50 replies to this topic

[Mosquito]

https://www.bbc.com/...rmula1/49599387

"Some people think Formula 1 is too safe and too boring," Vettel added at a news conference before this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.

"But I would rather have boring Formula 1 championships forever and bring Anthoine back.

"To some extent it [danger] is part of motor racing - it's part of the thrill - but obviously the last few years have been a wake-up with the passing of Jules [Bianchi] and now Anthoine.

I understand the emotion behind it, but I also find it hard to agree with any of it. We can never make F1 perfectly safe. We can (and should) make F1 (or racing) as safe as it can reasonably be, but statistically speaking, tragic accidents will happen, F1 is no different from say, sky diving.

We can (and again, should) tinker with probabilities of the outcome once things go wrong, but it remains a roll of the dice to some extent when things go wrong.

To hear a driver say "I'd rather have it boring forever" seriously puts me off, it's such a knee jerk reaction. Rather, let's then just be done with it and stop racing, ban all motorsports. I'd rather have him hang up his helmet, retire, etc, at least that would be a principled and powerful statement.

But I am seriously troubled by a driver (or any sports professional) proclaiming he'd rather take all the joy out of his sport, and be perfectly happy to participate in the boredom...

[maximilian]

There is no point in watching something that's boring, regardless of all other considerations.

[goldenboy]

Maybe you are reading a little too much into it.

For me personally, the danger these guys face has never been the attraction for me as a viewer or fan. It's more about what kind of magic they pull off with controlling these difficult machines.

The longer i am a fan, the more I dislike the danger side actually. But I have seen a road fatality before and ever since then my views were changed.

[Mosquito]

Maybe you are reading a little too much into it.

For me personally, the danger these guys face has never been the attraction for me as a viewer or fan. It's more about what kind of magic they pull off with controlling these difficult machines.

I agree with that 100%. Part of the problem I have is the "...Formula 1 is too safe .." straw man, I (and I think most F1 fans) don't wish racing to be less safe...

Safety and boring are not zero sum games.

[Sterzo]

Maybe you are reading a little too much into it.

Exactly. Vettel's quote even acknowledges "To some extent it [danger] is part of motor racing - it's part of the thrill". I don't see him saying anything controversial here, and he's always had a great command of English idiom, using hyperbole to make a point, so we shouldn't take "I would rather have boring Formula 1 championships forever" too literally.

Edited by Sterzo, 06 September 2019 - 13:28.

[jjcale]

Driver winding down his career thinks its OK for F1 to be boring so long as its safe .... not a surprise, he's made his bones and he is getting ready to go.

 

I would like a time machine to go back to see what SV would have said when he was young and hungry ... I'd like to go back to, say, his first year at Torro Rosso when he was making his first few hundred grand.... bet he had a different view.   

[statman]

To hear a driver say "I'd rather have it boring forever" seriously puts me off, it's such a knee jerk reaction.

 

 

Verstappen warns against overreaction after Hubert tragegy

 

https://f1i.com/news...rt-tragedy.html

[shure]

Maybe you are reading a little too much into it.

For me personally, the danger these guys face has never been the attraction for me as a viewer or fan. It's more about what kind of magic they pull off with controlling these difficult machines.

The longer i am a fan, the more I dislike the danger side actually. But I have seen a road fatality before and ever since then my views were changed.

That's exactly it.  People also need to look at the whole sentence, where he says he would rather it be boring if it meant Antoine would come back.  That's the key point of what he was trying to say, not that he thinks they should make F1 boring.

[KLF1F]

 

 

"I would rather have boring Formula 1 championships forever and bring Anthoine back"

 

Nothing wrong with saying this. It is an entirely hypothetical situation and one which I would imagine we all agree with.

 

Maybe the full quote should be put into the thread title to prevent the misinterpretation / overreaction.

[shure]

Nothing wrong with saying this. It is an entirely hypothetical situation and one which I would imagine we all agree with.

 

Maybe the full quote should be put into the thread title to prevent the misinterpretation / overreaction.

This

[absinthedude]

Can F1 not be both safe® and exciting?

 

It is currently boring not because drivers aren't getting maimed but because there's not much exciting happening on the track - at least for the first 10 races this season. 

[mangeliiito]

Verstappen warns against overreaction after Hubert tragegy

https://f1i.com/news...rt-tragedy.html

Well, that was kind of the first thing Seb said when asked about it. This comment came some time later to a question about Stewarts comments that this crash was a wake up call and that the drivers are taking to much liberty especially on the first lap. The quote is from a really long answer of a question, you can find the pressconferance on youtube.

