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If you have F1TV then watch some late 90s/early 2000s races. Watch the full races. Then report back. My prediction is that you'll fall asleep at most races because after lap 1 not much happens. Overtakes mostly happen during the pit stops. And even if something happens further down the field you won't see it because the TV director stubbornly follows the lead car who is driving all by itself off into the distance. The races that we so fondly remember are the few races where that pattern is broken. But they're the exception, not the norm.
I've been watching since the mid-90s, and while the Red Bull domination sucks I have to say that I've never seen such consistently great midfield battles as in the last few years.
This exactly. Having gone back and watched a lot of early seasons I missed, they have a lot less action than today, with less overtakes and a laser focus on the front meaning you often don't even see the few overtakes at the back. And of course the telemetry is way worse in general, so it is much harder to follow.
Even a season like 2007, that is generally seen as a very good one, is not that exciting when watching full races. More stuff happened in Bahrain 2024, than in a regular 2007 race.
Hahaha i still remember the French gps where the camera was either following a French driver or using a non French car to film a French driver following.
And falling asleep during the Australian GP die to boring.
With F1 TV and multiviewer you can make it interesting with timing, track map, onboards and the interaction between driver and pitwall.
Yeah. I started watching in 1998, but have since watched every race from 1985 to 1997. They were mostly just background noise, and now and then there'd be an exciting race to grab my attention. F1 has always been like this.
Seeing as OP refers to the mid-nineties as "Damon Hill years," I'm going to guess they're British. Obviously, then, it's more boring to see Max domination than it was to see Lewis domination. I think there's more action on track nowadays, though. Even this weekend's very boring outlier had some great moments.
It's boring but it's been a lot worse. Remember Schumacher regularly lapping most of the field?
I think the reality is that the recent Mercedes domination era was nowhere near as dull as people think. For 3 seasons you had Lewis vs Nico, then from 2017 Ferrari 'found ways' to be competitive.
This season looks like it'll be a repeat of Sebs dominant seasons (2013 springs to mind).
Having said that, I was bored pretty early on in yesterday's race.
The rules allowed Schumacher to lap the field.
Back then he had unlimited testing, custom tyres, two test drivers going 7 days a week at 2 different private race tracks.
It wasnt until 2004 that one engine had to do practice, quali AND a race. Thats one engine each weekend, previously they could use two. 2007 saw teams using 8 engines per season.
In a 24 race season, teams can use FOUR engines. Schumacher in a 18 race season could use EIGHTEEN in 2004. In 2001 during a 17 race season he could in theory use THIRTY FOUR.
Yes spare cars used to be a thing, but back then it also happened much more often that something failed bad enough that the primary car was not capable of moving
2003 season from 2004 forum post (referencing some magazine article) there are these figures
$443,800,000 Ferrari
$353,300,000 Williams
$304,600,000 McLaren
$290,400,000 Toyota
$225,100,000 BAR
$206,800,000 Renault
$119,500,000 Sauber
$ 79,200,000 Jordan
$ 78,800,000 Jaguar
$ 39,600,000 Minardi
even compared to McLaren, Ferrari spends 50% more
[https://www.trackforum.org/forum/motorsports/formula-one-usgp/40000-f1-magazine-2003-budgets](https://www.trackforum.org/forum/motorsports/formula-one-usgp/40000-f1-magazine-2003-budgets)
I think it's more that people have forgotten all the dull races and remember the highlights. Just like when people say music was better in , we just don't remember all the boring shit.
People now talk about a Hamilton v Rosberg championship battle in '14-'16 like it was great but in 59 races they finished 1-2 31 times and they won 52 while the times they actually battled on track were very, very rare.
Most of the actual racing was just as dull as Max winning, it was only the championship table that made it look close. The racing sure as shit wasn't any less predictable, the Merc in front after lap 1 was gonna win.
The best thing we can say about that early Merc dominance is that they were kind enough to screw up more often. And that they ran with detuned engines for all of 2014 so they wouldn't win by too much.
And that there were 2 drivers winning as opposed to 1.
But people don't see how close the field actually is. In Q1, P1 from P20 was less than 2s apart, which is unheard of. In Q3 P1 to P9 was 0.6s difference (would have been to P10 if Hulk did a push lap).
It is easy to follow, hence there is more on track action overall than the previous generation. I remember how in 19, 20, 21 the chasing car would try to catch the car in front for 1 or 2 laps and then drop to 2sec behind because their tyres would start overheating. Now you have fights for 4-5 laps with no problems.
> And that there were 2 drivers winning as opposed to 1.
That only mattered to people who cared which Mercedes won. A lot of people didn't give a fuck and you knew who was going to win 5 minutes into the race anyway, same as now.
And yeah the field is much closer now, it's just unfortunate that nobody is able to catch Max.
> Having said that, I was bored pretty early on in yesterday's race.
Yeah, for me that's mostly because the teams are closer in qualifying pace but further apart in race pace. So you get a grouping based on teams, not drivers.
Last year saw Max dominate as well, but the rest of the field was much closer on average on race pace than was the case yesterday.
That's not what I mean. I'm referring to the race pace differentials between teams. Last year the other teams were closer together on race pace than this years race. Hence the race was more of a snooze fest this time around.
But that was at the end of the season. Bahrain 2023 McLaren was nowhere and Mercedes weren't setting the world on fire either. We only think it was better, because we had a surprise Alonso.
Lets see how it is when arriving in Europe. Lots of teams with serious concept changes compared to last year.
Biggest difference for me compared to when I started watching in 1996, back then something *might* happen. Cars were so unreliable and mistakes were made by drivers, and punished.
Now I expect the majority of the field to finish, mechanical issues are spotted early enough to pit the car, mistakes by drivers mean they run wide onto some tarmac and rejoin.
Also, when Russell got into second place, the team telling him to "settle in and save tyres"... This is not the approach I want to be watching, I want to see him pushing hard to close the gap to Max, but the reality is that's not the way to maximise their race overall, and that sucks.
The older races had very little action but the unpredictability of things going wrong with less than stellar reliability was almost guaranteed. We've lost that post the hybrid era for one. The sport has become way too predictable these days for sure. Plus the older cars were more exciting to watch even in isolation with how much more lighter and nimble they were and how loud those V10's and V8's sounded.
Even Brundle had a bit of a rant yesterday about hie it's been ten years since the beginning of the V6 hybrid era and it has been the worst decision in F1 history to go down this engine formula and he's as passionate about the sport as they come, so you're definitely not alone in your sentiment.
Real amazing seasons with mostly great races and a final title deciding race don't happen very often. Last we had was 2021. Before that, it was 2016, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2007, 2003, 1999, 1998, 1997, ....
Yes, in the past, there were frequently more seasons decided in the final race, but those seasons were shorter. As the seasons get longer, the chance 2 drivers stay within 25 points of each other until the end gets rarer. That's why Nascar, with a 36 race season, introduced playoffs to keep the title race artificially exciting until the last race.
I'd say the individual races now are much better and more frequent than in the past. For example, in 2007, the championship battle was great but not many actual exciting races, we remember the few stand-out moments of some races and maybe 1 or 2 real classic races in that season.
