You know you're obsessed with F1 when...
- Thread starter Hamberg
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Fenderman
Rooters Reporter
More importantly, methinks, Rad Booton and Rootersport are back! 
J
johnnoble1990
Guest
When you wake up at stupid time just to watch first practice. I'm now up for the day. Have Uni in 9 hours. 
All part of the experience.
All part of the experience.
Fenderman
Rooters Reporter
Worse ... when the best I can do is bring up live timing, Chat on Clip, Twitter, facebook and Radio 5 live and try to imagine what the ugly platypussies look like hurtling round Albert Park as ths ageing laptop slows to a crawl with the weight of tasks I'm asking of it. Thanks to Southern Water increasing my water rates by 25% I can't even cave in and convert to Sky or upgrade my Virgin Media package. Obsessed I most definitely am ... a magician I am not. Doh!
Always loved this thread. And I needed a place to put this little anecdote from my day.
Driving along this morning approaching my turn on the right when a Porsche Boxster edged his way over and forced himself into my lane to take the right-hander ahead. About a mile down the road this guys engine completely gives up and smoke comes billowing out the back. I'm literally blinded by this eruption and finally know how it feels to watch another car retire in front of your very eyes. Just picked up another place I tell myself.
Driving along this morning approaching my turn on the right when a Porsche Boxster edged his way over and forced himself into my lane to take the right-hander ahead. About a mile down the road this guys engine completely gives up and smoke comes billowing out the back. I'm literally blinded by this eruption and finally know how it feels to watch another car retire in front of your very eyes. Just picked up another place I tell myself.
You keep on watching even though the powers that be keep on introducing more and more gimmicks to try and make it more palatable for the casual viewer and somehow in the process make it much worse for the enthusiast causing the racing to be completely contrived and completely shit, but still you carry on watching like a rabbit caught in a cars headlights...
downforce
Race Winner
Hamberg Thats absolutely brilliant! Just so long as it wasn't a gimmicky DRS move and the couple ahead wern't conserving rubber.
Mephistopheles Yeah, that is the true way to know.
Mephistopheles Yeah, that is the true way to know.
After 45 years, I'm beginning to question my sanity!
What was once a thrill and delight is now a construct and torment; a battle of men and determination has become a 'team effort' which detracts from the excellence of the few.
It is no longer easy to see who the mighty are, nor the gifted. It is down to money and its misuse.
Sadly, it is fairly indicative of the modern world.
Edit: I know, there is always one, isn't there?
What was once a thrill and delight is now a construct and torment; a battle of men and determination has become a 'team effort' which detracts from the excellence of the few.
It is no longer easy to see who the mighty are, nor the gifted. It is down to money and its misuse.
Sadly, it is fairly indicative of the modern world.
Edit: I know, there is always one, isn't there?
But F1 has always been a team sport. Could Farina have won the first WDC if Alfa Romeo had built a crap car? Could M Schumacher have won 97 races without a team behind him (if only to tell the other driver to pull over).
What has changed is that it has become big business, at one time it was a sport.
What has changed is that it has become big business, at one time it was a sport.
It was always a business, albeit a very badly run business until a Mr B Ecclestone stepped in and realised the value of the sport to the promoters and participants. Never forget that prior to FOM centrally negotiating contracts the teams had to pay the circuits to let their cars on the track. Can you imagine Usain Bolt having to pay to be allowed to run the 100 metres at the Diamond League meetings or Tiger Woods having to cough up to play the US Open?
I'm not under any illusions that FOM has taken a lot from the sport but they have also put a great deal in to it for both the fans and the teams.
I'm not under any illusions that FOM has taken a lot from the sport but they have also put a great deal in to it for both the fans and the teams.
Fenderman
Rooters Reporter
It seems to me that F1 has failed to deal with balancing the various demands of the sport. FOM manages the interface between F1 and the public and the infrastructure of the sport but the FIA dominates the rule setting. Whilst the regulations brought in to make F1 safe are to be applauded there are many that, quite frankly stifle it.