What he was saying is that he would rather have Anthoine still there, even if it meant some people saying it's too safe and too boring.

Racing can still be fun without people dying, and is your right to be amused worth the drivers lifes..?

[ElectricBoogie]

If drivers could be beamed out of their cars before impact, popularity would drop unless the sport became much more spectacular. (Imminent) destrucction is not easily substituted. Look how people low anyting that throws up water or dirt. Smoke. Makes trees weave.

[noikeee]

Maybe you are reading a little too much into it.

 

This.

 

Drivers are having emotional reactions at one of their peers suddenly dying at a young age out of nowhere. This is normal. It's not the time to read deep philosophical meanings with other implications, into what they're saying.

[kosmos]

There is a middle point, is not boring or dangerous. F1 can be fun and very safe, the only problem is teams stopping the necessary changes with their agendas.

Edited by kosmos, 06 September 2019 - 15:17.

[redreni]

I'm not going to sit behind a keyboard and tell somebody who gets in the car week in, week out that he is too safe.

 

I don't watch because of the danger, and like all right-thinking fans I never want to see anybody hurt. I think steps should be taken to make racing safer. At the same time, I'm not going to watch something that's boring. The drivers understand the risks and compete of their own volition.

 

There isn't necessarily a straight trade-off between entertainment value and safety, though. In my opinion, FIA F2 (the MSV-run incarnation of the series) ran for three seasons and was rather boring most of the time, yet it had a couple of driver injuries and one fatality. On the other hand, BTCC has been consistently entertaining and has yet to see a driver fatality in its 60 year history.

 

Call me greedy, but I don't see anything unrealistic in looking for ways to make racing more entertaining and safer.

[JHSingo]

Motorsport will never be completely safe, and I don't think (no matter what they said in public) drivers would want it to be anyway.

 

I mean, take the argument about track limits. On the one hand the drivers complain about the trend of having run off areas everywhere that don't "punish" drivers for mistakes, yet on the other, since Hubert's death, we've heard comments about how safety will always be the "most important thing". Well, which is it? Because you can't have both things.

 

I, myself, am conflicted. I absolutely hate to see things like what we saw on Saturday happen, and yet I don't want them to change tracks every time something bad happens. It would be a travesty to see that sequence of corners radically altered, in my opinion. I'm glad IndyCar won't be racing at Pocono next year, but equally I don't want to see every track be like Paul Ricard. I still dislike the halo, not just for how awful it looks, but for what it represents. You can't bolt on a safety device to try and prevent every eventuality where injury/death might occur, otherwise you might as well just not go racing in the first place.

 

As callous as it sounds, I'm sure once the initial shock has passed, drivers and fans alike will go back to complaining about modern circuits not being punishing/challenging enough. Let's take pride in how much safety in motorsport has improved, but equally remember that you're never going to make motorsport 100% safe, and things like this will, sadly, continue to happen from time to time.

[TomNokoe]

He's just expressing tremendous sadness. He doesn't mean anything by it. Not thread-worthy IMO.

[BuddyHolly]

Sadly the only way to make Motorsport 100% safe is to race at no more than 10 mph, but who'd watch that?

As sad and awful as the past week has been, Seb should be grateful he's not racing in the 60s/70s, he'd be having to live through this 4-5 times a year.

[mclarensmps]

The biggest fallacy in any argument here is that these things don't have to be mutually exclusive

[BobbyRicky]

Why does safe = boring?

 

You''d think that the safer the cars got, the more the drivers would dare to push the limits?

[absinthedude]

No doubt Seb, and others commenting, are getting emotions off their chests. What I imagine nobody wants is to deliberately introduce danger. While many of us do want to see is consequences when a driver makes a mistake in terms of time and track position....not in terms of them getting badly hurt. It's obvious with hindsight that many improvements have been made in the last 6 decades to reduce clearly preventable injuries and deaths. 

[Afterburner]

Sounds to me like someone who is finished with F1...

[AnttiK]

Sadly the only way to make Motorsport 100% safe is to race at no more than 10 mph, but who'd watch that?

As sad and awful as the past week has been, Seb should be grateful he's not racing in the 60s/70s, he'd be having to live through this 4-5 times a year.