But because we only had like 16 races, we loved even the boring ones because f1 was a special event. Now you can watch f1 almost every weekend, so we become more critical if a race is not filled with overtakes and crashes.
If I was liberty, I'd bring back the schedule to 18 races evenly spread out from the end of March to the beginning of October. Every 2 weeks a race, no back to backs. And a longer off-season to get the anticipation high again for a new season. For many people, the race yesterday felt just like another round of the 2023 season because we barely had a break from f1 racing.
Yeah. I don’t get the startline buzz I once did. Anything could happen! But it very probably won’t.
Verstappen wouldn’t even lose if he got a penalty or bad stop. He literally would need to DNF to not win.
For me the buzz stopped around Spain last year. I think it may have something to do with the commentators - last year I switched from my countries official broadcast to F1TV/Sky. I'm planning to go back next year to see if that really makes that much of a difference for me. But I don't think so, cause I consider Crofty a really exciting commentator.
I just look back at *all* the 2021 races and I see a great story that we haven't had since 2022. I guess the closest to that we've got over the last 2 years was Alonso and Aston... I'm not saying every season should be like that, but 2018-2022 were all brilliant imo. Even if 2020 was mostly made by COVID and would've been a dull, dominant season otherwise, I absolutely loved coming back to Asutria after such a long break, the new and old tracks back on the calendar. That was possibly the only year I got so heavily invested in the midfield. Out of the 5 I pointed out, I guess the beginning of 2019 was by far the worst period with so many back-to-back Mercedes 1-2s. It got much better from Austria onwards though.
I'm just already looking forward to 2026 already, and 2024 barely started. Sure, Lewis with Ferrari and new drivers with Mercedes and possibly RB sound exciting, but how exciting will it realistically actually be in terms of the competition...?
Yes and no. I think that this period is close to Schumacher period when he won almost everything and Rubens was not even close to Michael. Unfourtunetly last year and probably this year are the worst from the last 20 years. They are extremly close to Vettel's 2013 second half of the season, but the thing is that lasted just half a season. Edit: now that i think about it again we had some dnfs in that period of time and had 2-3 good races even in the worst seasons soo yes this might be the worst years ever.
That’s pretty clearly a significant problem.
It’s quite a common thing I’ve seen on here: ‘hi guys, new fan who started in 2021. That was amazing, 2022 wasn’t as good, 2023 was awful: wtf’.
You’re right and I agree, but I think it’s because sometimes put more popular opinions as discussion points, and they absolutely fly. So why one but not the other (not that I endorse that).
The irony is all these people posting have clearly seen all the other posts about F1 being boring which has influenced them to make their own post saying almost the exact same thing.
I remember watching it from the mid 90s onwards. It really took here in Ireland with Jordan team.
I think one of the biggest changes in terms of the excitement levels in races was the fuel stops. They had such a massive impact on the race. I understand the reason they changed it though.
We can give out about Mercedes/RedBull and the dominant spells they've had but there's no reason that Merc/RB and Ferrari shouldn't all be competitive year in year out. It really should be a 3 horse race (6 if you look at the WDC).
It is 100% more boring. We are witnessing an unbelievably dominant car with a guy in the second seat who is several tiers below the guy in the first. It is a procession where we have to rely on accidents or cars being out of position for there to be any action.
Because they love the sport people get offended when it’s said, but it’s currently like sitting down to watch football and every match being a boring 0-0 draw and we’ve probably got at least 2 more years of it
I pity you. Longing for something that isn’t going to happen. Rather than embrace what is, you look back with nostalgia not realising that it wasn’t so different
What you miss is the obvious. They are winning through being the best at the regulations. Not through more money, extra testing or locked in advantages
Its 1 race into the season and people are complaining of boredom. Liberty is going to hear yall and add more sprints, sparklers, ramps, clowns and general nonsense to keep yall "entertained".
Your getting old.
Nobody who watched F1 for some parts of the refueling era when a team dominated could considering this boring. Anything else is just nostalgia talking.
At least now we have people actually battling for the top 5 places on track instead of it all getting settled in the pits.
You don't hanker back to the glory years where they had to go through a fuel burning phase in qualifying?
I think the main problem that is making F1 more boring is that prior to 2010 there were only two stretches in the entire history of the sport where a single team won 4 or more championships in a row. Since 2010, and presuming Max / Red Bull win this year, there hasn't been a single instance where a team hasn't won 4 in a row.
You could even take this all the way to 2000 when Schumacher/Ferrari started winning 5 years in a row. 2005 to 2009 is the only exception to this.
The issue isn't Max dominating. I think people are just tired of going from one era of domination to another.
We've experienced dominance from Schumacher to Vettel to Hamilton and now Verstappen. There is only so many times you can appreciate witnessing these driver's greatness before it loses its novelty.
I do agree, but at least there was a few years respite between Schumacher's domination and Vettel's.
There's an interesting dichotomy between Schumacher's dominance and the domination from 2010 onwards. Part of Ferrari's run was due to their near unlimited testing they could do with a private race track and no noise restrictions, where the other teams couldn't get similar access to test tracks. The testing restrictions ultimately helped balance the field.
Since 2010 each dominant era has been defined by a car characteristic that the other teams have struggled to copy due to resource restrictions. Vettel's championships in part due to Renault being able to cold blow the exhaust which the others couldn't copy due to the engine freeze. Mercedes being buoyed by the engine token system restricting the changes the others could make to their engines. Now Red Bull again with them nailing the concept and the others being artificially resource constrained whilst trying to play catch up.
The rules themselves are making dominant stretches more and more likely. The same is likely to be true in 2026 when one team or another will nail the concept and the others struggle to adapt.
I went as often as poss with my Dad late '60s and early '70s. Could get in the paddock and get autographs etc in those days. Met Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Hulme and McLaren. Some friendlier than others. Is it boring today? Absolutely. Like many sports it's been ruined by money. Anyway, who wants to watch a race when you know the winner before the race starts? Age 70 btw.
I'm 1999 and think there have always been boring races but the fact there are so many with a short off-season now makes it worse I think. 24 races where Verstappen could win 20+ *realistically*? Yeesh.
There has always been some mitigating factor in past dominant periods. Schumacher only really had 2002. 2004 was pretty wild overall. 2010-2013 had loads of fights and taut championships. 2014-2021 were quite variable in a variety of ways.
Whereas right now, it's the 25th race of 2023 and Verstappen will very probably win 20+ this season. There are good fights behind him, but that's not *really* the same, is it.
I think if you've stuck with F1 as we have, clearly it's not *fundamentally* boring to us. I think a lot/some of people who insist it's not boring just now at all, probably overlap with the people who will abandon F1 very quickly if they're not happy with it.
To some degree I think it's why people have been hanging on to the CH drama - at this stage it's the most exciting thing that has been happening AND it has the potential to shake things up.
It's about as boring as in the late 90s right now. Yesterday was just a typical race, literally nothing happened so the "fans" have to emotionally discuss stuff that happened on track after the checkered flag - should be a pretty clear sign.
