UKC

Has been for years now, not just the current domination of Mercedes, it was Red bull before them and someone else before them. It's just a procession with all the cars end up in more of less the order they started in, breakdowns being the best hope for advancement. When the 'Highlights' feature a 'battle' for fourteenth place then you know there is something seriously wrong with the sport.

Sorry, just venting, it used to be quite good, now its about as interesting as < insert your bon mot for boring here> ...

In reply to GravitySucks:

What I find annoying is the prominence that BBC give it in their sports coverage.

In reply to GravitySucks:

Totally agree! I've given up with, it's utter boring shite now!!!
What I don't understand is why people still pay the crazy high prices to watch it, why people still sit and watch it at home (the whole weekend) and why sponsors still sponsor it.

Its utter garbage!! But, all about corporate money money money.

Lets get rid of most of the rules, let them use whatever tyres they want, give them all the same budget and let the over paid go kart drivers actually race each other!!!!!

In reply to GravitySucks:

i used to love it
now i dont even care who wins.
too many silly restrictions,its only a few seconds a lap quicker than the next category down now.it even sounds dull.
get rid of all these electric parts that are supposed to help the enviroment. i dont watch it to help the enviro,i want to see cars spitting flames and waking the dead.sod the bloody enviroment

id prefer to watch footage from motorsport from the days of no silly controls.the group c racers that would piss pass these new cars on the straights.
footage of senna on board fighting the over powered engines on youtube is far more fun.

In reply to GravitySucks:

I tend to do a sodoku or crossword to make my 2 hours watching a bit more productive.

Wouldn't it better to enclose the wheels like in Nascar so that we could have a bit more argie-bargie on the corners.
(a la Touring cars)
Or maybe semi-solid tyres. Seems like the modern cars are too delicate. One contact and that's a flat....end of race. Front wing damage...end of race. I would n't go 1/2 way around the planet for what we get, even with multi-cam super slo-mo.

In reply to GravitySucks:

Lost interest years ago, in watching millionaires race on foot , or in cars around a track, or play golf, football or tennis, has just turned me away from mainstream sports.

A game of Tiddlywinks, or a rubber of wiff waff anyone?

For real motor sport, watch the IOM TT on ITV4 (9.00PM) all this week

In reply to GravitySucks:
It's still better than watching 22 men occasionally kick a bag of air around a field for 2 hours. Football takes up at least 30 hours of tv a week so a couple of hours of cars driving around is much better. Although it was way better when Murray walker commentated!

In reply to adam11:


...or the Le Mans 24 hours race this weekend on Eurosport.

In reply to adam11:



couldn't agree more. Proper edge of your seat stuff and some great personalities, shame the coverage is a bit average.

cheers
mark

In reply to Jim C:

Channel 4 used to regularly broadcast Sumo, back in the day. Bring back the Sea Slug!

In reply to Everyone:

Maybe try this easy two step plan to improve your lives and rescue you from the evil clutches of F1/football/yourselves:

1) Turn the telly off
2) Go outside (there's loads to do)

In reply to I can eat 50 eggs:


Better still: sell it. Use the money you get and save on the licence fee and sky subscription for a holiday.

jk

In reply to GravitySucks:

It's insanely dull. I haven't watched a full race in years. Lewis Hamilton stropping like an angry teenager at Monaco was utterly pathetic.

The BBC paid top $ at the expense of other sports to cover it - I doubt they'll renew when the current deal expires.

In reply to mike reed:


Agreed.


When they did that, didn't drivers die at fairly frequent intervals? Please tell me you don't want that.

To be fair, F1 is pretty amazing technologically. To think that they have an engine no bigger than the one in my Ford Focus is pretty amazing. If you got rid of all the rules, it would still be a procession because there are no longer massive technological advances to be made. It is all in the detail - a thousandth of a second here or there.

In reply to Siward:

I remember, it was great.
A lot of them were not even Japanese.

They showed you them in training, and you saw how they were treated as supertars by the fans.

