Halfway through the season it’s probably not a surprise to learn the Monaco and British Grands Prix have been the most popular races so far.
The two action-packed races have been voted the most popular so far on this site. Here’s the results in full:
Monaco comes out on top narrowly ahead of Britain with the similarly unpredictable and exciting Canadian Grand Prix next.
Spain often gets criticised for producing dull races and this year is no exception so far with the Catalunya race coming out on the bottom.
Will we see a better race than we did at Monaco before the year is out?
Read the original discussions about each of these races
- 2008 Australian Grand Prix discussion
- 2008 Malaysian Grand Prix discussion
- 2008 Bahrain Grand Prix discussion
- 2008 Spanish Grand Prix discussion
- 2008 Turkish Grand Prix discussion
- 2008 Monaco Grand Prix discussion
- 2008 Canadian Grand Prix discussion
- 2008 French Grand Prix discussion
- 2008 British Grand Prix discussion
Tom
16th July 2008, 17:48
I would hate to be a cynic but there is another trend which would coincide with a large amount of your readers being British, I do wonder if it had been Hamilton spinning and Kimi winning whether Silverstone would have received such a score…
M Smith
16th July 2008, 18:40
If Hamilton had spun and Kimi won, I would have rated it a perfect 10! :P
Instead I give it a 9 – not for Hamilton winning the race, but I hope you understand me. I’m not a Hamilton fan. The general British F1 fan (non fair-weather fans aside) is probably different though.
Chaz
16th July 2008, 19:13
reason = RAIN. Most tracks including the boring Herman Tilke ones become exciting when the rain falls. Spa in Belgium is one of very few that are exceptional regardless of wet or dry conditions.
TommyB
16th July 2008, 19:31
Spa was boring as hell last year :(
Its been great that we’ve had so many great races this year. Apart from France the last 5 races have been great stuff. Not to mention a cracking first race to start the season with! :)
Sav22
16th July 2008, 19:34
No surprise about Malaysia, Bahrain, Spain and France – all snooze-fests.
Rabi
16th July 2008, 19:38
All the best races were in adverse weather/track conditions. This should make Singapore really interesting.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
16th July 2008, 21:47
Tom – Perhaps, but Canada’s up there as well and it wasn’t Hamilton’s finest hour. Plus Hamilton is behind Kubica, Alonso and Raikkonen in the ‘most popular driver’ poll.
Loki
17th July 2008, 1:02
Hamilton being behind Kubica et al is because not everyone here is on the Hamilton bandwagon, for whatever reason – although the majority which accounts for less than 40%, are British that visit this site. But most have probably been following F1 for sometime pre-Hamilton era.
I should probably vote on these races more, but I found the British GP more gripping than Monaco – I’m a Ferrari fan and I would never want to discount them…whatever faith I have in the duo. But the British GP made me go up and down, and in the end that’s what sport is about IMO – emotion.
I didn’t like the result, but given Heidfeld’s move on a McLaren and Ferrari, and Barichello’s sterling result for Honda it was a good race. If Kubica placed 7th, it would’ve been an easy 10.
Steve K
17th July 2008, 3:08
Chaz is right, it’s all about the rain. There are many more plot developments in the rain.
Jian
17th July 2008, 4:25
There is definitely a Hamilton backslash among the older F1 fans from the pre Hamilton “era” and we can probably note that the newer fans in general isnt hardcore enough yet to hang around Keiths blog.
We can only speculate the reasons but one factor is the media wankfest, I dont watch ITV but everyone watching is complaining. Why Kubica isnt feeling the heat back home in Poland might be the British mentality described in this article: http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/sunday-review/regulars/culture-why-british-sports-stars-were-born-to-lose-859645.html.
so its a combination of factors. Anyway the races ranked highest are as many have pointed out due to rain and unpredictability, that Hamilton just happens to master those conditions better than others is a coincidence and nothing to do with his legions of British fans surfing this site, because they dont exist in those nr as Keith pointed out.
Personally I think that weve had a amazing season so far with 4 races ranked around 8 and 1 good race in Turkey. If we keep up this ratio we should have another 4-5 good races to look forward to. Making this season the best since perhaps 2005. I mean a classic Monaco or Silverstoner race happens what, every 5 years?
