The Ruining of F1

[Roamy]

I have been to many F1 races in my lifetime including several Euro countries.
Now they only get 8 engines for the season and so everyone sits in the garage so save mileage. Next year they will eliminate friday's. I for one may never attend another GP as it has become sooooooooo Mickey Mouse. Pretty soon you will have one test session - 1 qual - 1 race - done. A far cry from fri sat qual. But I guess as long as they get their money they could care less.

[dj_bytedisaster]

I have been to many F1 races in my lifetime including several Euro countries.
Now they only get 8 engines for the season and so everyone sits in the garage so save mileage. Next year they will eliminate friday's. I for one may never attend another GP as it has become sooooooooo Mickey Mouse. Pretty soon you will have one test session - 1 qual - 1 race - done. A far cry from fri sat qual. But I guess as long as they get their money they could care less.

At least for this year the friday in fact becomes vitally important. With no testing allowed all season, the friday is the only opportunity to test some new components. And if the two practices of today are anything to go by, the usual suspects (Ferrari, McLaren, BMW) have quite a lot they need to improve.

But on the other hand I'm with you. Midget-Bernie and Sadomaso-Max are pretty much driving the final nail into F1's coffin. For a starter the cars are mindbogglingly ugly - in fact they take ugly to a whole new level. Don't let your kids watch F1 - they will not only be scared, they'll also vomit explosively all over your dining room carpet.
Lets just pretend the new rules work, so the uglieness at least serves a purpose, but I see quite a few flaws with that :

a) Those traytable front wings for instance. I'm hard pressed to believe that more than 50% of them will still be in place after the first lap of the race. I mean they are designed to improve overtaking, which usually involves close wheel-to-wheel racing - aint gonna happen with these things on - get close to a rival and you'll undress your ride.

b) The tires. The Bridgestone folk seem to have degraded into a bunch of dribbling half-wits. None of the tires worked today. Just two gems from today's onboard soundbites on BBC in the 2nd free practice :

Kubica: "It's undriveable, I'm not driving the car, *it* is driving me. I'm just sliding all over the place."
BMW: *silence*

Sutil: "I think there's something wrong with the car. It's totally undriveable"
Engineer: " 'fraid that's what the tires are going to be."

So how are we going to see more overtaking, when the best drivers in the world are having a hard time getting around the track on their own? Anybody seen the Ferraris in the last 15 minutes? They were all over the place for pete's sake.

Well, Mosley's better off scouting some hookers and having them whoop is arse, so he's far enough away from the chance to ruin F1 even more and the Midget, well just send him off to a pensioneers home.

[AndyRAC]

While costs have run out of control - I don't like the idea of a spec series, which is what it is increasingly looking like. And don't get me started on control tyres. The anti-Michelin stance is wrong (a mistake in 1 race Indy 2005).
Surely the whole idea of F1 is to show off the latest technology and be innovative - sadly , it seems this is no longer allowed.

[Mark]

The drivers never like the cars they are given, but they have to get on with it! That's what seperates the good from the great.

[wedge]

I have been to many F1 races in my lifetime including several Euro countries.
Now they only get 8 engines for the season and so everyone sits in the garage so save mileage. Next year they will eliminate friday's. I for one may never attend another GP as it has become sooooooooo Mickey Mouse. Pretty soon you will have one test session - 1 qual - 1 race - done. A far cry from fri sat qual. But I guess as long as they get their money they could care less.

How it should be.

The less predictable it is the better the racing.

[V12]

Agree on the tyres thing - as far as I perceived it Michelin were driven out of the sport for political reasons after "Indygate", disgusting. As it is Bridgestone pretty much have licence to do what they want, whereas Michelin's involvement not only gave us some exciting unpredictable races but also means competitiors keep each other on their toes. Any problem with BS's BS is going to be a case of F1 lying in the bed it's made for itself I'm afraid.

I think a sensible trade-off from the testing ban would have been to allow free running on Fridays, whereby the engine and and tyre allocations are unaffected - basically like a test at a Grand Prix. At least this way these "testing" sessions would make Fridays more meaningful and add to the spectacle for the fans at the track.

[ioan]

Agree on the tyres thing - as far as I perceived it Michelin were driven out of the sport for political reasons after "Indygate", disgusting. As it is Bridgestone pretty much have licence to do what they want, whereas Michelin's involvement not only gave us some exciting unpredictable races but also means competitiors keep each other on their toes. Any problem with BS's BS is going to be a case of F1 lying in the bed it's made for itself I'm afraid.

I do not agree with your views about Michelin being thrown out of F1 for political reasons.
One of them had to go because the tire war was almost as costly as the aero development!

The FIA put up a tender and if I'm not wrong Michelin decided on their own to live F1 1 year before the change to only one manufacturer was going to happen.

Also who in their right mind would have chosen as unique tire manufacturer the one that failed to do their job?!

[Shifter]

Overtaking is not a single form. Take a look back at Kimi's pass on Fisichella at Suzuka. He applied pressure, Fisi blocked and compromised his run, and Kimi got the drop on him into turn 1. It was like war, like a chess match. I fear that now, though there will be more overtaking, it will simply be because a driver made a mistake while trying to deal with the new car and the other went slower and didn't make a mistake.

The proof will be in the pudding. Let's see how the first 2-3 races go down.

[wedge]

Overtaking is overtaking. It's easy to discredit manoeuvres in most cases because there's a reason to it eg. Mansell passed Piquet at Silverstone in '87 because Mansell changed tyres and Piquet didn't; Jacques Villeneuve passed Schumi on the outside of Parabolica at Estoril '97 because Schumi was baulked by a backmarker; Alonso passed Schumi on the outside into 130R at Suzuka '05 because Alonso blatantly had the faster car, the list is endless.

At a given time and place you have to make the most of the situation given.

[DexDexter]

I'm tired of all this complaining, whatever happens people always complain how things were better before changes, come to think of it F1 was best when it started in 1950 because there weren't any good old days to long for. When people get older, they oppose everything that upsets their personal status quo. The points system is a different matter, however .