There was also a Indian wrestling sport (can't recall , the name) that was good too.

And of course Womans' Beach volley ball just beats themm all hands down.

In reply to ByEek:


Indeed.

In reply to mark s:

But we 'need' a healthy environment, &/or an environment which is (more) habitable for humans.

I can't agree one bit.

In reply to Timmd:

a few cars racing around a track isnt going to save the planet when china are building a coal plant a day. i watch fast cars to see fast cars,not do a token bit fro the planet.

In reply to JMGLondon:

If you think that's dull, you should try watching Formula E.

In reply to GravitySucks:

youtube.com/watch?v=PbqovmFh5sw&

from 2004 when f1 was at its fastest. at the best circuit,this is when f1 really was good to watch

In reply to mark s:

'Raises hand', China is actually making massive progress in becoming greener.

In reply to Chris Harris:

Don't think this entirely fair. Formula e is in its first season which should give it a bit of leeway. So far though its been very competitive (stock chassis) and has had plenty of overtakes, crashes and other incidents all for a fraction of the cost of f1. It does sound weird tho.

F1 though is inherently uncompetitive due to the free budgets, and select few competitors setting the rules in their favour. Just the engines sorry power units cost 20m per team per season!

As it happens I've followed f1 for as long as I can remember and its always had bad periods Sunday was a particular low point. The safety aspect whilst good has lost a certain something in the racing, and the tarmac runoffs have ruined the sport for a relatively insignificant safety improvement.

I actually like the new power units and fuel limits but think its been done badly. The rules should be much simpler and more free. E.g. each car has 100kg of fuel use it however you like be it a v6 turbo, v8, wankel etc this would drive genuine research and benefit for the real world.

It is in need of a do or die shake up. More restriction on aero to make following another car an advantage rather than a disadvantage as now, free up testing proportionally to championship position to reduce chance of 1 team dominating. Some form of enforceable budget cap. Even distribution of funds or at least only based on performance (currently Ferrari the biggest budget team receive more for turning up than Williams got for third last year). Rules set by governing body. If the big teams don't want to enter then who cares?

In reply to ByEek:

When they did that, didn't drivers die at fairly frequent intervals? Please tell me you don't want that.

Wasn't it more a case, that the regulations didn't keep pace with the advancement in technology and that these were then tightened in response to the frequent accidents?
Rallying relaxed their regulations with the introduction of 'Group B' and that certainly caused problems!
In fact, there is a documentary about Group B on iPlayer called Madness on Wheels: -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01fcncc/madness-on-wheels-rallyings-c...

My bon mot is "as boring as F1"

At least I don't have to watch it.

In reply to Jim C:


Kabaddi?

In reply to GravitySucks:

youtube.com/watch?v=sxXtpMngivM&

if F1 sounded like this,maybe interest would be refuelled

In reply to GravitySucks:

I'm thinking of running a book on how long it is before F1 gets the FIFA treatment.

In reply to GravitySucks:

Tell me about it. I've not watched it consistently since the days of Schumacher vs Hill (eek, 20 years ago). The other day I saw the 10 second report on the news for the day's race which went along the lines of 'Lewis Hamilton led from start to finish'. That's all I needed to know and was glad I didn't watch the race.

In reply to GravitySucks:

As someone pointed out to me. Watching one man on his own going around a track on his own on Sunday night was more interesting than the Canadian GP.

In reply to Jim C:


Hands down where though?

In reply to GravitySucks:
I hope you replied to the GPDA Global Fan survey on how to improve F1 then?

Ultimately there are a load of things to be considered. Yes Montreal was a boring race however the rest of this season has been pretty exciting with lots of action.

Something needs to be done about drivers not being able to push. But the question is what? Make the tyres last longer and shrink the room for strategy and risk even more procession races? Relax the aero rules and end up with cars running huge downforce... but leaving much more dirty air behind stopping other cars from getting anything like as close... again leading to more procession races? Bring back fuelling? Whats the difference between this and tyres that don't last? Very little.

