Todt: F1 Doesn't Need an Overhaul

[Kaiserkoenig]

As long as there is no German Grand Prix, they need to overhaul this ****.

 

[Bethonie Waring]

He is right in this part tho, dominance happens in every sport and it's fine, let it happen in racing and everyone loses their minds

I'd argue it doesn't happen in most sport, at least not to the same level that Mercedes have had it this season. I dunno. There's something about the leaders of a race going off into the distance and leaving 20 cars behind that just makes it seem... a tad boring.

 

[Rodent]

People keep repeating that no DRS, less aero and more mechanical grip would make better races but GT races have no DRS and less aero and I do not find them more interesting than F1.

To each their own, modern F1 has gotten me really into GT racing. Diverse looking machinery that sounds fantastic and gives me a drama just about every race. But I do understand it will never be for everyone.

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

It's not surprising that Todt has a conservative/purist view of the sport, his claim to fame is utterly dominating the competition.

At least they ditched the stupid tokens for this season, i believe it was harming teams possibilities of catching up.
Tokens are like having a rule that determines you can only bring in 3 new players from one season to the next...

 

[David Dominguez]

Todt is right. During the last couple of seasons, we had quite a few very good GPs. Overall the last seasons have been better than most of the 80s or 90s. There never was a Dijon 79 battle or a Spa 2000 quali session every two weeks. It has always been very very far from it. Even 20 years ago F1 was more predictable and professional (ie dull) than other series like Indycar where teams would make crazy bets with tires and fuel, yellow flag mayhem and so on. There is no need for a revolution.

Totally agree. Plus I must say I'm sick with the "people wants..." People wants, people wants. Since I started watching F1, people complains about everything. When Ferrari dominated in the early 2000s, it was because some teams had too much money and could run countless tests on their private tracks. Later on people complained because racing was dull, overtaking was close to impossible due to the downforce, short braking distance and dirt air. Then they complained because Red Bull domianted, now they complain because Mercedes dominates. Now we have many more overtakes than before (and not only via DRS), less downforce, longer braking distance,less aero loss when following another car, no private testing, limited budgets, but people still complains. I don't know what some expect; 20 overtakes per lap like arcade racing games? The typical race of the first half of the 2000s or during Senna days was to see half grid out of the race due to mechanical failure, P5 guy lapped and +20s between cars. And still we had dominating cars like we have now. At least now we have something entertaining to see, half grid isnt out of race and there are many fights. I personally loved the cars of the V10 era, but come on, the racing was utter ****. That kind of frustration that Monaco provokes because it's impossible to overtake was present in almost every circuit... yet some seem to think that every race had multiple overtakes like Hakkinen with Schumacher at Spa 2000, when that kind of things were incredibly rare.

 

[David Dominguez]

I'd argue it doesn't happen in most sport, at least not to the same level that Mercedes have had it this season. I dunno. There's something about the leaders of a race going off into the distance and leaving 20 cars behind that just makes it seem... a tad boring.

Then watch GP2. F1 was always about technology, those who were pioneers dominated. Always.

 

[Bethonie Waring]

Then watch GP2. F1 was always about technology, those who were pioneers dominated. Always.

F1 needs to decide if it wants to go down the technology route or the entertainment route. It can't do the two things at once, and it can't keep costs down and keep pushing technology too.
(And I prefer watching British Formula 4 over Formula 1, I must say.)

 

[Qazdar Karim]

I challenge anyone to tell me which F1 era was the best and why

If we take into consideration what people are complaining about, i can confidently say that F1 has never been good in terms of racing ; there was always someone dominating the sport and big differences between teams.

People always miss old days even if they were complaining about them.

 

[David Dominguez]

F1 needs to decide if it wants to go down the technology route or the entertainment route. It can't do the two things at once, and it can't keep costs down and keep pushing technology too.
(And I prefer watching British Formula 4 over Formula 1, I must say.)

When was F1 more entertaining than now?

 

[Bethonie Waring]

When was F1 more entertaining than now?

I can't give you an exact date (my memory won't allow it), but I know it must have been more exciting in the past otherwise I probably wouldn't have chosen to follow it (maybe it was more a childish belief in something that wasn't actually that cool, I can't be sure.).
But surely when you didn't know before the race that the chances are it's going to be one of two drivers taking the win, it was a tad more exciting.

 

[Will Mazeo]

I challenge anyone to tell me which F1 era was the best and why

If we take into consideration what people are complaining about, i can confidently say that F1 has never been good in terms of racing ; there was always someone dominating the sport and big differences between teams.

People always miss old days even if they were complaining about them.

Exactly, things now are a lot closer than in the past where there would be only 1 or 2 cars in the lead lap by half of the race lol.
I guess the forever seek for instant gratification is making people blind. Too bad people on the command of racing series are following them and destroying this sport even faster

 

[Andrew Harper]

I've been watching F1 since about '91. We've always had periods of dominance from teams. Williams, McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes. A lot of the time the guy on pole won the race.

As a follower of F1 all I want to see is the ability of the drivers to go flat out. In the last few years the engine/tyre situation has meant that drivers have to baby their car for most of the race. I'm hoping with the revised tyre rules for this year it will allow the drivers will be able to race more.

The first year Pirelli came in it was great, the performance gap between the compounds meant that drivers and teams could bolt on a set of softs to try and attack the guy in front on on a set of hards and so on.

From my memory the tyre war years provided some really good racing, sometimes bad (US GP) and sometimes good (Hungarian GP 1997).

