Sometimes I am pretty certain most F1 fans are not actually racing fans tbh. There's no way as a racing fan you can tell me with a straight face that F1 is the best motorsport series on the planet if racing is of any real interest. I could name probably a dozen more race series that are far better to watch, MotoGP being at the top of the list for me. F1 is over-managed and has a very bland and sterile appearance to it. Actually perhaps clinical would be the right word for it. God knows there's no real on track action. I always tell people to watch both a F1 race and a MotoGP race at the same circuit and tell me which was the more enjoyable race to watch. F1 fans cried when Sepang dumped F1 and kept GP. I thought, wow if only every other circuit could do the same thing.
Monaco is also probably the shittiest motor race I've ever seen in the modern era. The cars are too large for the circuit. I don't even think there's been a good race at Monaco since perhaps 1984? I mean there have been memorable races since then certainly, but the 80s is generally the last time I thought the cars going around Monaco were even worth a damn to watch.
Most of them these days are Drive to Survive fans. It's cringe.
Even excluding them. To your initial statement, I agree 100%. When people say to me it is a prototype series. I respond with:
It is though?
All ECM's are manufactured and supplied by TAG (A subsidiary of McLaren)
All ECM software is the same (save for a few variables)
You have a choice of 4 engines
Many components are now common to all cars
Screams of a spec racing series. To me, it's simply a more expensive version of Indycar now. Also, with all these Tilkedromes and street courses that are all cut and paste, the racing is similar everywhere.
Remember when Bennetton with a Ford V8 would do well at places like Hungary and Monaco? And you knew Ferrari with V12s would dominated the old Hockenheim and Monza? I watched an onboard with Hakinnen in Spa 2000 recently, and decided to immediately watch a 2023 onboard. It looks like a computer game.
To me, the main reason I watch MotoGP is I see it and say 'I couldnt do that' whereas F1, it just looks so sterile.
I don't think Merc knows how to build a chassis. It was a weak point when it was still a V8 formula...that thing used to chew up tires like crazy.
The engine advantage was such a joke that I pretty much stopped following outside of the odd race here and there since it was predictable as .....
I'm not a fan of the current ground effects era. Would much rather have seen the rules get changed to shorten up the insanely ridiculous wheelbases on the modern cars to reflect a car that has more in common with a go-kart than a Chevrolet Suburban where wheelbase is concerned. Plus if they had brought back the sliding skirts to seal the ground effects, I would have been a huge huge fan of that. But I guess we're too far advanced into the safety era to ever have such things allowed again.
I collect model F1 cars (both 1/18 and 1/43) and I kid you not, when the rear wheels are aligned, a car from 15 yrs ago stops almost at the rear of the front wheels of a modern hybrid car. They are just so big and heavy.
Bring back the fire breathing V10's
