4086 replies to this topic

[Fastcake]

I don't know what specific individuals earn, my statement was upon the top teams having a budget of a million (plus?) dollars a day. I did read once, a few years ago, that Ferrari tyre changers were paid $100,000 a year.

 

No one is employed solely as pit crew though. They all have other responsibilities at the circuit - most of them being mechanics, but I have heard some have been transporter drivers - and have  a "day job" back at the factory.

[Henri Greuter]

There was a big difference between 1986 and 1987 in terms of his pace. You can look it up if in doubt. 

 

I don't know whether this is an unpopular opinion, but it is not one I have seen expressed here before. I thought that running at Indy at 1993, and being reasonably fast, was highly creditable given what happened the year before. He didn't have to do it. 

 

I was at Indy in '93, before Pole day etc.

I do entirely agree with your opinion on '93 about Piquet. Likely he would have got way more attention because of his return etc had it not been for (of all people....)  Mansell stealing all the thunder with the crash in the event before Indy and all injuries because of that and the delays before appearing at the track at last and so on.....

 

However, I lost a lot of my respect for Piquet's return when I found out that, when he met Mansell and then felt it necessary to say to him something to the extend as if he (Nigel) had already booked a room being kept ready for him in Methodist's Hospital.

The race result he got that year could only have made me even more happy had he retired just one lap before Sullivan and had ended up dead last.

 

 

Henri

[7MGTEsup]

I don't know what specific individuals earn, my statement was upon the top teams having a budget of a million (plus?) dollars a day. I did read once, a few years ago, that Ferrari tyre changers were paid $100,000 a year.

 

Having worked with a few ex Williams mechanics back in 2012 they were getting paid about £40,000 a year which sounds good until you divide it by the hours worked. One joked with me that on some weekends if the $hit hit the fan you would be on the equivalent of about £4 an hour.

[TheWilliamzer]

Button is a worthy champion.

[sopa]

I don't mind mechanics, et al, but top drivers are definitely overpaid. But they are the stars, who bring all the attention, so alas that's how the world works. Stars earn massively everywhere, while those, who do the hard work support it, earn little in comparison.

[NotSoSilentBob]

I don’t rate Hamilton any higher than Vettel. Great in a dominant car, not so amazing without one.

As opposed to Alonso, and Verstappen.

[NotSoSilentBob]

Vettel’s 2008 Monza win was MASSIVELY over-hyped. If you actually sit down, and look at the facts of the weekend, you will come to the realization that it wasn’t that amazing at all.

[Kalmake]

Vettel’s 2008 Monza win was MASSIVELY over-hyped. If you actually sit down, and look at the facts of the weekend, you will come to the realization that it wasn’t that amazing at all.

And the car should have been DQed for the entire season because it used RBR/Newey IP. <- My unpopular opinion.

[chrisj]

Formula one was a lot more enjoyable before the internet and before there were hours of pre and post race broadcasts. 

[Clatter]

Formula one was a lot more enjoyable before the internet and before there were hours of pre and post race broadcasts.

The Internet and the pre/post race stuff is easily avoided. The bit in the middle isn't as good though.

[PeterScandlyn]

Addressing the question.....Unpopular F1 opinions are like an err, um, err....back-passage. Everyone has one....

[JRodrigues]

I don't mind about the halo. I don't mind about 'ugly' cars.

[sjakie]

Then the crashgate should have been discovered before the end of 2008, because FIA is not one, who retrospectively changes results after the season is done and dusted. Like they do in Olympics - still retrospectively disqualifying people, who doped 10 years ago. Whether that's good or bad, is up for debate.

 The FIA scrapped the results of the 1986 San Remo Rally where all Peugeot teams were disqualified on false grounds, I presume to favour the Lancia factory team. That decision was taken a few months later (december 86 or january 87 I think) and resulted in Markku Alen being world champion for a few weeks before having to hand it over to Peugeot's Juha Kankkunen...

