In this wacky world of modern F1—as fun as the unpredictability of each race has been—it seems to me to be missing a certain, as the French say “I don’t know what?”.
The main “what “ in my mind is the battle for the championship. Sure it’s tight points wise but the way it has been playing out is much like a run to win the EPL. Basically you’re trying to score as many points as you can but you don’t get to see your main rival on a consistent or frequent basis. Rather, your competition is someone different each week and your counting your points tally vs your rival at the end of the race instead of looking into the whites of his eyes as you see who’s going to brake last into turn 1. Are we going to look back and call this one of the “classic seasons”? I’m not so sure. Prost vs Senna, Hunt vs Lauda, Schumacher vs Hill, Villeneuve & Hakkinen all were thrilling because they were battling it out at the front weekend after weekend.
Along with this, my old friend DRS—rightly or wrongly (you know what I think)—does eliminate the lap after lap battles for position and as much as the multiple pit stops changes things up, do they really spice things up? I do really admire drivers who can preserve their tyres but I think F1 is grooming a lot of great endurance drivers rather than inspiring great dicing and action.
As we go into the last four races of the season I am hopeful that the Ferrari & Red Bull teams can turn up to each race with a competitive set up as I am dying to see Alonso and Vettel go wheel to wheel. So fingers crossed as, along with some of you, I’m making an effort and spending some $$ to see it live, and I don’t particularly want to go through all that trouble to see a tyre test in Austin.
So what do you think of these new rules? Has F1 gone in a good direction or just a different direction? I still love the qualifying format, but they still haven’t adjusted anything to eliminate the tyre strategy to allow an all out qualifying and I think that’s a real shame . Things have settled down a bit in the 2nd half as all teams have got a good idea what they need to do with the Pirellis. It’s down to the best chassis, engine & driver again but we all know next season a different curve ball will be thrown and somehow I think this goes against the true DNA of F1 which is to be the fastest and most technological-forward series on the planet. Instead are we tying the shoelaces of the sprinter just to make the kids enjoy the show?
Just my ramblings, but I think we have to be careful not to have more show than sport, because the sport and competition is why I fell in love with racing , I’ll save my show watching for weeknights.
PC Out!