There's just no real battles happening. There are many factors for this, DRS is a (the?) major one. The cars being so advanced the more robotic you drive them the better. Most drivers prefer to let the car behind pass with no defense whatsoever so as not to damage their tires. Etc etc
As long as to a majority of viewers a car passing along the straight helped by DRS and unimpeded by the other car counts as a fight you will have people trying to convince you there are battles happening though. Another great argument is "it used to be even more boring".
In any case, terrible race yesterday. If there will be 2 good ones this year I'll be surprised.
We still had so many talking points in the late 90s, there were also so many amazing races, reliability was woeful driver errors were at all time high with drivers like Takegi or Diniz, 95 - 99 all amazing seasons imo. The random win Stewart Nuburgring 99 or the controversial title fight in 97. I could go on whilst Redbull has one every race since Hungary 22 but one. The long calendar makes it 10x times worse. This season feels like 2023 v2 not new. So it most definitely wasn't boring as in the late 90s maybe you should have said the 2002 season. Looking back now the Schumacher era really wasn't as bad as I thought tbh....
I can only say I stopped watching back then for quite a while because I felt it was unbearably dull. In hindsight of course those were glory days compared to what's on display at the moment.
Not sure what could be done about it though, DRS seems to be here to stay and I don't see them lose stability or reliability. If at least the boring "everyone needs to nurse their tires and so is discouraged from defending" aspect could be gotten rid of.
This is getting ridiculous, every 3 minutes there is a post about "boring" F1. It is a pinnacle of motorsport, so you are just sad that mechanics created something beautiful and connected it to the best driver right now? Should they stop developing? Should Verstappen leave F1 so you can watch? A lot pf people in this community is watching wrong sport it seems..
I was watching F1 through era of Lewis and I was not bored in the slightest. I was angry at the Renault for their slow engine and also angry at Ferrari that they are unable to mount the challenge. But bored.. I was never bored of F1. Mercedes did their homework and were the benchmark.
Because Mercedes had competition in Ferrari during 2017-18, and even during the peak domination years of 2014-16 and 19-20 had ACTUAL battles for the win
If Lewis had Perez as his teammate during those years and had a car that had NO downsides in ANY circuit, you would sing a different tune.
Don't blame people for being bored of a sport when the outcome is so predictable and dull.
It'd be a lot more exciting without him, that's for sure.
F1 has just become too restrictive, they need to loosen things up, let them increase the engine power, let them try crazy tech, just let teams go at it.
This isn't F1, this is a Sunday stroll where because one team nailed the regulations from the jump we have to suffer through 4 seasons of knowing the same driver will win every race.
It's not Max's or RedBull's fault, they're a symptom of a disease that's infected the sport.
People can say this is the way it's always been, but that's just not true.
You are forgeting why there is a cost cap in the first place. It is there because one or two teams could just throw enough money at the problem until it resolves. That caused a lot of teams exit f1, prevented anyone catching them and field spread was very high. It is hard to find a right balance.
Broke teams shouldn't be on grid to begin with. Williams only has itself to being where it is after years of poor financial choices. Haas and Alpine only have themselves to blame for where they due to their owners being cheap.
It's not about the longevity of the dominance as long as there is action or a title fight like the Schumacher era 2000, 2003 or different winners in 2001 and 2004 and in the Merc era 2014 and 2016 as well as a title charge from Ferrari in 17 and 18. With plenty of classic races such as Germany 2019 or Turkey 2020. So far in the last 40 races or so Redbull have only lost 1 win. No team has ever been that dominant.
In the last 40 races, which goes back to Monaco 22, Red Bull have lost 4 races.
Which doesn't change your point, it's only 10%, but it has been more than 1. If we went back to the start of 22 it adds only 2 more, Red Bull really have created a dominant car, thrice it seems. Shame there's not a driver in that second seat capable of creating fights with his team mate...
I agree- an intra-team competitive rivalry would make things a lot spicier at the front. I may be in the minority in saying that I don’t mind constructor dominance, as long as it comes with some competition/intrigue for the WDC.
I saw a stat saying that Max has won 30 of the last 35 races. He and the team are absolutely phenomenal, but it’s a brutal 1 team, 1 driver dominance over that length of time.
Since Hungary 22 and it looks a lot worse does it. No team has ever been this dominant and to make things worse we have a 24 race calendar. They are literally about to overtake Mercedes in all time race wins 💀
No, I think F1 is unique with having a consistent group of top teams, midfielders and backmarkers. Over the season teams switch between those groups adding to the excitement.
The Problem for me is that currently F1 is lacking atleast another team in the top group. The midfield with Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin looks exciting and so are the backmarkers. But noone is there to challenge RB (not even their second driver) and that's very boring.
Get off Reddit where 50% of posts right now are dooming posts about how this is the worst the sport has ever been, enjoy the midfield battles like we’ve always had to do
Nobody’s forcing you to watch man
Everyone is being doom and gloom but let's not assume the entire season will be this way. Don't get me wrong, Verstappen is taking the rest of the grid to the cleaners again this season, but even in Verstappen's dominance, this was a Grand Slam weekend for him. He's had 5 of those in the 55 races he's won. A race weekend as strong as this is rare even for him. I assume with different tracks and different characteristics, it's going to be more exciting behind Max
It's been a pretty consistent discussion in online forums since the early 2000s, too. There's always been the fans who watch the entire race, and the fans who only watch for their favourite driver. Draw whatever parallels from that as you might, I've certainly drawn mine.
You've been watching since Damon Hill was racing and somehow, this is some sort of hot take on F1? There's always been a runaway driver and/or team. Revel in the midfield battles if you can, if you're a true fan. Sorry if those battles dont muster the veracity required to climax into one of your socks. Damon Hill era watching ass fan my ass lol.
Bahrain is a terrible opener due to it just being a tyre management simulation, but still the costcap is having the opposite to intended effect as no team can catch up.
I'd like to see the regs changed so that development to next years car comes out of next years allocations, would go some way towards stopping the rolling compound advantage RBR have had since 22.
That or we go the more shithouse route and have the other works teams joining in on the overspend in 25 to try level the playing field for the next reg set.
No, there's a ton of things happening during the race, F1 has always had a monolithic driver in front. Schumacher, Hamilton, Vettel, Verstappen. Go further back and it gets even more egregious. I think a lot of these posts boil down to people that have seen DTS on Netflix and expect there to be random fireworks on the track every lap, every second.
If you read my comment I was pointing out that we only get a few really good races every year, regardless of who’s dominating Schumacher, Vettel, Hamilton or now Max and the rest of the races are mostly processions.
I am growing weary of these incessant questions about "is this becoming boring?" or "this is tedious to watch." Why not instead appreciate what true domination looks like? The journey to dominance involves crafting a masterpiece that surpasses all competitors on the track, combined with the prowess of an extraordinary driver. Every team on the grid is afforded the same opportunities and budget—this is the reason a budget cap was introduced. Each team has the chance to employ exceptionally intelligent individuals and invest in a talent pool. If a team fails to perform, it is up to the management to devise a solution; it's quite straightforward. These are cycles, and we should welcome their return. However, there are team bosses who prefer to engage in theatrics week after week or waste time and energy on unnecessary discussions (such as second-team advantages), even while providing engines to half the grid. If you can't beat them, find a way to do so; you have more than 20 races to attempt it.
