F1 Drivers now a days is to fit
--yes that's why the races is so boring .
they rarely make mistakes .
They have all been driving karts since they where 7 years old .
They are all more ore less triathlon stars ( fit ).
25-30 years back only a few of them where top fit . And not all had been driving since they could walk..
A driver Running out of breath and loose concentration was what made racing exciting for the spectator to look at back then. The spectator probably just thought it was something else
..
I think there's an anecdote about racing back in the 70s, "Sex was safe and Racing was dangerous". Being fit is mostly a good thing in my opinion , especially when talking about how much strength you need to drive these sort of cars. Those folks back then in the 70s or early 80s are just bunch of personalities that can be described as "frivolous dilettantes with nothing on their heads" whose physical fitness, some said, came from racing/driving and, sometimes for some people (most notably those like James Hunt), "Sex, Breakfast of Champions" stuff, so they didn't care quite much about physical fitness. Now, you have to do cycling, swimming and some complicated fitness stuff to get up to shape just to drive the car/mecha (a good thing but massively overrated, just like safety in racing).
In the case of prior experience with go-karts, yeah , they have been running gokarts since around 7 years of age, so that they can understand the basics of oversteer slide and how to control it thoroughly. Only a few of the 70s-80s drivers do that, some started racing in their late adolescent years (age 16-19 mostly) or even when they got license to drive a car. Now, they got to do it from very young age because their brain at the ages like 6-10 years old were performing at its best, just so they can instinctly understand the car's behavior very thoroughly and how to mitigate them ( sounds like if starting to go racing at age 18 was a bad idea on today's standards unless you want to be a gentleman racer on touring car and GT discipline, or doing racing for the hobby like going to amateur rallying or time attacks). Those kids has to go through ranks in a progressive manner and only if you're good enough you can make a jump on the next rank that is several steps on the line. You can't go there if you wanna start at age 18 or 20 now.
These guys are well pampered since its very
genesis , unlike the 'class of 1970s' guys like James Hunt, Emerson Fittipaldi, Niki Lauda or even Takahashi Kunimitsu ( the Japanese driver who made a solo F1 appearance in 1977 Japanese GP, finishing 9th in the race, 2 laps down behind James Hunt the race winner, in a Tyrrell 007). Most of the 'class of 1970' drivers aren't that 'well pampered' like these guys today (like Hamilton, Vettel, Verstappen, Bottas, Norris, etc). They started racing when they're a bit older (and, for Hunt and Lauda's case, were racing against their family's wishes), but they were interesting bunch of drivers, being able to push beyond the limits of their rides and their body even when they're not as thoroughly experienced and physically fit as the F1 pilots of today. These drivers of the 1970s , for example, they are either quick learning drivers, or 'the more I crash in races the more I learn for the coming races' sort of drivers. Nowaday drivers had their instincts sank deep in their heads, so theoritically they rarely makes mistakes.
But I don't think today's F1 pilots were 100% faultproof despite the fact they were racing gokarts since their childhood. I think today's F1 pilots can be more reckless and more accident prone in comparison with the 1970s F1 drivers because the 1970s driver knows the risks quite well and the dangers are quite obvious. If you had a big accident, it's either you spend weeks or months in hospital, or going home in a hearse, dismembered, charred, only your name remains intact). So there's mutual respect between the drivers and fans also gave them respect, as if there's an impression that the racing drivers are bunch of brave men. Today's pilots knew the risks and dangers but they're not that obvious because they are dampened by the regulations concerning cars and tracks, so we have boring, insignificant cars that are generally worse than Time Attack race cars seen on Super Lap or Gatebil events; as well as boring, insignificant tracks that is not as fun to drive as winding mountain roads (should FIA and F1 people collaborate with tuners and race fans, instead of legitimate engineers and politicians, to make F1 more lively again or not?). Knowing that , they might have had the sense of error tolerance, or they might want to dump another driver whenever they want wherever they want. So, on that circumstances, not only these F1 drivers of today were not that interesting in the eyes of the fans, but they also get a bit less amount of respect from the fans, even from some of the legends of the F1 world.
That's what I think.