[Henri Greuter]

 The FIA scrapped the results of the 1986 San Remo Rally where all Peugeot teams were disqualified on false grounds, I presume to favour the Lancia factory team. That decision was taken a few months later (december 86 or january 87 I think) and resulted in Markku Alen being world champion for a few weeks before having to hand it over to Peugeot's Juha Kankkunen...

 

That the desicion was reversed in '86 was because of the blunder by the Italian authorities to ban the Peugeots from the event in order to secure Lancia should win instead of allowing them to continue in the event under appeal and then see what would happen. When the DQ was deemed to be not correct, there was little else to do but....

 

Henri

[Cornholio]

- Driver chosen car numbers are a useless American gimmick. Car numbers should be like it was before, WDC gets 1, his teammate 2 and then the teams get the following numbers in order of previous year's WCC.

 

Agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment, although I don't think we can blame our friends across the pond for this one. IndyCar and NASCAR numbers may be illogical but at least they are assigned to the entrant where they belong, and not the driver. F1's new system is a rip off of that horrible MotoGP one.

[RECKLESS]

I don't mind about the halo. I don't mind about 'ugly' cars.

That's my mantra for the winter.

[sopa]

To add

 

- Aesthetics are overrated. The beauty of development is to let designers come up with what they think is the best aerodynamical solution, regardless of how it looks like.

[Dan333SP]

Here’s another one I’ve been reflecting on:

- The reason attending races in person is (was) exciting is the sound.

I started attending GPs in the 90s and went every year up to ‘14. Since then I’ve gone to 1 race. The turbos really suck all the air out of my enjoyment.

[TheRacingElf]

I prefer full course yellows over local yellow flags or virtual-safetycars.

[PlatenGlass]

To add

- Aesthetics are overrated. The beauty of development is to let designers come up with what they think is the best aerodynamical solution, regardless of how it looks like.

But if they're ugly purely because of stupid ad hoc technical rules, then I think complaints are legitimate.

[monolulu]

Here’s another one I’ve been reflecting on:
- The reason attending races in person is (was) exciting is the sound.
I started attending GPs in the 90s and went every year up to ‘14. Since then I’ve gone to 1 race. The turbos really suck all the air out of my enjoyment.

To me the sound was overrated I hated to have to wear ear defenders. Much prefer it now when you can here the crowd roar!

[cpbell]

Thought I had seen a thread along these lines, but couldn't find it.  I don't want this to become a source of frustration for the moderators, so please keep it civil. 

 

Anyway, here are a few of my thoughts that probably go against the grain of opinion.  I am, after all, from Norfolk, a county that is known for "doing different":

 

 

 

George Russell has yet to show the results that his promise suggested he'd produce

 

BTCC is over-rated

 

W Series is a waste of time, as the cars are underpowered and the most sucessful driver in the field can't get a drive elsewhere

 

Most Formula E circuits are too twisty and short

 

Sergio Perez is perennially under-rated

 

Lewis Hamilton should have retired at the end of last year

 

Sebastian Vettel ought to have retired when he left Ferrari

 

 

 

Anyone else got any ideas?

Edited by cpbell, 23 May 2022 - 13:49.

[mclarensmps]

McLaren would be a frontrunning team had Ron Dennis not been ousted from the team

[H0R]

McLaren would be a frontrunning team had Ron Dennis not been ousted from the team

 

This. 

 

 

Furthermore:

 

• Open wheel cars do not belong on Superspeedways. Not even IMS.
• Spec racing is always more exciting than any more open formula.
• Jarno Trulli is hard to beat in terms of race craft.
• AtlasF1 > Autosport

[PayasYouRace]

There was a thread. Apologies for the search function being so unfriendly. We have no control over that. Threads merged.

[IrvTheSwerve]

Motorsport should be dangerous.

 

Watching F1 in person is nowhere near as good as it used to be.

Edited by IrvTheSwerve, 23 May 2022 - 14:02.

[JRodrigues]

Alonso is a whiner...

