39 replies to this topic

[SonnyViceR]

Come up with both 5 most positive AND 5 most negative things about the current state of F1

 

I'll start

 

My 5 most POSITIVE things about current FIA Formula One

Overall TV coverage is better than it used to be

They haven't ruined Albert Park with asphalt runoffs yet

No Grand Prix clashes with Le Mans anymore, giving better viewership possibilites for the French classic

Ralf Schumacher isn't racing anymore

It's not quite as crap as DTM is

 

My 5 most NEGATIVE things about current FIA Formula One

The races are total snoozefests

The cars are as ugly as they are boring

There are too many spec components incorporated to the technical regulations

FIA's strict sterile entry rules prevent addittional teams from joining in

Useless over protective parking lot circuits (new and old), which are located for the most part in obscure places where the government money is being used to promote the country/whatever, are utterly soulless

Edited by SonnyViceR, 27 November 2013 - 19:41.

[bogi]

Pros:

Technical aspect of the cars

Few old tracks left

Japanese F1 fans

Coverage

Heritage

 

 

Cons:

Wide tracks

Asphalt runnoffs

DRS

wrong car proportions

winter period

Safety car

Tires

Youtube restrictions

[SonnyViceR]

I think that's eight cons up there, not five. If we start listing infinite number of these it becomes sort of pointless = yet another what's great and what's not thread. By limiting it to five positives and five negaties we express our primary feelings about the state of the series

Edited by SonnyViceR, 27 November 2013 - 19:45.

[Jackmancer]

Five plus:
Lots of future-legends racing now: Raikkonen, Alonso, Button, Vettel, Grosjean, Hamilton, Massa

It's truly a gobal sports nowadays
Points for top ten makes battles for p7-10 interesting as well
Only 111 days between last 2013 race and first 2014 race

Return of Mercedes

 

Five min:

Vettel domination

Artificial DRS

Long calendar

Talent like Frijns doesn't get a chance to enter F1

Pirelli

[Atreiu]

pros

1 - depth of the field

2 - qualifying format

3 - points format

4 - TV coverage

5 - Honda's return in 2015

 

cons

1 - excessive aerodynamic influence

2 - no testing

3 - Pirelli's role in shuffling the pecking order

4 - no online coverage

5 - engine restrictions

6 - DRS

7 - Tilke-o-Domes.

Edited by Atreiu, 27 November 2013 - 22:33.

[bourbon]

5 Positives:

 

1.  Cars

2.  Drivers

3.  Tracks

4.  Race

5.  Qualifying

 

Negatives.

 

None

[Anderis]

Positive things:

- Something has been done to ensure that racing is no longer as boring and stale as it used to be around 2007

- Longer season and more races than it used to be (I felt end of the season in mid October was way too early)

- Ban of refueling during the race 

- All teams are independent and need to design their own car

- It's easy to know what's going on, gather much information, decent TV coverage, plenty of information available in the Internet etc.

 

Negative things:

- Too big imparities in sharing money from FOM.

- Unnecessarily big costs needed to show decent level of competitiveness for teams (that is partially caused by the previous negative and brings a problem of paydrivers etc.)

- Big teams blocking changes that could be good for F1 because of their interests (it's understandable that they try to do it, but it sucks that FIA has no balls to stop it when it goes too far)

- Too little mileage for young drivers/rookies

- Aerodynamics that still causes a lot of troubles when a car is following closely an other car

[SpartanChas]

+Suzuka
+several brilliant drivers in top cars
+TV coverage
+being at a race
+young talent

-Tarmac runoff
-Mark's gone
-money>talent too often
-teams in financial trouble
-tyres and DRS still aren't balanced right. After three seasons I'm wondering if they ever will be.

[MikeV1987]

Pros

 

1. We are in a golden age regarding driver talent.

2. The cars are still the pinnacle when it comes to technology.

3. We have a few crap tracks but they are good for the most part.

4. Television coverage

5. Regulation changes every few years, manufacturers are getting lured back as a result

 

Cons

 

1. DRS, I always disliked it and I always will, I really don't care for artificial passing.

2. Tires, run 5 fast laps then save until next pitstop window. So lame.

3. Race calendar, mostly just the 2013 calendar though.

4. No testing

5. Money over talent

[Nonesuch]

I'll try not to list any sarcastic 'positive' things; here goes:

 

Positive:

- Long seasons, from early March to late November.

- Good coverage of the action by the on-track camera crews.

- Competitive field of drivers and cars (behind Red Bull).