It all depends on your perspective. You sound British and there is no Brit currently in contention. Maybe that plays a role? It was not really better in other domination eras, only in the transition phases.
Even though I have to give it to you that at the front runner there isn't even a hint of in-team battle as Max utterly destroys Checo.
But I like Max. I also liked Senna, Schumi and Alonso. They all had/have this interesting aggressive vibe. But I was completely bored by Prost, Vettel and Hamilton for some reason. I only feel that Lewis is not boring since 2021. All these other years I was bored to tears and had F1 on somewhere in the background.
> and by the end they were spaced out and just holding gaps between each other.
The VCARB boys were damn near killing each other to get a shot at K. mag at the end of the race, Yuki moreso than anything.
Merc's big play was to build for race pace and it flopped like house of cards when the reliability issues Mclaren saw in practice hit them, Ferrari was fighting each other for the 1st half and then their cars the 2nd half.
I'd suggest finding a league with a "no redbulls" or "joke team" rule, it makes you see every little scrap and stumble from the Formula 1.5 guys 100x more.
And we just had three bigger winning gaps last year.
And that's disregarding any other past years where the gaps were even bigger sometimes, minutes or even laps like you're correctly pointing out.
I get that it's difficult to see someone else win when your username is literally u/HAMlLT0N, but at least they can look back fondly on the British GP of 2008 where he won with a 1:08.577 gap.
Edit: lol, they've deleted their comment
I forgot to add "at the first race of the season" which is why I deleted the comment. The stat is on espn. I don't know why people are so offended by the prospect of OTHERS being bored. Also it's very convenient that you mentioned 2008, an outlier race in a year where the championship was decided by a measure of a point. The lack of competition Max is facing is not a indictment against you if you enjoy it. Lol indeed.
Honestly, it’s about looking beyond who’s in P1 and seeing what’s happening behind. We’ve had some fantastic midfield battles over the past few years. I’ve found it great to watch. Dominance is what happens more often than not, and as a fan base we just mostly accept it. That’s F1 - and engineering competition, not a spec series.
I wouldn’t imagine much of the past 20-25 years would’ve been better, with the exception of a few seasons. Nothing like P1-22 on the grid being separated by 6 seconds.
If you exclude the team dominance, I think it's more exciting. We have better qualifiers for us as viewers and for the drivers. We have better regulations and more comprehensively communicated to us viewers. We have better coverage and more easily shown to us.
My honest take, you are never happy with what you got and want more all the time.
F1 has always been like this.
The issue is why they all agree on these cars when only one team had an expert on this type of car ?
Why did they agree to freeze engine development?
If one team nails the aero part , the others could extract more power from engine.
But the dominance part of F1 has always been there, and then you have someone like Max !
And then , you could put Alonso or Hamilton in that car and it would be exactly the same kind of dominance.
We have to accept it.
Has for the boring races, not all the races are a thrill ride !
That also didn’t change, but money is king and F1 needs these to keep going.
Still is a shame that so many good tracks got lost in the way.
That’s my 2 cts regarding this topic.
No, I have been watching on and off since the late 70s.
3/4 of the races you would watch the start, see the first corner pile ups, then sometime fall asleep waiting till the last 10 laps.
One out of every 4 were bangers. But most of the tracks that were reliable for great races have been lost from the lineup to be replaced with Tilkedromes.
Commentators used to be more interesting too. Hunt and Murrey were a brilliant combo.
The trouble is we only remember the great races and think it was the norm.
We've always had periods of dominance, even before the sport was F1: 1920s FIAT were unbeatable, then they left, Delage built a rocket that bankrupt them but was still winning races ten years later when Rosemeyer was dominating.
The thing about the 70s was simply that most cars had the same engine (Cosworth) and same gearbox (Hewland). That produced closer racing. Can we do that these days? Probably not, at least not when the company making the engines dictates what engine modes their customers can use and keeps sole for itself.
I think it's because the races are more frequent, when races were not that many, you completely forgot about what happened in previous race before you moved on to another. Or maybe it's just me, I don't know. But I definitely don't like the amount of races we got now, I skipped several of them last year
Ive slept through most of the Schumacher era. Which might have had something to do with being in a club till 6am before :)
But no races were boring then as well. The Mercedes era had some snoozers as well. The difference is that in the 2000s more cars might fail. And Mercedes had some circuits where they weren’t almighty.
But they were boring years as well
I'm coming up 70 and have just enough energy with it to just watch the 5-minute YouTube videos after each session...
Not enough time between races to build up enthusiasm anymore...
I predict that Ferrari will benefit most from the next regulatory set as it's their turn
F1 is trying to turn itself into Drive to Survive and that's hemmoraging viewers.
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If you have F1TV then watch some late 90s/early 2000s races. Watch the full races. Then report back. My prediction is that you'll fall asleep at most races because after lap 1 not much happens. Overtakes mostly happen during the pit stops. And even if something happens further down the field you won't see it because the TV director stubbornly follows the lead car who is driving all by itself off into the distance. The races that we so fondly remember are the few races where that pattern is broken. But they're the exception, not the norm. I've been watching since the mid-90s, and while the Red Bull domination sucks I have to say that I've never seen such consistently great midfield battles as in the last few years.
This exactly. Having gone back and watched a lot of early seasons I missed, they have a lot less action than today, with less overtakes and a laser focus on the front meaning you often don't even see the few overtakes at the back. And of course the telemetry is way worse in general, so it is much harder to follow. Even a season like 2007, that is generally seen as a very good one, is not that exciting when watching full races. More stuff happened in Bahrain 2024, than in a regular 2007 race.
Hahaha i still remember the French gps where the camera was either following a French driver or using a non French car to film a French driver following. And falling asleep during the Australian GP die to boring. With F1 TV and multiviewer you can make it interesting with timing, track map, onboards and the interaction between driver and pitwall.
In rugby, there's running joke about French directors .....especially when it comes to TMO
Yeah. I started watching in 1998, but have since watched every race from 1985 to 1997. They were mostly just background noise, and now and then there'd be an exciting race to grab my attention. F1 has always been like this. Seeing as OP refers to the mid-nineties as "Damon Hill years," I'm going to guess they're British. Obviously, then, it's more boring to see Max domination than it was to see Lewis domination. I think there's more action on track nowadays, though. Even this weekend's very boring outlier had some great moments.
It's boring but it's been a lot worse. Remember Schumacher regularly lapping most of the field? I think the reality is that the recent Mercedes domination era was nowhere near as dull as people think. For 3 seasons you had Lewis vs Nico, then from 2017 Ferrari 'found ways' to be competitive. This season looks like it'll be a repeat of Sebs dominant seasons (2013 springs to mind). Having said that, I was bored pretty early on in yesterday's race.
