I think we as a species need to move past the ridiculous "they just drive in circles" complaint. By a wide margin one of the dumbest reasons to dislike a sport.
Surely driving on an oval requires more skill, and more bravery, than it takes to drive on any boring Tilke-drome these days with their supermarket car park sized run off zones.
The speeds on an oval are much higher, and you're much closer to the walls and your other competitors than in an F1 race. One error on an oval race, and you're in the wall, game over. An error in Formula One these days goes unpunished, you can run wide without hitting anything/damaging your car. Look at Vettel at Montreal - ran wide at turn one, and basically got away with no penalty for it. Is that what people really want to see? I like to see drivers challenged, and punished when they make mistakes.
You see it with many of the old tracks Formula One visits these days. Spa was always a test about sorting the men from the boys. You could only go through Eau Rouge flat if you were incredibly brave and incredibly talented. Now it is easy flat in the modern cars, and most the gravel traps that used to be around Spa have been replaced by run off zones for no real reason. Europe has a brilliant motorsport heritage, that is no question, but many of the tracks in Europe are not the challenges that they once were for drivers.
That's why I like the tracks in America. Many of the road courses have a really old school feel to them, and have been unchanged for years. You get it wrong at Road America or wherever, and well, you're going to know about it.
And if people truly believe that all ovals are exactly the same, we should have some crude generalisations with Formula One. I'll start. All street circuits are the same and boring.
Edited by JHSingo, 20 June 2013 - 12:31.