- F1 is still the fastest series on pretty much every track it races on.

- Around 300 kilometers is a nice distance for an F1 race. Much better than the short races we see in lower formula series.

 

Negative:

- The qualifying format. Who cares about Q1? The link between qualifying and the race often negatively impacts Q3 as well.

- F1's slide into being a spec-series with different suppliers. Open up the regulations for engines, aerodynamics, tyres, testing etc.!

- The similarities between a lot of the new tracks.

- Inconsistent and unpredictable enforcement of the technical and sporting regulations.

- DRS that makes defensive, or even 'out of place', driving almost impossible.

Edited by Nonesuch, 27 November 2013 - 21:04.

[wrcva]

Pos:

1- Safety 

2- lots of future-legends racing now: Raikkonen, Alonso, Button, Vettel, Grosjean, Hamilton, Massa (borrowed from @Jackmancer)

3- hi-tech gadgetry and tech integration explored at the margins

4- return of turbo

5- road car relevant technologies (ie.energy recovery, material science, weight management, output efficiency... )

 

Neg:

1- FIA paranoia (micromanaged specs: engines, aero, tires, ecu, communications gear... down to the toilet paper used) 

2- Bernie paranoia (business model pushing the sport into pay drivership)

3- Drivers with big balls cannot impact outcomes other than beating the teammate (too car centric).

4- Artificial show enhancement (aero, tire lottery, inconsistent rule administration ...)

5- No testing 

[RealRacing]

PRO

 

1. Agree with wrcva: Safety

2. Coverage. Although frequently a bit mechanical, every country apparently has at least a cable or satellite provider that transmits the races. Having said that, the commentators, at least in this part of the world, are crap.

3. Efforts towards making the formula more competitive. Not saying that they have achieved it but they are trying.  No-refueling was a milestone in that sense.

4. Having many very good drivers. Although they are not allowed to race as they should, at least the potential is there.

5. The internet and the tools it gives us to enjoy races more, learn whatever we want about F1 and interact with other fans.

 

CON

 

1. In general, the rules: they are not allowing F1 to reach the full potential it could have. From the failure of controlling aero and all the derived crap that resulted such as DRS and tyres to the parc ferme and mandatory use of compounds brain fades to ******** stewarding and penalties, it's the single most important factor in making F1 much worse than it could be.

2. Politics: power struggles, greed and plain stupidity have engendered a series where it's too difficult to compete successfully, where the rules are made to order, compromising the sporting side of F1 and where money ultimately reins over talent.

3. It's become soulless: the drivers are employees, the press conferences deja-vus, the rule-makers punishers. The fans are fanboys, some drivers PR ego-maniacal morons, the TPs cheaters. 

4. TOs

5. Nicole...oh wait... 

[DampMongoose]

Pro

 

1. Drivers don't die live on TV very often

2. Several WDC's are racing currently (anyone who remembers 1995 onwards can sympathise)

3. Races are scheduled to fit the target audience (even if races aren't held there???)

4. Vettel fans are easy to wind up

5. I still remember when F1 was worth watching whenever possible(struggling with positives now..)

 

 

Con

 

1. Safety has gone too far and alienated variation and circuit possibilities/ruined the classic venues which are **** these days

2. Contrived racing with Tyres/DRS/design in the box cars

3. A grid generally made up of PR dictated cotton wool wrapped clones

4. Bernie's billion year deal with CVC

5. Cost barriers to entry and subsequent pay driver influence/lack of tobacco sponsorship

 

I could probably have continued long in to the night on the cons which is a bit disappointing

[Anderis]

Ahh, I agree about safety, I completely forgot to put it on my list, but it deserves to be there in 1st place.

 

It shows how good job has been done with that. For some of us safe F1 has become a natural thing so we forget how dangerous it used to be in the past and therefore we don't put safety on our "positives" list.

[f1supreme]

PRO

1. Agree with wrcva: Safety
2. Coverage. Although frequently a bit mechanical, every country apparently has at least a cable or satellite provider that transmits the races. Having said that, the commentators, at least in this part of the world, are crap.
3. Efforts towards making the formula more competitive. Not saying that they have achieved it but they are trying. No-refueling was a milestone in that sense.
4. Having many very good drivers. Although they are not allowed to race as they should, at least the potential is there.
5. The internet and the tools it gives us to enjoy races more, learn whatever we want about F1 and interact with other fans.

