2013 - F1's Worst Season Ever?

The first 18 cars covered by less than 2 seconds, how could it be the worst season ever?

 

I run an F1 tipping competition which asks for tips to be entered before the weekend starts.  Throughout the whole season. across over 100 people, no one could pick more than 5 positions correctly (that's over 2000 attempts), and on average, only 2 positions per race were correct.

 

It's certainly not predictable, so I'm not sure how it can be the 'worst season ever' if the results are mostly a surprise...

In Valencia last years it was even closer. But when Q is over, we go around in petty tire saving. Perhaps you liked Monaco as well, the whole field within a few seconds!!! You could point out the winner after every race. Most of the teams went out of their way and focused on 2014.

Sepang wasn't served on a plate, neither was Nurburgring. Before the revised tyres kicked in, he had a lot of work to do containing Alonso and making the best of unsuited tyres. After that he never looked back, but there was still work to do with Webber also having strong weekends and Grosjean making considerable improvement.

 

It was very different in 2002. Schumacher only didn't win on the weekends he was horrible or Michelin had miraculously hit the sweet spot. In those two seasons Barrichello won 6 times and was easily second in the WDC twice. That gives a very clear view of how dominant the F2002 and F2004 were. Come to think of it, the F2002 was so ridiculously dominant it stil won at San Marino, in 2003.

 

Anyhow, this year will go down as being very poor. At first they were racing and playing lottery with unsuited tyres. Which is baffling at the very least. And then Mercedes won three races shortly after their private test and got away with a gentle wrist slap. Silverstone was a freak show. And then Vettel ran away.

 

Not much to chose between 2002, 2004 and 2013...

The teamradio is still there, Still whining on everything while you can see he is cruising and have no thread whatsoever.

Webber this year was poor. He was never a thread to Vettel.

2013 - F1's Worst Season Ever?

Not very old are you?

Didn't think it was that bad until they had to change the tyres and Vettel ran away with it. Which they had to do after the British experience, of course.

Edited by billm99uk, 24 November 2013 - 20:12.

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.

Exactly! Short memories or too young.

Although, the fact that drivers are having to nurse their tyres, rather than going full out is ridiculous. The tyres need to be fixed!

Non-sense. 2nd half may be one of the most dominating. But since when is domination equal to bad? F1 is still a sport. A team is allowed to perform great and dominate others. Calling it bad is being unable to appreciate exemplary work. Did the world hate Federer, the brilliant exponent of the tennis art? Is Usain Bolt so bad to watch? Did people cringe at Phelps's record number of swimming medals? Petty perspectives..

Depends on exactly what you mean by "bad" in English. Most people here are interpreting that an "unentertaining", primarily due to lack of competition for SV.

Non-sense. 2nd half may be one of the most dominating. But since when is domination equal to bad? F1 is still a sport. A team is allowed to perform great and dominate others. Calling it bad is being unable to appreciate exemplary work. Did the world hate Federer, the brilliant exponent of the tennis art? Is Usain Bolt so bad to watch? Did people cringe at Phelps's record number of swimming medals? Petty perspectives..

Show me a rule change in the 100m mid-race that benefits Usain Bolt and then maybe this might be an apt comparison. 

Domination and a lack of up-front racing makes F1 boring. 

Exactly! Short memories or too young.

 

Although, the fact that drivers are having to nurse their tyres, rather than going full out is ridiculous. The tyres need to be fixed!

They have always had to nurse the tyres. Always. Even during the early 2000's tire war.

In addition to this, they also used to conserve fuel in the race also back in the old days (before refueling era), just like they did this year. The reason for these is the same as always – to finish the race as high as possible. (Conserving fuel leads to lighter car in the early part of the race, and ... the lighter the car ... you know. Any extra fuel left after the flag means that one could have gone faster.)

The only real difference is that they do complain much more about that than they did previously. (Partially, thanks to much more media coverage in the Internet.)

How Red Bull fans are talking about complaining?

If i dont remember bad, was Red Bull who crying for a tyre change, and they didnt stop until they have what they want.

Posted: 13/05/2013

 

 

Pirelli: 'Want Us to Give Red Bull the Tires to Win the Title?'

 

Pirelli have admitted that a four-stop strategy is too many stops for a Formula One race and most of Sunday's runners did just that. Even a few three-stop strategies were changed on the fly to a 4-stop tactic to stay within tow of Ferrari's blistering pace.  Now Pirelli seem keen to take a longer, in-depth look at their tire compounds and could have a new 2013 version for Silverstone.

Pirelli boss Paul Hembery didn't stop there. The head of Pirelli motor port even leveled a finger at one team in particular telling the press:

 

"It's rather bizarre," Hembery added: "We're only doing what we've done for the last two years and we don't understand why you're [the press] so excited.

