What do you miss in F1?

cider_and_toast

Exulted Lord High Moderator of the Apex
Staff Member
Valued Member
So as the hard working men and women of Formula One enjoy 5 minutes off to grab a coffee and a cake before the next race in Spa, let's turn our minds back to the good old days when we all started watching F1. What are the things you miss from the past, what ever era of the sport that may be from?

For me, I miss Ayrton Senna, the clean lines of the mid 80s cars, those huge turbos and teams having to fight to just run on a Saturday.

What about you?
 
cider_and_toast - What he said, my real formative years in F1 were the early/mid 80's and so it's similar.

I seriously miss the opportunity to use the track, the marbles you get these days make it more of a pre school playground rather than a circuit, but then I also miss the slightly rougher edges to the track with countryside or gravel beyond that edge that negated any requirement for 4 wheel rules.

There's a danger if I go on with this thread I'll need to get myself a pack of Werthers originals like Patrick Head...
 
Low noses on the cars.

Being able to see the cars number.

An FIA president that has time for TV interviews.

Ground effect cars

A time when racing teams were ran by manufacturers and independants and not soft drink companies.

Mechanical retirements

Murray Walker

Really wide rear tyres much narrower front tyres

Ayrton Senna
 
Williams being a top team, big powerful V10 engines and the roar of the Ferrari V12 these high reviving little engines with no torque things they have today just doesn't do it for me.

I miss having Toyota, Honda, Yamaha and BMW on the grid trying to out do their rivals for me there just isn't the depth of completion between manufactures there used to be all we have now is Ford, Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari, supplying the whole grid and most probably controlling how the races are run and which driver goes where.

The sport has become far to corporate and is in danger of losing its right to call itself a sport, it is rapidly becoming a show for the big wigs to watch whilst conducting big business, it really needs to take a good look at itself and get back to the grass roots of what it is supposed to be.

Every time the manufactures have threatened to break away and form their own formula I have been massively disappointed when they never carried through with their threats, and so I am left with watching the remnants of what once was the greatest sport on earth...
 
I miss variety. All the circuits look the same now, even the old ones - imagine that in the old days, the sponsors' hoardings were different at each track and written in the local language! Now UBS is everywhere and Switzerland doesn't even have a bloody GP. Almost all the really big-balls corners have gone now, and even those that remain have been rendered irrelevant by developments in cornering speeds.

Obviously the cars all look and sound the same now, and internally they're becoming more similar by the year.
 
The sound of the sixteen cylinder BRM engine (just before it erupted into little pieces).

The same for me with the Matra v-12

I also miss drivers that could undeniably use a clutch better than I.

I especially miss the beauty of F1 cars in the pre-aero era. Juat look at the 1967 Lotus 49 and Eagle Weslake and you'll know what I mean (or you can just look at my avatar)
 
I was going to do this as an edit but it went on for so long I decided to create a new post.

I mentioned ford in my post but they do not run an F1 team they are merely there to fill in the massive hole that was left when the manufactures left in their droves and you could almost say the same about Renault as they don't officially have a team either which leaves the sport with only two manufactures Ferrari and Mercedes and if it hadn't have been for Brawn even Mercedes probably would not have entered their own team which would have just left Ferrari as the only proper team.

Is it just me or does anyone else see what is wrong with this picture?
 
All of the above...

A simple cockpit with a steering wheel...real gear shift... and about 5 buttons max...

Mechanical retirements...

The privateers... esp. those who punched above their weight...
 
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