 

Yep, with all respect I'm pretty confident driving a modern F1 race is safer than driving your own car in daily traffic, on a two-way road without a median guardrail for  90 minutes from place a to place b (depends a bit of the country/road you do this in of course, but speaking in general terms). Saying that, fatal accidents will most likely still happen before F1 comes to its end, but we are talking about very small probabilities on a year by year basis. 

 

Of the 132 drivers to have raced in a GP after Imola 1994, Jules Bianchi is the only fatality that was due to any F1 related accident, testing and everything included. I would say statistically speaking it is at least as likely for a modern F1 driver to lose their life during their F1 career due to something completely else than an accident in an F1 car.

 

All this is great of course, but it also has the flip side of drivers becoming more and more reckless each year which by itself can ironically lead to massive accidents that wouldn't have been as likely to happen before. To this volatile mix adds to the fact that the average age of F1 drivers is getting ever younger. For a long time now the biggest danger hasn't been going off on your own at a bad place and having a big one, now the biggest danger is definitely provided by the other cars and drivers who are on the track with you. Some of the risks taken and moves pulled today would have been completely unheard of in the previous generations. 

 

Last weekend was such a shock as a driver fatality during an F1 weekend is so extremely rare these days. The first time a driver in any category dies during an F1 weekend since Imola 1994? In comparison, in the same time period we have had at least three marshal fatalities during a GP weekend. It is fair to say that with the ever more reckless drivers and chances of massive airborne accidents increasing, marshals are taking a bigger risk than the drivers themselves in modern F1.

[Spillage]

I really think the Hubert accident is the kind of thing that will happen as long as people race motor cars. There is no obvious way of preventing it that doesn't itself create more issues.

[phrank]

There is too much drama in F1 nowadays, stickers and flowers everywhere, no wonders it gets into everybody's heads

[djparky]

Motor racing is dangerous, accidents will happen. There is only so much that can be done with car design and track design. Unless you want 25 Paul Ricards. Equally there is only so much the human body can cope with, no matter how strong the cars are.

All drivers make the same choice about the risks when they step into a racing car- if they perceive the risk isn't worth the reward then they can choose to stop. But bad accidents hasnt stopped Hinchcliffe, Monger or Zanardi from racing again, Wickens would like to drive an Indy Car again.

There are only a handful of drivers whove either retired completely or parked a healthy car due to not wanting to take the risks any longer- Prost, Lauda, D Hill, Scheckter, Hunt and maybe Stewart ( there may be others that I've bound to have firgitten)

[phrank]

Motor racing is dangerous, accidents will happen. There is only so much that can be done with car design and track design. Unless you want 25 Paul Ricards. Equally there is only so much the human body can cope with, no matter how strong the cars are.

All drivers make the same choice about the risks when they step into a racing car- if they perceive the risk isn't worth the reward then they can choose to stop. But bad accidents hasnt stopped Hinchcliffe, Monger or Zanardi from racing again, Wickens would like to drive an Indy Car again.

There are only a handful of drivers whove either retired completely or parked a healthy car due to not wanting to take the risks any longer- Prost, Lauda, D Hill, Scheckter, Hunt and maybe Stewart ( there may be others that I've bound to have firgitten)

As long as drivers see an accident as an excuse to cut the corner and floor it try to overtake as many drivers as possible, the risk of this kind of accident are still big, especially at a track as Paul Ricards

[Sunnny]

OP you have completely misquoted him    Read the first sentence "Some people think Formula 1 is too safe and too boring,"  

 

What he is saying is that for the people moaning about F1 being too safe - i.e SC, red flags, delayed wet races etc.  He will rather have these current intitatives in F1 than not have them. No where has he said they need to change F1. 

 

Amazing how people twist his words 

[MKSixer]

 

Yep, with all respect I'm pretty confident driving a modern F1 race is safer than driving your own car in daily traffic, on a two-way road without a median guardrail for  90 minutes from place a to place b (depends a bit of the country/road you do this in of course, but speaking in general terms). Saying that, fatal accidents will most likely still happen before F1 comes to its end, but we are talking about very small probabilities on a year by year basis. 

 

Of the 132 drivers to have raced in a GP after Imola 1994, Jules Bianchi is the only fatality that was due to any F1 related accident, testing and everything included. I would say statistically speaking it is at least as likely for a modern F1 driver to lose their life during their F1 career due to something completely else than an accident in an F1 car.

