Ian-Agree 100%. However, don't confuse domination with these current rules (not being allowed to catch up) vs. the domination back in the day. Nothing prevented other teams from testing and changing various engines, etc. during the Schumey/Ferrari run. BMW, Honda, Toyota, etc. did not operate under the draconian regulations we have now-they spent big $ and still had their arses handed to them. Under the current no testing/engine token formula development is frowned upon which is a complete anathema to how engineers and developers operate in the real world. What will a car manufacturer learn from F1 if it cannot develop engine ideas/concepts? Can you imagine a professional sports team not being allowed to train between games? If the FIA ran the EPL here's what you'd have: Training will be allowed only at the start of the season. There is no reason to have in season training because your players may get injured. Also since the players don't have to go to the training facilities, they will be saving fuel and contributing less to global warming. In turn, the training facilities won't have to operate so the same rationale applies to them. Since people won't be running the training facilities, you can sack them, thereby reducing costs! We are brilliant!
But, they can still "train" on the computer, let 'em play FIFA on the PlayStation - it's JUST as good as real life...
then take the drivers out of the cars...will dispense with this canopy nonsense....the drivers cost lots of money and are crashing all the time anyways.... BTW my son is on xbox constantly playing FIFA.............his team name is Unreal Madrid lol
Fair enough, everyone's entitled to their 02c. However, is the racing really 'ruined'? We're seeing more overtaking (albeit a little artificial), and some pretty darn good dices back thru the field. OK, Merc are blowing everyone's doors off right now, but we've seen similar with others in the past, nothing new. I'd go as far as to say that they're also more reliable than they've ever been. Which given the technology they're hauling round is pretty impressive too. Again, as long as they remain the fastest things round a road course, I'll stay with them. Cheers, Ian
That race was TERRIBLE. I never miss a race but i got so bored with this one i fast forwarded so much i was done with it in less than a half hour. Just complete boredom. Took my 5 and 7 year old to K1 to do some karting and the racing there was better LOL
Most dominant 3 year stretch in F1 history. I honestly believe that they were sandbagging prior to the 2017 regs getting passed in an attempt to make us believe that the racing is so good right now so the powers at be shouldn't change anything. "See look how close Ferrari is, they're gaining on us!" LOL, sorry Toto but you're not fooling anyone. Next race after regs pass despite Merc complaints and attempts to block, and we're treated to a race where they are .7-1.2 sec/lap faster and win by half a minute. Unless some crazy stuff happens Ferrari will be very hard pressed to even match their win total from last year, much less challenge for the WDC. Mercedes isn't even working their car hard. It's ridiculously dominant, 3 years straight now. In the Red Bull era, other cars would frequently win races or at least challenge for wins. Getting beyond old.
What does it say about a "race" when you never see the leader? I watched the Sochi race on and off, and I can't recall seeing Nico on screen after the first lap. I know that there was more action in the next 5 places, but it was as is the question of who would win didn't matter.
Yep. But at least with Red Bull there were years mixed in where the title came down to the last race. 2010 and 2012 were absolute thrillers even though they didn't go how I wanted. 2010 was just an epic season. Seb's rise, the Seb/Webber battles, Fernando's first year with Ferrari, the "faster than you" debacle, Button and Hamilton slugging it out, MSC return, last race title decider, etc etc. Even in 2011 McLaren won several races and Ferrari snuck a win in there. The Ferrari "domination" years weren't really that dominant except for 2002 and 2004. If anyone other than MSC is driving the 2000 or 2003 cars they don't win the title. Even in 2004 they would be beaten to pole occasionally. This 2014-2016 3 year stretch is the most dominant from any team in the history of the sport. These cars Merc have produced are absolutely unbeatable. In qualifying, in the race, any type of track. Doesn't matter. Just kinda takes all the fun out of it when it's a foregone conclusion which team will take pole and win the race.
