128 replies to this topic

[F1Champion]

I was wondering if it was just me or whether people are losing interest in F1 now. I'm not sure why, maybe its got something to do with the Red Bull domination and Vettel's most likely 4th WDC but does anyone else feel that this season isn't that exciting? Has it got something to do with a lack of a consistent challenger to RB? Alonso and Kimi are stuttering and Hamilton isn't in the hunt and the McLaren's are out of it. Anyone else agree? It might be the DRS and tyres thrown in as well. But it just doesn't feel exciting, there too much variation every weekend with the non-RB teams to make the season feel worthwhile to watch. Vettel's lead just gets bigger and bigger, the 40 odd points difference is too much already I think.

Last season felt better than this one I think. I'm not really gutted if I miss a race whereas in the past I would be, although that could be because the BBC doesn't show all of the races live anymore.

[KnucklesAgain]

The schedule sucked, it feels to me like the season never really got going, with all the irregular breaks.

[Vesuvius]

no, far from boring...watch 2002 and 2004 and you know what was boring...there has been some fantastic races this year.

[AlainProstX]

IMO to much time between the races so far. 3 weeks from germany to hungary, then again a long wait... I simply can't get into "F1 mode", 2nd half will be better but Vettel is going to cruise into is 4th title.

[DanardiF1]

It's not been a great season to be honest... too much faffing around with tyres and how they influence the race. There hasn't been that much in the way of real hard racing for the lead either, mainly because each weekend there isn't the same consistent group of challengers for the win.

It's just been a bit... meh.

[Asterion]

I know who is going to win a 4th WDC this year, but yea, not boring at all. I enjoy being able to predict a good chunk of the season... Exciting!

Edited by Asterion, 27 July 2013 - 11:53.

[g1n]

It is boring compared to last one, but we got lucky with that. Also the schedule this year is terribad, although in the last two months of the season we will have 6 races!

[Grundle]

On track action has been good, it's just Vettel has had too much success for most peoples taste. Including mine. 2014 can't come soon enough.

[Blackmore]

I am looking forward for the start of the Formula 1 Championship. So far we had the Pirelli 1 Championship but it seems in Hungary the F1 season is about to start with the altered tyres that don't force drivers to pussyfoot around 3 seconds a lap slower than they can.

[Zoetrope]

The schedule sucked, it feels to me like the season never really got going, with all the irregular breaks.

[F1Champion]

The schedule sucked, it feels to me like the season never really got going, with all the irregular breaks.

I forgot to mention this, but maybe this has something to do with it as well.

There hasn't been that much in the way of real hard racing for the lead either, mainly because each weekend there isn't the same consistent group of challengers for the win.

It's just been a bit... meh.

Agreed. Seems that if you are clear by T1 then you pretty much win.

[Andrew Hope]

Agree with schedule complaints, and those are my only complaints. On-track action has been interesting and unless this is your first year watching F1 you've definitely snored through more boring seasons than this. But somehow despite having a ton of races this year it always seems to feel like there's 2 weeks or more until the next race.

[Realyn]

McLaren completly failing. Mercedes, Lotus and Force India stepped up their game. The 3 time WDC having his best season so far with flawless drives.

Don't know why you would call it boring unless "your" driver is on the downfall.

[olliek88]

No.

[Massa_f1]

Most of the races have been boring to me this year . I am a Red Bull fan by the way so you cant say it is because my driver or team are not winning.

[sheepgobba]

100% this. It feels like it a sick car... Runs for a bit but then stops and the process of restarting again takes all the life away.

[XOR]

Absolutely.
Boring driver line-up, conservative engineering design, drs+tyres etc.
Vettel's WDC? I don't really care.
Honestly, I'm not sure I'll watch any of the remaining races

[speng]

The schedule sucked, it feels to me like the season never really got going, with all the irregular breaks.

[Atreiu]

The WDC fight hasn't been boring, Vettel simply has stepped up a gear and the rest haven't been able to follow. Ignoring the WDC fight, the races have improved after Barcelona (it couldn't get worse). Montreal and Nurburgring were very good.

