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You know 10 years ago we were posting in exactly the same style, the only change being the topic of our negativity?

2004: Ferrari dominance driving viewers away. Refuelling meaning all the races were settled with little on track action. Traction control meaning the cars were easier to drive. Team Orders. Grooved tyres meaning tyres completely weren't a factor. When you had fresh tyres you had full fuel so couldn't take advantage. When the tyres were going off, you had low fuel so that almost negated their effect on the car. Poor qualifying format after poor qualifying format. Single lap boredom with full fuel and race tyres *yawn*

Compared to all that F1 isn't so bad atm. On track at least. It may be being mismanaged atm, but this is just the latest in a long line of off track crises (breakaway series anyone?) that will hopefully be sorted eventually, so at least while all that is happening, we can enjoy races that are settled by overtaking on track and a high amount of drama.
Take any of this years races (bar Sochi) and plonk them in the 2004 season and they'd be hailed as the best of the year!

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RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

still better than knockout qualifying

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

I don't think you can just take races out of one year and compare them to another, though. The way people think about F1 and what makes it good has changed enormously over time, even in the last 10 years. There's been a move to wanting more action - that's not to say people in the past were always satisfied (I've been guilty of complaining and asking for changes more than most) but it didn't become an issue until people running F1 made it an issue in the 1990s

Horses for courses really. I regret all the whinging I did 5 or 6 years ago because I feel like collectively those of us who were asking for more ended up getting things that have ultimately proven to be counterproductive. Today I prefer watching races where you have to think a bit and wait a bit to see what's going to happen, rather than Formula Crash Bang Wallop: What a Video. But that's not coming back because the expectation of the audience has changed, along with reliability rates and run-off areas, and it's almost certainly going to be a permanent change

F1 is now geared towards younger audiences, so more has to happen to keep their attention and the best drivers have to stay in the race. Same direction the WRC went and we all know how that ended up. But there we are - that's just opinion

At least drivers had to actually pass before, and they were allowed to push the limits a little bit more. Now, passing is pressing a button and crossing any white line is a penalty, not really real racing IMO.

Willing to bet there's way more non-DRS passes in one race than you'd get in half a season in the pre-2010 era

And that pressing a button line is so cliche now it's not even true. Like Lewis' pass at COTA...he still had to come from a hell of a long way back.

DRS wasn't perfect when it first appeared, but they've worked on it so it doesn't take the piss any more, drivers still have to work at it.

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RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

There's no such thing as a non-DRS pass now. And there's no correlation between the number of passes in a race and how interesting it is

Perez staying at Force India.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/116680

Chilton to McLaren, then.

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

I like Force India. The only private team that hasn't had obvious paydrivers in recent years. Ok Perez got Slim as backing but he had also enough talent as he had shown.

Nah, with all the lack news coming from Ferrari about Alonso and Vettel, I reckon Chilton is the reason there.

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BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

Yes, there is. You know, an overtake that takes place outside of the DRS zone.

And yes, there really is.

Perhaps you'd prefer to go back to the 2000s era of the only position change being due to pit stops then?

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RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

Which is strange as force India along with sauber and lotus seem the other 3 to be in financial trouble and demanding more money according the rumors.

Oh, of course.

Palmer then.

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

Button, Alonso or Palmer. It's a no brainer really, isn't it?

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BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

It is for a team with no title sponsor.

Or many sponsors of any kind at all.

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

I doubt that will continue on to 2015. With dead-Woodmarsh out of the way and Honda onboard McLaren should be an attractive proposition for prospective commercial partners.

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BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

Formula Straw Man

Maybe tell Riccardio that? Pretty sure some of his best passes have been outside of drs zones.

And I think there is a correlation between passes and how interesting a race is, with a few exceptions a race with zero passes is going to be less interesting than a race that has passes, drs or otherwise.

DRS is constantly allowing drivers to get much closer to the car in front before overtakes are made. Unless you make up more than a second in a lap it's impossible for DRS not to have an impact in how you catch the car in front to be in a position to pass

As for the number of passes, that depends on what you mean. A race where every position stays the same from start to finish is obviously going to be horrendous, but when has that ever happened? Even the races where there have been no or very few on-track passes have seen changes of position via pit stops or retirements. You could probably have a fantastic race with no overtaking, although it's a long shot for obvious reasons - in the same way, you can have a brilliant 0-0 draw in football, because football isn't about the goals

But I don't think F1's issues are solely limited to DRS. Codename brought that into the discussion this time - I bit because I don't like DRS being justified by "you couldn't overtake in the past and you can now, so now must be much better". Making out the past to be a big bad dark place where everything was much worse than it is today is just as stupid as saying the past was this glorious place where everything was perfect. Despite my general negativity (and I'll shut up after this), there are some things about current F1 that I like - the points system being the main one; I wish we'd always had points for the top 10

in my opinion drs is simply negating the aerodynamic advantage that a car has when in front. unless we go all the way back to before aerodynamics when a car's speed was purely the result of man and machine, unaffected by "dirty air" i dont think we'll see a day anytime soon when drs is no longer seen as beneficial to the sport.

double pts however...