CON

1. In general, the rules: they are not allowing F1 to reach the full potential it could have. From the failure of controlling aero and all the derived crap that resulted such as DRS and tyres to the parc ferme and mandatory use of compounds brain fades to ******** stewarding and penalties, it's the single most important factor in making F1 much worse than it could be.
2. Politics: power struggles, greed and plain stupidity have engendered a series where it's too difficult to compete successfully, where the rules are made to order, compromising the sporting side of F1 and where money ultimately reins over talent.
3. It's become soulless: the drivers are employees, the press conferences deja-vus, the rule-makers punishers. The fans are fanboys, some drivers PR ego-maniacal morons, the TPs cheaters.
4. TOs
5. Nicole...oh wait...

Drivers have always had brain fades, even the greats. And what's Nicole got to do with anything? Strange thing to put on your list.

Edited by f1supreme, 27 November 2013 - 22:51.

[Spillage]

Pros:

1. Best drivers in the world.

2. Racing is good; I am of the unpopular opinion that DRS & Pirelli have produced exciting racing

2. F1 is popular, so there's plenty of news coverage.

4. Points down to tenth gives a good indication of how well drivers have done over the season.

5. F1 remains the world's premier race series and you really get a sense from the onboards of how difficult the cars are to drive in the post-ABS post-TC era.

 

Cons:

1. Half the races aren't on FTA TV in the UK.

2. They don't race in the rain anymore (perhaps because of parc ferme?)

3. Bastardization of great and historical tracks with runoffs.

4. As much as he deserves his success, it would be nice to see someone beat Vettel and RB to a title.

5. It would be nice, as much as it sounds like a contradiction to my earlier pro, it would be nice to see the drivers flat-out for an entire race.

Edited by Spillage, 28 November 2013 - 12:42.

[RealRacing]

Drivers have always had brain fades, even the greats. And what's Nicole got to do with anything? Strange thing to put on your list.

Hahaa, thanks, she was supposed to go on the PRO list. I should change that to ABSENCE of Nicole.

 

Yeah, drivers have probably always said that or the other stupid thing, its just that these days we have more access to even more annoying behaviors or declarations.

[Andrew Hope]

Pros:

 

1) Safety: accidents happen and you would be a fool to think Senna will be the last name on that list. But it's still going to take something exceptional to add any more names to it.

2) My head knows there are better racing series all over the place, more competitive and reliably entertaining. But my heart still feels like F1 is the belle of the ball.

3) 22 cars is less than ideal, but still a respectable number all things considered, with how God damn expensive everything with an F and 1 on it is.

4) Always been a Super Pole fan, but the qualifying format currently is still pretty good and much more fun than just a random hour of practice, except the times are srs bzns now.

5) In the minority here, but I love longer calendars. Anything above 22/23ish would be too much for me personally but anywhere between 18-22 is ideal.

 

Cons:

 

1) Safety again: safe cars can race on dangerous tracks. Not all accidents are epidemics that need to be solved: **** happens when you're driving really fast, and no one is driving really fast in F1 by accident. It's a risky way to earn a living but the payoff is huge.

2) In other series I hate it when the camera goes to some broad in the pits looking worried (or in fairness a female driver's husband, which is just as boring). In F1 close-ups of Sutil's lady are more interesting than anything going on out on the circuit.

3) Seeing classic tracks castrated with parking lot runoffs is like running into your first crush and seeing she's 400lbs, except worse because I don't have to see my first crush once every year to be reminded that life was better in the 1980s.

4) A driver nursing a sick car home is one thing: the entire field giving it half-throttle is a different story. This is not endurance racing, so please stop pretending it is.

5) The internet has convinced the majority of fans that just because the ability to bitch is new, that the problems in F1 are new too. Pay drivers, boring races, rulebook ****ery and nearly everything else that's **** about F1 has been around since 1950 too.

Edited by Andrew Hope, 28 November 2013 - 00:56.

[Knot]

Pros: Everything but the skinny wings and horrible tires.

 

Cons: Skinny wings and horrible tires.

[Kingshark]

Positives

Golden age in terms of top talent on the grid

20 race calendar

Safety

TV coverage

Return of the turbo

 

Cons

Way, way too much politics and greed

Artificial racing (Pirelli + DRS)

Ugly cars

Boring racing

Money over talent for younger drivers.

[deepsouth]

5 Positives:

 

1.  Cars

2.  Drivers

3.  Tracks

4.  Race

5.  Qualifying

 

Negatives.

 

None

 

Not surprised that you're a Vettel fan.

