2013 - F1's Worst Season Ever?

After having to put up with some serious hyperbole from the racing media in recent years about F1's 'best season ever' (2012, 2010 etc.) surely 2013 should be spoken of in equally extreme terms  - although in this case I don't find it far off the mark.

Edited by fer312t, 24 November 2013 - 18:07.

Why no poll??

for me, yes..

can't ever remember being this bored race after race

Certainly the worst season I've seen.  (part of 1989 to present).

Edited by Ali_G, 24 November 2013 - 18:03.

2013 certainly gives 2002 a good run for its money.

Edited by Kingshark, 24 November 2013 - 18:03.

Definitely the worst season since 2004 / 2002. Worst season of the V8 era, for sure. Sucks to go out with a whimper but whatever...

Poll please

and Yes

Don't know about worst ever - but certainly worst for a long time.

2002 2004 were as boring as this season but at least back then there were the v10 engines and Montoya.

So yes, 2013 is the most boring ever.

2002/2004 were worse. First 10 races were fairly exiting and even when Vettel started dominating, there was some racing going on behind him. 

Edited by OccasionalCommenter, 24 November 2013 - 18:05.

yep

Not sure, but one of bad ones certainly in terms of championship fight.

Edited by kimister, 24 November 2013 - 18:06.

Worst in a very long time. Hopefully never again will it be this bad. 

2002/2004 were worse. First 10 races were fairly exiting and even when Vettel started dominating, there was some racing going on behind him. 

Much worse than 2002 or 2004 for me.  Back then at least the sport was still recognisable as being F1.  The sport has been utterly destroyed by gimmics such as DRS, messing around with long life engines and races in tilkedromes.

1994 is the worst season of all time.

Worst season since I have been watching. 2009 was the worst until this year but at least it had a lot of teams able to fight for victory (as in Toyota, Force India as well as the top 4) at some point and was unique in the sense that all of the title challengers were not the usual suspects at the time. 

I think what made this season worse was that it seemed like we were getting an exciting fight for the championship with Raikkonen, Alonso and Vettel and potentially Hamilton coming back into the mix but then it went completely the other way. At least in 2011 we knew from the start that Vettel was going to win dominantly, and the racing was pretty good that year as well.

Edited by KavB, 24 November 2013 - 18:08.

Far from it.

Unpopular driver dominating just makes it seem so I think.

Not a single race to remember. After Singapore, we knew, two months before the end of the season, who is going to win every single race until the end of the season.

I hope something like this is never going to happen again, no matter who would be the driver who dominates.

So, yes, without a doubt, worst I have seen, by far.

Far from it.

 

Unpopular driver dominating just makes it seem so I think.

This. 

I imagine one of the many seasons where most races had 3 cars finish on the lead lap and a handful of drivers killed in fiery accidents was probably just a teensy bit worse than this one.

2013 stinks because of the tire scandal. Red Bull build a crap car that couldn't look after its tires, but instead of fixing their car they just bitched and moaned until the tyres were changed to suit their car.

If Red Bull had dominated fair-and-square from the start then it would have been more acceptable.

Much worse than 2002 or 2004 for me.  Back then at least the sport was still recognisable as being F1.  The sport has been utterly destroyed by gimmics such as DRS, messing around with long life engines and races in tilkedromes.

I think it is more damaging to the sport when cars are designed in such way that it is impossible to overtake a driver in front of you even when you are 2,5 seconds/lap faster.

Can't take a poll like this seriously when multiple options are possible. 

I imagine one of the many seasons where most races had 3 cars finish on the lead lap and a handful of drivers killed in fiery accidents was probably just a teensy bit worse than this one.

This.

It wasn't Mount Everest of entertaintment  but it wasn't THAT bad.

Much worse than 2002 or 2004 for me.  Back then at least the sport was still recognisable as being F1.  The sport has been utterly destroyed by gimmics such as DRS, messing around with long life engines and races in tilkedromes.

I've not watched every single F1 season, hence im unable to judge this

No. Vettel fought a lot more for his 13 wins now than Schumacher did for his 13 in 2004 or 11 in 2002.

...really bad and boring season, but I still say better than 2004, when nearly nobody could pass Schumacher. At least at the start of this year there were some lights of hope...

Also, worse seasons the 1992 season (and 1993)  - hard times for all Senna fans, when Williams was wiping the floor with the competition. 

Anyhow, glad the season's over. Bring on V6 turbo, bring on unreliability, bring on nice and low noses a la Brawn 2009, bring on a new and different WDC, bring on over-revving while overpassing, bring on tests in January. The future sounds brighter than November last year.  

