Has F1 regressed in recent years?
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I would like to know what people think. I was looking at this video the other day…
…and it occured to me just how pathetic looking and sounding modern cars are when compared to this beast. Surely we should aim to keep pace with cars of the past, not fall behind? Granted, you wouldn’t want to increase the speed but is it really necessary for such a humongous fall in speed. Pole at Monza in 2005, fully loaded with fuel was 1:20.878, in 2010 with hardly any fuel pole position was a rather tardy 1:21.962. Is such a reduction in speed really needed? They are talking of reducing it by a further 5 seconds in 2013, is that something that really needs to happen?
Well the cars are heavier now, you can’t compare a 2010 car to those because the fuel tank was smaller along with the chassis. Also you are forgetting 2009-2010 cars have had way less aerodynamic aid than those cars, it was this that caused so much problem with overtaking.
I don’t care about lap times, I already know the cars of the earlier years were faster but I know that we have much purer racing now. Oh and being at Silverstone this year I didn’t see any evidence of the cars looking pathetic or sounding weedy, V8’s are still pretty beasty.
I think the cars still sound pretty damn ferocious, but it does irritate me as well that lap times haven’t been getting any quicker over the past 4-5 years. However, what really matters is the overtaking and pure spectacle of the sport… and I cannot say that has gotten any better. So I gotta agree with newnhamlea1 on this .. slower cars and more processional races.. leads to a degradation of the sport.
Honestly I would find it boring if we saw new lap records year after year, lap times are just seconds to me. At the end of the day the capacity for the cars to go faster is much greater than their capacity to be safer and rule changes eventually get swallowed up in terms of laptime so they have to be drastic.
@Icthyes Are you honestly saying f1 was less safe 5 years ago than it is today? The only major changes in terms of safety are high cockpit sidewalls, more wheel tethers and a few other chassis adjustments. I, although not an expert (yet) do not believe that if f1 stil used V10’s the sport would be less safe, I also do not believe that if the 2005 speeds had been maintained, the sport would be any more dangerous than it is in 2010. The FIA’s continuous restrictions infuriate me.
On a side note, the current cars have grown on me, but i still prefer the look of the pre-2009 cars. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.
My answer is 50/50 on this one as believe the modifications to suit the rule changes in the last few years have been a major cause to less overtaking. I’m also scepticle about next years changes, KERS – yes, movable rear wings -WHY? The best thing about all the changes is geniuses like Adrian Newey always re-invent the wheel and find new ways to keep the cars within that 1sec margin despite the restrictions.
I must say the V10s sounded much better than our current V8s, but I’m looking forward to our new turbo units in 2013!
As for the rest of it, change is change, and F1 is no stranger to constant flux and change.
Yeah the V10 era cars were awesome. But the racing wasn’t necessarily more or less exciting. I’ve watched a few races from the 80s and they weren’t that much different from races today.
I do love the sound of the V10 cars more, but the V8 is no slouch. What I miss are the looks, not the ridiculous cars of 07, 08, but the simpler cars of the late 90’s and early 2000’s. The McLaren in that video is just so pretty.
No
To further develop the point I made above, I really don’t think that F1 has regressed at all. I think it has progressed.
The sound of those V10s may have been something special, but if you want loud cars, go watch drag racing.
I think we have some of the best on track battling, so many top quality drivers. We haven’t had this quality since the late 80s and early 90s.
I don’t get the reason why people are always trying to find something wrong with the sport. Can we not enjoy it? I created a post on this forum to get some positive praise for the sport for this exact reason.
Of course we shouldn’t blindly go through the seasons thinking everything is fine, lets not change a thing, because we don’t want some kind of domination by one team with stagnant rules. You’ve got to stand back and ask whether the sport is good enough sometimes.
I think rule changes are good and will keep the sport interesting. We might not always like these changes, but for the mostpart, change is good in this sport.
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