I've hardly ever watched any F1 racing, but I notice the new season is starting soon, and I keep hearing how it's supposed to be more interesting this year. Something about making the cars deliberately harder to drive was the impression I get from half-hearing people discuss it. Can anyone comment on this? I would quite like to get into it a bit since England actually have a decent driver and we suck at all other sports right now!

I'm not terribly taken with F1, it got boring, predictable and uncompetitive in the Schumacher days when he just won race after race after race seemingly by default, not to mention the farce where Rubens Barrichello was ordered to let Schumacher overtake and win. Big crashes were rare (and if they did happen ITV was away on adverts [flame]) and the grid was pretty static from the start.

(Mind you, I think football has gone the same way - it's just Man Utd winning absolutely everything; no competition, no excitement, it's just so boring although I do hope and believe that Ferguson's retirement will change that as nobody will be able to match his managerial qualities and the team will suffer as a result).

Cue rate down and flaming, but I am also sick to death of Lewis Hamilton and hearing about him. By many accounts the man is a total arsehole and he's been given all this money for just moving a computer-controlled go-kart round a track. The all-time greats like Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart were real drivers. Another hyped racing great, Damon Hill, dropped off the radar after he left Williams and the rest of his career was a joke. Was he an actual good driver or was he an average driver with a good car? I wonder the same about Lewis Hamilton.

I say bring back the old days except with modern safety equipment (IIRC they didn't even wear crash helmets in the 50s).

If you didn't like racing before, you're not going to like it any more now. I don't follow too closely, but IIRC a lot of the rule-changes for this year were in an effort to reduce the operating costs for teams (and likewise give teams with shallower pockets a more even footing). Things like a freeze on engine specs.


Still... I don't follow it closely myself. I swear every race I tried to/had time to watch last year ended up being at like midnight local time here.

I always liked F1 when I wanted to watch any racing. And yea, Schumacher was a bit of a guaranteed thing. What made it worse was I had a buddy who was convinced he, and he alone, would pick Schumacher to win and would call you all sorts of names when you didn't bet against him heh.

@ukdeveloper I agree with every word.

F1 never had the same appeal to me after the Nigel Mansell days. Now MotoGP, that's a different story. Valentino Rossi is a legend and after some of the wins he's pulled off, deserves everything he gets.

From what I've read, the new rule changes should make it an exciting season. I stopped watching for the reasons mentioned - boring and predictable. But new tweaks like the booster for passing should make it a little more edge of the seat.

Quote:
from here:
Tyres
F1 returns to slicks in 2009. With no grooves, grip will increase by around 20%, bringing a significant performance gain. However, that gain will be offset by the reduced downforce levels of the new aerodynamic rules (see below). The overall effect should be reduced performance through high-speed corners. Teams will still have the choice of two dry tyre compounds and will still have to use both compounds during a race.

KERS
Teams have the option of using the new Kinetic Energy Recovery System (or KERS), which recovers kinetic energy generated by the car's braking process. This energy is stored using a mechanical flywheel or an electrical battery and then made available to the driver, in set amounts per lap, via a "boost button" on the steering wheel. Under the current regulations the power gain equates to around 80 horsepower, available for just under seven seconds per lap.

Engines
Drivers must now use the same engine for three, rather than two, consecutive events. There are also plans for measures to equalise engine performance between teams. These plans are yet to be agreed.

Aerodynamics
Cars will look cleaner (although not necessarily more stylish), thanks to new dimensional rules that outlaw extraneous items such as barge boards, winglets and turning vanes. As well as reducing overall aero performance, the revisions are also designed to increase overtaking by making the car less susceptible to turbulence when closely following another driver. The most obvious changes are to the front and rear wings.

Testing
This year's testing allowance of 30,000km is expected to be slashed to 20,000 in a bid to reduce development costs.

Quote: Original post by ukdeveloper
I'm not terribly taken with F1, it got boring, predictable and uncompetitive in the Schumacher days when he just won race after race after race seemingly by default, not to mention the farce where Rubens Barrichello was ordered to let Schumacher overtake and win. Big crashes were rare (and if they did happen ITV was away on adverts [flame]) and the grid was pretty static from the start.

(Mind you, I think football has gone the same way - it's just Man Utd winning absolutely everything; no competition, no excitement, it's just so boring although I do hope and believe that Ferguson's retirement will change that as nobody will be able to match his managerial qualities and the team will suffer as a result).

Cue rate down and flaming, but I am also sick to death of Lewis Hamilton and hearing about him. By many accounts the man is a total arsehole and he's been given all this money for just moving a computer-controlled go-kart round a track. The all-time greats like Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart were real drivers. Another hyped racing great, Damon Hill, dropped off the radar after he left Williams and the rest of his career was a joke. Was he an actual good driver or was he an average driver with a good car? I wonder the same about Lewis Hamilton.

I say bring back the old days except with modern safety equipment (IIRC they didn't even wear crash helmets in the 50s).

Not to mention is underserved knighthood...

I think they should create a racing league with no regulations on engine specs, etc. It'd be interesting to see some of the engineering that people come up with in order to win.

I currently think the LeMons (note: that's LeMons, not LeMans) is more exciting than F1, but I haven't had the chance to watch either.

Quote: Original post by d000hg
F1?

Ahaha, I read the title of this thread and I thought it was going to be you asking for help.

Quote: Original post by ukdeveloper
Cue rate down and flaming, but I am also sick to death of Lewis Hamilton and hearing about him. By many accounts the man is a total arsehole and he's been given all this money for just moving a computer-controlled go-kart round a track. The all-time greats like Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart were real drivers. Another hyped racing great, Damon Hill, dropped off the radar after he left Williams and the rest of his career was a joke. Was he an actual good driver or was he an average driver with a good car? I wonder the same about Lewis Hamilton.

I say bring back the old days except with modern safety equipment (IIRC they didn't even wear crash helmets in the 50s).

Exactly how old are you that you can boast the greatness of drivers from 40-50 years ago to put down the drivers of today? In any team sport you can find, the team that has the largest budget always has an advantage. When dealing with human talent, the difference isn't always as great, but when it comes to tech. of course the team with the biggest R&D pocketbooks will have an advantage. That isn't the driver's fault, it's FIA's for not regulating things in a manner that evens the field.