 

"Unless you all want us to give Red Bull the tyres to win the championship. It's pretty clear. If we did that, there would be one team that would benefit and it would be them.

"You have to bear in mind, if we make a change, we have a lot of teams who would be against it and one maybe for," he added.

"I know if we make a change, I am going to have the podium people today in Spain aren't going to be happy and then you're going to be at Silverstone telling me we have given the championship to Red Bull. It's damned if you do, damned if you don't."

 

24 March 2013

 

 

Pirelli ’has promised’ to change tyres - Marko

 

Dr Helmut Marko says Pirelli "has promised" to change its tyre compounds in time for next month’s Bahrain grand prix.

Together with Mercedes, Red Bull has been pushing F1’s Italian supplier to change tack after claiming the 2013 tyres are penalising the best cars.

 

Officially, motor sport director Paul Hembery insists Pirelli would only change its tyres mid-season if all the teams make an "unanimous" request.

"That is definitely not the case," he said.

 

But Red Bull’s Marko said on Sunday: "We are having to tell our drivers to go through the fastest sections not as fast as they can, because it’s too high a load for the tyres.

"Of course we have had serious talks (with Pirelli)," he told German television Sky.

"I think Pirelli has realised (the situation) and we have been promised that other compounds will come to Bahrain at the latest," added Marko.

 

 

 

People usually said tyres were changed for security, but everyone who want can see that the complains from Red Bull and the promise to change from pirelli come for the 4 strategy stops in early seasson.

 

Edited by Infinityl, 24 November 2013 - 20:40.

They have always had to nurse the tyres. Always. Even during the early 2000's tire war.

It's never been this suffocating. Listen to what David Coulthard has to say about the early 00s...basically he said it was 'qualifying' laps the whole race. But, besides that no one is suggesting tire management hasn't been part of the sport (or that it shouldn't be 1 tool in a driver's arsenal) but it has not been the deliberately engineered contrivance it has been during the Pirelli era...Germany 1957, Italy 1967, Japan 1988 etc...none of those type of things will ever happen on Pirellis.

Absolutely.  2004 was bad for dominance but it wasn't dominance that ensued from a tyre manufacturer reverting to last season's tyres because of their inability to make a reliable tyre in the first place which completely altered the season and handed it hook, line and sinker to one team. 

Though in retrospect it does explain why Red Bull were so argumentative about the Mercedes tyre test in Spain, if the outcome of that had been a workable 2013 tyre the season might have gone a bit different.

Having followed F1 since 1982 I'm surprised this question is even raised. 

Edited by LuckyStrike1, 24 November 2013 - 20:44.

Non-sense. 2nd half may be one of the most dominating. But since when is domination equal to bad? F1 is still a sport. A team is allowed to perform great and dominate others. Calling it bad is being unable to appreciate exemplary work. Did the world hate Federer, the brilliant exponent of the tennis art? Is Usain Bolt so bad to watch? Did people cringe at Phelps's record number of swimming medals? Petty perspectives..

You wouldn't be saying the same thing had it been Ferrari and Alonso dominating like Vettel did. 

I rated seasons 2000-12 in the topic during the summer, now rating this season in same three categories.

http://forums.autosp...2012/?p=6407744

Championship battle: 2/10

Is this thread supposed to be some kind of joke?

If not, of course it isn't.

You wouldn't be saying the same thing had it been Ferrari and Alonso dominating like Vettel did. 

What the cxxp, man? What the heck are you talking about? How are you so obsessed with relating me to Ferrari? You are clearly thinking way too much.. 

The worst F1 seasons were seasons when drivers lost their lives.

noway, 2004 was terrible, 2002 too, 1993 was a joke, 1994 was tragic...but it would be nice if the teams were more equal next year

it would be nice if the teams were more equal next year

There are very very few years in Formula One history where the teams were as equal as they were this year.

Its upto the others to do a better job

5 years of regulation stability and everyone is still getting their asses handed to them.

They would have if the regs allowed the Renault grey area engine maps could not be copied because of the rules. Even Seb  said they had done something clever that others could not copy. Roll on removal of EBD and level  playing field regarding mapping

Yes, and I am a Vettel fan! I am not saying 2004 was a good season either, but I still think this is the worst season I have watched since I started following the sport in 94.

Drivers were at least pushing in 2004, and obviously you had more DNF's back then. Now you know only 2 or 3 cars will drop out. That combined with the tyres and DRS make this season worse for me.

Not a great season, but certainly better than 1992.