[pingu666]

1) unlikely to cause a heart attack

2) safe

3) coverage slowly getting better

4) still has that magic, just

5) seb followed my suggestion todo doughnuts

 

1)dull, contrived tediousness

2)trying to big up fake racing (DRS)

3) the thought that camping world trucks requires more skill (it certainly does in passing)

4) very rare to see the cars have the wheels driven off them

5) FIA being stupid, with stupid podium, stupid rules

[f1RacingForever]

The awkward moment when you can't even think of 5 things...

1. A good number of quality drivers

2. Rule change. Thank god...

3.

 

Negatives.

 

If i start i won't be able to stop and i don't want to take up the entire thread.

Edited by f1RacingForever, 28 November 2013 - 03:00.

[halifaxf1fan]

Pros

 

Vettel

Raikkonen

Hulkenburg

Lots of races

The Turbo's are back!

 

Cons

 

Maldonado

Illegal testing/Lack of testing

Forced pitstops for tires

Teams who cheat

Teams who won't pay their bills.

[Xeriks]

5 Positives:

 

1.  Cars

2.  Drivers

3.  Tracks

4.  Race

5.  Qualifying

 

Negatives.

 

None

[joshb]

5 pros

 

Best field of drivers for a long time

TV Coverage/Graphics (Go back to the 80's/early 90s to see how little info you got on screen)

Cars mostly very closely matched

Deaths by drivers/marshalls/fans decreasing each decade

Vettel winning!

 

Cons

Cars getting slower

Homologated parts

Sterile Circuits- even Spa is now not much more than your normal track

Penalties dished out left/right/centre

DRS overkill in places

[bourbon]

 

I'm drunk?  Why do you watch if you have cons?  I have no cons about Football either. 

 

I happen to love the sports I watch. 

 

For example, I detest curling, so I could give you 30 cons about curling, but I don't watch it - thus, nothing to complain about.

[Murl]

Five Pros,

- A couple of recent first race winners, and up and comers. Some eras it seems like we are never going to see a change at the sharp end

- Four or five strong top drivers in their prime, healthy.

- No truly cr@p teams to speak of

- Pay drivers are all pretty good, some really good

- No recent (driver) fatalities

 

Five Cons

- Fugliest cars EVAH!!!

- Non competitive idiot tyre rules.

- DRS, KERS, really...fake rules are not sporting - open it up

- Fugliest cars EVAH!!!

- Testing ban, limited running, makes it tough for newbies

[Rinehart]

+

 

Excellent TV/Media coverage

Pioneering engineering

Quality era of drivers

The sacred European tracks remain

Red Bull proving you can come in and win

 

_

 

Cars way to aero dependent

Cars way to tyre wear dependent

Cars way to data dependent

Crap qualifying 

Crap stewards

[noikeee]

Pros:

1. Safety is better than it's ever been

2. The current generation of top drivers at the front is the strongest I've ever seen

3. The races have lots more action than the unbearable processions of the early/mid-2000s

4. TV and media coverage is at a level of unprecedented excellence

5. Despite all dificulties and tight rules, it still remains as the last bastion of open-wheel series where technological development and competition between design teams is open

 

Cons:

1. They've gone crazy with the tyres, it's nice that it's an element but the drivers have to nurse them far too much. We don't need 2 or 3 pitstops per race for the races to be interesting.

2. DRS is too powerful, again it's nice that we don't have processions anymore, but it isn't nice that defensive driving is impossible as overtaking is automatic nowadays. I've said it a billion times: please don't get rid of DRS, just tone it down.

3. This is related to 1) - although that's not the only cause - but the cars just don't look like they're being driven on the limit, and that makes the sport infinitely less exciting to watch. The sport now looks so sterile that I seriously fear the new generations just won't ever "get" what is cool about F1.

4. The economic state of F1 makes it extremely difficult for new top driving talents to show up without major financial backing, and the interest of new teams in the sport is non-existent.

5. F1 being broadcasted exclusively on pay-TV has completely killed the popularity of the sport in where I live, and I fear this problem is being spread to other places. It gives FOM big bucks, but in the long run this is going to be very costly for the sport.

[DampMongoose]

5 Positives:

 

1.  Cars

2.  Drivers

3.  Tracks

4.  Race

5.  Qualifying

 

Negatives.

 

None

 

Have you watched F1 for a while Bourbon?

