Unpredictable outcome That's my biggest gripe with the past 4 years of F1 (as well as with the boring years of 2000-2004): When you know ahead of the race who will win it and where the rest of the grid will end, it just is not interesting. Melbourne was the first race I actually watched from start to finish again in a long time. The last couple of years I often taped races and fast forwarded through them because it was clear after qualifying that we would see just another Vettel win (as it was when Ferrari/MS dominated). With all new engine technology and reliability at new lows, anything is possible. People expected Hamilton to walk it home, but that didn't happen. While Nico was leading there was a very good chance that his MB would DNF just as easily. Aside from that many fights for positions in the midfield. And the new engine technology is simply the coolest I've seen in a long time. I was watching a TopGear episode yesterday where the Hamster drives the Porsche 918 around Abu Dhabi and it is simply mind blowing. THIS is the future: Powerful turbo engines assisted with electric motors for low speed torque out of the corners. Precisely what F1 is doing. These hybrids might squelch some of the complaints from the greenies (not that I cared) but they really are a step forward in racing technology: You add the electric motors not to primarily safe fuel (as in a Prius) but to assist in low torque moments to go faster.
Post of the season here folks. So very correct on all points. Anything can and probably will. I haven't been so excited to watch a race start to finish since Michael qualified pole at Monaco 2012.
Here's my problem with the electric motors, they're a gimmick. With the weight of the generator, motor, and batteries, there's no real benefit. It's mandated engineering. The engineers have to OVERCOME the penalty of carrying all this equipment. They're not including these systems because they want to. Mark
Wrong, energy recovery and assist is not required and never was, but there's no way a team could be competitive without it, especially now. Same for the v8+KERS formula, teams that didn't run KERS when it first was allowed were at a distinct disadvantage.
+1 Who wants to forfeit 200 hp in F1? Ferrari and Porsche are putting these systems into their road cars. Voluntarily.
+1 for you and Andreas! I am very pleased with the testing and start of the season so far. Uncertainty throughout the paddock and the drivers are simply more involved on a basic driving/control level. How long has it been since we had all of those issues at once. That plus the new driver pairings within teams. Bring on Sepang!!
I get where you're coming from, but this tech is the automotive standard of the future so I do not believe it can be called a gimmick. It's like the swap from carburetors to fuel injection years ago, no one wanted it on their ferrari and at first it was a blunt instrument and terrible. In 10 years time we won't know how we existed minus energy recovery systems etc
exactly and Melbourne was no exeption. It was always going to be a Mercedes. And in the race it was going to be Rosberg from the moment Hamilton was out. Which was by lap 2 or something. So the excitement from Melbourne came from the question whether or not Rosberg's Mercedes would fail? Fair enough, but I want more. Really? Which ones were that? Some position changes around P10? And this we didn't have pre-2014? Come on... So now you have to explain to peope why F1 is exciting. There was a time when you just could show it to them. But those times are gone. Out the window in a time when my peoplecarrier car got more engine displacement than the car that won the Melbourne GP.
Too early to tell-but what if mb dominates? Then we have merely substituted rb with mb. Btw the porsche 918 is NORMALLY ASPIRATED.
Greater driver involvement is always a good thing but there are much cheaper and simpler ways to get it.
I doubt that will happen. But even if it does we will have a different car and driver on the podium. I'm a Vettel fan (and was a MS fan back in 2000) and was happy to see him bag wins and titles, but my love for F1 is bigger than my support of one team or driver. If it becomes too predictable, it is no longer interesting. In 2000 or in Vettel's first WDC year you couldn't predict that he would bag it for sure. The predictability and with it the boredom set in in the 2nd and 3rd year. By the 4th it became unwatchable.
I'm obviously fully prepared to watch Benz win the first half seasons races hands down, maybe even all of them, who knows. The mid field battle has never been more interesting is how I'm seeing things. It will take a while for teams to catch up to MB who are still full throttle developing W05.
Right. Eliminate the electronic aids and you get all the driver input you want. What will happen? The fans on here will scream bloody murder and make the argument that their Prius has more electronics than a current F1. As I said earlier this goes back to the early nineties when the FIA banned the active suspension in an effort to make F1 again more driver focused. There was a big outcry that F1 is no longer the technological pinnacle and that a VW Golf has more high tech than a F1. Nothing new really. Here is good example of such a complaint: Like engine displacement is all that matters. I had a Vette for a while but not in a million years did I ever think of comparing it to any F1 car.
No. The fans won't. The mass audience that the big car makers want to woo might but not the fans. As long as they pay the Piper they call the tune.
So you're saying all the folks complaining on here are not fans? Or are you saying that fans want race cars as unregulated and simple as Can-Am cars?
Saying the race was interesting because Hamilton broke seems pretty lame to me. Hamilton and Nikko should have walked to victory just like Vettel and Webber did last year. I would argue that last year Kimi's "unexpected" drives were just as surprising. Merc should have finished 1-2. Most likely in the next 8 races they will. Will you still say the races are more interesting?
As I am suffering from a head cold and grumpy, and in that discretion being the better part of valor, I won't pursue that line of argument.
Five years from now F1 will replace drivers with Google robots and Tifosi12 will tell us how much better it is because it's the top technology, the cars pass more, and the races are more unpredictable.
I thought you had escaped all that in sunny land, anyway join the club I have just got shut of a cold. Get well soon..