Watched a lot of races of the 1997 season again recently BTW, and my God, there were some tedious ones! Barely anything happening on the track, passing almost exclusively done in the pits and -as a result- commentators talking as much about pit strategies ("Will it be a two stop or a three stop?") as about tyres this year.

I've voted no, because I still remember the excitement and enjoyment of the first few races before Pirelli decided to end the season.

Since Britain, it's been the worst since '02, definitely.

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.

Perhaps it looks poor because 2012 was probably the greatest season ever.

You've only been watching F1 since 2012 I take it?

I thought about this, and 2013 was definitely, for me, more tedious than 2002 or 2004, which were up until now my least favourite, and nearly killed my interest in F1. I've watched since 1991, seen some awe inspiring races and some dismal ones, but 2013 was when F1 hit its nadir for me...... just dreadful.

worst season on this BB? Sure absolutely, man some of you guys can complain. 

sure it could have been a bit more exciting for P1 after the summer break, but we also saw some great racing this year. Behind Vettel there was usually a lot of excitement.

One of the main reasons for putting this season as one of the worst ever is that we haven't had a real classic or blockbuster race this season. There have been a few that I would put in the fairly good category such as Silverstone, Hungary and Malaysia, but sadly no classics. Added to that we haven't really had any breathtaking moments and it all adds up to a pretty poor show.

As I've mentioned earlier, at least 92 had the closing laps at Monaco and 2004 had two very good and incident packed races, Monaco and Spa, both of which were better than any race we've seen this season.

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.

Exactly. When F1 becomes that predictable, then the sport has a very serious problem that it needs to work out in an awful hurry. I can only hope that the 2014 regulation shake-up finally mixes things up again. We've been treated to the same ol' routine for the last four and a half years now. Frankly, I'm tired of it. We need a change and fast.

1985,1992,2002,2004,2011

2011 had some great races, China, Monaco, Nurburgring, Silverstone and Hungary. That is before I mention Canada 2011, arguably one of the greatest races in the history of Formula 1

As has been stated by many before me, not even close to being the worst season ever. Was chuffing boring though.

I hope we don't see another season like this for a long time.

... Canada 2011 ... arguably one of the greatest races in the history of Formula 1

you liked watching the rain for more than 2 hours?

Edited by mnmracer, 24 November 2013 - 23:15.

2004 at least had Monaco

you liked watching the rain for more than 2 hours?

I went and made dinner whilst that was going on. Either side of the stoppage was pretty exciting though

Forget worst season ever.  I am flabbergasted at how many people claim 2012 was the best season ever.  Even if you are a total noob, didn't ANY of you see Rush?

Have NONE of you seen DVDs of 1982, 1988, 1989, 1994, 1997?

Okay yes there were events in  many of those years that were distasteful, but as out and out wars, they were great fantastic seasons. 

You've only been watching F1 since 2012 I take it?

I've been following F1 since the mid-sixties. Pre-1980s it was pretty difficult to follow entire GPs (though I have more or less everything post-1973 on DVD).

Let's say that 2012 was IMHO the best season since -at least!- 1989. 

One thing is that we tend to forget the forgettable races of previous seasons and remember the highlights of the better ones, even if 80% of that race was rather forgetable - like the 1992 Monaco race mentioned above.

Resultwise 2013 is sharply divided in pre- and post-holiday break. We tend to remember the last half better than he first part. And -as we've seen here on this forum- a lot of people judge the quality of a race by its outcome or the amount of struggle for the win. But there's so much more to be seen!

That said, 2013 was not a great year. IMHO there was only one really great and gripping GP this year - the Hungarian GP. But there wasn't a snoozfest like Barcelona 1999, Imola 2002 or Hungary 2004. And the overall quality of the field is pretty good nowadays. Far better than, say, in the mid nineties when there was just simply one real top class driver. And when even the midfield battles were decided by fuel strategy.

Edited by scheivlak, 25 November 2013 - 00:13.

The first half was looking good, when Pirelli had the 2013 tires. Had they stayed, maybe Ferrari or Mercedes would have gave RB a run, but I think Seb would have won the championship anyway.

Forget worst season ever.  I am flabbergasted at how many people claim 2012 was the best season ever.  Even if you are a total noob, didn't ANY of you see Rush?

Have NONE of you seen DVDs of 1982, 1988, 1989, 1994, 1997?

 

Okay yes there were events in  many of those years that were distasteful, but as out and out wars, they were great fantastic seasons. 

I reckon 1988 easily as one of the worst seasons ever! Boring as hell, apart from Senna and Prost - and even their struggle was mostly completely predictable. And the actual racing in 1997 was mostly boring (and sub-standard) as well, it was just the championship struggle that was somehow interesting.

