Look, I’m an old-school
@F1 fan, I’ve seen the good, the bad, the brilliant and the boring on Sundays for damn nearly 40 years. I’ve seen it all – V12s, V10s, V8s then V6, the end of refuelling, single lap quali, fastest lap points, traction control, weird areo packages, DRS etc etc .
But this season is unquestionably the stupidest.
We have a Dictator For Life in Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who’s so hilariously and obviously corrupt he’s making FISA President and former SS member Jean-Marie Balestre look like a choir boy, the rehabilitation of a known cheat
@AlpineF1Team who seems to think bullying his drivers is the way to get performance, a set of regulations so complicated even the
@fia don’t understand them any more, cars that can’t cope with rain and can’t go flat out down straights, a drive towards road relevance (as if anyone popping to the shops will be doing that at 200mph on tyres that die after 10 miles and needs to stop from over 100mph in the length of a double decker and has a team of dedicated engineers helping them with the school run)
F1 is supposed to be about very fast cars, driver bravery and spectacle. I love that there’s whole new generations of folks coming into the sport through things like drive to survive and a proper strategy for engaging North America. I love that we go to new tracks and holy cows (Monaco I’m looking at you) have to justify their place on the calendar. I love this generation of drivers, who’re unbelievably talented sportsmen (and who knows, with any luck some women too soon). But I do not love what MBS and the bunch of yes-men he’s surrounded himself with have done to the regs, nor the price we’re paying to attract tail-end manufacturers like Audi and Cadillac who’ll inevitably get bored of losing and leave soon. Forget road relevancy, let’s go racing.
@MattP1Tommy - sorry for tagging you guys but I know you feel the same