And Lazenby , you can **** RIGHT OFF . you didn’t have to ask Horner about off track issues and other questions
I know I'll keep watching... I've been doing this for way to many years to quit. I really encourage you guys to try IndyCar. You'll absolutely love it. Fantastic, close, hard racing that really hits all the buttons that F1 has missed over the last god knows how many years.
And Nascar, great race last week at Atlanta, probably the best I've seen. The nutters were racing 4 wide for a few laps without wrecking, and it finished with a 3 car photo finish.
I'd say that over the last decade or more, Indy has totally become my go-to for a good racing fix. Occasionally you'll get a stinker of a race, but even the stinkers have way more to offer than what we have just witnessed.
Looks like we got our answer on the competitive order. McLaren a bit better than we expected, Aston a bit worse. Definitely close again behind RedBull, but not a huge amount of racing through the field today, unfortunately. It’s best not to draw too many conclusions from one track. This one is a tyre killer and should play to the RedBull strengths, could well be closer over the next few races,
I could somewhat handle the Max dominance, if it wasn't also F1's naked pursuit of money at the expense of everything else. They're ramping up prices for fans to attend, closing shop to new entrants to make more money for existing teams, replacing circuits with history and reasonable racing with street circuits the cars are too big for... And all the while refusing to address the unfairness R2B2 create, or the fact Haas will never try to compete, or that the stewarding decisions are utterly impenetrable, or that TV direction is terrible and planned around showing ads on track as much as the action. The pandering to Netflix and allowing them to create fictional drama in their TV series because it pays well. That all this extra money still isn't improving conditions for marshals, or the travelling team members. I could go on but you all already know it Asking fans to commit 24+ weekends a year to following the sport properly is astonishing when the on-track product isn't matching up. In 2023, there wasn't a single change to the constructors standings in the final 3 races, and the top 3 was set with 8 races to go. It's a similar story in the driver's standings, where the top 2 was unchanged all season and third was settled with 7 races to go. I don't watch pre-season football games when there's nothing on the line, why would I watch an F1 race which has zero bearing on the championship? Increasing the number of races just makes the gaps in the championship bigger, and reduces the chance of luck creating interesting outcomes. The combination of all of this is turning me off. I could handle your Lewis/Seb years somewhat because of the other things I enjoyed about the sport. Just feels like all that's rapidly disappearing.
All entirely accurate. I could live with the RBR dominance if there were some other redeeming aspects to the racing, but their isn't any. Even when a pass happens it's DRS assisted the vast majority of the time, which is a bandaid that's been depended on for far too long. The sport may be called F1, but it's not the F1 we all fell in love with many years ago. Big changes are needed and I don't know what the answer is but right now it's just hardly worth watching. I want to get off my seat, I want to see cars tucked behind each other, I don't want to not know the outcome by the first corner. Hell, they have even removed the jeopardy of reliability and pit stops are so fast and routine that they play no impact in the race and people rarely stray on strat. There is very little to get excited about.
I don’t know the answers either, but I think some of what has happened is inevitable. We’re not going to get unreliability back, certainly not unless we go back to 10 points for a win and 6 points paying positions. Pit stops are going to be fast and reliable unless something significant changes. Hybrid cars are going to be big and heavy and require efficient aero - so DRS is needed to recreate the “hole in the air” advantage that less aerodynamically efficient cars benefitted from. I fell there’s an element of “depression” in some of the points, in the sense of not taking control of the things you can affect. Don’t have time for 24 races, where the outcome is known? Just watch 16 of them, or cut out the pre/post race fluff or watch the highlights. Don’t like Drive to Survive - don’t watch it - I don’t, so it makes no difference to me if it exists or not. Also the “grass is greener” effect - Haas will never compete vs. They won’t let Andretti in, for what most likely is a sponsored test session until GM’s engine comes along, if it ever does? Don’t get me wrong, I totally agree with some of the points - especially races that only add commercial value. I’d add suffering Pirelli’s shoddy product, because of their commercial offer to that list. I do think we’re in a couple of bubbles at the moment - 1) the green aspect, has compromised the powertrain side, with consequent implications for the cars overall and what can be done with the rules to aid racing. 2) We have a bundle of extra people currently interested in the product and they are, generally young city dwellers, who seem to be big RedBull/Max fans which is likely going to prevent the regulators redoing the Vettel years and deliberately targeting the leading car/driver. Ultimately, the field has halved the gap at what is likely RedBull’s strongest circuit. Unless the radical looking RedBull has enabled a step that none of the others will be able to take this year, we should expect, several other winners through the season. Most likely Max will always be in the mix, so I don’t expect a close battle for the championship as I don’t see anyone else emerging as a regular challenger, but on a race by race basis we do at least have the chance of more variability.
here is my opinion of weekend 1 1. Red bull failed a nose cone test. this is not their ideal front wing. a major upgrade is coming imo. 2. Red bull sidepod major upgrade mooted for 4th race. 3. yes the track has high deg. so what? all that excuses is the fact that after a certain number of laps the comfortable verstappen then increased his lead massively as the others fell even further back. 4. the Ferrari brake balance under high fuel.load was disastrous and that wasn't present in any test or practice. why all of a sudden? 5. the merc power bands when turned up caused over heating. from nowhere. it's all well and good tooling about in tests and practice but the second the power goes up they have not got the cooling? disastrous. it wasn't even hot. 6. the only thing to cling to is ferrari were quick in quali but the second the drs train was broken the inferior perez sailed by and just stuck there in 2nd under no actual pressure.