[Hide==on]

 

That's not unpopular.

[ThadGreen]

Thought I had seen a thread along these lines, but couldn't find it.  I don't want this to become a source of frustration for the moderators, so please keep it civil. 

 

Anyway, here are a few of my thoughts that probably go against the grain of opinion.  I am, after all, from Norfolk, a county that is known for "doing different":

 

 

 

George Russell has yet to show the results that his promise suggested he'd produce

 

BTCC is over-rated

 

W Series is a waste of time, as the cars are underpowered and the most sucessful driver in the field can't get a drive elsewhere

 

Most Formula E circuits are too twisty and short

 

Sergio Perez is perennially under-rated

 

Lewis Hamilton should have retired at the end of last year

 

Sebastian Vettel ought to have retired when he left Ferrari

 

 

 

Anyone else got any ideas?

 

Disagree with your first point.

 

No opinion on your 2nd, 3rd and 4th points.

 

Agree on your 5th, 6th and 7th points.

 

Back in the day Dennis Jenkinson was vocal and habitual critic of Jackie Stewart due to Stewart's concern for safety. 

[Zoe]

 

• AtlasF1 > Autosport

 

 

Is that really an unpopular opinion?

[pdac]

Thought I had seen a thread along these lines, but couldn't find it.  I don't want this to become a source of frustration for the moderators, so please keep it civil. 

 

Anyway, here are a few of my thoughts that probably go against the grain of opinion.  I am, after all, from Norfolk, a county that is known for "doing different":

 

 

 

George Russell has yet to show the results that his promise suggested he'd produce

 

BTCC is over-rated

 

W Series is a waste of time, as the cars are underpowered and the most sucessful driver in the field can't get a drive elsewhere

 

Most Formula E circuits are too twisty and short

 

Sergio Perez is perennially under-rated

 

Lewis Hamilton should have retired at the end of last year

 

Sebastian Vettel ought to have retired when he left Ferrari

 

 

 

Anyone else got any ideas?

 

Can't really comment much on point 2, but the others seem totally reasonable to me.

[cpbell]

There was a thread. Apologies for the search function being so unfriendly. We have no control over that. Threads merged.

Apologies for starting a new thread.

[Gravelngrass]

TOs should be banned again.

 

Vettel's 2017 and 2018 seasons were much better than they appear because the Mercedes was more dominant than people think and he had the worst end of the stick when it came to incidents with Ham. 

 

Races would be better with no pitstops.

[Outsider]

Ricciardo is not funny

[cbo]

It is impossible to judge the relative merits of cars and drivers based on publicly available data, so people should just stop making uninformed comparisons, shut up, watch the race and accept the results.

[Cornholio]

Races would be better with no pitstops.

 

The problem with this one (I agree with the sentiment btw) is that if it ever became a popular opinion, you can just imagine F1 mandating some 2005-style rule that banned tyre changes completely.

 

My own view is a slightly modified version of yours, that races would be better with the possibility/option of no pitstops.

[LolaB0860]

Refueling was a good thing in F1

Canadian GP 2011 was mainly meh

Being reserve F1 driver is complete waste of time

SPEED TV F1 commentary was the best there was for F1

Pre-qualifying should come back to F1 as should anyone wishing to enter on race-by-race basis

F1 doesn't need cost cap

Every series should have tire war

In spec racing like F2, the importance of being in "good teams" is overvalued. The truly good will rise to top regardless

Formula E cars are rebranded spec cars with very limited OEM effort

NOLA Indycar race should happen again

Indycar is a great series but too much personality driven

WTCC should have kept S2000

ALMS / Grand-Am merger never should have happened

ILMC was better than WEC

LMh / LMDH is the worst racing concept ever

Hughes de Chaunac ruined prototype racing

GT3 (or it's legacy) ruined GT racing

Success ballast is terrible but preferable to BoP

Spec racing (in sportscars) is not great but at least preferable to BoP

Okayama is the best circuit in Japan

Oschersleben circuit is nice

Istanbul circuit is nothing special

Edited by LolaB0860, 23 May 2022 - 17:19.

