F1 killing itself
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Only problem with that alteration is that the run-off at the corner before the swing bridge couldn’t be made any bigger due to the water.
@damonsmedley – Actually, it could. The breakwall and harbour berths continue beyond the extent of the circuit.
And the organisers had to dredge up some of the harbour to construct turns four and five on the current layout. They could do a little bit to expand the run-off.
I’d be interested in seeing it, but I’m not sure it would give us particularly good racing. It’s a pretty busy track as it is, but this would probably make it a little boring.
The problem with Valencia is the high number of traction zones – there’s eight of them. The definition varies, but we could reasonably say it is an area of the circuit where a driver must brake to half (or more) of his approach speed for a corner, and then accelerate back to that original speed. This design cuts out four of them.
I would certainly warm to Valencia if better racing could happen. But as with Abu Dhabi I suspect that visually it’s always going to look bland. China for instance has had some spectacular races- but I am still slightly put off by how bleak it is. F1 has an aesthetic appeal too- Tilkedromes are often weak or uniform in this respect, Sepang being a notable exception.
While F1 is very enjoyable at the moment, I think it is perhaps going overboard on the “improving the show”.
In principle I do agree with DRS as the wake of the defending car is an unfair advantage – DRS simply negates this. I accept that sometimes the DRS has been calibrated to make it to easy to pass.
I don’t agree with the chasing of vast amounts of money to service CVCs debt by extracting as much money from the sport as possible. The farcical thing is that by going to places that can afford a lot of govt. contribution the times of the race starts are being altered from the usual 2pm local time starting time to suit the core audience in Europe. This resulted in the farce that was Malaysia 2009.
The tyres, I enjoy on the whole however they do seem to sensitive.
All told however I’d rather have the current F1 than the F1 of 8 years ago.
I enjoyed this race a lot. There were concerns over tyre wear but in the end, it wasn’t extreme. Plus DRS worked OK, it gave a chance, but you had to make it stick, and we got plenty of overtaking outside the DRS zone (yes, helped by the DRS, but not a “free-pass” like we saw in many other races, specially last year).
I think we’re near the perfect balance now. Tyres are tricky, DRS isn’t “as good” as it was, and there’s action everywhere in a very very tight field.
To say “F1’s killing itself” is a bit too much, if not ridiculous.
qualifing in barca was a complete joke, if we,d paid good money to see , we wouldnt be best pleased,
our decision to do le mans instead of an F1 seems still to be the right choiceI’m American on business in Europe and went to the Spanish Grand Prix yesterday. We have arranged sponsorships for an F1 team but as much as I love F1 its far too tricked up now. Shumacher is correct the tire situation is dictating the racing, then you have KERS and the open flap but only if you’re trailing a car by so a specific amount of time….Please enough…..lets get back to what makes all racing great…the drivers and cars…. And speaking of Shu why should a racing accident be a 5 grid spot penalty in Monaco…or why if Lewis is low on fuel after qualifying should he go to the back of the grid…how about just placing him at the end of the Q3 list? Way too many regulations and interpretations as F! tries to claw itself back into the US in Austin this year and New York in a few years.
I hate the argument that F1 should be about speed.
Speed is a by product of the finest automotive engineering in the world. Last years championship winners by a country mile had one of the consistently slowest cars on the track (based on speed trap data). Now to me THAT is exciting.
Fastest car wins? No thanks. F1 offers so much more than that. It’s far more interesting to see which team can manage the thousands of variables the best and come out on top.
5 races, 5 different winners……can anyone recall this happening for the start of a season? I look forward to each race, wondering who might win the next race and so far that could be anybody…….great stuff
To answer John’s question: 1983 ;)
But I agree with him. How can one complain about the current state when the racing is great, the results are difficult to predict and the competition is so close? I honestly don’t see it as killing itself currently save for the consistently climbing costs. If it keeps going up, eventually the fanbase is going to shrink due to tickets being beyond most people’s ability to afford it or justify the worth. Rather than moan about the regulations, I think we should be wary of Bernie’s greed.
I believe this is the best start to an F1 season that I have ever experienced (since 1997, that is).
Last year, it was hard for me to enjoy the sport at times. It’s not as if I was thinking about turning my back on F1 but occasionally I had more fun watching WTCC or DTM races than F1.
I guess it depends on whether what you expect from F1 is what you are getting. Sometimes it’s hard to understand what exactly I don’t like about F1 and what I would like to see change. For instance, I mainly blamed DRS for my dissatisfaction in 2011 but this year the adjustable rear wing hasn’t spoiled my fun.
Now I think that I probably was more tired of too much predictability, I mean, seeing the same 5 guys in the front all the time and seeing the same guy win almost every qualifying and every second race, no big surprises, no underdog triumphs. Moreover, I’m also not a fan of any of the drivers of last year’s top 5 teams, which probably made it harder to be delighted about the outcomes of the 2011 races.
There obviously isn’t just one correct recipe for the perfect F1. You cannot say that NASCAR or drag racing are ridiculous, boring or don’t belong to highest class auto racing just because they are different from F1. Each of these series is great in a sense. But I generally like F1 the way it is at the moment even if there will always be things that I would change if I could.
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