Yep exactly. 1999-2000 there was a fierce fight with Mclaren. 2001 Mclaren/Williams where very fast, just unreliable 2003 was so close 2002 and 2004 they where utterly dominant, but that can be forgiven. They simply did a superb job. Like you said, same goes for Red Bull: Chasing in 2009, 2010 there was a massive battle between Ferrari, Mclaren and Red Bull. Vettel won it in the last race coming from being 4th in championship entering that race. 2011 Red Bull did a better job. 2012 Ferrari had a car with great race pace, just not quick in qualifying. Mclaren also was part of the championship again, even having the fastest car I believe at the end of the season. 2013 first half of the season it was anyones game. It was RB's 2nd half of the season when Vettel was utterly dominant, winning every single race. RB just developed the car better than their rivals from that point on. Coming to Mercedes, they build a superb engine. I can't even talk about the chassis/aero, presumably it was quite good, but any problems with either where sorted out by the massive engine power masking them. God status allowed them to tell Williams to not use specific engine modes the one time they came a bit too close. F1 went wrong with the new regs in 2014 by not allowing anyone to develop their PU's after February. Mercedes build up so much data in that time, that by the time Renault/Ferrari could catch up, Mercedes would again be far ahead. And so on.
I think we were robbed from a potentially classic title fight in 2013 when Pirelli changed the tires halfway through the season to suit Red Bull after Horner *****ed up a storm following Ferrari smoking them at Barcelona. The Mercs qualified 1st and 2nd in that race and finished 9th and 12th. Red Bull and Merc had major deg problems on the original tires made for that season. Then Merc had their illegal tire test and the tires were changed and suddenly Red Bull was unbeatable and Merc was very fast. I thought that was going to finally be Fernando's/Ferrari's year until all that happened. They won 2 races in the early going and looked like the best car. The Ferrari and Lotus were easy on their tires and the changes ruined their seasons. Was BS really.
This was the tire swapping thing wasn't it? Run the left tire on the right and vice versa. IIRC the tires blew up quite easily because of this. Kimi looked good before this as well...
Ian, when Ecclestone himself says that F1 is cr*p, and that he wouldn't take his family to watch a GP. that tells you the state it's in !
I think that's just "Bernie being Bernie." "Only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about." He just wants to keep it in the headlines. Outside of the **** noise & Merc's total domination I honestly don't think the racing is too bad right now - I certainly recall *much* worse seasons than we've had for the past couple of years. Their time will pass. Given the BS freezes it'll take longer than in the past, but they all remain damn quick, so I'm still OK with it. Cheers, Ian
I am not against Mercedes dominating is they do the best job. But I am against the excessive complexity around F1 now, with -to me- silly rules and regulations. F1 is the arena to determine who is the best driver through a season. We don't need all that BS for that. Now, it's a competition as to who has the most resources to finance an enormous technical team. I suppose it would be OK if there were 12 teams with the same resources, but there isn't. This is mostly becoming a 2-horse race and the others are mere extra. The gossips are the most important part of the circus.
Well, if you think about it, there is just way too much "artificial gimmicks" to simulate real racing rather than just real racing. And that applies to both development race and actual driving. Now Bernie wants to talk "reverse grids" *smh*
Fair enough. However, again, you've got to remember it's pretty much the participants that write the rules. The FIA really only just rubber stamps whatever they want. It's become complex to close loopholes to try & keep everyone 'in line' & the playing field level. [I'm sure you remember Ross basically telling them about his kick ass diffuser and offering to rewrite the relevant rules. They pooh-poohed him so he did it, and we know the result.] I'd beg to differ a little there; Sure, the majority of fans follow drivers more than teams (I think?), but the 'big win' for the teams is the WCC - That's how they get paid. WDC is nice publicity, but the $ come from the former. I hear you. But F1 has always been that way. I worked for a small team years back and we'd look enviously at the resources of Lotus, Ferrari & a few others - No way could we compete with those guys given our budget. Again, I could argue that it's been that way most seasons. Sure, there's been some epic exceptions over the years, but I think they're more the exception that proves the rule. I wouldn't go that far..... Cheers, Ian