Since the turn of the millennium their attention has shifted the balance toward entertainment for the masses. They have gone about that by taking interference and prescription to ever more petty heights with regard to the engineering side of the challenge.
Ever tighter constraints on the design parameters of the cars has meant that the technical challenge has been to build the best car that fits the regulations. In the engineering "halcyon" days the challenge was to build the best car with any of the innovative tools and ideas they could come up with. Limitations were general such as overall engine capacity, hence engines like the BRM V16 raced against straight sixes. eights and all sorts. The cars had different shapes and, funnily enough, so did drivers. We have lost variety with the cars looking ever more similar as the years have gone by. Thus F1 has not been helped with every car having the same engine configuration with only marginal variation in performance.
What the rule makers and FOM have forgotten or missed in there devotion to the mass market is the fact that entertainment comes in many forms. It also does not mean that in order to entertain you should treat your audiences as a load of dummies. In entertainment terms F1 should be classified as serious, high quality drama. It should not be a contrived soap opera or sitcom. If people want that sort of thing they can follow demolition derby. It doesn't have to be high brow in it's presentation but it doesn't have to be dumb assed either.
I am still obsessed with F1 but that obsession is waning I seem to feel more disappointed as each year goes by. My obsession was always with the technology and the interface of man and machine. It was never about individual superstars although I obviously appreciate and enjoy watching the masters of the cockpit.
Since the turn of the millennium their attention has shifted the balance toward entertainment for the masses. They have gone about that by taking interference and prescription to ever more petty heights with regard to the engineering side of the challenge.
Ever tighter constraints on the design parameters of the cars has meant that the technical challenge has been to build the best car that fits the regulations. In the engineering "halcyon" days the challenge was to build the best car with any of the innovative tools and ideas they could come up with. Limitations were general such as overall engine capacity, hence engines like the BRM V16 raced against straight sixes. eights and all sorts. The cars had different shapes and, funnily enough, so did drivers. We have lost variety with the cars looking ever more similar as the years have gone by. Thus F1 has not been helped with every car having the same engine configuration with only marginal variation in performance.
What the rule makers and FOM have forgotten or missed in there devotion to the mass market is the fact that entertainment comes in many forms. It also does not mean that in order to entertain you should treat your audiences as a load of dummies. In entertainment terms F1 should be classified as serious, high quality drama. It should not be a contrived soap opera or sitcom. If people want that sort of thing they can follow demolition derby. It doesn't have to be high brow in it's presentation but it doesn't have to be dumb assed either.
I am still obsessed with F1 but that obsession is waning I seem to feel more disappointed as each year goes by. My obsession was always with the technology and the interface of man and machine. It was never about individual superstars although I obviously appreciate and enjoy watching the masters of the cockpit.
Fenderman I think that rule making has, up until now, mostly been down to the teams themselves, in the form of the various working groups. The FIA, FOM and the teams all have a vote, with the FIA being allowed to veto on safety grounds, and Ferrari just because they are Ferrari. It could be said that Bernie most likely has the biggest say in the rules of anyone, as he has the ears (and bollocks) of the teams but to lay the blame for the current rules at the feet of the FIA alone is not correct.
I could not agree more with your first statement though, in that the entity which is F1 does not seem to know what it wants to be to whom, and is making a bit of a lash up of it all.
That said, I do still enjoy race day, not as much as I used to, but I think that is down to me and those whom I follow than the rules.
I could not agree more with your first statement though, in that the entity which is F1 does not seem to know what it wants to be to whom, and is making a bit of a lash up of it all.
That said, I do still enjoy race day, not as much as I used to, but I think that is down to me and those whom I follow than the rules.
I am watching FP2 with the rain pouring down and very little action on the circuit. But I am still hopeful that something exciting will happen.
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