How boring can it get?

[Kicking-back]

Even when Ferrari and Schumacher are dominating, you still have anticipation.

Will he be beaten today?

Will something finally go wrong with the car?

Anything can happen, on any lap of a Grand Prix - and that will always hold my attention.

[paulzinho]

Ive been very disappointed with the efforts of the other temas this season. Williams and Mclaren seem to have completely lost the plot and Renault dont seem to have the outright pace suggested by many in pre season.

BAR have been impressive though and Michael seems to be in the form of his life!

[ASCII Man]

Originally posted by garcon
I'm still convinced that the only people who say F1 is boring are those whose teams aren't winning. Or are simply so anti-Ferrari that they want to see anyone but Michael winning.

I'm not anti-Ferrari, i just don't like to see Michael winning that's all.
What's so wrong about that?

Any sane fan would love to see anyone but Michael Schumacher winning, am i right?

[DriverT]

Any sane fan would love to see anyone but Michael Schumacher win?? Nooooo... surely any sane fan would love to see the best driver who gives the best performance win???

[Kicking-back]

You're wrong.

I'd like to see whatever team/driver combination does best on the day winning.

So far this year, that's usually been Ferrari/Schumacher.

I hope as this season and next go on, other teams get their act together - but I don't agree with bitterness.

[ASCII Man]

You're all nuts!

[Kicking-back]

OK, we get the idea, you hate Schumacher!

I'm beginning to think the extreme antis are just as bad as those who think he can do no wrong!

[climb]

OH KB, are you sure?
I don't agree, those antis are really ejoyable..

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to see while biting the dust!!

[Gt_R]

No.

I'm sure not everybody feels that way garcon described, but there seem a very significant portion who feels that way. They say F1 is boring because of Ferrari/MS..but in fact it's because Ferrari/MS are winning at the expense of the critics favourite driver/team.

And as their favourite team/driver isnt winning, they feel frustrated and when it happens at every race, all they want is someone to beat Ferrari/MS.

It's understandable, but if we are to judge the, the standard of racing, while the winner is predictable, the quality of racing isn't inferior to past few seasons, and definitely far from the worse F1 had in history.

One may not enjoying seeing the driver/team they don't support win so many races, but surely that's no excuse for blaming him/team for something beyond their control, which is fundamentally the failure of other drivers/teams.

[N I Tram]

Originally posted by markysjag
cap the spending so all the teams have the same budget and test only at the start of the season and race days, one tyre company, tracks designed for passing and then it would be exiting also prize money for the drivers instead of big fat contracts!

Same budget - not realistically implementable, and will lead to more ttempts to break the rules.

Limited test days - makes it harder for strugglers (especially rookie drivers) to catch up, and makes expensive wind tunnel technology more important.

One tyre company - some of the most one-sided seasons ever had only one tyre type, and some of the best have had 2. At least tyres can be another variable to mix the field up.

Tracks designed for passing - definately needed, one way or another, but how would yu define this? The cars make passing harder as well, wioth aerodynamic grip so important and reducing when a car is close behind another.

Prize money for drivers - so how will unsuccessful teams continue to race? And how will tehy fund the season if they don't ge tmoney until the cars are built and tested,a nd travel is paid for?

All in all, not a very practical set of ideas.

[spider]

MS/Ferrari are just doing a more superior job, by working harder and better throughout the whole organisation. Jean Todt has created a happy and motivated workforce who all know that they can rely 100% on their driver to bring home the goods if they get their job right. MS on the other hand knows that he can rely 100% on the team to give him everything.

The trust and work ethic the team have is to be admired, and it's an honour seeing Michael at work. He IS a living legend, and it's something special to be able to see him race LIVE. There probably won't ever be a driver/team combo as complete as the current Ferrari outfit and that makes watching them so fascinating.

The only team that I see applying themselves as well is BAR, so it's no coincidence both teams are at the summit of F1 '04.

No-one can match Michael, and I can see him being the man to beat for a good few years yet. It's up to everyone else to catch and beat him. No other driver can match him though, so it's down to the teams to come up with a superior car to the F2004...

[Kicking-back]

Gt-R - Here's a question.

If McLaren have a dominant car next year and Kimi and JPM dominate, while Michael and Ferrari struggle, will you call that boring?

[Gt_R]

If the quality is there, why not?

It's not a hard question, and you may doubt my reply, but fact is i have sat through a few years of dump with Ferrari before MS came to Ferrari, then i've to wait 3 years before Ferrari came up with a decent championship challenging car, endured 2 years of coming soooo close to the title, and one year wasted (when MS broke his foot). And i don't remember constantly complaining F1 boring, neither do i see the point of blaming top teams for doing a good job, although i do admit feeling very disappointed when Ferrari failed time and time again last time.

Hence, there's no need for "IFs", because we've been there in the past.

And hence,i find it irritating that people keep bashing Ferrari/MS for the good job they've done, irritated with the groundless allegations of cheats, irritated with people claiming how MS had it easy with a great car...because they all fail to experience the years before that.

[Kicking-back]

Fair enough, then.