 

All this is great of course, but it also has the flip side of drivers becoming more and more reckless each year which by itself can ironically lead to massive accidents that wouldn't have been as likely to happen before. To this volatile mix adds to the fact that the average age of F1 drivers is getting ever younger. For a long time now the biggest danger hasn't been going off on your own at a bad place and having a big one, now the biggest danger is definitely provided by the other cars and drivers who are on the track with you. Some of the risks taken and moves pulled today would have been completely unheard of in the previous generations. 

 

Last weekend was such a shock as a driver fatality during an F1 weekend is so extremely rare these days. The first time a driver in any category dies during an F1 weekend since Imola 1994? In comparison, in the same time period we have had at least three marshal fatalities during a GP weekend. It is fair to say that with the ever more reckless drivers and chances of massive airborne accidents increasing, marshals are taking a bigger risk than the drivers themselves in modern F1.

 

This.  

 

For those who track their cars think about the abject terror, after 3 days of being in the orderly confines of a well regulated FIA Grade 1 or 2 track, of going back to driving with the general public.  The random crap that happens on the road is unbelievable and everyone here with an operators permit knows this...especially since we are all driving/racing/car enthusiasts.

 

Cheers-mk

[Gorilla]

Why does safe = boring?

 

You''d think that the safer the cars got, the more the drivers would dare to push the limits?

 

Isn't that more tyres than safety.

[garoidb]

This.  

 

For those who track their cars think about the abject terror, after 3 days of being in the orderly confines of a well regulated FIA Grade 1 or 2 track, of going back to driving with the general public.  The random crap that happens on the road is unbelievable and everyone here with an operators permit knows this...especially since we are all driving/racing/car enthusiasts.

 

Cheers-mk

 

... particularly near race tracks ...

[Sterzo]

 

Yep, with all respect I'm pretty confident driving a modern F1 race is safer than driving your own car in daily traffic....

 

...Of the 132 drivers to have raced in a GP after Imola 1994, Jules Bianchi is the only fatality that was due to any F1 related accident...

I think your statistics are wobbling a little. Are you really saying that more than one in every 132 road car drivers have died in the same period?

And did Maria de Villota not die as a result of her F1 car accident?

[HP]

Who's getting exited about roborace?

 

That's for me the epitome of boring racing. As long as there are human drivers involved, it's never really boring for me. Someone find me any F1 race weekend on this board, where there isn't any talk about incidents that happened, even if the racing was a dull as in France. So keep those drivers as safe as possible.

[Mosquito]

OP you have completely misquoted him Read the first sentence "Some people think Formula 1 is too safe and too boring,"

What he is saying is that for the people moaning about F1 being too safe - i.e SC, red flags, delayed wet races etc. He will rather have these current intitatives in F1 than not have them. No where has he said they need to change F1.

Amazing how people twist his words

Here is a more complete quote from the press conference

but to some extent it’s part of motorsport. It is dangerous, it’s part of the thrill – but certainly obviously the last years have been a wake-up with the passing of Jules and now Anthoine. It shows that there are still things – even if people think it’s too safe and boring – I think there are still things we can do better, we must improve, we must work on, because I’d rather have boring Formula 1 championships to the end of ever and bring him back – so I think there’s no question about that trade.

He's literally saying that we need to do more, and that there is no question on any trade off for safety (specifically if it would have prevented Hubert's death) at the expense of boring racing. As others pointed out, this means we should limit cars to 50mph or simply stop racing.

[red stick]

FWIW, Vettel has also been absolutely poetic about what he does and the risks entailed.

 

 

 

However, at the recent memorial event for F1 Race Director Charlie Whiting, Sebastian Vettel gave a fascinating insight into the motivations of racing drivers. “In motorsport, we depend on the stopwatch,” he said. “We depend on time. We chase time. We become experts in chasing time. Sometimes it appears we catch it. We’re able to hold on to it for a moment before the moment is gone again. We go in circles, chasing time. We forget the world around us. It feels like flying. For us, it is the greatest feeling we can experience. But it comes at a cost. The risk we take is one worth taking to get that feeling, again and again.”

 

https://www.motorspo...saward/id/00549

[HP]

Here is a more complete quote from the press conference
He's literally saying that we need to do more, and that there is no question on any trade off for safety (specifically if it would have prevented Hubert's death) at the expense of boring racing. As others pointed out, this means we should limit cars to 50mph or simply stop racing.

