intensity level: medium *SPOILER*

snore of a race

 

"There was definitely some gut wrenching, most notably in T2 with Alonso taking P2 and then later when Vettel's car failed. And a moderate level of overtaking, but perhaps only 1 or 2 passes that I would call contested. I just don't feel as excited about the season as I thought I would, as far as the "racing" is concerned. (OTOH I am enthusiastic about how the WDC will play out. A great start so far.)"


Yep.

 

I've been watching F1 since I was 15- I'm 32 now. It seems my interest wanes a little more each year. I can't believe I'm saying this but I look forward to the NASCAR races more.

 

Medium to high for me since it was race 1. Drivers should be talking about how to win and go faster, not slow down, save the tires/motor. This will not be a formula for success in the long run at all. Check this out from Martin Whitmarsh on PlanetF1.com-


Whitmash: Today was not the best show

Sunday 14th March 2010

It was supposed to be the start of the greatest season in Formula One, but sadly for a lot of people the Bahrain Grand Prix was a bit of a letdown.

In an attempt to spice things up this year F1's rule makers decided to ban in-race refuelling, but if the first race is anything to go by, then we could be in for another boring season.

Michael Schumacher admitted after the season opener was a bit dull.

"It's the start and then after it is just sort of go your pace and not do mistakes," he said BBC.

Lewis Hamilton, who finished third, echoed his comments. "It is a different challenge," he said. "It definitely didn't make the racing more exciting in terms of overtaking. I wasn't able to follow in the first third of the circuit."

Hamilton's boss at McLaren Martin Whitmarsh admitted the race wasn't very entertaining and says more needs to be done to keep people tuned in.

"Formula 1 has to be entertaining, people have to be switched on to what is going to happen in the race, if it's processional they are not going to be," he told BBC. "Today was not the best show, we know that and we have all got to work together to improve it.

"I personally believe that more challenging tyres will help the spectacle of the show. I also personally believe that we should have two stops mandated because we want to stop this. Today, if we had had a safety car on lap five, we'd have all piled in [to the pits] and we'd have all gone on the prime tyre and run to lap 49 without a stop. That was a real danger.

"I think that the tyres are allowing you to do that, I'm not trying to pass the blame [on to Bridgestone]. We are all in this together.

"We do need to look at mandatings stops, we do need to look at the tyres and make them more fragile, and we do need to work on making the cars capable of racing close together and easier to overtake."

 

I miss refueling. 2 second pit stops do nothing for me. Last year's pit stop and fueling strategies could add some signficant jumps up and down the running order.

I think qualifying now is actually more interesting and probably more important to determining who's eventually going to win than last year. If that's so, it's a step backwards.

My big problem with F1 is that it's overregulated and becoming more and more of a spec series.

The cars look similar, the engines are "frozen", tires are spec'd as is the regulation on how often they are used (I really do not understand WHY they have to use both hard and soft during a race -- why not let the engineers decide what is best?), and most of the new tracks are just plain boring.

I'd like to see more freedom in the design and engineering, along with either a redesign of the boring tracks or their removal from the season.

Is it better to have a bunch of boring races or fewer more interesting ones? I vote the latter.

 

Qualifying is a problem too with the actual tyre rule.

They need to qualify without burning their tyres, wich is a fake empty-qualify.

 

This was one of the most boring races I can remember.

I have little interest in seeing F1 cars compete to see who can make their tires and fuel last the longest.

Without refueling, tires become the critical factor, which gives every driver incentive to go easy lest they pay the penalty of 25 seconds for a pit stop. You can be a second slower per lap before it makes it worth it to come in and change tires.

Bad, bad rule change - needs changed back ASAP.

There was little passing before, will be even less now.

 

One pass for P2 and a manifold problem on a track with a new section already in need of a do-over....


Qualifying was more exciting than the race.

 

Meanwhile, everyone is talking about how thrilling the Indy Car race in Brazil was today....just because F1 is the 'pinnacle' of racing, doesn't make it entertaining.

 

All the cars should've been green. then at least it would've been a pretty great st. patty's day parade...

 

The stupid changes made to the track from last year were of no help at all.

 

The results were good, the way it was achieved well there is loads of room for improvement as I posted in the race thread, is this boring.

 

+1

And not to mention the new section isn't even smooth! When the race now comes
down to tire strategy, you'd think they would have made an effort to smooth all
that chop on the one right corner in the new section.

Jedi

 

+1 trying to finish off the shoeys neck with the bumps as well.

 

About 2 weeks ago my wife posted on facebook that she was really excited about the upcoming F1 season. That was huge to me (she's not a car nut).
We had folks over to watch, had a good time. At the end, she said "that race was boring. Those changes are stupid."
If my WIFE gets it, why doesn't the FIA?
If she gets bored and quits watching I am really going to be pissed.

 

F1's motto is 1 step forward, 10 steps back.

 

qualifying is definitely more crucial than it was last year. if you figure that teams only made one pit stop today and it is a long fast track then you have to think that they will likely only make one pit stop at nearly every race. so this multiplies the importance of qualifying.the only consideration is when to push and when to save the tires.so a smooth relaxed driver will have an advantage. i think refuelling will be back soon when the powers realize that their new rules will make it more of a parade than it already was.

 

Yup. Sadly it looks like it's another processional season.

 

While I liked the results, the race itself was quite boring.

 

The race was a major snoozefest. After the race, JB said that he looked after his tires too much and could've gone for it much more. Whitmarsh is now saying that 1-stop strategy is really easy because even the super-soft isn't showing much sign of degradation, so much so that two-stops should be forced by the FIA to improve the show along with grippier but shorter lasting tires from Bridgestone. I hope JB's case was the same for others too and now that they know how well these last, more drivers will be aggressive about passing.

These Tilke circuits do suck.

 

I'm sure many of you have had the experience of trying to introduce a friend or family member to F1, but if it cant keep an avid fans attention how do they expect it to pull in new viewers.

My friend is in town and I had the race on and he could not wait to change the channel.
Desert procession does not make for good viewing

 

Seems like all the technology has taken away a lot of the excitement. Not unlike "nanny's" on today's modern cars. Watch for the FIA to start tweaking things to try to shake things up. My guess is people will be losing interest especially as they try to turn it more into a circus.

 

When the cameraman spends more time covering the battle between the last 3 teams on the grid than the first three teams (which seemed to happen in the first 10 minutes of the race until most fell out of the race), you know something is wrong.