Negativity and Haterism trend....

[Manoah2u]

So two, in 18 races. One caused by a safety car, the other which would've drawn countless penalties in previous years. Not ideal really is it.

And still, despite that, light years better then the last couple of years.

Light years.

I can genuinely only imagine you didn't watch F1 in previous years.

What wheel-to-wheel battles did we see when Schumacher completely dominated the sport and drove that fiery red car away from the start never to be seen again until he was well parked into the pits after the finish by any of the other competitors?

Do only the 1st 2 drivers count? What about Bottas, Massa, Ricciardo, Vettel this year? Alonso? did we not see on-track battles? we saw 6 cars all lined up to battle eachother for 6th position. It may have not been a podium spot, but there was definately some track battles going on, and good ones at that even.

I wonder whether people just shut their eyes from the rest of the entire F1 field and just watch the 1st 2 cars and stamp it with 'boring' because Vettel isn't in between? Would it still be 'bad' if Vettel in a red Ferrari swooshed away like Schumi did?

We had a spectacular season with 2 cars flipping over due to contact and nobody was jailed. You couldn't even sneeze last year or a driver got a penalty. I remember how an outstanding overtake of Grosjean over Massa was penalised.....this year is indeed lightyears better compared to this aspect.

[GitanesBlondes]

About aesthatics.....I think we honest-to-god should be happy that F1 regs haven't turned F1 cars into those hideous indy cars of nowadays

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/u ... y-2014.jpg
http://www.autoracing.com.br/wp-content ... genaud.jpg
http://images.thecarconnection.com/med/ ... 2504_m.jpg

If any, this breaks the entire 'spirit' of the series - regardless of performance. With these 'blocks' around, the entire
'open wheeler' idea is slightly destroyed. I can understand it would 'reduce' chances of inter-wheel contact thus launching another car into the air with 200mph.

this looks much better imho

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... ualify.jpg

I'm not saying F1 cars of late, aestethically, have not had better days. But still, it could be far, far worse.

Problem is that's a rationalization that I see far too often with everything relating to F1's woes these days.

Just because it could be worse, doesn't mean it should be accepted by those who don't care for it.

It's also what's called the relative privation fallacy.

[mertol]

They are still beautiful none the less; yes the rear wing should be bigger aesthetic-wise. However, after 6 years it doesn't disturb me anymore.

I think the complex wings are also part of the problem with dirty air. All these little winglets and various shapes require clean air to do their thing.
The 3 part qualifying too - they reduce the number of cars on track and help achieve the so important clean air for every car.

[turbof1]

They are still beautiful none the less; yes the rear wing should be bigger aesthetic-wise. However, after 6 years it doesn't disturb me anymore.

I think the complex wings are also part of the problem with dirty air. All these little winglets and various shapes require clean air to do their thing.
The 3 part qualifying too - they reduce the number of cars on track and help achieve the so important clean air for every car.

Yes I can agree with that. I personally feel that DRS is the right philosophy, but not the right approach. Teams should be allowed to have more downforce in the corners when being within 1s of their competitor. It's less artificial then just having more top speed, and it fixes the problem instead of trying to compensate it.

I don't mind the qualy format; nobody likes to see a driver competing for pole getting his chance ruined by a backdropper. A top 10 shootout brings it down to the core.

[xpensive]

The aero-dependency with bizarre frontwings, only goes to prove how hollow the "road relevance" argument for the engines is.

Just ban frontwings and diffusers and the cars will be cars again, close racing possible and costs will be slashed dramatically.

[turbof1]

The aero-dependency with bizarre frontwings, only goes to prove how hollow the "road relevance" argument for the engines is.

Just ban frontwings and diffusers and the cars will be cars again, close racing possible and costs will be slashed dramatically.

Formula 1 never has been about road relevance. It has been used throughout the history of f1, but nobody with a bit of mind takes that serious nor should we ever take that serious.