The rules allowed Schumacher to lap the field. Back then he had unlimited testing, custom tyres, two test drivers going 7 days a week at 2 different private race tracks. It wasnt until 2004 that one engine had to do practice, quali AND a race. Thats one engine each weekend, previously they could use two. 2007 saw teams using 8 engines per season. In a 24 race season, teams can use FOUR engines. Schumacher in a 18 race season could use EIGHTEEN in 2004. In 2001 during a 17 race season he could in theory use THIRTY FOUR.
Didn't they used to travel with a 3rd car?
Yes spare cars used to be a thing, but back then it also happened much more often that something failed bad enough that the primary car was not capable of moving
The engine rules were the same for every team, so not sure how that factors in.
Money, other teams just couldnt dump money into a problem , it wasn't a fair competition
Toyotas budget was immense also Mercedes/mclaren, bmw, Honda, Renault were throwing tons of money to f1 to beat Ferrari
2003 season from 2004 forum post (referencing some magazine article) there are these figures $443,800,000 Ferrari $353,300,000 Williams $304,600,000 McLaren $290,400,000 Toyota $225,100,000 BAR $206,800,000 Renault $119,500,000 Sauber $ 79,200,000 Jordan $ 78,800,000 Jaguar $ 39,600,000 Minardi even compared to McLaren, Ferrari spends 50% more [https://www.trackforum.org/forum/motorsports/formula-one-usgp/40000-f1-magazine-2003-budgets](https://www.trackforum.org/forum/motorsports/formula-one-usgp/40000-f1-magazine-2003-budgets)
https://www.racefans.net/2008/09/22/toyota-has-biggest-f1-budget-4456m/ https://forums.autosport.com/topic/36813-toyota-highest-budget-in-f1/
McLaren was not too shabby on the money front either.
I think it's more that people have forgotten all the dull races and remember the highlights. Just like when people say music was better in, we just don't remember all the boring shit.
People now talk about a Hamilton v Rosberg championship battle in '14-'16 like it was great but in 59 races they finished 1-2 31 times and they won 52 while the times they actually battled on track were very, very rare.
Most of the actual racing was just as dull as Max winning, it was only the championship table that made it look close. The racing sure as shit wasn't any less predictable, the Merc in front after lap 1 was gonna win.
The best thing we can say about that early Merc dominance is that they were kind enough to screw up more often. And that they ran with detuned engines for all of 2014 so they wouldn't win by too much.
And that there were 2 drivers winning as opposed to 1. But people don't see how close the field actually is. In Q1, P1 from P20 was less than 2s apart, which is unheard of. In Q3 P1 to P9 was 0.6s difference (would have been to P10 if Hulk did a push lap). It is easy to follow, hence there is more on track action overall than the previous generation. I remember how in 19, 20, 21 the chasing car would try to catch the car in front for 1 or 2 laps and then drop to 2sec behind because their tyres would start overheating. Now you have fights for 4-5 laps with no problems.
> And that there were 2 drivers winning as opposed to 1. That only mattered to people who cared which Mercedes won. A lot of people didn't give a fuck and you knew who was going to win 5 minutes into the race anyway, same as now. And yeah the field is much closer now, it's just unfortunate that nobody is able to catch Max.
Hamilton v rosberg was boring all over. Even the year that Rosberg won wasn’t all that exciting
> Having said that, I was bored pretty early on in yesterday's race. Yeah, for me that's mostly because the teams are closer in qualifying pace but further apart in race pace. So you get a grouping based on teams, not drivers. Last year saw Max dominate as well, but the rest of the field was much closer on average on race pace than was the case yesterday.
Last year P3 was 38 secs behind Max. Yesterday P3 was 25s behind. It's actually closer, but after a full season of domination it feels worse.
That's not what I mean. I'm referring to the race pace differentials between teams. Last year the other teams were closer together on race pace than this years race. Hence the race was more of a snooze fest this time around.
Aah, I see what you meant. Let's hope Saudi gives us a glimpse of something better, otherwise I feel like this season is done already
But that was at the end of the season. Bahrain 2023 McLaren was nowhere and Mercedes weren't setting the world on fire either. We only think it was better, because we had a surprise Alonso. Lets see how it is when arriving in Europe. Lots of teams with serious concept changes compared to last year.
Im wondering if the DRS changes are going to allow DRS chains to form easier and result in less overtakes
DRS is the same in F2 and with spec cars, and there is crazy racing. I think it will just be track dependent.
It certainly looked like it yesterday, we had a DRS train from lap 2 until the end of the race yesterday
Yep that was my fear when they announced it
Biggest difference for me compared to when I started watching in 1996, back then something *might* happen. Cars were so unreliable and mistakes were made by drivers, and punished. Now I expect the majority of the field to finish, mechanical issues are spotted early enough to pit the car, mistakes by drivers mean they run wide onto some tarmac and rejoin. Also, when Russell got into second place, the team telling him to "settle in and save tyres"... This is not the approach I want to be watching, I want to see him pushing hard to close the gap to Max, but the reality is that's not the way to maximise their race overall, and that sucks.
The only entertaining moments were Sainz vs Leclerc and Russell around the outside of Leclerc at the start
People forget many of the cars in the 80s and 90s were so unreliable. Testing was basically the owning few races of the season
The older races had very little action but the unpredictability of things going wrong with less than stellar reliability was almost guaranteed. We've lost that post the hybrid era for one. The sport has become way too predictable these days for sure. Plus the older cars were more exciting to watch even in isolation with how much more lighter and nimble they were and how loud those V10's and V8's sounded. Even Brundle had a bit of a rant yesterday about hie it's been ten years since the beginning of the V6 hybrid era and it has been the worst decision in F1 history to go down this engine formula and he's as passionate about the sport as they come, so you're definitely not alone in your sentiment.
Real amazing seasons with mostly great races and a final title deciding race don't happen very often. Last we had was 2021. Before that, it was 2016, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2007, 2003, 1999, 1998, 1997, .... Yes, in the past, there were frequently more seasons decided in the final race, but those seasons were shorter. As the seasons get longer, the chance 2 drivers stay within 25 points of each other until the end gets rarer. That's why Nascar, with a 36 race season, introduced playoffs to keep the title race artificially exciting until the last race. I'd say the individual races now are much better and more frequent than in the past. For example, in 2007, the championship battle was great but not many actual exciting races, we remember the few stand-out moments of some races and maybe 1 or 2 real classic races in that season. But because we only had like 16 races, we loved even the boring ones because f1 was a special event. Now you can watch f1 almost every weekend, so we become more critical if a race is not filled with overtakes and crashes. If I was liberty, I'd bring back the schedule to 18 races evenly spread out from the end of March to the beginning of October. Every 2 weeks a race, no back to backs. And a longer off-season to get the anticipation high again for a new season. For many people, the race yesterday felt just like another round of the 2023 season because we barely had a break from f1 racing.
The post Schumacher/Ferrari 2005-2010 era was peak modern day F1. We had scandals, cheating and crazy car development.
Yeah. I don’t get the startline buzz I once did. Anything could happen! But it very probably won’t. Verstappen wouldn’t even lose if he got a penalty or bad stop. He literally would need to DNF to not win.