[garoidb]

The Brazilian Grand Prix in 2008 was the most dramatic title decider I’ve ever experienced, and I don’t believe it’ll ever be matched.

 

It has been matched  .

[Cliff]

Jamie Chadwick is nothing special and would be trundling around at the back of the field if she ever made it to F3/F2.

[cpbell]

 

 

My own view is a slightly modified version of yours, that races would be better with the possibility/option of no pitstops.

YES - this!

[Anderis]

Suzuka is overrated

[Cornholio]

I agree with a fair chunk of these...

 

Canadian GP 2011 was mainly meh
Pre-qualifying should come back to F1 as should anyone wishing to enter on race-by-race basis
Every series should have tire war
Formula E cars are rebranded spec cars with very limited OEM effort
Indycar is a great series but too much personality driven
LMh / LMDH is the worst racing concept ever
Hughes de Chaunac ruined prototype racing
GT3 (or it's legacy) ruined GT racing
Success ballast is terrible but preferable to BoP
Spec racing (in sportscars) is not great but at least preferable to BoP
Istanbul circuit is nothing special

 

But on the bolded one, are you referring to the 2017 semi-spec LMP2 rules? Because if so, while he was very vocal in lobbying for it, and I disagreed strongly at the time, at the end of the day he was a biased voice saying what he felt was best for his company, I personally lay the blame at the feet of the FIA/ACO, whose job it is to be neutral, for agreeing with him. Ignore this if you're referring to something else though!

 

The IndyCar one also popped out (probably because I happen to be catching up on 500 qualifying as I'm writing this), and it's something I've felt for quite a while without fully realising it till I think about it. I followed it strongly every year from 1993, even through the split years, but into the second half of the 2010s I found my interest gradually waning and now while I'll make an effort for the 500 I no longer catch every race, and if I'm honest it's probably because all the drivers I'd ever followed have all retired, lost their full time drives, or in two cases, been killed, and there hasn't been anything left to properly keep me intrigued. Whereas say with F1, while I similarly feel a disconnect with the newer generation of drivers, at least there's other things going on with the different cars etc.

[Risil]

Liberty Media have been really good for F1

[Risil]

Estoril is the best race circuit built in the last 50 years

[Risil]

Carlos Sainz has risen without trace to the best seat in Formula One

[Scaboo22]

Jenson Button was as good or maybe even slightly better than Sebastian Vettel and would have won all those championships with RedBull all the same. Especially since that car was so stable at the back because of the blown diffuser, it would have been a perfect fit for Jenson's driving style and he would have been untouchable.

Glad to get that off my chest. 

[Beri]

Suzuka is overrated

That's not unpopular in my opinion. It's the truth.

[Dan333SP]

Here’s another one I’ve been reflecting on:

- The reason attending races in person is (was) exciting is the sound.

I started attending GPs in the 90s and went every year up to ‘14. Since then I’ve gone to 1 race. The turbos really suck all the air out of my enjoyment.

 

5 years on and I still very much agree with this. The sound sucks, and turbos are slowly ruining my enjoyment of sportscar racing as well, especially as the GT cars of the world have almost universally gone turbo for efficiency reasons. 

[Frood]

That's not unpopular in my opinion. It's the truth.

As an actual racing circuit, i.e. producing good racing, definitely. I'd go as far as to say that Spa and Suzuka are actually two of the worst racing circuits on the calendar.

A good circuit does not necessarily equal a good racing circuit.

In the same vein, "new" Hockenheim is a better racing circuit.

Edited by Frood, 23 May 2022 - 18:51.

[Mat13]

Sprint races are cool.

[Frood]

Also, don't know whether this is popular or unpopular, but I still maintain McLaren took the wrong Sauber driver in 2013. I think Kobayashi had the potential to be a better driver than Pérez long-term.