So far this season deserves a 7.

[dav115]

Absolutely. Can't quite put my finger on it but I'm bored as sin this year. It's got to the point now where it's a chore to watch the races.

[August]

Qualies have lost their importance, for example Merc may take one-two in grid and finish one lap behind the leader. So qualies don't interest me like they once did. And races aren't anymore such strategic battles like they once were, even though the tyres are in such a big role. But, it's not very much about tyre strategies, it's only about who makes the tyres last. That's why drivers aren't even too keen to defend their positions, it's better just to save the tyres. And DRS makes overtakes too easy, they aren't spectacular.

And I miss McLaren and Williams in the podium. RBR, Fauxtus, and Tyrrell-BAR-Honda-Brawn-Merc don't inspire me and Ferrari have such a negative image.

The schedule sucked, it feels to me like the season never really got going, with all the irregular breaks.

Also this.

[UPRC]

The racing is VERY fantastic, but the championship battle is worryingly similar to the last few years. We'll have the same outcome as always come the end of the year.

[prty]

The schedule sucked, it feels to me like the season never really got going, with all the irregular breaks.

The dates distribution is horrible this year indeed.

[Coral]

Yes it has been pretty boring...too much emphasis on tyre conservation for my liking. I want to see racing, and the constant "look after your tyres" messages are just tiresome. Plus there have been too many long breaks this season...why so few races in the summer? I would prefer the races to be more evenly distributed throughout the year.

And don't even start me on Red Bull's domination...unless your name is Mark Webber, of course...

[MarileneRiddle]

Absolutely. Can't quite put my finger on it but I'm bored as sin this year. It's got to the point now where it's a chore to watch the races.

Just because I'm bored of this thread - I am not actually sure Sin is bored this year. So you're saying you're really excited for the rest of the season?

And with that, I'm out.

[Dalton007]

I reckon it will ramp up after the summer break. Some great venues coming like SPA and MONZA.

[Fourjays]

I feel this way too, but the on track action seems as good as ever. I think the problem is, as others have said, the long gaps between races. Hard to get into the season when there is huge gaps every few races.

[Jimmy]

My interest has been waning for a number of years now. The cars just don't excite me anymore and seem to be getting tamer and lamer.

Gimmicks like KERS and DRS are not to my taste. In addition to that, there's also the issue of tyres; drivers not being able to push hard enough during races and the feeling that it's a pure lottery as to whether a specific driver/team will get them working on any given weekend.

[SealTheDiffuser]

No, 2002 was boring.

[anbeck]

Funny that the OP started this thread. I've been watching F1 for 20 years, and during all this time I was eager to watch every session I could. And then today, during Q1, I really thought about switching off and doing something else. I couldn't put my finger on that, but I wished that I could have fast forwarded to the final 5 minutes.

This year, I have been looking forward for Le Mans and the Indy 500, and I am really excited about the whole IndyCar season. My interest in F1, as I realized earlier today, has been on the decline recently.

I thought it was just my personal stuff, but now that you opened this thread....

[Kobasmashi]

I think that we've just been spoilt lately. In 2012 and 2010, we had brilliant tight title battles, and in 2011, despite Vettel's domination, there were some absolutely amazing races. This season's been far better than 2009, now that was a boring year.

[Ferrari_F1_fan_2001]

no, far from boring...watch 2002 and 2004 and you know what was boring...there has been some fantastic races this year.

2003 was one of the best seasons ever.

2002 and 2004 were processional and boring if you were a non Ferrari fan.

[UPRC]

2003 was one of the best seasons ever.

2002 and 2004 were processional and boring if you were a non Ferrari fan.

Honestly I thought they were snorefests even as a Schumacher fan.

