Why do you still watch F1?

Brogan

Legend
Staff Member
All I seem to read these days is how bad F1 is, why it's not worth watching, why it's not fair and is no longer a sport, why other forms of motorsport are better, why the WDC from last year and this year are meaningless as they have a far superior car, why..., why..., why... (ad nauseum).

Quite frankly I got tired of reading it last year and it's already much, much worse this year, after just a few races.

So, for all those bitterly complaining how bad it is, why are you still watching (and complaining) about it?

Personally if there's something in my life which annoys me that much I do something about it so it no longer annoys me.
In the case of F1 the solution would seem to be to stop following it.

So why do those of you who so obviously despise the sport in its current form so much still watch it, if all you do is complain how dreadful it is?
Why not do something else or follow a sport you do like instead?
 
Quite honestly I have absolutely no idea, like I've said a couple of times I switched the last race off well before the end which is something I have never done before so maybe I am coming to the point when I will say enough is enough..
 
That's solely to do with operating and updating the site though and not connected with watching or following F1.
 
Are you not disillusioned by the sport yourself? You don't come across as someone who only enjoys it if their fav driver wins
 
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If anything, this site is responsible for my ambivalence towards F1 these days.

Having to plan personal and family time, days off, weekends and even holidays (yes really) around updating FF1 and the OTDB, and dealing with the general day to day running of the site has all but ruined it for me.

Still, that's a subject for another thread...
 
like I've said a couple of times I switched the last race off well before the end which is something I have never done before

Everyone knows this is not actually the case. Lord knows JB has had many plonkers.

And you do realize that it's a strange dichotomy when the leading poster on an F1 forum is also it's number 1 detractor, right?
 
I understand that Brogan I wasn't trying to be personal to be honest my enjoyment of the sport has also gone down hill since posting and reading posts on forums, before I could enjoy watching say a battle between Hill and Schumacher without people slagging one or the other off and saying my driver is better than your drivers but now since the advent of forums that has all changed.

And yes I know I could stop posting but then I would deprive myself of the better read members who don't have an axe to grind..
 
That's fair enough.

You're not alone in your criticism of F1 though - there are many others on here.

I am genuinely interested in hearing the reasons why people spend so much time and energy on something which clearly gives them no pleasure.
Quite the opposite in fact.
 
I think we all care about F1, it's what go me on this board in the first place. Why (and I am one among them) do fans of any sport continue to watch during the bad times. Bristol Rugby have finished top of the Championship on three occasions but thanks to the stupid rules about play offs have failed to be promoted on three occasions. It's unfair and it's down right stupid, I hate the system and the whole direction that Rugby is taking. I've still shelled out a lot of money for the Wife and I to have season tickets again for next season because despite all that, I love the game.

It's the same as F1. For me, it's crap at the moment. It's getting harder and harder to see how they can turn it around and make it more interesting but I hope they do. I love the feeling of waiting for a race to start. I enjoy F1 full stop. Again, purely personal but it's not helped by the fact that the team I supported ever since I was 11 years old went out of business. when I was 20 years old. There's drivers I like to see do well but none that I would loose any sleep over if they lost. The last time I really cared about a driver winning was Damon's world championship.

Like buying albums from a band that have been around for years. It's inevitable that the later albums as you get older are never as magic as the first ones you bought. If they release a clunker it seems like it takes longer and longer for the next album to come out and you hope it's better. Some are, some aren't.

The general theme among all of the discussion over the last two days, and I think FB has been very clear on this, is separating the fact that one driver is winning and winning well from the fact that the sport as we knew it seems to have lost what it is that made it great for a lot of people. Much as Celtic fans in Scotland won't give a flying fig that the other teams around them aren't as good / have enough money to get up among them. If you're guy is winning then that's great. Between 2000 and 2004 Ferrari and Schumacher fans were in their element. How easy it was to forget I guess that they had to wait 20 odd years for a drivers title.

I'll still watch this weekend. Get that same buzz as the red lights come on and hope for a good race where anything can happen.

Then follow that by discussing what did and didn't happen on here.
 
I doubt we're alone amongst sports fans in harking back to the "good old days".