The literally billion dollar question in F1 at the moment is how to increase the racing spectacle without making it more artificial. I personally feel we need to have regs to maximise aero bit minimise dirty air. We need to make the cars significantly harder to drive. JB claimed this years cars are just not taxing the drivers. Make them very powerful (1000bhp+) with huge torque. Keep the slimmer tyres but make them more durable. Widen the cars slightly. Get rid of DRS, forget refuelling but increase fuel limits. Add minimum regulation to computerised fuel flow rates leaving fuel saving to skill of the drivers and not to engine management.

I could go on.

Ultimately, I agree that F1 needs work. But bitching pessimistically doesn't help anyone. Come up with a few ideas and feed back to the bodies that can do something about it.

EDIT: and about dominance in F1, why does everyone think this is a new problem? Yes, Merc are dominating now, Red Bull before that, Ferrari before that (takes us back to 2000)... prior to that it was a two horse race for twenty years between Mclaren and Williams. So it's no different these days at all.

In reply to A Longleat Boulderer:

My bitch isn't with F1. Its with the BBC giving it disproportionate coverage using my licence fee.

In reply to A Longleat Boulderer:

This season has been dull compared to the previous one. There hasn't been a single interesting on-track battle for the lead, which is what people want to see. Having Rosberg pull to within one second of Hamilton isn't interesting because you know that a) Hamilton is probably just controlling his pace and b) due to aero, he won't be able to make a pass and will waste his tyres in a few laps.


Seems to be a bunch of issues:
- Ease of driving the cars (although it's not as bad as it was in the days of traction control).
- Being unable to push. More durable tyres and perhaps a minimum fuel usage limit might help?
- Difficulty of following another car. More dependence on mechanical as opposed to aero grip? Tighter controls on rear diffusers?
- Dominance of one or two teams. Both the budget cap and some sort of return of in-season testing could help? Perhaps some sort of staggered in season testing where the amount you get is dependent on your constructor's standing, so the teams in last get maximum time?


I think people hate the feeling that unless the dominant team has a car failure, a strategy cock up or their drivers tangle, they're going to get the 1-2. It's slightly better with Merc than Ferrari or Red Bull because at least they allow the drivers to fight. The 2007/2008 seasons and also in 2010, drivers from at least two teams stood a chance of winning the championship coming into the final race.

There's definitely some degree of rose-tinted specs going on here. Everyone remembers the great races and forgets the banal ones. Plenty of the great races have been the result of certain circumstances such as rain or crashes (e.g Spa 2008, Turkey 2010, Canada 2011) which you can't control with regulations.

In reply to GrahamD:


In what way is it disproportionate? The BBC is only covering 10 of 19 races. 4.62 million people tuned in on the BBC for Canada, there is clearly a strong interest in the sport. For reference, c. 6m tuned in for the boat race.

In reply to A Longleat Boulderer:

Not just the TV race coverage, there is radio coverage and lead ups. The viewing figures are misleading IMO. The viewing figures for well presented sport could be high for any event - the fact that the BBC makes it high profile creates the viewing, in effect. Plus the inspired choice of theme music of course

I wonder how many people actually 'tune in' because its F1 as opposed to the Sunday afternoon couch potatos channel surfing ?

In reply to GravitySucks:

Its been boring since they changed the formula from 4.5l unsupercharged and 1.5L supercharged. Ah, the scream of the BRM at Silverstone when it did manage to complete a few laps! Those were the days, my friend... etc!!

In reply to A Longleat Boulderer:


Easy. Watch other formulae. ITV4's BTCC racing coverage is much more interesting, with far more action.

In reply to captain paranoia:


This may be true, but the cars are just so shit. DTM and WTC slightly better.

I think, as said earlier, the LMP1/GT stuff is more interesting, with better looking cars.

(The Group B Rally film was a fun reminder of what can be done with cars if you let engineers loose, but rallying isn't really racing)

In reply to captain paranoia:

I'll agree, BTCC is great. I don't think it's easy to transfer ideas from there to F1 however. Two completely different series.