

[steveaki13]

Anyway.

I think FIA need to think hard about where F1 will be in 10-20-50 years

If it goes "The Show" route it may suffer in 10 years

If it goes "The Sport" Route F1 will continue after us.

[BDunnell]

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.

I'm not sure Jean Todt does that. Come to think of it, I'm starting to be unsure whether he does anything.

[BDunnell]

Question. Can modern F1 truly be entertaining (excluding wet races) without artificial elements like deliberately crap tyres and DRS? I have my doubts.

[steveaki13]

Sad as it is. Thats a key question.

However if the Question was, Could modern F1 being an entertaining sport without crap tyres and DRS? Then my answer would be yes.

If those in control were willing to take some serious action to change the sport and the regulations to limit aero effects and ease restrictions.

However until F1 is willing to have the biggest reg changes for a while, nothing will change

[steveaki13]

Who would have thought I would make 3000 before Henners.

Doh

Now noticed Henners is restored to his former post glory.

Well done Henners back as you belong.

[Koz]

What we need is to bring back refueling.

[Duncan]

There's definitely a list of things that just seem completely out of place. I understand what the changes were supposed to bring about, but it just makes the whole thing artificial instead of the "balls to the wall" F1 racing that I remember from way back...

DRS: please, please get rid of this monstrosity. I just don't see the attraction. What's the point of increasing the number of overtaking maneuvers when we all know that they're fake?

T{i|y}res: Something has just gone horribly wrong with whatever the plan was here. Get rid of the "must use both compounds" rule and let t{i|y}re manufacturers compete to produce whatever they think will work best. Who knows what they'll be able to come up with?

Refueling: I understand that there's a significant safety angle here, but it just doesn't seem that unmanageable. Refueling gave the teams much more to play with in terms of strategy, and it seemed to me to be an important element of the whole race-watching experience.

In general, ugh. Something really has to change here.

[faster69]

The sport is far more exciting than 10 years ago and I'm saying that as a Schumacher fan that followed his entire F1 career.

[henners88]

Doh

Now noticed Henners is restored to his former post glory.

Well done Henners back as you belong.

I found them under my bed. They were there all along.

[zako85]

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.

I don't understand this. When a DRS-enabled pass happens, most of the time its at the end of the main straightway, so there is no way the losing driver could possibly slipstream and repass back. I also would like to mention that DRS does not always make passes trivial. There are plenty of examples. Just looks at the last Monaco race. The race track isn't that slow. The cars can still use the highest gear and hit speeds over 170mph, yet passing was so hard. There are many other examples.

Finally, DRS is not completely unfair. If you're the leading car, you can still fight and defend. For example, by keeping the following car more than a second behind. Let's be honest, if the following car is glued to the rear end the whole time, then it is the faster car, and the only reason it's behind is that the front car is blocking it in some way. Granted, there are race tracks and races where DRS made the overtakes look completely fake, but I don't remember the specific cases they were, but they exist. The system is not perfect, but it works IMHO.

I do hate the tire situation though. In my opinion there needs to be a tire supplier competition so that the tire supplier is concerned with how to complete the race in the least time possible instead of how to crease an exciting show. Once there is tire competition, the tire supplier will work closely with the leading team and will provide the tire that this team needs to win the race, however few or many pit stops this team needs. Making a tire that forces a pit stop just for the show is just wrong. I could care less about the "excitement" that this causes.