[SenorSjon]

The decline for me is going on for years now:
This season has a crappy calendar, that doesn't help either.
- Cars are fugly since 2009. No fun watching ugly cars who more and more resemble each other.
- Only thing that matters are the tires
- Fake DRS overtakes.
- Kers I can live with, but why so limited? IF you are so green about racing, let teams develop this limitless.
- Less driver skill involved. A driver can't make up a second/lap based on skills like it used to in the past.
- Onine presence is bad. Live Timing is still some Java crap they use for 10+ years now.
- More and more is moving behind payTV, to watch paydrivers watch driving aroundon paying tracks.
- I miss real personality among the drivers. They are drilled in media correctness. When the Pirelli **** hit the fan earlier this year, the drivers were severely toned down a race later.
- Regulations are becoming too specific. Read the new engine rules and the only thing they can decide for themselves is the name on the engine cover. The rest is regulated. I want to see different specs of engines competing like V8-10-12 or 60-70-90 degree V-angles. Or maybe a boxer lke engine. Watch the development of the front wings. When they are damaged, the 10 flaps that were knocked off, suddenly don't matter much. Why are they there then?
- F1 is an Europa based sport. Bernie wants other races to start at times convenient for European viewers. But he doesn't like European tracks. The ones he does like (aka shell out enough money) are barely payable for a man and his family. They can go for a week-all-expenss paid holiday, or they can watch a 1,5 hr. F1 race in the rain... scratch that, they can watch paint dry because the racing is behind the SC when it rains.

I can continue this list forever. Why am I still watching? The 20 years before 2009 where amazing for me. I hope to see it regroup and be there when it happens.

[tommi34]

Yes it is, and I think the reasons are mentioned already. Poor schedule and I can't see any WDC battle. The championship battle for me is a little bit like 2001... The top teams are pretty close to each other, but there is one team and one man who gets it right every time and takes the championship quite comfortably.

[cornermarker]

Funny that the OP started this thread. I've been watching F1 for 20 years, and during all this time I was eager to watch every session I could. And then today, during Q1, I really thought about switching off and doing something else. I couldn't put my finger on that, but I wished that I could have fast forwarded to the final 5 minutes.

This year, I have been looking forward for Le Mans and the Indy 500, and I am really excited about the whole IndyCar season. My interest in F1, as I realized earlier today, has been on the decline recently.

I thought it was just my personal stuff, but now that you opened this thread....

Same thing here. I didn't record practice, and almost didn't set the dvr to record qualifying, then just sped through most of qualifying to watch the last few cars cross the line to decide pole position. I didn't miss the sport at all during the break, and that's unusual for me.
In insuring that we get a lot of overtaking with these tires, something important to the sport (for me) has been taken out of it. That sense of urgency. No, they never pushed 100 percent during each stint in the past...but these drivers seem crippled by being forced to preserve tires first and foremost.
And focus has been taken off the drivers and their machines, and put on the rubber. Drivers are forced to conserve them too much, commentators are forced to talk about them too often, we all talk too much about which team will be kindest to them. It's just too much. Put the focus back on the drivers and the engineers, please.
And these 3 and 4 week stretches between races make it even harder to get excited again.

[topical]

Yes, this season is boring. Watched last 10 mins of qualy today and was happy to save the other 50 mins for more useful things. Will watch first few laps tomorrow, but if Vettel leads at turn 1 with Mercedes forming a queue behind them will turn off as the result is all too predictable.

[Knot]

I've been reduced to almost no interest.

1. FIA should rename it Pirelli Tire Conservation Series. The tires are a joke, as are the tire rules.
2. Idiotic scheduling. Not that it matters much to me anymore, but it's hard to drum up a sliver of interest when the races are so far apart.
3. Vettel cruising towards his 4th WDC. I haven't disliked a driver or a team this much since Jacques won in 1997.
4. Utterly contrived entertainment masquerading as 'racing'. Get rid of the dumb tires, the dumb tire rules, bin the moronic DURS and bring back refueling. F1 has moved away from being a sprint racing series to a boring conservation series with a little bit of fake racing sprinkled in.

[ThadGreen]

As others have said the schedule has not been the best, also the earlier races were marred by bad weather during practice and of course the tyres. Personally I'd like to see a race every other week and the elimination of the 'summer break'. I think it may spice up the year if all the races for a particular area (Europe, Asia, North America etc) were consecutive and a mini championship for each area were awarded, just an idea. But no, I don't think it has been boring.