 

[LeSunTzu]

I can't give you an exact date (my memory won't allow it), but I know it must have been more exciting in the past otherwise I probably wouldn't have chosen to follow it (maybe it was more a childish belief in something that wasn't actually that cool, I can't be sure.).
But surely when you didn't know before the race that the chances are it's going to be one of two drivers taking the win, it was a tad more exciting.

In that respect you can put the blame on the drivers as well. Rosberg and Hamilton have been incredibly consistent, and even further down the field those guys make very few mistakes compared to drivers of the past. Perhaps this is related with cars being easier to drive (as most F1 drivers say). This year cars are supposed to be more demanding, so perhaps we will see more mistakes.

 

[Bethonie Waring]

In that respect you can put the blame on the drivers as well. Rosberg and Hamilton have been incredibly consistent, and even further down the field those guys make very few mistakes compared to drivers of the past. Perhaps this is related with cars being easier to drive (as most F1 drivers say). This year cars are supposed to be more demanding, so perhaps we will see more mistakes.

Oh for sure, that's one of the reasons why watching Formula 4/Formula 3 is so much more exciting.

 

[pitkin]

When was F1 more entertaining than now?

In 32 years of watching I will say '86, '87, '88, (despite the dominance of Mclaren, there were good battles for the lesser positions) '89, '93, '91, '95, '97, '05. Every season has dull races, just seems to be happening more and more. Just opinion of course.

I have most of the races from 1978 onwards sat on my hard drive, and occasionally pick one at random to watch.

I think unreliability played it's part in making races exciting. If drivers made a mistake and they were in the gravel meaning more unpredictability / excitement. Now they're all over the place and it doesn't matter. Even things like H pattern gearboxes could make things more exciting as a driver fluffed a gear change, allowing someone to catch up or go by.

Something drew me into all those years ago, now something is making lose interest. Perhaps it was just Murray Walker making it sound more exciting than it actually was...

 

[AadHofman]

When was F1 more entertaining than now?

During the ground effect days and then the turbo years. It went all **** during the 90's.

 

[paracletus]

The last year was the dullest f1 in many a year; partly due to the departure of PM I suppose.
Basically procession behind mercs, with many "thrilling" push-pass overtakes behind.
Still watch every race though, greatest motorsport division by far.

 

[MustangSVT]

I challenge anyone to tell me which F1 era was the best and why

If we take into consideration what people are complaining about, i can confidently say that F1 has never been good in terms of racing ; there was always someone dominating the sport and big differences between teams.

People always miss old days even if they were complaining about them.

I completely agree with you. I started watching around 1993, and I've seen many full races from before that as well and season reviews going back all the way to early 70s. The best season of racing in my opinion was 2012, and I would say this past year (2016) was one of the better ones. People talk about Mercedes dominating, but this has always been the case. People talk about the times of Senna and Prost. I've seen all the races from '88 in full and I can easily say 2016 was a much better year. You had stuff like Verstappen and Vettel drama, Manor duking it out with Sauber, Haas the new kid on the block, lots of overtakes, lots of crazy events (Ham and Ros crashing into each other, Verstappen and Raikkonen coming together, the Mexico GP, the Austrian GP).

I think there are areas to improve, such as being able to watch live streams online, reducing ticket costs for the races to encourage more people to go, distributing the money between teams, having better tyres so drivers don't have to baby the cars, more European races. But as far as the racing itself, I think it's some of the best it's ever been. 10-20 years from now, fans will remember Rosberg vs Hamilton just like Senna vs Prost.

A very good example that I can think of.. one of the previous posters mentioned 1997 and 2005 as one of the good seasons. I challenge you to go back and watch that season and tell me the races were actually "super exciting", because I definitely feel otherwise. I mean, I enjoyed seeing them but I remember even in 2005 when someone other than Schumacher was finally taking over, the races weren't exactly the most memorable ever. A lot of them were Alonso or Raikkonen taking pole position and running away with the win, with actually very little in terms of overtaking (way harder to overtake back then). At the Nurburgring GP in 2006 for example, Schumacher overtook Alonso during the pit stop. People talk about 2005 and 2006 as a memorable end to the season with the title battle. I feel you could make the same argument for 2016, even more so (down to the very final corner of the final lap).

I think the bottom line, my impression is a lot of people stop watching either because their favorite driver(s) retired, or the availability of watching it (i.e. it's expensive to get HD cable to see it). The latter I perfectly understand, the sport seriously needs to improve here and offer some reasonably priced options to watch it without being tied to a TV subscription, and I kind of understand the former as well. But if you stopped watching cause Schumacher retired (for example), then you're in no position to say the sport is boring or the racing isn't good enough. There was nothing the sport could have done to keep your attention anyway.

 

[nangu]

Something to add about past years too, it was the excitement to see the evolution of cars race after race, because the technical regulations were not as strict as last years.

The teams were able to catching up by innovation in engine, suspensions, early aero tech, etc. I think the regulation is the main culpruit for today F1. The tokens and fuel restriction regulations were the most stupid things ever in terms of teams catching up the leaders. You get it wrong at season start, and you were fried for the rest of the season.

The kind of tire FIA asked Pirelli to build was another big mistake in terms of racing. All this regulations (engine tokens, fuel restriction, crap tires) combined, transformed the most advanced form of motorsport into a 1.5 hours endurance race, were you see drivers who always need to save something instead to go full speed at the track.

F1 always was about tech, raw speed, good sounding engines, team innovation and driver skills. None of them are present in today F1.

 

[BattleOvce]

who cares, Its like soccer, boring to watch and full of drama behind the scenes... ****in soap opera ... please cancel whole F1