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Why I've stopped caring...

You may have noticed me disappearing recently, some of you maybe haven't, but the truth of the matter is that I find F1 mind-numbingly boring these days and simply don't have much to add to the discussion.

I can't even tell you which was the last race I watched start to finish. If somebody tells me on a Sunday afternoon that Alonso won a race, I utter "good boy" but that's about the height of the excitement I can muster up for Formula 1 these days.

Here's why (and let's take the fact of no-Minardi as a given):

The cars are too reliable.
Back in the day you could lead the race for many laps and all of a sudden your car went out on the last lap with a big plume of smoke billowing from your exhaust. Game over. Rarely happens anymore. 18, sometimes even 20 finishers is the norm these days. It takes a mighty monsoon to shake up the field a little bit and these days that just means the safety car will come out and guide the whole field safely through it.

The drivers are bland as tapioca.
Lewis Hamilton is young, successful, rich and dates a sexy pop starlet. Yet I've seen librarians with more personality. It's even a bit unfair to single him out as most of them lack personality that would make me care about them in either way. I'd never thought I could one day say this but I miss Eddie Irvine.

The gizmos are a joke
All the little gadgets, the floppy flaps, the battery boosts etc are reminiscent of some naff computer game. People in here laughed about other race series trying such things out (A1GP, Cart etc) and now F1 is full of them. Vettel still has three kers boosts left and can lower his rear wing 4 times... if he collects 7 coins in the next lap he will get a gold star which he can trade for a magical potion during his next pitstop.

No testing
Yes I know it's a cost issue but the fact that there's no testing has made F1 even more boring. It's virtually impossible for teams to catch up or for new drivers to enter during the season. Just look at poor Luca Badoer. Things like Mansell coming in for a few races with Williams in 1994 and walking away with victory are impossible now.

No refuelling
I have no idea why they banned refuelling. In the past there was always something wrong with those fuel nozzles and that made the pit procedure a roulette, i.e. less predictable. Yet another little factor that makes F1 bland.

I don't care about the Tajikistan GP
I still can't get over it that they've knocked Imola off the calendar, what a waste! Hockenheim had it coming when they completely ruined the track in the revamp but still it's a shame that increasingly F1 is taken to places where people couldn't care less about it (like Turkey) or to tracks that are too bombastic even for the global spectacle that is F1 (Shanghai).

Hence excuse my lack of participation these days for the reasons listed above.

Comments

  • hi RJ, on the contrary I am finding Formula One unpredictable after years of predictability.
    1. Schumacher is not winning every race
    2. Red Bull superiority has decreased
    3. Lots of overtakings
    4. Tyres - playing part of the game
  • A Farce. Fun, crazy, but a farce.
  • RJ, I agree that the cars are too reliable, the drivers are bland. Really can't remember the last time I listened to the post-race press conference. I miss refueling and testing also.

    The unpredictability of the engines and refueling problems would add more to the show. The tyres are doing a good job of changing predictability but I think the changeable weather has done more.

    Neil brings up good points about no more Schumacher domination and Red Bull struggling, though Vettel's lead is fairly good and without much reliability issues I don't see him losing much ground.

    While there is more passing it does feel a bit artificial with the gizmos but for years people have been complaining about no passing so I can live with it but I think the gizmos still need some tweaking.

    For the time being I will still be watching.
  • i didn't even notice the schumacher domination, i was too busy checking the results from 10 on downwards :-)
  • RJ: disagree on refuelling (bloody dangerous) but profoundly agree with this:

    "All the little gadgets, the floppy flaps, the battery boosts etc are reminiscent of some naff computer game. People in here laughed about other race series trying such things out (A1GP, Cart etc) and now F1 is full of them."

    The degradable tyres are all we need for great GRAND PRIX racing - as opposed to the three sprints we had in the refuelling era.

    I am enjoying the season in spite of DRS and KERS.
  • RJ, I fully agree with you that drivers are totally unpersonal and bland, probably now the ones having most personality are Ferdy and Webbo, that are nothing compared to Jacques Villeneuve or Juan Pablo Montoya, let alone Piquet, Prost, Mansell, Senna, Alesi, Berger, Alboreto......

    And the gizmos being a real joke and making it fully artificial, is undoubtedly true.
    As well, it is true for sure that refuelling 1) was dangerous, as correctly pointed out by viges, and 2) made it no less artificial, with strategy dominating the field and overtakings happening only at the pits.

    This said, considering that we cannot have anymore the aerodynamics on the '70s and '80s, and that Niki lauda, Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet, Keke Rosberg & Co. are retired forever, I think this is the best we can get, plus anyway Clelis, Ferdy, Seb, together with Jense and Mark, and Nico and (if he can come back) Kubica, are a great combination on the track all together. So, I would anyway say that I prefer this to championships like 2006, 2007 or 2008, that were thrilling till the end but saw all surpasses happening at the pitlane, and especially to championships like 2001, 2002 and 2004, when M$ was on pole and you started watching the race knowing already that after 10 laps he would have had a 16 sec gap..... If I were in Belgium, i would invite you a night in my flat to watch a dvd with a GP from 2002 or 2004, perhaps a few years have elapsed and you can't really remember them.

    I agree with you that at that time there was Minardi, but that's all another story!

    So, all in all, I'm glad to see some races with surpasses, although artificial.
  • Even though I agree with you RJ. You have to admit that without Sebastian Vettel we would have a killer season. I decided two races ago that I was going to act as if the man wasn't even in the championship. And what do you think? Promptly those races were won by Jenson Button ;). You need to make it enjoyable for yourself and if that means Sebastian... what's his name... isn't racing, that's it.

    Jenson Button is leading the championship with 185 points and I'm loving it. :)
  • Nice idea Stan, probably should have done that for the Shumi years too.
  • haha stan, maybe i should give it a try ;-)
  • I'm sick of hearing "that's what I'm talking about".

    Have I missed something? WTF were they talking about???
  • Dreadful colloquialisms from the American colonies, don't you know... Bracketed with the ubiquitous 'I'm really liking that', 'doing good', 'shut UP', etcetera

    PS The learned Dr Wikipedia reveals the following:
    'That's What I'm Talking About' is the debut album by Australian singer Shannon Noll, released on 8 February 2004'
    [i.e. you lot down there aren't helping at all]

    and the Urban dictionary:
    This phrase can be heard in a recording of the (ca.) 1929 Fats Waller song "The Joint is Jumping".
    "Get rid of that pistol, yeah, get rid of it... yeah... ha ha... that's what I'm talking about..."
  • who's talking about what?
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