Kimi set the fastest ever F1 pole lap in Monza in 2018. Cars have gotten faster, so yes there is a need to match safety with faster speeds IMO. After Montoya's fastest lap in Monza 2004, they slowed down cars in F1. There was an outcry about F1 becoming too boring, yadda, yadda, because of slower speed. Outcries also because other series became faster, there was the worry that F1 would no longer be the fastest series there is.

 

There are always trade offs, but it seems that F1 wants to stay at the front of the lap times. Likewise they need to stay on top in all matters regarding safety, at least that is FIA's mandate. Sometimes it seems a necessary evil, like the Halo is for me.

 

The speed however is part of the boring races issue, because of shortened braking points, etc. Tracks also don't evolve with the speed, but they would need to, to ensure exciting racing in F1. Reliability is another issue. They lead to more boring races, but also increase safety. Particularly stalled cars at the start of the race are mostly part of F1's (deadly) history.

 

Cars have evolved in a away that they are becoming more and more undriveable when it rains hard. Hopefully the rules for 2021 change that.

 

The question then is how to evolve everything, the racing, the speed, the safety and the enjoyment for onlookers? Vettel's remarks should been seen in the wider context of all these issues.

 

If Seb is right or not, that would need a statistic of injuries, death in all racing series, reaching back to at least 1994. It's also noteworthy to say, that Vettel was 7 and having maybe 3 years of Karting experience, when the fateful weekend in Imola happened that changed so much in the single seater open wheel racing community. I have witnessed the period before 94, have seen more racing related deaths because of that and am maybe a bit less shocked by it than Seb seems to be.

 

In the end however, every F1 champ campaigning for more safety, has been vilified at least initially, because they were calling for changes. Let's hope Vettel gets the ball rolling the same way Jackie Stewart did, and looking back in 20 years from now on, we'd might be grateful to Vettel too. Even if what Seb sayed looked a bit like hyperbole. If the hyperbole just saves one life from premature death it was all worth it IMO.

[AnttiK]

I think your statistics are wobbling a little. Are you really saying that more than one in every 132 road car drivers have died in the same period?

And did Maria de Villota not die as a result of her F1 car accident?

 

No I wasn't saying that at all. It was purely my own hunch that driving your car on a two-way road, without a median barrier, for 90 minutes straight minimum, is potentially more dangerous than driving a modern F1 race. Not based on any statistic.

But if we are bringing statistics into that and start talking about lifetime odds then I think generally speaking 1 in 132 chance of ending your life in a road accident is actually pretty much in the ballpark, globally speaking. For instance in the US these odds were 1 in 102 (in 2017). I mean everyone will eventually die of something and about 1% chance that it will happen on the road sounds about right to me. But can't even imagine what the odds are if you live your whole life in Russia for instance. For the F1 drivers in the past 25 years the odds of losing their life due to an F1 accident have been 1 in 132. And to make creating that statistic easier I was only counting the drivers that raced at least one GP which de Villota never didn't. To include everyone who ever drove an F1 car in the last 25 years would probably add hundreds, if not thousands of people more into the statistic and would probably make the percentage only smaller.

[SCUDmissile]

Nice sentiments.

 

But maybe work on your own racing etiquette. For now that's one of the best things you can do for F1 safety, Seb.

[RPM40]

He literally just rejoined a race in front of other cars dangerously?

[GrumpyYoungMan]

He has a young family now and is in the sunset of his career and his young upstart of a team mate is starting to show his true potential...

...he is heading to retirement...

And is looking more at the risks involved...

Edited by GrumpyYoungMan, 09 September 2019 - 05:24.

[Sterzo]

He literally just rejoined a race in front of other cars dangerously?

Yes he did, but as always there are complications to an apparently simple subject. He couldn't see. You have blind spots in a road car, but the protective cockpit sides and buried driver position meant he had no idea Stroll was coming. This is not to absolve Vettel from blame - clearly he should have stayed put and waited for a safety car - but there were factors at work not obvious to us telly watchers.

[sopa]

Yes he did, but as always there are complications to an apparently simple subject. He couldn't see. You have blind spots in a road car, but the protective cockpit sides and buried driver position meant he had no idea Stroll was coming. This is not to absolve Vettel from blame - clearly he should have stayed put and waited for a safety car - but there were factors at work not obvious to us telly watchers.