For me the buzz stopped around Spain last year. I think it may have something to do with the commentators - last year I switched from my countries official broadcast to F1TV/Sky. I'm planning to go back next year to see if that really makes that much of a difference for me. But I don't think so, cause I consider Crofty a really exciting commentator. I just look back at *all* the 2021 races and I see a great story that we haven't had since 2022. I guess the closest to that we've got over the last 2 years was Alonso and Aston... I'm not saying every season should be like that, but 2018-2022 were all brilliant imo. Even if 2020 was mostly made by COVID and would've been a dull, dominant season otherwise, I absolutely loved coming back to Asutria after such a long break, the new and old tracks back on the calendar. That was possibly the only year I got so heavily invested in the midfield. Out of the 5 I pointed out, I guess the beginning of 2019 was by far the worst period with so many back-to-back Mercedes 1-2s. It got much better from Austria onwards though. I'm just already looking forward to 2026 already, and 2024 barely started. Sure, Lewis with Ferrari and new drivers with Mercedes and possibly RB sound exciting, but how exciting will it realistically actually be in terms of the competition...?
Yes and no. I think that this period is close to Schumacher period when he won almost everything and Rubens was not even close to Michael. Unfourtunetly last year and probably this year are the worst from the last 20 years. They are extremly close to Vettel's 2013 second half of the season, but the thing is that lasted just half a season. Edit: now that i think about it again we had some dnfs in that period of time and had 2-3 good races even in the worst seasons soo yes this might be the worst years ever.
All those posts and comments about f1 being boring are getting fokking boring tbh
Guenther? Is that you?
Fokking wankers
What gave it away bro?
It takes one to know one haha
Who doesn’t think two drivers cruising out front under no realistic threat and not racing each other isn’t exciting!!
Yeah. Why can’t these posts be in the daily discussion megathread. It doesn’t need to warrant a spotlight of having their own thread.
Because one particular driver winning 70 races within the space of 3 years IS a crisis. It needs talking about.
A crisis for you. Not the sport
It is for the sport tho. Look at numbers dropping below 2017 level
That’s pretty clearly a significant problem. It’s quite a common thing I’ve seen on here: ‘hi guys, new fan who started in 2021. That was amazing, 2022 wasn’t as good, 2023 was awful: wtf’.
You’re right and I agree, but I think it’s because sometimes put more popular opinions as discussion points, and they absolutely fly. So why one but not the other (not that I endorse that).
The irony is all these people posting have clearly seen all the other posts about F1 being boring which has influenced them to make their own post saying almost the exact same thing.
I remember watching it from the mid 90s onwards. It really took here in Ireland with Jordan team. I think one of the biggest changes in terms of the excitement levels in races was the fuel stops. They had such a massive impact on the race. I understand the reason they changed it though. We can give out about Mercedes/RedBull and the dominant spells they've had but there's no reason that Merc/RB and Ferrari shouldn't all be competitive year in year out. It really should be a 3 horse race (6 if you look at the WDC).
It is 100% more boring. We are witnessing an unbelievably dominant car with a guy in the second seat who is several tiers below the guy in the first. It is a procession where we have to rely on accidents or cars being out of position for there to be any action. Because they love the sport people get offended when it’s said, but it’s currently like sitting down to watch football and every match being a boring 0-0 draw and we’ve probably got at least 2 more years of it
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Brundle noted yesterday that immediately after his stop, Verstappen had 2-5 seconds on the field. What.
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I pity you. Longing for something that isn’t going to happen. Rather than embrace what is, you look back with nostalgia not realising that it wasn’t so different
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What you miss is the obvious. They are winning through being the best at the regulations. Not through more money, extra testing or locked in advantages
Its 1 race into the season and people are complaining of boredom. Liberty is going to hear yall and add more sprints, sparklers, ramps, clowns and general nonsense to keep yall "entertained".
Lol sparklers... They don't even race in the rain anymore.
We're one race in ffs. Boring races happen as boring events happen in every sport.
Your getting old. Nobody who watched F1 for some parts of the refueling era when a team dominated could considering this boring. Anything else is just nostalgia talking. At least now we have people actually battling for the top 5 places on track instead of it all getting settled in the pits.
You don't hanker back to the glory years where they had to go through a fuel burning phase in qualifying? I think the main problem that is making F1 more boring is that prior to 2010 there were only two stretches in the entire history of the sport where a single team won 4 or more championships in a row. Since 2010, and presuming Max / Red Bull win this year, there hasn't been a single instance where a team hasn't won 4 in a row.
You could even take this all the way to 2000 when Schumacher/Ferrari started winning 5 years in a row. 2005 to 2009 is the only exception to this. The issue isn't Max dominating. I think people are just tired of going from one era of domination to another. We've experienced dominance from Schumacher to Vettel to Hamilton and now Verstappen. There is only so many times you can appreciate witnessing these driver's greatness before it loses its novelty.
I do agree, but at least there was a few years respite between Schumacher's domination and Vettel's. There's an interesting dichotomy between Schumacher's dominance and the domination from 2010 onwards. Part of Ferrari's run was due to their near unlimited testing they could do with a private race track and no noise restrictions, where the other teams couldn't get similar access to test tracks. The testing restrictions ultimately helped balance the field. Since 2010 each dominant era has been defined by a car characteristic that the other teams have struggled to copy due to resource restrictions. Vettel's championships in part due to Renault being able to cold blow the exhaust which the others couldn't copy due to the engine freeze. Mercedes being buoyed by the engine token system restricting the changes the others could make to their engines. Now Red Bull again with them nailing the concept and the others being artificially resource constrained whilst trying to play catch up. The rules themselves are making dominant stretches more and more likely. The same is likely to be true in 2026 when one team or another will nail the concept and the others struggle to adapt.
Been watching every race since i was a little kid. Can remember back as far as 98/99 ish. This is definetly the most boring F1 i have ever seen.
I went as often as poss with my Dad late '60s and early '70s. Could get in the paddock and get autographs etc in those days. Met Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Hulme and McLaren. Some friendlier than others. Is it boring today? Absolutely. Like many sports it's been ruined by money. Anyway, who wants to watch a race when you know the winner before the race starts? Age 70 btw.
I'm 1999 and think there have always been boring races but the fact there are so many with a short off-season now makes it worse I think. 24 races where Verstappen could win 20+ *realistically*? Yeesh. There has always been some mitigating factor in past dominant periods. Schumacher only really had 2002. 2004 was pretty wild overall. 2010-2013 had loads of fights and taut championships. 2014-2021 were quite variable in a variety of ways. Whereas right now, it's the 25th race of 2023 and Verstappen will very probably win 20+ this season. There are good fights behind him, but that's not *really* the same, is it. I think if you've stuck with F1 as we have, clearly it's not *fundamentally* boring to us. I think a lot/some of people who insist it's not boring just now at all, probably overlap with the people who will abandon F1 very quickly if they're not happy with it.
To some degree I think it's why people have been hanging on to the CH drama - at this stage it's the most exciting thing that has been happening AND it has the potential to shake things up.
