Isn't F1 a bit of a joke these days?

[lumpulus]

As far as I'm concerned...F1 has been a joke since they decided to make to many damn rules, and also went with the skiiny rear wings.

I haven't watched it since my cable company started making me pay for it, it's just not worth it anymore.

[lumpulus]

Do you remember the time when Senna and Prost are winning 15 of 16 races?
That was boring to watch.

Funny, that was my all time favorite season...and it would have been 16 out of 16 if not for a stupid backmarker.

It all boils down to who you're a fan of....Honda engines kicked butt!

[Buffalo186]

I've been following F1 for 30 years now and it is the rare year when people don't accuse it of being boring but somehow we are all still watching it. Any one remember the Jimmy Clark era or the Michael Schumacher era etc. etc.?

And just to set the record straight all cars qualified within the 107% rule with the exception of Heidfeld who had a fire on the car in practice Saturday morning and they were not able to prepare the car in time for qualifying. In that case it is up to Charlie Whiting to decide if the team can start from the back of the grid based on Friday times and the history of the team. Heidfeld was more that fast enough on Friday to start the race.

[badun]

There's too much tinkering for entertainment value, but the races are most definitely not boring. The newer tracks inhibit overtaking, but there's still plenty of action and most races have serious competition for the top spaces. Hamilton was totally up Vettel's butt today and one slip by Seb would have handed the win to McLaren. It was good stuff.

[43rdMichael]

Can't please everyone all of the time.

If the tyres lasted all race, Alonso would have "done a Villeneuve" and held off a train of cars all race. As it was, the tyres force stops that released Vet and Ham to have a great head to head. For once the DRS didn't create any artificial overtakes - hence Web's desperate attempt on Alo on the backside of the circuit.

I thought yesterday was old school, and really entertaining.

As for the rules generally, yes, too much change.... and its about to change again, with a redesign of the floors about to be required.

[Terry]

F1 is a successful money making entertainment machine! By that measure it's a roaring success and it is evolving (devolving?) year by year getting closer to it's outright goal of becoming open wheel Nascar. Some modern F1 fans at this point might be screaming "heretic" and "let the flamewar commence" after reading this , but they know without question, that the increasing FIA interference in the rules with ludicrous efforts to equalize everything from engine power, car/wing design, the course of races to ensure close finishes and plenty of action has more in common with Nascar than the rules that originally started the sport.

The sport was invented for the drivers originally, not for the constructors or any potential fanbase that may arise. The intent was to formalize an existing competition so that racing could occur. The idea that a driver of lesser ability might turn up in superior machinery and blitz the field was never taken into consideration, and if people wanted to watch it or if it was attractive enough to be televised, that was just a desirable side effect, and not relevant to the sport itself.

We are a long way from where the sport started (even a long way from the sport in the Seventies) because what matters to modern F1 is viewing figures and all the business that accompanies reaching those objectives. Advertising, making money, an ever increasing focus on the driver (rather than the manufacturer) as a spectacle. This is still a pinnacle of sorts in determining the best driver in the sport, but it is contrary to the spirit of the sport as many have grown up with and know. So soulless and contrived has the sport become, we must surely be just a few years away from Nascar style safety car periods introduced to close up the field to increase the spectacle?!

For me, the defining moment was back in 1981, when politics (of business?) chose to prevent Colin Chapman running the Lotus T88. A man that epitomised what the sport was about, walked away from Formula One to pursue other interests. People like Bernie Ecclestone rose to prominance. Great things still occurred within the sport since then, too numerous to mention, but what you won't ever see in the sport today is something like Stefan Bellof in an underpowered Tyrrell (making good use of the Ford DFY throttle response compared to all the laggy turbo's in the wet) going from dead last on the grid to third in a shortened race at Monaco in 1984 (Ballast or no ballast!).

So in response to Björn's assertion: Isn't F1 a bit of a joke these days? It all depends on how you measure it

[Orso]

I am glad to hear that racing is on, even if it is in the midfield. But I'm not sure if I would spend the $16 that the cable network wants to show the race. Plus the money they want to show the practice.

[JamesB]

Do you remember the time when Senna and Prost are winning 15 of 16 races?
That was boring to watch.

Funny, that was my all time favorite season...and it would have been 16 out of 16 if not for a stupid backmarker.

It all boils down to who you're a fan of....Honda engines kicked butt!

HAHAH! Lumpy, obviously the Honda bias counts, as you do admit! but I agree, the fact of being a domination of same team did not detract great deal of interest: it was a true faight between to great talents. Everything was more or less clear: Senna was superb on HIS tracks, Prost was on HIS too. So when Senna did a "break" it was noticeable.
Fight was similar to Roberts/Spencer in 1983 or Rainey/Lawson in 1989. Classics.
I don't exactly know what it takes to have quality on a show but for me, not what we saw yesterday.
I explained my viesw to my wife: I put all the small stuff we had on the table: salt expenders, oil bottles, glasses, etc, in a queue. Then I said imagine you change the order (pitstops) so you hardly realize what the order is. When you have them agin. more or less, as they were, you start over. So you get a rough idea of what's happening. Then you repeat the process some 4 times. Add to that the fat that when tyres are done, there's nothing left to do.
4 or 5 pitstops. I didn't know if I was watching F1 or expending the afternoon at tye local tyre shop...

[skinny.852]

1. If you can avoid the results just download the race. Save money (and saved me waking up at 5am today).

2. Like all sports F1 has become extremely commercial, overly professional and with fewer unexpected outcomes. It means increased safety for drivers, teams have huge staffs to ensure car reliability, access to watch the races has grown and yet the drama seems to have disappeared a little (WAY too many pit stops). Yet, when Alonso went screaming into the lead on the first turn I was jumping up and down. F1, as with all sports, may not be what it once was but it still holds nuggets of entertainment.

[Habu12]

I get automatic updates on my phone, so I keep track that way. And then I DL the race later.