I’ll tell you something; When Mercedes bought out Brawn GP in 2009, I prayed that we wouldn’t have to go back to a team as dominant as in the 1930s or the early 1950s. I was wrong, this is far worse in terms of domination. Hats off to Mercedes for building this formidable team. History will tell us what human and financial resources were actually invested in this project, as well as the political compromises that accompanied it. In the end I do not understand why you persist in minimizing facts that are absolutely indisputable?
I read somewhere that in its initial trial basis, MercedesAMG F1 built 3 turbo hybrid engines and one of those engines was indestructible in terms of loads and max rpms.
Would you rather that Mercedes turned the engine up as high as it would go and have the bottom 3 teams fail the 7% rule ??
Are you suggesting Mercedes stop going so fast and stop developing so fast so the others can catch up? It is NOT Mercedes job to slow down, it is the jobs of the other teams to catch up--lack of testing makes this much harder than in the Senna-Prost-Schumacher eras.
To wish for this would be the exact opposite of what Formula One represents. I never wanted to. I just regret the lack of competition for pleasure and the fact that Ferrari was not able to prove itself as a credible challenger in time. It would ease my pain if one day we learned that Mercedes invested the double the other top teams during this period.
Todt has sat back while Toto went on his power-crazed agenda. Funny how the cars are getting closer since Todt is stepping out
You (and with you apparently a few others who like your posts) don't get it: Jimalez lamented the fact that in the past 4 races the same people were on the podium. That's exactly the same thing as during the Senna/Prost years or Schumacher/Hakkinen etc. That aside the Ferrari domination years starting with 2000 (in reality it would have started in 1999 if not for the Silverstone accident) to me were some of the dullest years in F1. It was so utterly predictable that MS would win the title year after year. In fact he had probably bagged an 8th if he chosen to stay with the team. Sadly the current situation is not much more interesting either. But that wasn't the point. The point was that F1 has had several phases during which a driver/car pairing dominated. It seems they're becoming more frequent in recent times (Schumacher, Vettel, Hamilton).
Mercedes' success is well deserved; it's the product of total commitment, engineering excellence and good management. There is actually not better organisation in F1, so it's no surprise if they dominate.
I can't see nothing wrong with a period of domination based on merit, and the best coming on top regularly. It would be wrong to orchestrate a merry-go-round of winners for the sake of entertaining the public.
The 2000 and 2003 championships were boring? I will pay today to have the same suspense. « Il n’y a pas pire aveugle que celui qui ne veut pas voir » Bonne soirée
Yes, in the beginning they mentioned changing the DRS length after last year's race saw "many" overtakes. Why changing that?? I hate these sudden changes, when it clearly was a brilliant race last year. Yes it was damp, for the same reason, why changing for the sake of changing. Now, Barcelona is known for a big time snoozefests, so probably we'll have to wait for two races...
The Ferrari wasn't a dominant car until 2001. 2000 was a straight fight, without bespoke tyres. Michael was making up the difference. Great scrap with the superb Mika
Good point. Maybe not: Barca is boring because the teams test the living daylights out of their cars there and thus have all the data at hand. They didn't test there this year. Furthermore the track has been altered, which throws out some of the previous data points and maybe with that they changed the surface (can't say for sure). So perhaps Barca will surprise us this year.
All true and a continuation of the dullness in F!, but the circumstances back then in which other teams could change and adapt their cars made a difference, today you need lollipop tokens with zero progress when you have used them up......Farcical? Had SF or McLaren or Williams had a development freeze imposed on the chasing pack then the domination would have continued. Mercedes have had it easy for too long, well organised and a undisputed top team, but let the others of the leash. Best tony
Let's imagine for one instant that it was Ferrari instead of Mercedes. Everything would be alright, and we wouldn't have this conversation, right?
Definitely agreed. F1 has a tendency to shoot itself in the foot: They were trying to reduce costs by banning testing and counting engines etc and all they did is taken out a good part of the soul and spirit of the sport. Especially a power house like Ferrari could have probably fought back if they had been allowed to engineer and test at their leisure (as in the Schumacher days in Fiorano on Monday after the race).