Why, I find the midfield quite good this season? Apart from Red Bull at the front, the order of pretty much every other team seems to change race by race.
Your 50 years includes both the Ferrari/Schumacher and Merc/Hamilton dominance. I don’t think all of those had as much going on in the rest of the field, so why where they more interesting? I’m genuinely curious.
I totally agree with you. If they don’t radically modify the track limits it is not possible to race on that circuit with the F1.
Totally agree. Lewis made me laugh, again, saying next years cars should not be worked on until August, because Red Bull have started work on theirs because this years is so good and everyone playing is catch up. Funny he kept quiet in his 7 years of a dominant car.
Watched the indycar last night and have to say very enjoyable, great circuit with no track infringements because surround by a small kerb and then grass, quite basic really.
If I were answering that question (and I agree with @Collywobbles on this), I would list:
1- Notwithstanding all the F1 newsflow about car redesigns and new reg’s to ensure cars stand a better chance of overtaking, in reality (IMHO) not much has changed and we continue, by & large, with Noah’s Ark results, and a dominant team. A cross in that box for me.
2- The cars have got bigger and bigger, driven by the technocrats wanting more speed and aero to go with, such they no longer ‘fit’ on many legacy tracks, with corners having to be adjusted to suit the new ‘lines’ taken, in the process removing jeopardy for the drivers, with the trump card of safety played to this end. On the other side, the various street circuits offer little overtaking opportunity and elevate the level of danger so much that crashes and comings-together are inevitable, with VSCs and full SC’s distorting a race, along with the weird concept of getting ‘cheap/free pitstops’!
Roll DRS in to this, another construct to address aero dominance and effects on following cars, noting how many ‘DRS trains’ form, where is the outright competitiveness?
3- the integrity of F1 - kudos to the FIA for another muck-up of major proportions in trying to levy time penalties on TL offenders! You could see this coming a mile off, when there was no physical barrier to stop the drivers going ‘over the line’. I’m sure the various broadcasters were delighted to announce only preliminary results at the end of their slots – tune in at midnight for the official results!
You can argue the midfield battles between the Mercs, the Alpine of Alonso and the Macs are exciting but compared to other motor racing it’s all now a snore-fest. To cap it all, there’s Sainz complaining of being intimidated, when he was driving a car the size of a Transit van on one of the worst tracks for overtaking in F1 (there’s a long list of these). Pathetic doesn’t come close.
In much fewer words, F1 has now become ‘all about the show, less about the go’, with several prima donna drivers sprinkled in too.
With ref to your comments on size:
Agree with much of the above.
Smaller cars. Wing at the front, wing at the back. Two elements max. on each. No other wings, winglets, fences between the two. Muck about with the inlets, outlets, mirrors, air box and underfloor as much as you like but smooth skin only between the wheels otherwise.
Heresy I know, but is it time to limit speed? Max power, torque, and efficiency, but is speed too fast to be useful on these circuits?
IMHO, it’s all to do with size = more aero, albeit recognising the issue of more frontal crash protection, but this would, in part, be balanced out by removing so many minor front-wing collisions, which often blight races.
Smaller = slower (if not reduce the PUs), letting the cars dice and compete with more space. IIRC, T4 at the RBR is notorious for having a tight turn-in, with the natural line of allowing the car to run out to the kerb. Many F1 drivers agree it isn’t a place for overtaking, yet the ‘new rules’ about overlapping cars et al mean 2 cars can now enter together (level/just about) and the inside car must allow a car’s width through the corner. As LH and LN have both remarked akin to ‘where do they expect me to go!’ (from the inside line). Of course, some attempting to go around the outside have ended up in the gravel – and then bleated about it!
I don’t think limiting speed/power is the solution – that may just up the ante on power-units and manufacturers.
Lets’ face it, F1 has just become another piece of overhyped, technicolor bright, global sporting commerce. It’s been going that way more and more for 40 years now and I can’t help but feel that Disneyfied levels of saturation and silliness have been reached.
I really am not as bothered as I used be, even compared to just a few years back.
I find that most weekends F2 and F3 races are much more fun and although they are typically part of their own circus for only a short period, becoming familiar with the drivers boosts interest levels further. Just like F1 or other ‘sports’.
I’m comfortable with it carrying on, as there’s little doubt that the vast sums of money spent does attract talented engineers and designers and these people, their ideas and the manufacturers and sponsors money will continue make a difference to our everyday, monochromatic by comparison lives. But sport? Nah, not really.
Well put. For me, WSBK and the MotoGP racing offer far more entertainment and drama. Further, the elite riders are very respectful towards each other, especially in WSBK. They have an infectious joy for their sport and recognise each other’s abilities and how they rely on others for safety and considered riding.
You make a few good points in general, but I don’t think you really argue why this season is the least interesting in 50 years. Most of your points are fair, I certainly agree with most of them, but they do apply to at least the last couple of seasons if not more. And even then, this season might be a fluke, but the racing is relatively good. Overall perhaps even better than last season I’d say, unless you’re only focussing on the top spot.
