Watching an F1 car chase down the car in front can be exciting, but that was before DRS (the Artificial, temporary, Drag Reduction, that adds speed to overtake on “DRS enabled” straightaways), and Blue flags, waved to let the leaders pass slower and lapped cars. What are the rule makers thinking? Don’t they like real racing?
Today’s Austrian Grand Prix was as boring a race as I have ever seen. And I have been watching F1 since the late 1960’s. Getting excited about a car catching another car for a fierce “battle”, only to see the DRS “cheat sheet” flap open to end it , is very disappointing! No more need for racecraft to pass the guy in front! How can this be F1?
And then there are the ridiculous tire change rules, made to break up the race, and add the chance of a mistake, by the team or driver, during the pit stop. For a number of years they were also putting in more fuel, splitting the race into short sprints between stops, creating racing that has become artificial, unnecessary, dangerous, and boring! Who cares that 50 people can change four tires in under 3 seconds? Save it for the end-of-year team competitions!
Stop the idiot “shoot out” qualifying! Does anyone remember when we used to have two separate hours of it, on Friday and Saturday, with everyone on the track? Today’s farce is a show for the TV directors. I guess it was too hard for them to follow the action with the old system? If they are going to make it artificial, then copy Indianapolis, and let one car on the track at a time. Today’s three-part Qualifying is totally boring, predictable, and stupid!
Let’s try one race, run to the pre-1996 rule changes? Proper, all or nothing, two hour qualifying. No DRS. No forced tire change/pit stop. Start and finish the race on the track, unless something goes wrong, and a car needs repairs.
We could even go back to 1950’s Formula one, where drivers were allowed to change cars with their team mates, if their own car had problems! Now that was team work!
The most annoying part of it all, is that today’s drivers are compared to yesterdays drivers, as far as wins, poles, fastest laps, and even points (what?). How can today’s racers be compared to yesterdays when the rules are such a joke! How many races would Senna have won if he didn’t have to pass any “back markers” or had DRS? Frightening! Welcome to the 21st century, where everyone is a winner and the rest are “real losers”!
