[Official] Rate the Grand Prix: Brazilian Grand Prix 2023

[Born Racer]

What score do you award it?

[bjohnsonsmith]

That was an enjoyable race, even though it was red flagged after the first corner and quite an attritional race. A shame both Danny Ric and Piastri had to start from pit road and a lap down, as they weren't ever in the mix and a shame the race was held after the WDC and WCC had been decided, as Interlagos usually produces a good race. A good battle with Lewis and Perez, which we go treated to twice, though not as prolonged the second time and what an ending, with Alonso getting 3rd place back from Perez. 8

[rika]

I want to see fight for victory and not just fight for other positions.


There was just 1 lap of 71 when there was a tiny bit of hope for maybe fight for 1st positon.
All the others: no.


I refuse to give more than 6 when there is no fight for victory.

[V8 Fireworks]

8/10. Not too bad. It was hovering around 6-7, but got a bit more exciting towards the end with Fernando's excellent drive.

[V8 Fireworks]

Originally Posted by rika

I want to see fight for victory and not just fight for other positions.

I refuse to give more than 6 when there is no fight for victory.

The only way to guarantee a fight for victory is balance-of-performance like in WEC which is very artificial and would seemingly defeat the point of Formula One being an engineering competition.

Otherwise, just wait for the budget cap and wind tunnel hour rules to help the engineers to close up the field, which IS working. We had 0.6s covering 16 cars in the first part of qualifying IIRC.

[rika]

Maybe, but the question here is to rate the GP and: What score do you award it?





I can not award high scores if you already know who wins before the race even starts. That is what happens.


And when that happens I think it gets boring and I can not give high points.

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by rika

I want to see fight for victory and not just fight for other positions.


There was just 1 lap of 71 when there was a tiny bit of hope for maybe fight for 1st positon.
All the others: no.


I refuse to give more than 6 when there is no fight for victory.

In that case you could have turned your TV off after Bahrain because no one was going to give you what you wanted.
Only Singapore has been different.
If you're an enthusiast you want to see great racing, it doesn't matter if it's for 1st or fifteenth.

[rika]

Maybe you are happy with how it is, that is good for you and totally OK.
But I am not happy and that is just my opinion.


But this topic asks for my vote and my opinion so I give what I think.






And I think I not alone that wants to see fight for 1st as well as fight for 15th?
And find it boring that never happens the fight for 1st?
Or maybe I am alone but would seriously surprise me.

[chunterer]

7
The Alonso Checo scrap was a real highlight. Reninded me a bit of Kimi v JPM in 2004.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by rika

I want to see fight for victory and not just fight for other positions.

There was just 1 lap of 71 when there was a tiny bit of hope for maybe fight for 1st positon.
All the others: no.

I refuse to give more than 6 when there is no fight for victory.

Even when a driver/team isn't so dominant, like Verstappen/Red Bull, there isn't always going to be a fight for 1st place/victory, so other factors will come into play when determining how good a race is.

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by rika

Maybe you are happy with how it is, that is good for you and totally OK.
But I am not happy and that is just my opinion.


But this topic asks for my vote and my opinion so I give what I think.






And I think I not alone that wants to see fight for 1st as well as fight for 15th?
And find it boring that never happens the fight for 1st?
Or maybe I am alone but would seriously surprise me.

Like you, I would love to have three or four teams equal on performance but F1 hasn't been like that for years. It's a technological battle more than anything and when a team gets an advantage, they have it in some degree for the whole season.
1982 was one of the most open seasons ever.
But I did 450 events as Clerk of course or chief steward for most of them and I couldn't have favourites. I just enjoyed seeing someone battle over 15th as much as a battle for the lead.
Racing is racing wherever it takes place.
Lead battles maybe more enthralling but that's entertainment value, not pure racing.

[Skam85]

Originally Posted by rika

I want to see fight for victory and not just fight for other positions.


There was just 1 lap of 71 when there was a tiny bit of hope for maybe fight for 1st positon.
All the others: no.


I refuse to give more than 6 when there is no fight for victory.

I'm not sure F1 is the right sport for you then

[Aysedasi]

A decent race but with too powerful DRS effects. I tend to forget about Max these days as it's such a foregone conclusion. 6 from me, one of those for Alonso's last lap.

