So, current state of F1....

"bryan40oop" (bryan40oop) 09/05/2015 at 22:16 • Filed to: F1

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I’ve been binge watching old races. Currently on season 2004. I find it so much more interesting than the current setup. Re-fulling throws so much more interest into the races. Yes passing was still rarer than todays game. But there is nothing like watching Schumacher, Alonso, Raikkonen, Montoya, etc chasing down the car ahead setting fastest lap over and over especially on pit in laps to leap ahead. More passing hasn’t bettered the sport as much as hoped. There is the same amount of excitement watching a car being chased down as there is a DRS pass.

And lets be honest, the 3.0 v10 era cars were just so mind boggling fast.

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And there’s this

229.845 mph. No DRS. No draft. Flat out speed.

F1 in this era was undoubtedly the fastest cars on track. These days they still are, but no where near as far ahead of GP2 / WEC prototypes.

Even drivers from this era still racing today say the cars are too easy to drive.

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“Felipe Massa and Nico Rosberg (below in 2005), who tested an F1 car at 17, both said that the cars of 10 years ago were more physically challenging to drive, especially as refuelling meant that the races were a series of sprints, with faster lap times and higher physical loads.”

And this quote here is one of the reasons Michael Schumacher was so successful. He just seemed to be in better physical shape than others. He could deal with the demands of a 900+ hp 230 mph 4 wheeled mind bending speed machine more efficiently than others.

It wasn’t just the fact ferrari had such a good car. Barrichello & Massa were no slouch. But Michael was just better.

Even with traction control from this era the cars were harder to drive. Just because of the shear pace. You have to be on the limit at almost all times. The cars move around so much thanks just shear outright speed. The races were much like WEC is today, a qualifying session, a sprint.

And I’m sad. Without big tobacco sponsorship it’s almost impossible to bring the cars back to this sort of pace.

Yes there are possible plans to boost the power of the cars back to the lunacy of high horse power. But will it have the same effect? It’s not the teams and engine builders pushing the limits, but rather the FIA just increasing them. It’s a fabricated attempt to increase speeds. But hopefully it will work.

However, no I do not think formula 1 is becoming more of a spec series, which many people like, there is nothing wrong with them. But we have those series, F1 doesn’t need to become one. It needs the boundaries to be pushed by the engineers behind the cars, the engines, the tire manufacturers.

Sadly the engineering factor has been cut down dramatically to cut cost understandable so, but one can’t help to hope for the return of no limits F1. A return to when the sport was arguably at it’s highest point.