I'm curious what level of interest you all have in F-1 so I posted this poll.
It's my favorite thing to watch on TV all year. I do my best to watch every race but usually catch the reruns at night. I love Ferrari but I hate early mornings especially on Sunday.
Well, I watch them all and have for several seasons (thanks, TIVO), but I can't say that I like F1 racing. I just can't seem to get into a series in which races with few competitive passes are considered interesting.
THE most important thing for me to watch on the telly. Also have made it a rule to visit one GP per year in person.
Hehe, that's the only way of watching! What I don't understand are Ferrari owners who don't care about F1. I just don't understand it. Beyond me.
Simple. F1 is a spectacle, but it's not racing. Period. WRC, Rolex Series, AMLS, NASCAR, those are racing series. And no, I'm not ignorant of F1. Yes, I know about pit strategies, the personalities, drag vs. downforce, etc. I even won the Fantasy F1 this past year, so I do pay attention. I've given it a fair shot for the past few years, but most of the races are just flat out boring.
You would be surprised how many there are who don't give a damn. It is shocking. I realized that during a club event where many people not only didn't bother to watch the race (which was on a few hours before the event), many of them didn't even know about it. Sad but true.
First I got all confused about your statement, but once I realized you call NASCAR a racing series I decided to just let it go. Apparently we live in two different galaxies.
Interesting. IMO, the past few years F1 has been terrific. For some years before that, I'll agree it was boring, but '02 and '03 I thought were real classics, and I've been a serious F1 fan since the late '50's. Gary
Good to hear. I would have loved seeing those very old races! Wow! I'm too young to remember any classic forhgt though. I didn't even see Senna drive a live race.
I have F1 programmed in my TIVO so I get to watch everything that comes on that has F1 init's title or description, which is scores of shows per week.
Never miss a race intentionally. I started as a Ferrari (and Alfa) fan with Niki Lauda in the 70s in high school Often have watched over the past 7 years with my now 11 yo daughter who is the only M. Schumacher fan in her 6th grade class where the boys are all NASCAR...
Racing should include (indeed, is almost defined by) ON-TRACK competitive passing. There's so very little of that in F1 that there's a person in rec.auto.sports.f1 that actually keeps track of the on-track passes within a race, and rarely has to get into double digits. Now, vintage F1 footage is interesting. I blame the aerodynamics and the automation. Cut the wings to half the size, put the slicks back on, and get rid of traction control, paddle shifters and (almost) automatic transmissions, and it might become interesting again. They can't close in on the car ahead because of the loss of downforce on the front of the car, and right now there's almost no chance of someone missing a shift into/out of a corner, or being able to outbrake someone else. The cars are amazing, the drivers are awesome, but the event is simply a high speed parade. I'm just waiting for someone to cut a slot in the middle of the track and add magnets to the cars to complete the transition.
I've been a F1 fan for over thirty years. And a Ferrari fan for only 15 years. Yup, I got the Ferrari bug through F1. Not vice versa. And actually during a time they weren't even winning.
i used to watch F1 for a couple of years from 97 i think, i was always cheering for Eddie Irvine at ferrari,He almost won the chanpionship as well (i realy wish he had done it over Shuey) When Eddie left Ferrari and Veilnerve got a crap ride i stoped watching. My dream team Ervine and Veilnerve at Ferrari.
I never miss a race! Our FCA region has a viewing party (either live or tape delayed) at a local Pizza Pub to watch the F1 races in Seattle and the Ferrari dealer in Portland has a viewing party at their dealership on Tuesday nights following the race.
I don't miss a race. As for those who complain there isn't enough passing: that's a valid point, BUT....... F1 is about the actual race itself, but it's about so much more than that. For me, F1 races are all about the subtle nuances. The technological miracles being driven on the track are awe inspiring. From the motors to the gearboxes, to the use of crazy materials, aerodynamics, innovations, etc etc etc. The talent of the drivers, being to extract (or not being able to extract) the maximum out of the car, given it's good and bad characteristics. The tire war. The efficiency of the pit teams. The intrigue of seeing if the fuel delivery systems are working properly. I can go on and on and on. What I'm getting at is this: F1 is not simply about going round and round with cars bumping into each other. For that, you can watch Australian Supercars, the German Touring series, the WRC, all awesome series. Heck, you can even watch Nascar (nahhhh).
I have seen every single race since 1987. I have the '88, '89, and '90 season on tape, and still enjoy pulling out one of those tapes at random, and watching again. I have also seen 8 races live, all in Montreal (up to and including the year that Senna was killed) Definitely my favorite sport.