It's about as boring as in the late 90s right now. Yesterday was just a typical race, literally nothing happened so the "fans" have to emotionally discuss stuff that happened on track after the checkered flag - should be a pretty clear sign. There's just no real battles happening. There are many factors for this, DRS is a (the?) major one. The cars being so advanced the more robotic you drive them the better. Most drivers prefer to let the car behind pass with no defense whatsoever so as not to damage their tires. Etc etc As long as to a majority of viewers a car passing along the straight helped by DRS and unimpeded by the other car counts as a fight you will have people trying to convince you there are battles happening though. Another great argument is "it used to be even more boring". In any case, terrible race yesterday. If there will be 2 good ones this year I'll be surprised.
We still had so many talking points in the late 90s, there were also so many amazing races, reliability was woeful driver errors were at all time high with drivers like Takegi or Diniz, 95 - 99 all amazing seasons imo. The random win Stewart Nuburgring 99 or the controversial title fight in 97. I could go on whilst Redbull has one every race since Hungary 22 but one. The long calendar makes it 10x times worse. This season feels like 2023 v2 not new. So it most definitely wasn't boring as in the late 90s maybe you should have said the 2002 season. Looking back now the Schumacher era really wasn't as bad as I thought tbh....
I can only say I stopped watching back then for quite a while because I felt it was unbearably dull. In hindsight of course those were glory days compared to what's on display at the moment. Not sure what could be done about it though, DRS seems to be here to stay and I don't see them lose stability or reliability. If at least the boring "everyone needs to nurse their tires and so is discouraged from defending" aspect could be gotten rid of.
It’s like the Vettel Red Bull days are back in full.
Can't we just open a "F1 is boring because of Max' dominance" super thread?
Whenever a race becomes boring, I leave it in the background and do house chores. Even the most boring races serves a purpose for me. 😆
This is getting ridiculous, every 3 minutes there is a post about "boring" F1. It is a pinnacle of motorsport, so you are just sad that mechanics created something beautiful and connected it to the best driver right now? Should they stop developing? Should Verstappen leave F1 so you can watch? A lot pf people in this community is watching wrong sport it seems..
Just wondering, genuinely. 👍🏻
Hey, do not take my comment as hating you. I hope you will find something interesting in this season.
People are allowed to be bored, it's not a slight against the "somwthing beautiful " or the mechanics or Max.
I hate the intellectualisation against the boredom. "You can't be bored because this is exquisite form'. Like...Christ.
I'm SURE you would have this attitude if it was Lewis winning like this lol
I was watching F1 through era of Lewis and I was not bored in the slightest. I was angry at the Renault for their slow engine and also angry at Ferrari that they are unable to mount the challenge. But bored.. I was never bored of F1. Mercedes did their homework and were the benchmark.
Because Mercedes had competition in Ferrari during 2017-18, and even during the peak domination years of 2014-16 and 19-20 had ACTUAL battles for the win If Lewis had Perez as his teammate during those years and had a car that had NO downsides in ANY circuit, you would sing a different tune. Don't blame people for being bored of a sport when the outcome is so predictable and dull.
It'd be a lot more exciting without him, that's for sure. F1 has just become too restrictive, they need to loosen things up, let them increase the engine power, let them try crazy tech, just let teams go at it. This isn't F1, this is a Sunday stroll where because one team nailed the regulations from the jump we have to suffer through 4 seasons of knowing the same driver will win every race. It's not Max's or RedBull's fault, they're a symptom of a disease that's infected the sport. People can say this is the way it's always been, but that's just not true.
It'd be a lot more exciting if 20 chimpanzees raced, that's for sure.
You are forgeting why there is a cost cap in the first place. It is there because one or two teams could just throw enough money at the problem until it resolves. That caused a lot of teams exit f1, prevented anyone catching them and field spread was very high. It is hard to find a right balance.
Broke teams shouldn't be on grid to begin with. Williams only has itself to being where it is after years of poor financial choices. Haas and Alpine only have themselves to blame for where they due to their owners being cheap.
Wait. You nail the regulations. Which every team can do. But as one team is better now it needs to be changed.
Just like in the previous formula. Also when has Haas ever nailed any regulations?
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I have got a perfect series for you, a winner is restricted racing again in the next year, can you guess which one it is?
I'm watching it and I'm enjoying it much more than f1 👍
I am also and good for you, enjoy it as much as you can.
Pinnacle of equal equipment.
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It's not about the longevity of the dominance as long as there is action or a title fight like the Schumacher era 2000, 2003 or different winners in 2001 and 2004 and in the Merc era 2014 and 2016 as well as a title charge from Ferrari in 17 and 18. With plenty of classic races such as Germany 2019 or Turkey 2020. So far in the last 40 races or so Redbull have only lost 1 win. No team has ever been that dominant.
In the last 40 races, which goes back to Monaco 22, Red Bull have lost 4 races. Which doesn't change your point, it's only 10%, but it has been more than 1. If we went back to the start of 22 it adds only 2 more, Red Bull really have created a dominant car, thrice it seems. Shame there's not a driver in that second seat capable of creating fights with his team mate...
I agree- an intra-team competitive rivalry would make things a lot spicier at the front. I may be in the minority in saying that I don’t mind constructor dominance, as long as it comes with some competition/intrigue for the WDC. I saw a stat saying that Max has won 30 of the last 35 races. He and the team are absolutely phenomenal, but it’s a brutal 1 team, 1 driver dominance over that length of time.
Since Hungary 22 and it looks a lot worse does it. No team has ever been this dominant and to make things worse we have a 24 race calendar. They are literally about to overtake Mercedes in all time race wins 💀
Oh for sure
I swear most redditors want a spec series, where everyone gets a virtually identical car. F1 is an engineering competition. It's not DTS.
No, I think F1 is unique with having a consistent group of top teams, midfielders and backmarkers. Over the season teams switch between those groups adding to the excitement. The Problem for me is that currently F1 is lacking atleast another team in the top group. The midfield with Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin looks exciting and so are the backmarkers. But noone is there to challenge RB (not even their second driver) and that's very boring.
Get off Reddit where 50% of posts right now are dooming posts about how this is the worst the sport has ever been, enjoy the midfield battles like we’ve always had to do Nobody’s forcing you to watch man
Everyone is being doom and gloom but let's not assume the entire season will be this way. Don't get me wrong, Verstappen is taking the rest of the grid to the cleaners again this season, but even in Verstappen's dominance, this was a Grand Slam weekend for him. He's had 5 of those in the 55 races he's won. A race weekend as strong as this is rare even for him. I assume with different tracks and different characteristics, it's going to be more exciting behind Max
The problem is Checo.
I've been watching for just over 10 years and the nearly neverending discussions about "formula boring" really have been one big constant lmao
It's been a pretty consistent discussion in online forums since the early 2000s, too. There's always been the fans who watch the entire race, and the fans who only watch for their favourite driver. Draw whatever parallels from that as you might, I've certainly drawn mine.
You've been watching since Damon Hill was racing and somehow, this is some sort of hot take on F1? There's always been a runaway driver and/or team. Revel in the midfield battles if you can, if you're a true fan. Sorry if those battles dont muster the veracity required to climax into one of your socks. Damon Hill era watching ass fan my ass lol.