[Jerem]

Pros:

 

1. The qualifying format, except the fact that the top 10 have to start the race on their qualifying tyre.

2. Strongest generation of top drivers ever.

3. Safety.

4. Speed and noise.

5. Engineers do damn smart stuff.

 

Cons:

 

1. Tyre management.

2. Inconsistent stewarding.

3. Too many/large run-off areas at most tracks.

4. Too much useless PR stuff in news, Twitter.

5. Tickets are too expensive.

[ayanate]

Pros

1. Qualifying really shows who is fastest on the day.

2. Lots of overtaking

3. Personalities

4. Driver's skills

5. The drama

 

Cons

1. Can't ever determine who really is the best driver

2. Pirelli

3. Schedule is very poor, especially this year

4. Inconsistent stewarding

5. Red Bull are too good for the rest

[Kristian]

GOOD: 

1. Less destructive politics and vendettas since Max Mosely left. 

2. More interesting racing with the tyres/DRS - not everybody's cup of tea, but at least there is passing in boring races now. Its better than watching a 60-lap procession with absolutely no passing (surely people remember these days?). Maybe there's a bit too much DRS though. 

3. The current qualifying format is so much better than all the incarnations tried in the early 2000s, and also the 1hr simple session that we had for years. 

4. Night races - F1 looks awesome under lights. 

5. Obviously that death and most serious injuries are now consigned to the past as the cars are so safe, rightly so.  

 

BAD:

1. Soulless new circuits in countries with no motorsport heritage, that are totally indistinguishable from one another. 

2. The bastardisation of classic circuits with oodles of asphalt run-off - its ugly, and Spa is just not the challenge it once was. When was the last memorable race there without rain? The cars are so safe, gravel and walls are fine. Add to this point the total disrespect of track limits - it takes the piss. 

3. The financial problems meaning so many teams are insecure and mediocre drivers are getting onto the grid ahead of those with talent. 

4. Unnecessary safety cars in wet races; what's the point of full wet tyres?  

5. Cars are so reliable and its impossible to make proper mistakes on tracks that shock results aren't possible anymore - I miss those days.  

[sennafan24]

I'm drunk?  Why do you watch if you have cons?  I have no cons about Football either. 

 

I happen to love the sports I watch. 

 

For example, I detest curling, so I could give you 30 cons about curling, but I don't watch it - thus, nothing to complain about.

I understand why others have cons, but I know what you mean. There are things I would change, but nothing at the moment prevents the high level of enjoyment I get on race weekends.

 

As a Lewis fan, F1 is not exactly a flower garden some weekends for myself at the moment, but I still greatly enjoy it and am far from jaded. It does help that I like all the top drivers, like Alonso, Seb and Kimi.

Edited by sennafan24, 28 November 2013 - 14:19.

[Retrofly]

Pros

• People can actually overtake (albeit artifcially)
• Differing tyre stratergies makes for some exciting racing at some points
• Hamiltons move from Mercedes was a success rather than a failure
• Inter team/driver rivalries
• Healthy ammount of British drivers on the grid

Cons

• No one can decided what tyres they want from Pirelli
• Too much tyre conservation
• Hamiltons bad luck won't go away
• Qualifying format should change. They should be allowed to use separate tyres from the race, maybe even qualifiers so everyone does as many laps as possible, alloow whoe grid to start on brand new tyres of their choice.

The biggest con:

• For 4 years no team has been able to beat the Redbull for Drivers and Contructors titles. Its not Redbull/Vettles they are so good, its up to the rest of the grid to start upping their game!

[aliasj]

Positives:

- the usual

 

Negatives:

- tires

- tires

- tires

- tires

- tires

- tires

- tires

- tires

- tires

- tires

- tires

- tires

- tires

- tires

[Coral]

Positives:

 

1. Good television coverage

2. More races

3. Qualifying format

4. Several quality drivers in current field

5. There are still some good tracks left (i.e. Canada)

 

Negatives:

 

1. Stupid tyres which do not allow proper racing

2. Domination of one team over the rest

3. DRS

4. Run-offs the size of a small European country

5. Pay drivers

[Shiroo]

5 Positives:

 

1.  Vettel

2.  Vettel

3.  Vettel

4.  Vettel

5.  Vettel

 

Negatives.

 

None

 

I agree on that.

[Frank Tuesday]

Negatives:

1. Safety car - makes a sham of races to eliminate gaps that drivers have earned

2. DRS

3. 2 compount tyre rule

4. Money distribution

5. Driver actions "fixed" by the computers

 

Positives

1. Sound

2. Smell

3. Looks

4. New Technology

5. Watching the cars in fast turns.