It was like 2004 but at least 2004, the drivers were much faster and on the edge... But credit to RB and Seb.  On pure pace 2002 and 2004 would be winners. 2013? it's too much tire related.

It was good in the start when Fernando and Kimi were winning...

Edited by George Costanza, 24 November 2013 - 18:15.

Got to be pretty close. Let's hope Red Bull's stranglehold on the sport is broken next year and we have a tight championship again. 

Far from it.

 

Unpopular driver dominating just makes it seem so I think.

Pretty much this.

2004 was much more boring, and I'm saying this as a Michael fan.

Worst I've seen, yes. For me it's all thanks to Pirelli. I can take one team dominating, I can't take drivers having to drive to a delta, far within what's possible, and I can't take Hembery saying, after Sutil dropped like a stone in Melbourne (from a good position), that what he did wrong was race! I can't take Button radioing his team, asking "do we want to race?" meaning, do we destroy the tires and the race for braking a bit late for a couple of corners, and getting on the throttle abit aggressively?

I can't take tires going to pieces, because the construction can't take being loaded.

I know Pirelli's stand is they've done what they were asked to, but the tires this year have simply been unfit for purpose.

....and before anyone points a finger at me, saying I'm tiresome for turning this thread into another Pirelli-lambast; I've given my reasons for why I think this season has been ****. I can hardly remember any races.

There not really a lot to like. DRS, Pirelli cheese tires, boring bland circuits, no sense of speed anymore. It all feels watered down and contrived compared to the late 90's and 2000's. Hopefully next year will be better. In fact i am quite confident that we are in for an exciting season next year. Thank god because my interest is fading.

Absolutely not.  I'm no fan of Vettel or Red Bull, but we saw a demonstration of sheer excellence this season.  If that upsets people they shouldn't watch sports events.  Hopefully the order will change next year, but if not I won't be whinging about it.

I've barely watched much of it to be honest. 

First season I've really not watched fully since the 90s. 2002, 2004 at least you had v10s which were nice to listen to.

I still remember seasons where race result, the full year long and for the whole field, could be guessed just reading the qualifying results since there was no chance to see a pass on track.

Now, those were bad and boring seasons, not this.

Swap Vettel-Red Bull for anyone else (dare I say in any other nationality) in any other team an no-one would moan. I can assure you

Worst only in terms of the constant whining and complaining by so-called 'fans' of the sport.

+1

Not by a long shot. Imagine being a non-McLaren fan in 1988 or a non-Williams fan in '92-'93. 2002 was pretty bad as well.

Still, not one for the highlights DVD.

Edit: More recently, 2009 was pretty bad as well.

Edited by alpinesmuggler, 24 November 2013 - 18:20.

Everyone who voted yes clearly did not see the F1-Season in 1992, nor 2004.

But yeah, Vettel-bashing is so fashionable these days. You just have to find another vehicle to transport it. Like this poll.

was 2011 better than this one?

No one's mentioned it

Everyone who voted yes clearly did not see the F1-Season in 1992, nor 2004.

 

But yeah, Vettel-bashing is so fashionable these days. You just have to find another vehicle to transport it. Like this poll.

It's not all about the result, it's about racing.

Swap Vettel-Red Bull for anyone else (dare I say in any other nationality) in any other team an no-one would moan. I can assure you

Not for me. Vettel is my second favourite driver and I enjoyed watching him break and tie some more records but the racing this year has been pretty poor outside a handful of races. I think 2011 was a better year even though it was obvious since race 1 that he would win the title. 

Swap Vettel-Red Bull for anyone else (dare I say in any other nationality) in any other team an no-one would moan. I can assure you

Were people not moaning in 2004 when this very situation took place?

I'd lump it into 1992 and 2004 as far as sheer boredom of the racing.

1992 was more tolerable as you still had development activities to read about and hope for.  Now we don't even have that.

This season was pretty bad. Didn't like the stretched out calender, the tyre preserving etc. Championship wasn't exciting but that happens in F1. Unlike 2002 and 2004 i watched every race tho.

1994 was probably the worst i've watched but for different reasons. Terrible accidents, cars and tracks being hampered with in the wake of it, scandals, awkward final race colission.

Were people not moaning in 2004 when this very situation took place?

Of course they were, and of course they were saying that 1992, or 2002, or 2004 was the Worst Season Ever when they happened.

And maybe they were right at the time, and now with the benefit of hindsight, we can now say that 2013 was a worse season than all of those.