I've been following F1 since the mid-sixties. Pre-1980s it was pretty difficult to follow entire GPs (though I have more or less everything post-1973 on DVD).

Let's say that 2012 was IMHO the best season since -at least!- 1989. 

 

One thing is that tend to forget the forgettable races of previous seasons and remember the highlights of the better ones, even if 80% of that race was rather forgetable - like the 1992 Monaco race mentioned above.

 

Resultwise 2013 is sharply divided in pre- and post-holiday break. We tend to remember the last half better than he first part. And -as we've seen here on this forum- a lot of people judge the quality of a race by its outcome or the amount of struggle for the win. But there's so much more to be seen!

That said, 2013 was not a great year. IMHO there was only one really great and gripping GP this year - the Hungarian GP. But there wasn't a snoozfest like Barcelona 1999, Imola 2002 or Hungary 2004. And the overall quality of the field is pretty good nowadays. Far better than, say, in the mid nineties when there was just simply one real top class driver. And when even the midfield battles were decided by fuel strategy.

I thought Schumacher's battles with Hakkinen were better than last year. 2012 was a classic season, though Had Fernando won, it would have gotten more praise.

Edited by George Costanza, 24 November 2013 - 23:54.

2004 at least had Monaco

At full speed. Jarno was unbelieveable that day. Too bad we did not see that Jarno more often...

However, Michael would have won it if he pulled the gap out... Then he would have probably won 13 in a row.

This has been the first season since I was 10 where I haven't made an effort to watch ever race.  Even cancelled my Sky sub. 

So, yeah, probably.

No.

The worst seasons for me were those when many drivers, marshalls, and bystanders were killed.

Also this season we had no big scandals.

at least even during schumacher dominance all the cars looked fast and the outcome seemed less premeditated. cars looked like they were being pushed hard rather than nuursed through a race. hey these days an overtake in the pits would be exciting.

the red bull is so much faster than any other car and with the tyre regs, drs the racing lacks integrity.

I no longer watch after nearly 20 yrs straight - frankly the lack of variability in outcome is too much.

I don't dislike vettel and his pole in the wet was actually one of his more impressive feats this year. but watching him go past others as if racing different spec series is a complete turn off.

2004 at least had Monaco

Monaco was fun, though I always thought the best race that year was Belgium.

People have put it very well

At least the cars looked a bit nicer when Schuey was winning, the racing was dull as dishwater but for some periods there was a tyre war and some differing challengers. And Rubens very often was not a million miles away but toed the line, Webber clearly gave up a long while ago in full knowledge the car and tyres don't suit him and lets face it the car has not had him in mind at all for 4 years now. Can you imagine how many practice starts he has tried, yet the thing always fails on him at the start, no one is that rubbish surely.

Watching Vettel and that car just make every single car out there look like a GP2 does nothing for him I am afraid, it is why he was booed, people are not interested in watching this level of domination. You cant see him doing anything fast, he doesn't really seem to be pushing that much, at least in Schueys era you could see his ability come through and see what he was doing, O in a very dominant package. And even the Prost dominant years again he was often coming through after poor qually and showing awesome fuel management or tyre conservation. All you see now is Vett gets the start, pulls a few seconds in 6 laps and then robotically listens to what he is told for the next 60, drivers make few mistakes now and therefore it is relatively easy to win in that car.

It is a shame as he is a nice fella, but he is seemingly even more of a machine than Michael, makes less mistakes coz he is literally never headed at any time during a race, utter boring.

Tyre rules benefitted them more than anyone else, which makes you wonder what power is being distributed behind the scenes.

Well, I was VERY entertained this season. Not so much by the racing but by the drama, whining and blowing things up WAAAAY out of the proportion that took place on this forum. So more of that in 2014 please! 

And to answer seriously, no. I agree with some others, seasons where multiple drivers died were just a bit worse.

Edited by zachary2142, 25 November 2013 - 02:01.

No.

 

The worst seasons for me were those when many drivers, marshalls, and bystanders were killed.

 

Also this season we had no big scandals.

Only because testgate wasn't taken to any extreme. It did have potential to become bigger and uglier.

Silverstone was scandalous. Tyres exploding left, right and center. I had never expected that. Imagine if it were Michelin back in the days. Mosley would have benned them from the face of Earth.

1982/1994 were pretty bad but for a wholly different reasons. The actual championship was tight as hell in those years. 2002/2004 stand out as borefests but i didn't like Schumacher, i like Vettel...

About tyres: RB were not the only ones complaining. And tyres were changed after several exploding incidents, not after RB complaints. 

By far the worst ive seen. Next to no positive moments and a real feeling of downtroddenness in the paddock. Everyone looks depressed, next to no one is happy.