[ebc]

Tyres are too important this year which is annoying and DRS is how most overtakes are achieved but it has not been that bad.

I don't know why people think the title race is boring, Vettel hasn't even got a big lead. 34 points is about 12 in 2002 point system or 15 in 2009 point system which is worth 1 win and a 5th, with 9 races still to go that is nothing. If Alonso and Ferrari had taken there chances they could be right there, Kimi too.

This weekend is a big one though, If Vettel wins it looks like he could stretch his lead to about 50 points over Alonso and it would be tough to come back from that. But with Vettel on the dirty side, who knows maybe he gets a bad start and slips down the field and Kimi can take advantage or Lewis.

Usually it is the 2nd half of the season that decides if it exciting or not, If Vettel continues to win then people won't like it but if it is close like last year then it will be another classic.

[lambylamby]

I was wondering if it was just me or whether people are losing interest in F1 now. I'm not sure why, maybe its got something to do with the Red Bull domination and Vettel's most likely 4th WDC but does anyone else feel that this season isn't that exciting? Has it got something to do with a lack of a consistent challenger to RB? Alonso and Kimi are stuttering and Hamilton isn't in the hunt and the McLaren's are out of it. Anyone else agree? It might be the DRS and tyres thrown in as well. But it just doesn't feel exciting, there too much variation every weekend with the non-RB teams to make the season feel worthwhile to watch. Vettel's lead just gets bigger and bigger, the 40 odd points difference is too much already I think.

Last season felt better than this one I think. I'm not really gutted if I miss a race whereas in the past I would be, although that could be because the BBC doesn't show all of the races live anymore.

Agreed. the departure of Glock, and drivers like Chilton makes it less exciting, but (even though they were bad) the loss of HRT I think was a sad time not seeing them on the grid makes it somewhat 'less', especially seeing how much Marussia and Caterham are knocking on the 3 second window.

Teams seemed to have fallen from the sub 1 second quali, it was more interesting to see quite a few teams competitive.

Lastly, Bernies stinky corruption is the icing for me.

[mattferg]

I've been reduced to almost no interest.

1. FIA should rename it Pirelli Tire Conservation Series. The tires are a joke, as are the tire rules.
2. Idiotic scheduling. Not that it matters much to me anymore, but it's hard to drum up a sliver of interest when the races are so far apart.
3. Vettel cruising towards his 4th WDC. I haven't disliked a driver or a team this much since Jacques won in 1997.
4. Utterly contrived entertainment masquerading as 'racing'. Get rid of the dumb tires, the dumb tire rules, bin the moronic DURS and bring back refueling. F1 has moved away from being a sprint racing series to a boring conservation series with a little bit of fake racing sprinkled in.

1. So the Bridgestone processions were better?
2. I agree with this.
3. Just a silly comment, it's obvious you just hate it because you prefer another driver.
4. F1 was never a sprint racing series. They had refuelling for 15 years, but the 30 years before that it was all about a marathon and conservation of tyres/engine/fuel.

[Disgrace]

The decline for me is going on for years now:
- Cars are fugly since 2009. No fun watching ugly cars who more and more resemble each other.
- Only thing that matters are the tires
- Fake DRS overtakes.

Agree with the rest of your post too, but this is the key (i.e what is on track). I could take the badly-proportioned cars in 2009 and 2010, but the tyres and DRS are absolutely killing my interest.

As an overall product, F1 is in a very poor state. Even while Schumacher was dominating, other factors that no longer exist maintained some of my interest.

Edited by Disgrace, 27 July 2013 - 17:30.

[Ensign]

The scheduling is pathetic but that's not the main problem as we've seen bad scheduling in the past. All the 'racing' is fake. It is so contrived I'd say F1 is now EuroNASCAR. Unfortunately all the other racing series - with the possible exception of MotoGP which I don't get to see anymore - are a joke as well so there's no alternative. Football and tennis are better than ever. Cricket, rugby, and American sports aren't better than ever but they're still recognisable to long time fans. Motorsport seems to be in decline, much like boxing and horse racing (outside of England).