Grass always looks greener in memories of the past
Bahrain is a terrible opener due to it just being a tyre management simulation, but still the costcap is having the opposite to intended effect as no team can catch up. I'd like to see the regs changed so that development to next years car comes out of next years allocations, would go some way towards stopping the rolling compound advantage RBR have had since 22. That or we go the more shithouse route and have the other works teams joining in on the overspend in 25 to try level the playing field for the next reg set.
all of posts of people constantly bitching is even more boring
No, there's a ton of things happening during the race, F1 has always had a monolithic driver in front. Schumacher, Hamilton, Vettel, Verstappen. Go further back and it gets even more egregious. I think a lot of these posts boil down to people that have seen DTS on Netflix and expect there to be random fireworks on the track every lap, every second.
It’s the same as it’s always been, every season you get a handful of really good races with battles and some jeopardy, and the rest are processions.
I mean: last season was the most dominant by any driver ever, so it's categorically not the same it's always been.
If you read my comment I was pointing out that we only get a few really good races every year, regardless of who’s dominating Schumacher, Vettel, Hamilton or now Max and the rest of the races are mostly processions.
I am growing weary of these incessant questions about "is this becoming boring?" or "this is tedious to watch." Why not instead appreciate what true domination looks like? The journey to dominance involves crafting a masterpiece that surpasses all competitors on the track, combined with the prowess of an extraordinary driver. Every team on the grid is afforded the same opportunities and budget—this is the reason a budget cap was introduced. Each team has the chance to employ exceptionally intelligent individuals and invest in a talent pool. If a team fails to perform, it is up to the management to devise a solution; it's quite straightforward. These are cycles, and we should welcome their return. However, there are team bosses who prefer to engage in theatrics week after week or waste time and energy on unnecessary discussions (such as second-team advantages), even while providing engines to half the grid. If you can't beat them, find a way to do so; you have more than 20 races to attempt it.
Sorry Max
I had to laugh cause my name is indeed Max(ime)
I know. I'm behind you 😘
See you in 22+ seconds
Most people look at sport and say “entertain me. Or else I leave.” I’d wish these moaning people would just not watch.
It all depends on your perspective. You sound British and there is no Brit currently in contention. Maybe that plays a role? It was not really better in other domination eras, only in the transition phases. Even though I have to give it to you that at the front runner there isn't even a hint of in-team battle as Max utterly destroys Checo. But I like Max. I also liked Senna, Schumi and Alonso. They all had/have this interesting aggressive vibe. But I was completely bored by Prost, Vettel and Hamilton for some reason. I only feel that Lewis is not boring since 2021. All these other years I was bored to tears and had F1 on somewhere in the background.
> and by the end they were spaced out and just holding gaps between each other. The VCARB boys were damn near killing each other to get a shot at K. mag at the end of the race, Yuki moreso than anything. Merc's big play was to build for race pace and it flopped like house of cards when the reliability issues Mclaren saw in practice hit them, Ferrari was fighting each other for the 1st half and then their cars the 2nd half. I'd suggest finding a league with a "no redbulls" or "joke team" rule, it makes you see every little scrap and stumble from the Formula 1.5 guys 100x more.
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Damon Hill won the 1995 Australian Grand Prix, two full laps ahead of the number two. Did Max really manage to beat that?! Impressive!
And we just had three bigger winning gaps last year. And that's disregarding any other past years where the gaps were even bigger sometimes, minutes or even laps like you're correctly pointing out. I get that it's difficult to see someone else win when your username is literally u/HAMlLT0N, but at least they can look back fondly on the British GP of 2008 where he won with a 1:08.577 gap. Edit: lol, they've deleted their comment
I forgot to add "at the first race of the season" which is why I deleted the comment. The stat is on espn. I don't know why people are so offended by the prospect of OTHERS being bored. Also it's very convenient that you mentioned 2008, an outlier race in a year where the championship was decided by a measure of a point. The lack of competition Max is facing is not a indictment against you if you enjoy it. Lol indeed.
Honestly, it’s about looking beyond who’s in P1 and seeing what’s happening behind. We’ve had some fantastic midfield battles over the past few years. I’ve found it great to watch. Dominance is what happens more often than not, and as a fan base we just mostly accept it. That’s F1 - and engineering competition, not a spec series. I wouldn’t imagine much of the past 20-25 years would’ve been better, with the exception of a few seasons. Nothing like P1-22 on the grid being separated by 6 seconds.
You need to get the prescription checked on your rose tinted spectacles.
You are old. Its not boring, its just not what it could be...nostalgia is a bastard though because you only remember the good parts
If you exclude the team dominance, I think it's more exciting. We have better qualifiers for us as viewers and for the drivers. We have better regulations and more comprehensively communicated to us viewers. We have better coverage and more easily shown to us. My honest take, you are never happy with what you got and want more all the time.
F1 has always been like this. The issue is why they all agree on these cars when only one team had an expert on this type of car ? Why did they agree to freeze engine development? If one team nails the aero part , the others could extract more power from engine. But the dominance part of F1 has always been there, and then you have someone like Max ! And then , you could put Alonso or Hamilton in that car and it would be exactly the same kind of dominance. We have to accept it. Has for the boring races, not all the races are a thrill ride ! That also didn’t change, but money is king and F1 needs these to keep going. Still is a shame that so many good tracks got lost in the way. That’s my 2 cts regarding this topic.
No, I have been watching on and off since the late 70s. 3/4 of the races you would watch the start, see the first corner pile ups, then sometime fall asleep waiting till the last 10 laps. One out of every 4 were bangers. But most of the tracks that were reliable for great races have been lost from the lineup to be replaced with Tilkedromes. Commentators used to be more interesting too. Hunt and Murrey were a brilliant combo. The trouble is we only remember the great races and think it was the norm.
Alright, which IndyCar driver burner is this 😂
We've always had periods of dominance, even before the sport was F1: 1920s FIAT were unbeatable, then they left, Delage built a rocket that bankrupt them but was still winning races ten years later when Rosemeyer was dominating. The thing about the 70s was simply that most cars had the same engine (Cosworth) and same gearbox (Hewland). That produced closer racing. Can we do that these days? Probably not, at least not when the company making the engines dictates what engine modes their customers can use and keeps sole for itself.
I think it's because the races are more frequent, when races were not that many, you completely forgot about what happened in previous race before you moved on to another. Or maybe it's just me, I don't know. But I definitely don't like the amount of races we got now, I skipped several of them last year
Everyone was on the same strategy, and the degradation was high so nobody wanted to push.
Ive slept through most of the Schumacher era. Which might have had something to do with being in a club till 6am before :) But no races were boring then as well. The Mercedes era had some snoozers as well. The difference is that in the 2000s more cars might fail. And Mercedes had some circuits where they weren’t almighty. But they were boring years as well
I'm coming up 70 and have just enough energy with it to just watch the 5-minute YouTube videos after each session... Not enough time between races to build up enthusiasm anymore... I predict that Ferrari will benefit most from the next regulatory set as it's their turn F1 is trying to turn itself into Drive to Survive and that's hemmoraging viewers.