 

If you can't see, when could you rejoin? When would you assume you have seen the last car? When you see the 2 Williams going by, you assume - alright, these must have been the last ones? But what if someone else hit trouble and is behind Williams? What if Williamses are already close to getting lapped?

[SophieB]

I started a thread so people can discuss the visibility of F1 cars thing, seemed a bit off the main topic here:

 

https://forums.autos...-in-monza-2019/

[ThisIsMischaW]

I don't watch F1 for the danger and if it can be made 100% risk free then great, but also there are some elements that need to be there or there's no point watching. So we need to see F1 cars going very fast around challenging tracks. We could race at Pau Ricard 20 times a year but does anyone want to watch that?

[absinthedude]

I think your statistics are wobbling a little. Are you really saying that more than one in every 132 road car drivers have died in the same period?

And did Maria de Villota not die as a result of her F1 car accident?

 

 

Regarding Maria de Villota.....some sources claim her cause of death was related to the head injuries sustained in the accident, and others don't. Her death certificate lists "cardiac arrest" as the cause of death...and her family say that a doctor has told them that it was down to the brain injuries suffered in the accident. Northampton General Hospital where she was treated following the accident said she'd suffer no neurological damage long term when she was released. No further explanation has been forthcoming but it seems odd that she was apparently living normally (minus one eye), giving public speeches, driving on the road...yet with brain injuries that caused her heart to stop a year later. Certainly not impossible...but odd....as yet unexplained publicly. 

 

To further complicate matters she was undertaking a straight line test which does not need to be any sort of official F1 test. Ergo no FIA supervision, no requirements for FIA F1 standard medical teams, helicopter etc, superlicense etc. ...and not classed officially as an F1 test. It's similar to a private individual who happens to own an F1 car killing themselves on private land. 

 

All rather messy regarding whether it's counted as an "F1 fatal accident". Bianchi, on the other hand, did die as a direct result of injuries sustained at the 2014 Japanese grand prix....even if he actually died months later and not "at a grand prix weekend". 

[revmeister]

As far as I can tell, Vettel was talking about the loss of someone he knew and cared about, in juxtaposition to complaints that safety is detrimental to the sport. All he was saying is that he wishes Antonio was still alive.

 

As to the safety vs racing argument, I guess it depends on where you take your enjoyment from the sport. For myself F1 is competition of mind and skill between drivers. The mistake of a driver that costs him a position is satisfying enough for me, especially if it results in victory for my guy. I don't need him to die from striking an immovable object to enjoy it. If I did I'd watch Nascar(just kidding) ...

 

I don't see how continued improvement in safety makes F1 worse.

[Mosquito]

As far as I can tell, Vettel was talking about the loss of someone he knew and cared about, in juxtaposition to complaints that safety is detrimental to the sport. All he was saying is that he wishes Antonio was still alive.

No, what he was saying is highly ironic in the context of his extremely dangerous antics of this weekend

I think there are still things we can do better, we must improve, we must work on, because I’d rather have boring Formula 1 championships to the end of ever and bring him back – so I think there’s no question about that trade.

For someone who's been in F1 as long as he has, he either had a major brainfade, or he's a hypocrite, there's not much room between the blacks and whites here.

[shure]

No, what he was saying is highly ironic in the context of his extremely dangerous antics of this weekend
For someone who's been in F1 as long as he has, he either had a major brainfade, or he's a hypocrite, there's not much room between the blacks and whites here.

There's plenty of room.  You're conflating two things and taking comments he said when faced with the loss of a colleague and trying to beat him over the head with it.  Not cool IMO.

 

He was indeed silly this weekend but there's more nuance than him simply throwing caution to the wind.  As has been pointed out in the appropriate thread, when he was edging out Stroll was slowing down and he probably misjudged the closing speed as a result.  He knew he had to act quickly the moment Stroll passed him so couldn't wait until he was well clear and it probably didn't help that his visibility was so limited.  Was still a mistake but it in no way contradicts what he was saying the week before.

[Risil]

Who's getting exited about roborace?
 
That's for me the epitome of boring racing. As long as there are human drivers involved, it's never really boring for me. Someone find me any F1 race weekend on this board, where there isn't any talk about incidents that happened, even if the racing was a dull as in France. So keep those drivers as safe as possible.

 

It seems like they keep putting off the first Roborace, er, race, presumably because they still can't drive effectively against each other. I expect if they threw 20 of them onto a Formula E track tomorrow it wouldn't be boring.