BTW the Indycar schedule is also ridiculous. There is no race this weekend and next week's race is followed by a three week break. Yet last week they had two races in as many days. I hope they aren't expecting people to watch when the football and NFL seasons begin.

[fdspd]

I have to agree that this season has been boring. It's the 4th year in a row that Vettel and Red Bull are seemingly toying with the field, while the rest of the teams are flabbergasted as usual. I don't blame Red Bull or Vettel. I blame the rest of the field and their inability put up a consistent challenge. Compounded by the whole tyre fiasco, I'm now annoyed to the point of not watching the races anymore.

I like to think that the activity on this forum is generally a good indicator of the current level of interest. While I don't have any statistics, the forum does seem quiet compared to previous years. Except for the Pirelli thread, we haven't had many "exploding" threads after a race (which usually overloads the server). Add to it all, the calendar this year is horrible. Too many 3 week gaps.

[Afterburner]

I blame the calendar, the tyres, and the appearance of the cars. Not likely to get better next year when things will probably get even slower.

The racing has been great, but the 'image' of the sport has taken a hit with the aforementioned problems, in my opinion. Is there any legitimate reason we can't go back to proportional wings now that we have overtaking zones and finicky tyres? Or are we still pretending the hideous aero is the reason the racing has improved?

[David Lightman]

Big fan here but yes this season has no spark. Crap calendar with huge gaps, more Vettel domination with no consistent challenger and there's no McLaren to challenge either. Williams and Sauber have been pathetic compared to last year too. I just hope next year gets mixed up by the reg changes although I'm not looking forward to the sound of the turbos.

[F1Champion]

I watched qualifying in the background and the fact that it was highlights didn't help.

I wonder if the lack of technology also is a contributing factor, I'm looking forward to 2014, as the technology hasn't changed much on the cars changed much in the last few years. The only major thing has been exhaust outlets. F1 is a bit stale in that respect.

LH Comments:

"We've got a steep hill to climb with these tyres in these [hot] conditions. If we did win it would be a miracle."

Makes you wonder what is the point in watching, because they are just going to fall back. Any spark to watch a different winner goes out of the window....still too much talk of tyres 3 seasons in with Pirelli.

Edited by F1Champion, 27 July 2013 - 17:49.

[thechin]

Totally agree. I have been a huge F1 fan for years and this year I have actually been feeling angry about how bored I am of it all. The Schumacher years were pretty bad (esp. 2002 and 2004) but this one has been a disaster.

I thought it may turn into a Red Bull internal battle after Malaysia but that whole episode is just a distant memory. Webber has been crippled out of it like usual. Ferrari's glorious failure from previous years is turning into a feeble attempt at a title fight. Too much nonsense with tyres and a team cheating blatantly and getting away pretty much scot free. Vettel is out of sight already, and the tyres have been further tweaked to help them out.

I know you can't blame Vettel for winning all these races but he is to me one of the least engaging characters and least deserving of so many victories. The stupid 'Yes, yes and yes again!' and the Alan Partridge like Horner with his 'Seb, you have won the XXXX Grand Prix!'. It just grates so badly. I hope after the summer break something will happen to spice things up, and the classic tracks can produce some interesting races but I'm not holding my breath.

It's a shame when you fall out of love with something that has meant a lot to you over the years.

[SenorSjon]

In 2002 and 2004 you could blame the other teams for not developing. Now you could blame them for not having Newey and the RedBull resources. But I don't see it as a RedBull fault. You can't test, so you can't close the gap. We see this for four years now. It is like seeing the world cup soccer where the players can't train together for a match. They only have a warmup and then they must perform together.

Vettel is quite a low key WDC. Not very likable, has the finger, every time a new design of his helmet but the same exagerrated radio messages, etc. I was really willing Schumacher to win back in the day. Ferrari hadn't won a title for ages and he was always a threat for the win, even against other faster cars at the end of the nineties.

The fiddling with the rules of qualifying was a bit the start of it all. Although grooved tires and smaller cars did make the aero dependancies higher and higher.