F1 Boring

[vintly]

Can't believe I missed this article. It holds a lot of truths as far as I'm concerned, but I do like the little German chap, so I would say that.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/motorhead-uk/vettel-makes-f1-boring-makes-him-genius-090608287.html

[Jericoke]

Can't believe I missed this article. It holds a lot of truths as far as I'm concerned, but I do like the little German chap, so I would say that.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/motorhead-uk/vettel-makes-f1-boring-makes-him-genius-090608287.html

I do think the TV coverage is doing an excellent job of focusing on the racing going on behind Vettel.  In the past, when MS was doing the same thing, it was 90 minutes of watching a red car lap without incident.

RBR's sponsors just aren't getting the TV they should for sponsoring a championship team!

[Scott]

I do think the TV coverage is doing an excellent job of focusing on the racing going on behind Vettel.  In the past, when MS was doing the same thing, it was 90 minutes of watching a red car lap without incident.

RBR's sponsors just aren't getting the TV they should for sponsoring a championship team!

Shhhhhhhh!  Let's keep it that way.

And if Vettel's head wasn't wrapped around records and points, he'd take my advice.

[Willy]

I have to agree with Jeri that we are seeing way more of the mid-field racing then we did when MS ran away with each race.
2004 was a snore for all concerned as far as TV coverage was concerned.
Last race we hardly saw Vettel as he had such a massive lead there was no point in covering him. 
Other then the fact that RBR sponsors are backing a winning horse, they are not getting huge TV coverage during the race.

[John S]

Yeah good piece Vintly and for me the last sentences contain the killer point - " But you certainly cannot blame Sebastian Vettel. All he has done is get in his car and drive it faster than everyone else.  And isn’t that the whole point?"

It's always been up to the other drivers and teams to catch the leader, over many years we have seen dominance from different car & driver combos, it's really no different now. If you ask all the big team bosses they will all agree it's their team's job to compete with the runaway Bulls by stepping up their game, not by having the rules changed to level out performance. 

One James "Jim" Clark, Jr OBE, liked nothing better than sprinting away into the lead to control a race on his terms, and he did it on many, many occasions. The big difference way back then was the expectation that some mechanical or other issue would arise always mixing up the field and sharing the wins out.

Maybe it's as simple as hiding fuel usage from the pitwall, without the ability to know when to signal the driver to back off, leaving the pilot to manage his own fuel use, might just cause a few upsets next season, especially with less petrol allowed.     

[cosworth151]

Either these people haven't noticed that arrogance and ruthlessness comes as standard with every great F1 champion, or they are equally dismissive of the achievements of Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost or Michael Schumacher.

I fall into the second group. I am equally dismissive of Senna and Prost. Even more dismissive of Schumacher because of his frequent cheating.

When I think of great F1 champions, I think of people like Fangio, Clark and Stewart. I've never heard the words ruthless or arrogant applied to any of them

And then there is Moss. At the 1958 GP pf Portugal, the stewards were going to penalize Mike Hawthorne. Sir Sterling corrected the stewards, even though it cost him that year's championship. OK, Moss never won a WDC, but he was a champion in every sense of the word. F1 would do well to have more of that kind of honor and less of the cheap ruthlessness so highly praised by some today.

[Jericoke]

And then there is Moss. At the 1958 GP pf Portugal, the stewards were going to penalize Mike Hawthorne. Sir Sterling corrected the stewards, even though it cost him that year's championship. OK, Moss never won a WDC, but he was a champion in every sense of the word. F1 would do well to have more of that kind of honor and less of the cheap ruthlessness so highly praised by some today.

Like Vergne sticking up for Alonso?

[Irisado]

I think that the article isn't that great to be honest, but the following part, cited by Cosworth above, is the worst:

To some, he is arrogant and ruthless, having overtaken team-mate Mark Webber in decidedly iffy circumstances earlier this year. Either these people haven't noticed that arrogance and ruthlessness comes as standard with every great F1 champion, or they are equally dismissive of the achievements of Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost or Michael Schumacher.

To say that everyone must belong to either group is just trying to put people into boxes, which is just wrong in my opinion.  It can be, and in my view is, more complicated than that.  They gloss over that it's his attitude that is the major problem, rather than his speed, and in that respect, I equate him with Schumacher.

A driver can be arrogant and ruthless, yet still earn respect.  I respect Senna and Prost for actually racing against each other in the same team.  McLaren crushed everyone in 1988, but was it a boring season?  No, because you never knew whether it would be Prost or Senna who would win.  If Vettel is so good, let's see him go up against Alonso, Hamilton, or possibly Raikkonen, in the same team, and see how many races he wins.