Jacques Attack

[Irisado]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/26178312

Just when you thought we'd heard the last of him, Villeneuve emerges from a past life to complain about Formula 1 yet again.  He did nothing but complain about it when he drove too, but, on this occasion, I agree with his point about artificial aids.  In my view, he's absolutely right about this.

He's way too harsh on the drivers though.  There are still characters on the grid.  Just because they don't all go round doing and saying daft things like he used to doesn't mean they're not interesting.

[Jericoke]

Villeneuve is right in that DRS and media coached drivers really depart from made F1 special in the past.

The issue, of course, isn't about changing the sport for the sake of change, but trying to keep the money flowing.  Sponsors don't want to pay millions of dollars to someone who says something embarassing, so the drivers know better than to speak freely, as it could literally cost them millions of dollar.

The gap between smaller budget teams and bigger budget teams threatens to grow embarassingly wide, so DRS is a way of taking away the extra 10ths of a second that a few million dollars can buy.

The irony is lost on my hero that the formation of BAR was really the epitome of modern overspending in F1 that's lead us down this road.  They really changed the economics of the sport, and we're still feeling the effects today.  A low key BAR, that grew into the sport (like RBR has) would have set the path for Honda and Toyota to follow.  (Luckily, for all their headlines and executive 'talent', Mercedes does seem to have followed RBR's path of patience and steady improvement)

[Scott]

The irony is lost on my hero that the formation of BAR was really the epitome of modern overspending in F1 that's lead us down this road.  They really changed the economics of the sport, and we're still feeling the effects today.  A low key BAR, that grew into the sport (like RBR has) would have set the path for Honda and Toyota to follow.  (Luckily, for all their headlines and executive 'talent', Mercedes does seem to have followed RBR's path of patience and steady improvement)

So true Jeri. 

As for the drivers being uninteresting because they have to toe the company line, some do - some don't.  Not too much instruction going on in the Ferrari camp - they just hand it back to the drivers in the media when they speak badly (in Ferd's case).  Lucky Kimi doesn't like to talk, so they have little to worry about with him.

I think it's too bad we don't have the characters of the 'old' days, but with global media and about 100x the number of fans that F1 had 30 yrs ago, the drivers need to remain quite a bit more private or they will end up being stalked.  I don't blame them for that.  What do we know about Vettel other than that he apparently just became a Dad?  I think we know most about Kimi simply because he likes to party and occasionally stumbles in front a a photographer's lens.