[S griffin]

6. Some decent battling through the field and at least Norris kept Verstappen honest

[steve_r]

@Rika has every right to give this race a average score without having to justify themselves. I did too for the same reason. I'm personally disheartened by the absolute lack of any doubt whatsoever as to who is going to win. Sometimes I can forgive that and concentrate in the good racing for 9th place etc., but at the very front it's relentlessly predictable. The whole entire point of these regulations was, according to Ross Brawn a few years ago, to avoid this exact scenario.

Alonso / Perez battle was enough to raise this one to a 5.

[morninggents]

I gave it a 6, but on reflection perhaps it should have been 7.
Enjoyed some good racing between Lewis/ Checo then the last couple of laps with Checo and Fernando. Great to see how determined Alonso is despite his many years at the pinnacle of the sport.


It's a shame Max doesn't get the kudos he should as his total dominance turns some people off. I wonder if they were so vocal during the Mercedes borefest of 2014 to 2020?

[Greem]

Originally Posted by morninggents

I gave it a 6, but on reflection perhaps it should have been 7.
Enjoyed some good racing between Lewis/ Checo then the last couple of laps with Checo and Fernando. Great to see how determined Alonso is despite his many years at the pinnacle of the sport.


It's a shame Max doesn't get the kudos he should as his total dominance turns some people off. I wonder if they were so vocal during the Mercedes borefest of 2014 to 2020?

Oh good lord yes. And during the Schumacher/Todt/Brawn years at Ferrari.

[GT6]

6 from me but surely rbr could send max on holiday and put someone else in the car for the next races or the fans will drift away

[steve_r]

Originally Posted by morninggents

It's a shame Max doesn't get the kudos he should as his total dominance turns some people off. I wonder if they were so vocal during the Mercedes borefest of 2014 to 2020?

This comes up again and again, but misses the point really.

Firstly, there were plenty of people who were vocal about the Mercedes dominance.

Secondly,. Mercedes had fights with both their cars and also with Ferrari and RBR. Rosberg / Hamilton gave us some good battles. On occasion other teams would win races because of clever strategy or a car that was better on the day. When Merc had a bad day, other teams would win races. But at the moment Verstappen has a bad day, he breezes past using DRS while his team mate has spent half the season shooting himself in the foot. It's not much of a comparison n my eyes.

Thirdly, never did one Mercedes driver win 17/18 (or whatever the current count is) races in one season.

Kudos to Max. He is brilliant and currently in this car absolutely untouchable. He does not even need to properly push to win and hence the races for the win often bore many to tears.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by morninggents

It's a shame Max doesn't get the kudos he should as his total dominance turns some people off. I wonder if they were so vocal during the Mercedes borefest of 2014 to 2020?

Yes, they were.

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by steve_r

This comes up again and again, but misses the point really.

Firstly, there were plenty of people who were vocal about the Mercedes dominance.

Secondly,. Mercedes had fights with both their cars and also with Ferrari and RBR. Rosberg / Hamilton gave us some good battles. On occasion other teams would win races because of clever strategy or a car that was better on the day. When Merc had a bad day, other teams would win races. But at the moment Verstappen has a bad day, he breezes past using DRS while his team mate has spent half the season shooting himself in the foot. It's not much of a comparison n my eyes.

Thirdly, never did one Mercedes driver win 17/18 (or whatever the current count is) races in one season.

Kudos to Max. He is brilliant and currently in this car absolutely untouchable. He does not even need to properly push to win and hence the races for the win often bore many to tears.

Yes, that’s exactly how I feel. The Mercs were dominant, but weren’t infallible. Plus both drivers had enough chances to win, although that was true of Rosberg/Hamilton than Bottas/Hamilton. Verstappen and RBR seem too perfect. Only at Singapore have they had a bad weekend, which we should be thankful for. Saves us from total domination

[chillibowl]

another difference from the previous eras of domination is that are more races plus sprint events all transpiring against a fixed budget being stretched across more and more weekends.

my fault for trying to consume too much of it, but even had this season been closer i would probably still be burning out from oversaturation at this point of 21 of 23 races!