[Official] Rate the race: Malaysian Grand Prix

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by davyboy

I agree it was a silly question and yes it was intentional too... but it was there to demonstrate that F1 isn't a sport in the pure sense of the term... but something different.

Which is its beauty too. You'd think that this wouldn't need saying and we'd be able to develop the conversation a little. Especially as this has been self evident since the beginning of motorsport 120 years ago.

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Which is its beauty too. You'd think that this wouldn't need saying and we'd be able to develop the conversation a little. Especially as this has been self evident since the beginning of motorsport 120 years ago.

Things are different now to 10 years ago let alone 120 !

Life's more immediate, people expect more and our attention span's shorter. Not enough of us are still willing to sit through a 2 hour high speed procession.

From an technical perspective, F1 engineers had the freedom to innovate to a much greater extent. Their quest for greater speed produced intriguing and interesting contraptions. In recent years, innovation has all but gone - a casualty of suffocating regulations - and consequently everything's the same.

... it's a double whammy really. In the year 2014, it's neither entertaining nor interesting... which is why we have these artificial [and superficial] gizmos to try and band aid over both ends of the problem.

[davyboy]

Looks like we're not alone here...

diMontezemolo's not happy.

Neither is Perez.

[Tucky]

The thing is if the engineers had free reign, I'd bet my life savings (which being a student comes to about £3.50) that the cars would be so fast and have so much downforce there wouldn't be a single overtake the whole season and on a more serious note, driver safety would be compromised for car development, probably resulting in a number of deaths since Senna. Even Jackie Stewart said that there isn't much difference between the cars going 220 mph than 190 mph. He was talking about indycar, but I think the same applies to F1.

Yes, some of the racing is artificial, but I still enjoy the majority of the races, especially this year with the changes over the last couple of years.

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by davyboy

Looks like we're not alone here...

diMontezemolo's not happy.

Neither is Perez.

If Ferrari had produced a race winning car I don't think he would be complaining ....

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by JeremySmith

If Ferrari had produced a race winning car I don't think he would be complaining ....

These regs haven't gone down as expected and there are a lot of worried stakeholders. If the next few races are not dramatically better than the first two, expect something knee jerk to happen.

... I'll bet those who conceived and backed these changes are doing a rain dance right now !

[Knowlesy]

Originally Posted by davyboy

Looks like we're not alone here...

diMontezemolo's not happy.

Neither is Perez.

di Montezemolo is never happy.

Perez hardly said anything that denoted major unhappiness.

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

di Montezemolo is never happy.

Perez hardly said anything that denoted major unhappiness.

There appears to be zero communication until it's not what some wanted or were expecting !

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by JeremySmith

There appears to be zero communication until it's not what some wanted or were expecting !

... yes very true. It's easy to be critical of something, far more difficult to conceive/produce it.

That said, the innovation by regulation is never a great way to progress and the FIA have a notorious track record of getting things wrong. The biggest debacle in recent years has been their move to transform karting through the introduction of major new regulations around 10 years ago. There was a need for change but the direction they took was completely wrong and began to backfire almost immediately - very similar to what's happening in F1 now. Their perseverance has led to the destruction of the elite level of that sport.

I appreciate that F1 had to change and given the need that platform has to innovate and pioneer, maybe they should have opted for an all electric vehicle with minimal regulation... to unleash engineers to do interesting things. Alternatively if they must continue to look backwards and burn petrol, then focus on entertainment only... devise a spec. type vehicle that's exciting to watch and listen to... and provides for great racing.