If we however ban wings and diffusers, F1's speed will drop dramatically (btw, diffusers are infact road relevant compared to sport cars). Nobody wants an even yet slower F1.

If I want to watch a road relevant autosport I'll watch DTM. Oh wait they have diffusers too.

[xpensive]

As long as the cars hit 370 km/h on the straights, everybody will be happy, while nobody can tell if they are slower in the corners.

Besides, it will all be compensated by close racing.

[mertol]

I think banning wings would make the cars slower on the turns but faster on the straights and overall much slower. People are already crying that the lower series are as fast as F1. My solution would be much thicker scrape plank - increasing the ride height of the cars. The thickness can be reincreased each season bringing the pace back to the desired target without huge development costs.

[turbof1]

As long as the cars hit 370 km/h on the straights, everybody will be happy, while nobody can tell if they are slower in the corners.

Besides, it will all be compensated by close racing.

No offense, but you aren't "everybody". For me F1 without wings would be hideous. And as said the wings are there for a performance reason. F1 isn't drag racing.

[ParkerArt]

I ask once again, What wheel to wheel battles? I can't recall once.
A wheel to wheel battle is when two or more drivers go at it hammer and tongs for lap after lap.

Hamilton vs Rosberg in Bahrain
Vettel vs Alonso in Silverstone

Plus plenty more smaller fights.

So two, in 18 races. One caused by a safety car, the other which would've drawn countless penalties in previous years. Not ideal really is it.

Alonso and Ricciardo is Germany...
Bottas and Alonso in Melbourne...
The first half of the race in Austria...
The last half of the race in Hungary...

[Mr Alcatraz]

Yup, it's like groundhog day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo

I think 2014 has been great because:

• The sheer technical complexity of the new PU
• Torque often exceeds traction so we see cars squirm as the power goes down exiting from corners
• Hearing tyres squeal in pit stops
• The sound of the turbo and ERS
• Close competition for the WDC between team mates up to the last race
• Ricciardo establishing himself
• Alonso race craft
• Williams showing its worthwhile sticking through the hard times
• The driver merrygoaround has gone on for longer than I can remember
• Massa enjoying his post-Ferrari career
• Button smiling even though he is being treated appallingly - he's come out with some good one liners too
• The curious case of Vettel missing in action.
• The drama of teams going bust (not a good news story, but it has livened things up)
• The fact there is still so much going on in F1, normally everything has gone cold by now.
• The improvements at Interlagos showing that new doesn't have to mean bad.
• Tyres have sensible durability

You left one out:

• Kimi receiving corporal punishment from Fred

[Richard]

So two, in 18 races. One caused by a safety car, the other which would've drawn countless penalties in previous years. Not ideal really is it.

Did you not watch the race at COTA? http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewto ... 81#p544681

[xpensive]

As long as the cars hit 370 km/h on the straights, everybody will be happy, while nobody can tell if they are slower in the corners.

Besides, it will all be compensated by close racing.

No offense, but you aren't "everybody". For me F1 without wings would be hideous. And as said the wings are there for a performance reason. F1 isn't drag racing.

Doesn't matter what you think either, Formula 1 has almost totally lost its lure to the public and sponsors, with or without wings.

[turbof1]

Doesn't matter what you think either, Formula 1 has almost totally lost its lure to public and sponsors, with or without wings.

Ratings has declined yes, and the trend needs to be reversed. Just not by something as drastic. There are a multitude of issues which work against eachother. And as you obviously see, opinions differ.

[GitanesBlondes]

Regarding on track battles in the midfield, the reason they seem so fresh at the moment is because the biggest mistake that was made years and years ago with TV production was the insistence on staying with the leaders for most of the race.

They rarely broke away to show anything going on in the midfield, and had they been willing to do that, it would have done wonders for showing other things to prevent the boredom factor. Some races you did get it, many more you did not. There were far more on track battles that simply never got shown to the public on TV.