Mansell calls F1 boring !!!!

I agree with Imperial83 and Big Red. The old drivers have old views and bad memory. Sterling Moss was whining last year about how easy Schumis job is. I think Schumi could hold his own with any F1 pilot from any era in any good car.
Some races were boring then, some are now. The French GP was not boring.

 

I thought the French GP was a great race to watch. I've got to think all the French people in the stands thought it was a 1 - 2 race only to have the Ferrari "team" out race, out pit, and out game play them. I was equally impressed to see a 10th to 3rd finish and no real incidents.

Mansell, feel free to comment.

 

This is true. Any monkey can drive a current F1 car. And most racing drivers can do a better job than the 10 or so that are paying for their rides.

 

This unfortunately is true but not just for F1 but any professional racing series.

Pete

 

You are right and Mansell is on the mark. I used to be a rabid F1 fan in the 80's, but rules changes, driver depletion, and Ferrari dominance has killed the SPORT. Save your breath, i was a great fan of ferrari all thru that time. Problem is much less driver talent today in general exempting shumacher, his assistant, and kimi. Most races today are a foregone conclusion - once michael gets in the lead i turn it off. It is more fun watching tapes of old races. The tracks have been neutered with a chicane every ten yards and bernie going to the high bidder losing cool tracks. As far as nigel he came up the hard way, proved himself and then went to cart and won there. His skill can not be questioned. Watch the 86 season before you comment on his skill.
T

 

I've been thinking about this and I now blame the introduction of fuel stops.

Here is why:
- They single handled moved race strategy into working out when the other driver was going to pit, thus no need for passing!
- They increased costs, due to needing fancy equipment, more team members to use them, tyre changing equipment, etc. and on top of that you have to move (transport) these extra team members, feed them, clothe them, etc.
- They have changed tyres from having to last the whole race to very soft grippy things that last bugger all laps. ... and thus responsible for the massive increase in performance, and yet MORE cost.

Thus getting rid of fuel stops and still allowing tyre stops will mean:
- Tyre technology will change. Infact the first set of tyres will have to be hardy things to handle the fueled up car weight. Thus lap times will massively drop because of harder compounds and heavy cars.
- Safety in the pits will increase massively.
- Passing will return because they just cannot wait until a pit stop. After all the guy infront could do the whole race if they wanted to with no stops (?).
- Costs will drop massively, as Minardi (for example) will be able to return 20 people back to their shop to work on either testing the new car or designing and building it ... instead of sitting around waiting for a pitstop.

The negatives of this is we return to the leader possibly screaming away in the distance and never to be seen again until he is on the podium ... er, now lets see, isn't that exactly what we have now

Fuel stops always were an anti-racing idea to tart up the show ... wrong direction IMO. And as for increasing team involvement ... well they are already massively involved and if they do not realise that then they need to wake up. A car is only ever as good as the team that built it!

Pete

 

Bravo to your cunning statement about Mansell underminding Schumachers nature talent...But past F1 Champions usually make these types of statements as Mansell has just made...To many people have already forgotten the weak decades of the F1 Ferrari...They only look at the short-term picture which is in front of they viewing pleasure now (long term memory lapse).

What I saw ability wise from Michael Schumacher as a current era F1 driver on Sunday is something I have missed since the Hungarian GP of 1998. His ability to drive at 110% when asked upon by team principles...

Cheers Michael

 

Ferraris weak decades have nothing to do with how interesting F1 races are. Unless you only like F1 BECAUSE Ferrari are winning and then that is pretty weak.

Fact: The current form of F1 races are boring ... who ever wins.
Fact: In the 80's when Mansell was racing we had team dominance but not a one team and one driver dominance like we have now. Thus it was atleast interesting to see who would win.
Fact: Nobody needs to watch F1 anymore to see who will win. I bet MS will win the next race ... probability chance of a 99%
Fact: In the French Gp (which was one of the slightly more interesting ones) we had less than 10 passes ... especially if you exclude the racing to the first corner drama and lapping. That is pathetic and boring.
Fact: Interest in motorsport comes from somebody challenging and passing or attempting to pass on the track ... not waiting until they pit so you can get pass because it is less risky.

I agree with Mansell obviously and hopefully something will happen to F1 soon before it implodes.

Pete's opinion not

 

Yes I had noticed that Jon ... but stick with it. It is taking me a while but I am learning to ignore. If I was more interested with my current work it would be a lot easier

Pete

 

Guys, calm down!

Listening (and watching) Nigell yesterday at the Regent Street event in London it was a very different story: He was all smiles and complemented today's F1, today's F1 cars and today's F1 drivers.

Nothing of sour grapes at all. He was very polite and rational (hey, we're talking Nige' here).

So I'm wondering whether his criticism was blown a bit out of proportion.

PS: He also did not do any harm to the Jordan. He went first and the crowd had a blast.