State of F1 and sport today

[Harrison]

I totally agree that F1 is no where near as fun as it was in the past. The 60's right through to the 80's were great times for the sport, with innovation constantly being developed in the technology inside the cars, and the drivers taking their lives in their hands and taking real risks in the cars.

Due to the regulations all cars now are very close mirror images of each other. Remember the 70's especially, then the first turbo cars and 6 wheelers were around. That was the best time for me. But even the 80's and early 90's were great, with the cars more powerful and some true battles fought on the track.

It is because all of the cars are being forced to be the same that we have the current situation of them all being too closely matched with no unique benefits from one over another in different situations on the track.

Next year could see a return to some better times for the sport. As already mentioned most of the extra aerodynamic parts are going to be banned, meaning the cars will not be as stable and stuck to the ground, but in return the FIA are reinstating the slick type giving a lot more mechanical grip back to the cars. This could in theory see a lot more grip when cars are following each other and less instability due to air turbulence. End result could be closer battles and more overtaking. That is the hope anyway.

As for the drivers themselves. Very true. Compared to the drivers of the past today's drivers are becoming driving machines, without much activity outside of their job role. Boring and clinical. But I think this is more down to themselves than an regulation change. They are now sportsmen who have to train and try to be at the peak of physical fitness. Years ago they still had to be fit to endue racing, but not to the level they are these days.

[Buleste]

I think the worst personalities in F1 have all been Finnish. All that driving on ice etc during the winter has created some good drivers but destroyed their personalities. Raikkonen being the worst. His personality is so dull it acts like a black hole sucking in all other personalities and not allowing any to escape. But in some way it's inevitable that personalities have gone as there is so much money involved the drivers have to be profesional but also because there is less danger involved the attitude of "live for today for tomorrow we may die" has left the sport. As for next years rule changes we'll see. But at least it'll be back on the beeb.

[AlexJ]

I think the worst personalities in F1 have all been Finnish. All that driving on ice etc during the winter has created some good drivers but destroyed their personalities. Raikkonen being the worst.

Hakkinen was the exception IMO - he had a very dry sense of humour at some of the post-race press conferences.

I've just seen a close up photo of the Kovaleinen accident - very scary, the barriers shouldn't do that. FOM's TV pictures yesterday cut before impact on the onboard and only showed the impact from a high angle as they weren't 100% sure Kovaleinen was OK. They defintely need to look at alternatives to tyre barriers (SAFER walls or something)

Sorry Alex, but it's not true. Hungary it's a very slow and tight circuit, that is very difficult to overtake (we had some exceptions piquet and senna gave a great show in the 80's) but wit Barcelona is very different. Barcelona has a big strait and it's large in more then half of the circuit. It has 2 point here they can overtake.

the "hard" circuits for overtake may be:
hungary
monaco
canada
Melbourne

the rest are not so bad...

I counted two overtakes in the race yesterday, and the 2007 race report suggest similar. I can't remember a single good race there for years. Canada and Melbourne have thrown up good races the last time they were run there despite being parkland tracks. Monaco doesn't provide much overtaking but the close barriers make it a skill to watch (and plenty of incidents usually). Barcelona & Hungary are definitely in my bottom two tracks.

[J T]

I heard that away from the track environs Raikkonen is a real booze, drugs and bird hound, a real party animal. But he is boring on the TV conferences though.

I like watching F1 but haven't really paid much attention to it this year. Still, good news that it's going back to BBC soon, eh? If only for 'The Chain' which surely they HAVE to bring back.