I’m crap at remembering exact years, but I’m sure there have been a few seasons with much worse racing than this year in that time frame, and I’ve only really seriously watched since the early 2000’s. That leaves another 2 and a half decades for @Collywobbles to dig through.
If you’ve only been watching since c.2000, you will not appreciate the vast changes which have occurred, many for the better vis safety (e.g. no more barmy refuelling rigs), but many for the worse when it comes to outright competition and the now severe barriers to entry in the sport. I’d encourage you go read-up on Hesketh Racing and some other privateers who mixed-it with the major manufacturers back in the 1970s. After this, one looks to the likes of Jordan, Benetton and others.
Of course, back in the 1960s and 70s, many lives were lost, as neither the cars or the tracks (hay bales used for bank protection) majored on safety. Often, it was literally seat of the pants stuff.
Today, as @Jamiewednesday neatly summarises, it’s become a show, with so much noise around extraneous matters (including politics), obviously often amplified by the likes of Sky and the media in general, as they have content to promote and fill. When people watch things like ‘Drive to Survive’, what do they expect to see behind the scenes? It ain’t a vicar’s tea party, it’s now become very big business, with massive budgets yet, seemingly, with an amateurish (some say corrupt) governing body in the FIA.
The focus on the racing has been relegated to a smaller part of the show IMHO, with continual bleat-fests about the cars, the drivers complaining about virtually everything, the tracks, the FIA and others besides. If you want to see truly competitive motor racing there are other avenues to explore e.g. Moto3, where’s often more overtaking in one lap than there is in a whole F1 race.
@HappyListener Again, I don’t disagree with your points. But that was not what I or @Collywobbles were talking about.
But then, to my mind, you start listing general problems with F1. How it’s generally gotten worse in some respects and why. What I don’t see is arguments why this particular season is less interesting compared to all of the 49 preceding ones.
I’m not saying F1 is in a great state, but am saying that there definitely have been less interesting seasons in the last 20 years to my mind. Even if perhaps the general state was better. Even if there’s a general trend, it could be a fluke to “randomly” have a more or less interesting season. Which I’m sure has happened and will happen. Even with no rule changes whatsoever no two seasons will be equal.
Not relevant. I have seen 20+ seasons, which included seasons (to me) less interesting than the current one. If you have seen 30 more there’s a bigger likelihood (not guarantee of course) you’ve seen more such seasons.
Sorry - but you appear to want a forensic answer to a broad observation, and we’ve been here before with your exchanges. No more from me.
Everyone has to start a hobby somewhere. Some of us are seasoned Naim owners, others, like myself, have a few years under the belt. Same with Formula 1.
I am also sure that anyone who has followed anything for more than a decade or two will be confronted with changes as the world and the hobby itself evolves, for whatever reason. And it may lead to a point where one stops enjoying said hobby.
But wow, the general negativity of this thread. Perhaps there can be a “Reminisce over F1” thread as well where these grievances can be better vented? I mean we are witnessing the next F1 great in the peak of his performance, we are seeing history that the next generation of fans will talk about.
The one thing, though, is that I finally ended up going back to the pre-Verstappen era here in threads up to the first half of 2021 and what I see there are good friendly discussions about how good Hamilton is, what tyres the Ferarri was using, historical things that happened on the day and general good banter. Exactly the kind of stuff I, as a relatively new F1 fan and a lover of Naim, to participate in on the forum I like coming to as a non UK fan of the brand.
So I have an honest question. Has F1 really become unwatchable and close to a dying sport (as some say) in 2.5 years? Or is it really exacerbated cause a certain driver is doing better than another one?
I don’t think it is because of the certain driver, however unpleasant he can be at times. We have had plenty of unpleasant drivers on track.
I think it is since the American buy out, or Bernie taking the money and running. The Financials are now the only thing that matters apparently. If the racing suffers who cares. If the ‘show’ starts to lose audience figures then things may change, otherwise I can’t see anything improving in the short term for the actual racing.
Yeah OK, even me and my wife have rolled our eyes about some of the shenanigans that have found its way in the pre and post race. So fair enough there.
But as far as I could figure out the entire drive of getting the American market as well was to bolster the fanbase and income.
But what would have changed in the racing itself since that happened?
As far as all the track limits in 2021 many folks were calling for the FIA to adhere more to track limits and the rules and apply it for each driver, especially after Abu Dhabi. Now they are doing just that?
I’m not sure it was ever about increasing the fanbase, other than to raise income for the business model. The American market for F1 was, and continues to be, largely untapped so huge potential there.
Guess that is what I meant and it will lead to a netto increase in fanbase unless everyone this side abandons the sport 
Can’t they introduce cheerleaders to make it more attractive for them? Some show just before the race start or so.