Do you care about F1, or is it just as a feeder series for endurance racing?

[Grand_Fromage]

I'm fairly neutral towards F1. I don't dislike it and I'll watch it now and then, but I really don't follow it.

[Kristof]

F1 ... the only racing series in the world where the safety car sounds better than the racing cars.

I did care but lost interest after the death of Senna and the domination of Schumacher.  Started following it again a few years ago but aside from Alonso, Button and Raikonnen there's no one really interesting in F1 anymore.  They also managed to create butt-ugly cars and ruined the whole "experience" with banning natural aspirated engines.  After I saw the first car passing by at Spa last year, I've had it with F1 ..  GP2 sounded way better !

Went to the testdays in Barcelona a few times, did several Grand Prix around Europe and I'm still going to the Belgian Grand Prix every year since 1990 though (thanks to free tickets).  Monza is  on my bucketlist and would like to go back to Monaco one day although it won't be the same compared with the sound of the late 90's.

[Barry]

Been watching since the 60's, so it's almost a habit now.
It certainly isn't as interesting anymore, I would blame the Poison Dwarf and over regulation.
What they ought to do is tear up the rule book, set a maximum engine size and a cost cap. Anything goes.
And shoot the Dwarf of course! 

[Boorish Grobian]

My thoughts are much the same as Dottore's. and Barry's, I began following F1 in 1969, at the ripe old age of seven.  Throughout the seventies, and eighties, F1 was the be all & end all for me.  I loved sports car racing, and Indy cars, but F1 was king.  But as it moved into the nineties, something began to change, it was becoming more of a made for TV event rather than a sport.  With ever more suffocating regulations, and increasing gimmicks to "spice up the show", it lost me.  Bernie's pimp & hype act has grown tiresome,  I'll watch the races if they're on when I'm channel flipping, but my days of getting up at seven AM, to watch the races live stopped two decades ago.
Fax

[Nordic]

More interested than a few years ago, actually quite like the new regs, they are more relevant in today's world and the speed and economy they can produce from such small engines is pretty amazing. The last f1 race I went to was 90, and that was a freebie, before that went to everyone in the UK and a few abroad from when I was a baby. Lost interest big time in 90's

The sound, like the diesel Audis is a not dynamic like cars af old, but I'm less bothered by that than some, plenty of great cars in the past sounded pretty underwhelming, the 956 For example. To me there is something special about a car whooshing by at speed without the noise you would expect.

The current F1 drivers are not too shabby either, clearly they do not have the freedom drivers of the 70's and before had, but they do seem to have bit goinging on and there is no lack of talent in the top 10 or so. I quite like most of them and while impossible to judge, I do think that they would have stood up well against the top drivers of past eras in terms of driving talent.

On the downside, I hate with a passion the fake tyre options and I am surprised any company would want to be associated with it. The DRS system makes a mockery of the term 'sport' and some of the tracks are sh*t and have no place in Motorsport at any level.

The potential for F1 is still there, but I thnk the sporting element has been diluted and it's more a business than sport.

Would I pay to go and see an F1 race. In a word no.

[dukla]

Ditto Dottore, Barry, Fax.

First race was camping at Kyalami in late 60s. Don't remember much except climbing through the fences Thursday evening so pocket money could go on food, walking round the track Friday night (a good idea at the outset, takes a lot longer on foot than on wheels with a few spare BHP), race day was Saturday in those days and the scream of the BRMs.

[Canada Phil]

Much like the previous posters. Sports Car and Endurance racing have always been my favourites.
I folowed F1  on TV in the 80's & 90's even stayed up late to watch Aus or Japan with friends. got up early on occasion for similar gatherings. attended only live F1 when it was at Indianapolis in the early 2000's
Am currently in a a do not care mode which may or may not change.
Phil

[aricus654]

What an interesting question.

F1 is the Bernie show.  It's carefully constructed (but unscripted) TV soap opera.  Scheduled in regular slots of short episodes with very colourful characters, celebrity players, healthy salaries and plots with twists and turns.

Unfortunately for many years F1 was a circus without a real show on the track. Lack of overtaking resulted in a race with no racing.

First we began with the era of knockout qualifying. This improved matters somewhat and made the qualifying more fun than the race itself.

Then we saw an attempt to put the spice back in through artificial means - DRS zones, KERS, and tyres that artificially wore out.  Like Nordic, I detest these and do not think that this is sport let alone motor racing.

More recently it has been dominated by the move East towards the countries that pay Bernie big fees, have few spectators and often dull tracks.

But F1 fans look different to to sparks car fats.  I think that F1 fans are a bit like (British) football.  They tend to be strong supporters of a single team or driver and are binary about their support.

