Given that the 2010 GP season is nearing it's finale, I figured I'd throw this out for discussion.
I've been watching Formula 1 since the mid-80's and the heady days of Mansell, Piquet, Prost and of course Senna. I'd say that the best times were when you had epic fights between a few select drivers such as the mid-80's when the afore mentioned drivers were all closely fighting for the championship or the mid-90's when Hill and Schumacher were trading blows (almost literally).
The Ferrari years were just that, Ferrari and for the most part amazingly boring even though other drivers like Coultard in 2001 or Ralf Schumacher in the same season to an extent challenged the dominance they had.
When Fernando broke the run in 2005, things got better and the racing was improved to an extent but the combination of driver aids like traction control and aero got in the way of making the racing truly exciting. Changes came through like the v10s going the way of the dodo, which meant the amazing howl of them was replaced with a coarse sounding v8, done mostly for cost reasons. Last year, massive aero changes were made to increase overtaking, which failed for the most part due to KERS making it's début and actually making passing harder. The aero issue was also supplanted by the diffuser development, which also made passing harder as the grip levels decreased for the following driver due to the wake the lead car would cause.
This year, they got rid of refuelling to try and make qualifying more realistic and make it more about the racing but what we got was one stop racing and hope that it would rain to turn things upside down. It has been the best year for F1 though in recent times - 4 drivers going into the final race with a possibility of winning the championship and the combinations of politics, weather and reliability has all put brilliant twists on almost every race weekend. However, without the reliability issues and rather spectacular crashes, Red Bull would've walked both championships.
Now, there's talk of KERS coming back and adjustable rear wings for overtaking. Pirelli's coming back for the first time since the 80's and the double diffuser's being banned along with the F-Duct that so many teams developed for straight-line speed.
So going into this final GP, is F1 still the best motorsport has to offer? Does the BTCC, DTM, Indycar or (God forbid) Nascar get your vote?
Personally, I think it still is technically the best. However, I just crave the simpler times with less technology (as in interfering tech like the whole Mission Control set up McLaren and others run), less tarmac run-offs, narrower more undulating tracks and more drama as a result.
I've been watching Formula 1 since the mid-80's and the heady days of Mansell, Piquet, Prost and of course Senna. I'd say that the best times were when you had epic fights between a few select drivers such as the mid-80's when the afore mentioned drivers were all closely fighting for the championship or the mid-90's when Hill and Schumacher were trading blows (almost literally).
The Ferrari years were just that, Ferrari and for the most part amazingly boring even though other drivers like Coultard in 2001 or Ralf Schumacher in the same season to an extent challenged the dominance they had.
When Fernando broke the run in 2005, things got better and the racing was improved to an extent but the combination of driver aids like traction control and aero got in the way of making the racing truly exciting. Changes came through like the v10s going the way of the dodo, which meant the amazing howl of them was replaced with a coarse sounding v8, done mostly for cost reasons. Last year, massive aero changes were made to increase overtaking, which failed for the most part due to KERS making it's début and actually making passing harder. The aero issue was also supplanted by the diffuser development, which also made passing harder as the grip levels decreased for the following driver due to the wake the lead car would cause.
This year, they got rid of refuelling to try and make qualifying more realistic and make it more about the racing but what we got was one stop racing and hope that it would rain to turn things upside down. It has been the best year for F1 though in recent times - 4 drivers going into the final race with a possibility of winning the championship and the combinations of politics, weather and reliability has all put brilliant twists on almost every race weekend. However, without the reliability issues and rather spectacular crashes, Red Bull would've walked both championships.
Now, there's talk of KERS coming back and adjustable rear wings for overtaking. Pirelli's coming back for the first time since the 80's and the double diffuser's being banned along with the F-Duct that so many teams developed for straight-line speed.
So going into this final GP, is F1 still the best motorsport has to offer? Does the BTCC, DTM, Indycar or (God forbid) Nascar get your vote?
Personally, I think it still is technically the best. However, I just crave the simpler times with less technology (as in interfering tech like the whole Mission Control set up McLaren and others run), less tarmac run-offs, narrower more undulating tracks and more drama as a result.