I've watched races where the pit lane "mechanics" are smoking, slapping wet towels on the tyres to cool them down, pushing cars down the pit lane to bump start them, spectators and photographers standing at the side of, or even on the circuit :o

All great stuff.

But wholly inappropriate in this day and age of multi-billion dollar businesses - which F1 is.
(Not to mention all the health and safety aspects).

Sports such as F1 are always going to be in a constant state of flux/evolution.
Some of it will be good, some bad (grooved tyres anyone?).
 
I'm sure if we looked hard enough, someone will have a Dennis Jenkinson or Bill Boddy article declaring the end of F1 as we know it.

The fact of the matter is, this time the core of F1 needs a new broom. Ecclestone has to go. You make a good point, it's a multi billion doller business in a state of flux / evolution. That needs to be led from the core. A man who fails to recognize the importance of the internet, online platforms, promotion for the wider audience not just the paddock club and just who his core audience is. Just has to go. I think it as Snowy made the point in another thread, when the man who runs F1 is bitching about his own sport instead of investing his energy into kicking off the new season with a blaze of multi platform media promotion shouldn't be at the helm.

It doesn't make anyone want to feel part of it or feel connected to it. Really, how many people genuinely give a stuff about the sound of the engines. I can honestly say (waits to be proven massively wrong) I don't know one person who would trade louder engines for something like more relaxed regulation on engine design.

Related to this is that so many people come to F1 for different reasons as well. Drivers, Teams, the technology. It's never going to be all things to all people I guess.
 
For my part, I appear to have made a mistake, and jumped back into F1 in a period of dominance similar to the Schumacher Ferrari years. I didn't like Schumacher, I didn't like Ferarri. I don't like Hamilton, I don't like Mercedes. I'll still watch it, because now I have young Max Verstappen, and Carlos Sainz Junior, to get excited about, but I think I'm just biding my time until someone other than Merc and Hamilton are leading the pack.
 
I reckon I don't follow F1 as much as I did before, part of the reason being Ferrari's low form in the past few years. However there's usually no better show at the time a race is on (which is Sunday morning in my case) and when I have the time (seldom if ever), F1 is the only sport I bother to watch for 1.5 hours straight. This year the only race I've watched is Malaysia (and I'm glad I did), but I'll probably tune in again when the're back from Asia - who's willing to wake up at 4;00 am to watch a procession anyway - Honestly it's much better to read the postings on this site; now that's entertaining ...
 
I can think of 4 examples: Spa 1998, Japan 2005, Hungary 2006, Canada 2011 - those mixed-up races where the result was considerably different to expectation. Ok - they're the exception, rather than the rule, but if you don't suffer the dull races as well, you'll never catch the gems!

Also, there's a tangible sense of the ghosts of heroes past standing behind the grid every year, as the spectacle (for all its current flaws) is steeped in history. I like that, and I find the engineering fascinating too. Just because the racing becomes predictable, doesn't make it any less interesting for me.
 
Hamilton taking the title at the last corner of the last race in 2008. Ricciardo winning against the odds last season or Mercedes cocking up in Malaysia letting Ferrari take a win. Also, force of habit.

I know when I went to F1 races back in the 80's you felt that these cars were the cutting edge of technology but that pales in to insignificance compared to what we have today. The technology still excites me, I'd just like to see a bit more freedom for designers to express themselves. This might end up with a single dominant team but it might not be the one which has spent the most money simply a designer finding some exceptional idea which blows away the rest of the field.
 
I'm losing interest because everyone involved now puts on a straight jacket the moment they go to work. Endless rules, regulations and edicts are strangling the sport to the point where it has lost its spontaneity and romance (an odd word but appropriate for me!).

it is also now a reflection of the World as a whole - constrained by the petty- minded and overly greedy jobsworths who have no foresight nor insight and who can only relate to rule and regulation

I've been a fan, and follower since my teens, over forty years, and remember the excitement of seeing the majesty of men who were prepared to battle it out on the track. Their personality always shining, their charisma, their persistent optimism and their heroics. All supported by men who could think laterally to improve the car and were rarely penalised for innovation.
 
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