It does seem though a lot of Schumacher/Ferrari fans weren't around before 1999!

[CamF1]

F1 is only as boring as YOU think it is.

[garcon]

Quite right - beauty is in the eyes of the beerholder...

[N I Tram]

Originally posted by Kicking-back
Gt-R - Here's a question.

If McLaren have a dominant car next year and Kimi and JPM dominate, while Michael and Ferrari struggle, will you call that boring?

At least Kimi and JPM would be racing against each other, and it would mean a new champion, one of the many exciting young talents out there right now, so I very much doubt that would be boring.

[nameless]

so far this thread has reached its 7th page and doesnt appear to have moved on from much more than a petty argument
person 1: i think f1 is boring
person 2: no its not
person 3: yes it is
etc.

this is clearly not an argument can be settled as everybody sees things very differently, no one person is right. this is a discussion forum where the intention is to discuss opinions and views and i think its about time that this thread took its natural progression as to discuss why f1 is boring (and why not) and what can be done about it. just to say if its boring dont watch i personally dont feel is a valid reply as i imagine everyone on this forum is an avid f1 fan and is often happy enough just to see f1 cars going in circles and so to turn it off is out of the question and if everyone was to turn off when the found it boring where would that leave us, nothing would ever change for the better. if like me you believe f1 is/should be the pinnicale of motorsport then to see it provide so much predictability and little entertainment in terms of racing leaves me dissapointed as it is no longer sport, you are just watching a few car manufacturers show off there expensive show case vehicles for a couple of hours a week and that can provide entertainment if you are interested in teh engineering side of things but its not what you look for in sport. im sure many of you will agree that much of the problems in f1 come from money, there is too much of it, we dont have the best 20 drivers driving as you must be rich to get a seat, the lesser teams have virtually no chance of winning as all the engineering innovations are found only because of effectively unlimited resources reducing the requirement for ingenuity in design, which explains partly why most cars are similar these days, if you have you throw money at it, no need to think around a problem. this in itself makes the cars themselves less impressive to me and fuel my desire to see racing rather than parades/

[Kicking-back]

Nameless, reading that was tough going! Maybe some capitals and some spacing would help

I think you're presenting F1 in the worst possible light there, but you're entitled to the view.

It just doesn't square with what I see on my television each fortnight!

[nameless]

............ grammar was never my strong point.

I probably have clouded over a few of the positive aspects of f1 at the moment, but currently im finding it difficult to come across any of them.

Wont stop me watching f1 though, as im clearly an idiot.

[race aficionado]

I'm sure that for Michael/Rubens/Ferrari fans it was not so boring.
This video here just shows the "exciting moment" when Michael overtook Ralf. - and seriously, it was a brilliant fuel strategy by Ferrari:

http://homepage.mac.com/emeseditoria...heater102.html

MS passes RS

[race aficionado]

How boring???
Well at least for us JPM fans there was a moment of excitement when Juan was pestering Michael for a while . . . .

http://homepage.mac.com/emeseditoria...heater100.html

MS/JPM moment

[race aficionado]

We also got a chance to at least see the two red cars run together for a while . . . .

http://homepage.mac.com/emeseditoria...heater111.html

MS/RB 1

http://homepage.mac.com/emeseditoria...heater108.html

MS/RB 2

http://homepage.mac.com/emeseditoria...heater109.html

MS/RB 3

http://homepage.mac.com/emeseditoria...heater110.html

MS/RB 4

[Knowlesy]

There are two reasons I loved F1: the cars and how they evolve and develop and the dramatic championship battles.

Although I love F1 still and would never EVER miss a race (haven't done so for best part of a decade) I do feel that whilst we are getting some amazing cars we are missing out on some racing. A lot in fact.

As a watcher of the majority of motorsports, I can't fail to be dissapointed by F1 this season.

The main reason is that we had a great 2003 and expectations were raised to stratospheric proportions. I have never looked forward to a season more than this one.....so when you look at what we have had it is dissapointing. Who could possibly deny that?

Fact is F1 needs to change something. Moto GP is a wonderful form of racing (better than ever this year) everything is so simple, everything is straightforward and at the end of the day the result is classic memorable races that really get you on the edge if your seat. Technically the sport is simple which I guess contributes a great deal to the show.

As I said, one of my reasons for loving F1 is the technical challenge, new parts on cars, the subtle aerodynamic solutions engineers come up with nowadays.

But even I would be prepared to exchange that part of F1 for some good old fashioned racing.

A return to the 70's would be nice. There wasn't much more overtaking back then......indeed, I can't see much difference at all in those terms.

BUT, simply watching those cars is awe inspiring the way they slide and buck everywhere, four wheel drifts exiting fast sweeps, awesome sounds from the fairly primitive engines........simply wonderful. I can never tire of watching F1 of the seventies.

We could still have that nowadays.........as far as I know, racing machines can still slide (hard to believe I know).

Maybe if F1 returns to more basic machines whilst keeping the engines we could ahve a spectacular sport once again.

[ASCII Man]

The geeks would not approve...