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Back on the topic of how boring and terrible F1 is compared to the old days -

Lots of overtaking with DRS can be just as boring as no overtaking at all. Once it's too easy, it's not exciting.
It's the amount of fights, unexpected drama like crashes and technical problems, weather conditions and non-dominant team/driver that make the season exciting. 1998, 1999 and 2000 were great seasons even though that graph implies otherwise.

Fortunately this year we have had awesome battles despite DRS & ERS and plenty of drama as well.

This, DRS caused a devaluation for what is considered a pass. What used to be considered an art is now reduced to pressing a button (most of the time). So yeah quality > quantity, IMO.

Exactly. Some DRS passes suck. But we've not went to 6 fold the passes and they al suck.

And I think Pirelli has just as much to do with it.

As much as DRS gets stick for all the "open flap, cruise by in straight line" overtakes when they happen, it does NOT get the credit for any other pass outside of DRS zones that wouldn't have happened without the DRS flap enabling the cars to run closer than the dirty air would've if it wasn't being used.

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Correct and well said, like Ricciardo on Hamilton then Alonso for the win at Hungary. Ricciardo used DRS between T1-2 to set up his overtakes through T2.

I love how ignorantly people still obsess and bitch about the "open flap, cruise passed in straight line".

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As i've said DRS caused a devauluation, the high amount of passes are quite a lot of shitty quality but also quite a lot of good ones. I don't mind DRS being used on parts to get them close near an opponent. Like in Hungary it was just perfect, with an amazing amount of passes outside the DRS zone. But there have been enough races where they press the button, go past, and are able to move back to racing line in front of the past cars. Unless that balance hasn't been sorted out I will never be a massive supporter of the system.

there we can see how awesome 2003 season was awesome

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

Red Bull caught fire during a show in Chelyabinsk
https://vk.com/video5412737_169517672

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Great graph, thanks for posting that Dave.

Two areas catch my eye instantly.

1984 to 1995: Does anyone know what contributed to the fairly steady decline over a period of a decade?

2009 to 2010: DRS was introduced in 2011 wasn't it? What contributed to the steep spike between 2009 to 2010? The massive jump in 2011 compared to 2010 was obviously due to DRS but what was it before that? I can't recall any big changes between 2009 & 2010.

At a guess I would say more aero = more dirty air, but as I can't really remember much before 1996 there's probably someone who knows better

from 1984 to 1995 it was basically the days where F1 applied more technology than ever on the cars


and in 2010 it was the first year with no refuelling allowed. that helped a bit to increase overtaking

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

2010 also had a load of shit cars that were easy for any cars that weren't shit to overtake. I remember the first race in Bahrain which was terrible and yet the overtaking stats nerds were saying "look, there was more overtaking, so it must have been a good race", despite the fact that most of the overtakes had come when 2 or 3 drivers had been relegated to the back after a first lap crash and had simply driven past the HRTs, Lotuses and Virgins. It's all pseudoscience

Slick tyres in 2009

Banning of refuelling in 2010.

Also a big help.

_________________
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

Add to that KERS against no-KERS in 2009 plus lots of new teams in 2010 created greater lap time disparity.

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

Also the aerodynamic flickup ban after 2008 made the cars a lot more exciting and able to follow much closer than previously.

_________________
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

Haha, did I really steadily watch 10 years of F1 with around 10 overtakes per race?

Silly me. All those youth afternoons wasted slowly dozing off in front of processions, just by habit and to keep up to date with my childhood heroes' results.

I take the worst race of this year over that.

One of the problems was the tv crew as well. Entire race watching Schumacher lead while the action behind him wasn't shown.


In other news, Dutch toiletpaper de Telegraaf is claiming that Red Bull is saving a seat for Max Verstappen (16) at Torro Rosso for 2015.
I'd say unlikely. If it was 2016 I'd be willing to believe but the kid only has half a season of open wheels so far. Impressive so far but if this where true he'd get into F1 with only 1 season of open wheel racing under his belt. It would also make him the youngest debutant ever.

Red Bull be smart and stick him in GP2 first. His fathers career was partly ruined because he got into F1 too soon. Obviously there where other reasons as well but it already went wrong there.

I find this an interesting graph

Basically there was 50% chance to retire before 1997, 1/3 chance to retire before 2004, while now the risk is about 10%. And probably Caterham and Marussia mostly account that 10%.
Of course some may think that the more drivers are left, the more potential there is for battles. But fighting on the track is not the only source for excitement. I genuinely like races where there is a surprise winner or podium finisher. For this year I consider Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen such surprise.

So, I'm a bit disappointed the threats of "half of the field will retire" before Australian GP never realized. When it was common that half of the field did retire (like 1999), there was quite surprising podiums. Herbert winning, Prost being 2nd, Fisichella with Benetton being 2nd. With today's point system even Toranosuke Takagi would have collected 10 points and Marc Gene 20 points. Heck, even Pedro Diniz would have had more points than Räikkönen by the British GP.
I miss unpredictable results.

For the excitement reliability indeed is a problem. But I have no idea on how to fix that. Dropping the 4-race requirement probably wont help much as they have the reliability quite under control already.