Jian
17th July 2008, 4:27
Keith btw did you do a race review graph for last season, link?
Derek
17th July 2008, 9:27
I’m in my 50’s and watched GPs since Jim Clark & Graham Hill raced on TV. I’ve attended about a dozen British GP’s during the Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill era. I would not call myself an expert but I’m an enthusiast and a Lewis Hamilton fan. I’ve always supported the British drivers. I’ve never considered Scott’s, Irish or English with GP drivers, only British. I really enjoy watching a great driver or drive, I’m a fan of the Fins. But I believe Lewis is special and for once he is not German or Brazilian or even Finnish he is British!
Abhishek
17th July 2008, 9:34
Tom – I don’t find any reasoning behind your statement. The races ranked here are pretty much there cuz of the merit and not because of Ham win or not
Jean
17th July 2008, 9:48
It comes back to the same old question , which is that F1 cars generally have difficulty overtaking , especially when one ahead is only around 3/10’s a lap slower. As we have seen the rain changes that completely. The problems been partly solved by loss of TC and next year with reduced aero. and slicks should further improve the show. Then the dry races at the “boring” tracks should become , maybe not as chaotic as this years Monaco and Silverstone , but exciting none the less. Something to look forward to. Unfortunately I’m starting to see a similar trend (as what F1 has been through in last 8 years) developing with Moto GP , it’s either Stoner (lately) who takes off in the lead , or Pedrosa and unless they fall off , they will win , for sure. At least Rossi seems to not take off ahead any longer – whether deliberate or not , it sure adds to the excitement – and the delight of the sponsors , no doubt.
Chalky
17th July 2008, 10:01
I agree with Loki. Watching Monaco and the British GP you had no idea if the leading driver “would” get round the circuit without a mistake or incident.
When you have a GP where the driver leading has a large lead you would normally have a boring GP. Nowadays mechanical breakdowns are rare, so the uncertainty on the outcome comes from the weather. Even Lewis admitted that he was concerned he was going to mess up in the wet.
Then again, how many of those that voted were actually at the GP? If you are there, it’s a whole different experience to watching on the TV. Even with a considerably duller British GP in 2004 that I had previously attended to this years, I probably would have rated it higher for being there, than for watching it at home.
Santiago
17th July 2008, 11:02
what is curious is that the top 4 races in 3 Hamilton won, and in the 4 Ferrari performed quite badly.
Excitement = Ferrari loosing?
Jian
17th July 2008, 11:52
Santiago: no curiousness at all if you just take some interest in reading earlier posts. If Ferrari ever won in an exciting way then we would ahve seen that race on top as well. There is no bias for or against any driver/team in these votings. Truth is excitment = unpredictable conditions. (ok Massa figure skating is hilarios as well)
sChUmAcHeRtHeGrEaTeStEvEr
17th July 2008, 14:21
chalky i watched the race at silverstone and on tiv when i got back, if anything its better on tv because you know whos where etc.
santiago, hamiltons 3 wins have come in the 3 most chaotic races this year. generally ferrari victories are 1-2’s and everyone knows that after the pit stops they are told to coast to the flag so they are boring.
Oliver
17th July 2008, 14:22
I don’t think I’ve ever come across so much persecution mentality in any sport as I’ve seen amongst F1 followers.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
17th July 2008, 14:39
Oliver – what makes you say that?
_Ben_
17th July 2008, 15:45
It has been a great season so far, I would say my favorite race has been Australia because it had everything
I don’t know why I just really like getting up in the middle of the night to see the first race. I’ve done it since I can remember. I hope they don’t make all those races night races, it will take away that certain feeling of your alarm going off at 3.30am and jumping out of bed full of excitement.
Chalky
17th July 2008, 16:08
sChUmAcHeRtHeGrEaTeStEvEr – You need to get yourself an FM radio with decent earphones and then you can follow radio Silverstone (87.7FM) throughout the event. Keeps you up to date with everything. Also, position yourself near a TV screen and you can see everything else too.
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