[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EzAA_4XNiA&feature=related[/ame] What a fantastic race that was. The V10s still bring a smile to my face. Also made me think about what the difference is between liking a driver and being a huge supporter. I like Vettel, but last week I was jumping up and down for glory with Kimi...Only Schumacher and Kimi I support that much I think!
Imagine that, actually passing, in the rain, without DRS, push to pass, etc... You're right, the good old days, good looking cars too.
Even though the 'wrong team' won that battle, racing then was equally about car and driver superiority. Bernie's new sterile formula has leveled the playing field by making driver kill negligible. It's all about the car and, most importantly, the sprinkler-influenced Pirellis.
The 'true' good old days, just imo, are when the driver had no safety factors from the ecu or for the chassis but had 1000hp at their disposal with adjustable boost.
I think that was from Mika's second WDC season, I believe. The McLaren was simply a better car that season. F1 just feels more controlled, more contrived now. It probably was back then also, but it seems more overt these days. From moving from historic circuits to tracks heavyily influenced by new money nations to the budget restrictions on teams, and the car and tire specs, Bernie has made it all about 'the show' instead of the 'pinnacle of motor racing'. Bring back the days of the best drivers driving for the best manufacturers.
The 2001 Malaysian GP race was definitely one of the best races i watched. Both Ferraris fell from 1-2 to 12-13 i think, and recovered to 1-2 again. The problem i think we're facing with lack of overtaking is the influence of aero, as well as the lack of power from the engines. The V10s revved at 19,000+ rpms, had about 900-1000 bhp. Whereas the V8s we have now revs at just 16k rpms i think. That's why we need the use of DRS and all. Oh, i'm not quite a fan of the tyres as well. .
Oh and i forgot to add. Testing was allowed, and teams used up to 200 engines per season (i read somewhere, can't recall where, i remember the article specifically naming Mclaren). One team brought 3-4 cars to each race. Gearboxes were unlimited. The teams had qualifying engines, and switched to race engines for raceday..
18000RPM for the V8s . BMW made their engine rev to 20000 (!!!) with the V10s. I think after a while the teams really started to understand what aero could do. Look at the 2002 season...all cars still had the high sidepods etc, mainly because the radiators where vertical. Ferrari was the only team to put them sideways, thus lowering the sidepods and COG lower. The car completely ran away. Since then it's been an ever increasing battle of the aerodynamicists. Very little we can do about that, it's not like we can make them unlearn their knowledge . Only thing I can think of is the car is allowed to produce X amount of downforce in an FIA mandated wind tunnel.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VJCBXbL8_w&feature=relmfu[/ame] only part 11 missing unfortunately; 1998 season review. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaTQrGuf_BQ&feature=related[/ame] 3 hours almost, 1995 review!