Of course you can plug into F1 and sometimes catch a good race, especially if it's wet.  I particularly enjoyed Senna at a wet Monaco in 1984, and of course it was a fantastic window on the talents of one Stefan Bellof.

I suspect that getting the best out of F1 needs a commitment.  You need to know the couple of episodes before.

I don't have the time to watch a soap opera and I'm just not sure that I want to devote enough time to F1.


Aricus

[aricus654]

Oh, and I have to say that because the F1 rules are so tightly written and enforced, the cars all appear to be the same

The regulations lead to a huge price for a small but clearly important gain in the car that is all but impossible to see unless you are an expert.

The contrasts with sports cars could not be greater.

Sports cars offers a range of advantages including:

Accessible drivers and Teams (away from a race weekend)
Reasonable ticket prices
Design diversity
Technical innovation
Overtaking
Unpredictabile race outcomes
Better looking machines

Aricus

[cja]

Have followed for decades....spectator, Marshal, worked with F1 teams, enjoyed hospitality (really enjoyed it!!)

Now, I am just fed up with all the rule-change cobblers.....and even more so, the Teflon Dwarf!!

Should be given a fixed budget; max & min overall dimensions/weights/crash-test limits; told to go for 200 miles on 2 sets of tyres & the best man wins!

Failing that, scrap the lot and put the efforts into the WEC.........

[Martini...LB]

Have followed for decades....spectator, Marshal, worked with F1 teams, enjoyed hospitality (really enjoyed it!!)

Now, I am just fed up with all the rule-change cobblers.....and even more so, the Teflon Dwarf!!

Should be given a fixed budget; max & min overall dimensions/weights/crash-test limits; told to go for 200 miles on 2 sets of tyres & the best man wins!

Failing that, scrap the lot and put the efforts into the WEC.........

Nice idea...

what I noticed most MR CJA newbie was the bit at the bottom of your post:

"If you don't have to drag yourself off the field exhausted after 90 minutes, you can't claim to have done your best."

Must relate to footbally rather than the proper sport of Rugby...

Funny though it made me think of being at LM, I would suggest that after LM it should read 'seven days' (or close) rather than 90 minutes, then you can claim to have done your best.

This can include a lot of sitting down, drinking and chatting, even falling asleep in your chair, all worthy of a true LM'er (new wordage?)

If you try hard enough you could even include a ...LB after your name and become a true Lazy B'astard, if you wish

>Martini...LB

[cja]

Have followed for decades....spectator, Marshal, worked with F1 teams, enjoyed hospitality (really enjoyed it!!)

Now, I am just fed up with all the rule-change cobblers.....and even more so, the Teflon Dwarf!!

Should be given a fixed budget; max & min overall dimensions/weights/crash-test limits; told to go for 200 miles on 2 sets of tyres & the best man wins!

Failing that, scrap the lot and put the efforts into the WEC.........

Nice idea...

what I noticed most MR CJA newbie was the bit at the bottom of your post:

"If you don't have to drag yourself off the field exhausted after 90 minutes, you can't claim to have done your best."

Must relate to footbally rather than the proper sport of Rugby...

Funny though it made me think of being at LM, I would suggest that after LM it should read 'seven days' (or close) rather than 90 minutes, then you can claim to have done your best.

This can include a lot of sitting down, drinking and chatting, even falling asleep in your chair, all worthy of a true LM'er (new wordage?)

If you try hard enough you could even include a ...LB after your name and become a true Lazy B'astard, if you wish

>Martini...LB

Well.....I have no problem with the LB addition, being a true LB at any given opportunity 

As for the footbally thing - yes, you're right but have always had a following for Saracens, even in the Bramley Road days.

Now, though, it's all about the LM prep. You know the sort of thing, the really important questions......Is the chair comfy enough? How much red wine should one man buy? Where is the cold beer? Food? - alright, if you insist....

The sort of things that make a LB's life complete...... 

[Boorish Grobian]

I got around to watching Australia yesterday, good lord what a steaming turd of a race!  F1's dead, no other way to put it.  It was once glorious, but it's just pure crap now.  If I had paid to see that, I would have been asking for my money back.
Fax

[Lorry]

No change there then.  But Vettel did overtake somebody in the pits.

I was watching a dvd of Jackie Stewart, (who I never particularly liked) and F1 does seem to have been a lot more exciting in those days

[Wayne Kerr]

It's my first love but the race is over before I'm sufficiently drunk. 24 hours suits my drinking style more than sprint races. Yeah drinking can have a style.........which one of you said I have a problem??