Should Formula 1 bring back refuelling? With the current rules and gadgets of DRS, KERS and these Pirelli tyres, the races would surely be much more interesting than they are now.
With no-refuelling, once someone's in the lead after the first lap, you know they've won, and the last several races after Valencia (where several safety cars and odd mechancial retirements) have been so boring.
With refuelling we saw different strategies, a mix up in the pits, the driver in the lead wasn't guranteed victory, a different grid order from 50% of the race to the end. Instead of now, where the positions stay the same after lap 10 or so.
The counter-argument to bring back refuelling, would be of "drivers overtaking at the pitstops". But with the current rules, then we wouldn't be getting that. Above all that, we are getting drivers "overtaking at the pitstops" right now as it is. Another factor is, with the current regulations, cars can follow each other much better now than they could back in 2005-2009, therefore making overtaking lesser of a challenge.
I never really liked the ban on refuelling, as I tend to have found the races more boring, the last 20 laps these days just kind of seem pointless. I seem to be less interested in F1 than I've ever been, yes I watch every race, but I'm not into it as I used to be. Of course you aren't going to get most of the races to have battles for the lead, but what we've had for the past 3 years haven't been that exciting at all.
After the first round of pit stops: the relative pace of the teams are pretty obvious to see. Since it's fresh in our minds: we can look to Korea. Alonso never seriously threatened Webber after the first lap of the race. Massa might have had a chance if he was allowed to race in front of Alonso, but he wasn't. It was clear that Red Bull was supreme, Ferrari 2nd, and Lotus arguably third. I say arguably because we didn't get a fair opportunity to see McLaren over a race distance. This was predictable quite early.
The best argument for re-fueling the cars is to see them race 'on edge.'
The start of the race now is always exciting. But watching the cars run 4-5s/lap slower than qualifying doesn't interest me much. We never see the cars approaching the lap times of qualifying (and DRS plays into this). And when the cars finally do burn off their fuel: the engines are turned down or the tyres have degraded. The racing currently doesn't produce those 'on the limit' qualifying laps, which then would lead to more driver errors, mistakes, overtakes, and more exciting.
If I could change anything: it would be to eliminate DRS. I don't think it's necessary if Formula 1 want Pirelli as their tyre supplier and aerodynamic grip is scaled back. The cars are running closer together now than in the Bridgestone era. And I would argue the best passes this year happened outside of the DRS zone. Three that stick out in my mind are Vettel on Rosberg at Melbourne, Raikkonen on Schumacher at SPA and Raikkonen on di Resta at Hungary.
I'm putting this thread up as I'm not the only one feeling this way, I was talking to my friends after football about Formula 1, and someone brought up the points of the current situation on F1 and how we are seeming to lose interest in it, we all agreed seemed to agree on it, I've also put this thread up on two other forums, and they seem to agree that the races aren't what they used to be. Some people even suggested cutting the race distance by 15 laps or so.
So, would you like to see refuelling back? Would you think it would be more exciting with refuelling and with the current rules?
Or would you keep it the way it is, or would you tweak other aspects of the sport that has not been mentioned?
With no-refuelling, once someone's in the lead after the first lap, you know they've won, and the last several races after Valencia (where several safety cars and odd mechancial retirements) have been so boring.
With refuelling we saw different strategies, a mix up in the pits, the driver in the lead wasn't guranteed victory, a different grid order from 50% of the race to the end. Instead of now, where the positions stay the same after lap 10 or so.
The counter-argument to bring back refuelling, would be of "drivers overtaking at the pitstops". But with the current rules, then we wouldn't be getting that. Above all that, we are getting drivers "overtaking at the pitstops" right now as it is. Another factor is, with the current regulations, cars can follow each other much better now than they could back in 2005-2009, therefore making overtaking lesser of a challenge.
I never really liked the ban on refuelling, as I tend to have found the races more boring, the last 20 laps these days just kind of seem pointless. I seem to be less interested in F1 than I've ever been, yes I watch every race, but I'm not into it as I used to be. Of course you aren't going to get most of the races to have battles for the lead, but what we've had for the past 3 years haven't been that exciting at all.
After the first round of pit stops: the relative pace of the teams are pretty obvious to see. Since it's fresh in our minds: we can look to Korea. Alonso never seriously threatened Webber after the first lap of the race. Massa might have had a chance if he was allowed to race in front of Alonso, but he wasn't. It was clear that Red Bull was supreme, Ferrari 2nd, and Lotus arguably third. I say arguably because we didn't get a fair opportunity to see McLaren over a race distance. This was predictable quite early.
The best argument for re-fueling the cars is to see them race 'on edge.'
The start of the race now is always exciting. But watching the cars run 4-5s/lap slower than qualifying doesn't interest me much. We never see the cars approaching the lap times of qualifying (and DRS plays into this). And when the cars finally do burn off their fuel: the engines are turned down or the tyres have degraded. The racing currently doesn't produce those 'on the limit' qualifying laps, which then would lead to more driver errors, mistakes, overtakes, and more exciting.
If I could change anything: it would be to eliminate DRS. I don't think it's necessary if Formula 1 want Pirelli as their tyre supplier and aerodynamic grip is scaled back. The cars are running closer together now than in the Bridgestone era. And I would argue the best passes this year happened outside of the DRS zone. Three that stick out in my mind are Vettel on Rosberg at Melbourne, Raikkonen on Schumacher at SPA and Raikkonen on di Resta at Hungary.
I'm putting this thread up as I'm not the only one feeling this way, I was talking to my friends after football about Formula 1, and someone brought up the points of the current situation on F1 and how we are seeming to lose interest in it, we all agreed seemed to agree on it, I've also put this thread up on two other forums, and they seem to agree that the races aren't what they used to be. Some people even suggested cutting the race distance by 15 laps or so.
So, would you like to see refuelling back? Would you think it would be more exciting with refuelling and with the current rules?
Or would you keep it the way it is, or would you tweak other aspects of the sport that has not been mentioned?
