Sorry for the Rant.
RANT ON:
F1 this year is barely more exciting to watch then baseball, golf and paint drying. I am sorry to say but I just suffered through another F1 race with one pass for the lead. This pass only occurred because Shuey was not on the pole. Thank God for the commercial skip features! The track is hard to pass on anyway. I can appreciate the great technology of the Ferrari and great talent of MS, but it is a bit like watching me play Tiger Woods in Golf. Note that I have only played a full round twice in my life.
Then you get to watch MS run Montoya off the road when they were side by side. Not sure I agree with this rule of the inside guy has right of way. If you look at the exact situation in NASCAR for example MS would have to have given room for Montoya to stay beside him. I think this would help promote passing.
I do not think F1 cares about the excitement for the fans. Why do they not design tracks and rules that promote passing and competition. I know they can design turns with variable banking such that cars could run "side by side" and have the same lap times. This would promote passing. Also if two cars are side by side they must give room to each other at the apex and track out points. In the case of the MS vs. Montoya pass MS would have been penalized for a stop and go. This would promote passing of near equal cars.
This still would not "fix" the Ferrari and MS dominance, but could help the back markers. When you consider the attendance at the Imola race at 80,000 is about what NASCAR gets at a Busch series event in a small town like Bristol for example; go figure.
In comparison for example, the typical NASCAR fan travels ~380 miles to attend the events at Charlotte with ~200,000 fans. They expect on any given Sunday "their man" might win. Even if he is Dick Trickle. I would bet the average fan would not drive ~380 miles and pay $65 per ticket if they were fairly sure Jeff Gordon were going to win every race by 20 seconds. I understand that F1 is the best racing on the planet, but I am not sure F1 has the right balance between technology showcase and sporting competition.
RANT OFF:
I feel better now!
RANT ON:
F1 this year is barely more exciting to watch then baseball, golf and paint drying. I am sorry to say but I just suffered through another F1 race with one pass for the lead. This pass only occurred because Shuey was not on the pole. Thank God for the commercial skip features! The track is hard to pass on anyway. I can appreciate the great technology of the Ferrari and great talent of MS, but it is a bit like watching me play Tiger Woods in Golf. Note that I have only played a full round twice in my life.
Then you get to watch MS run Montoya off the road when they were side by side. Not sure I agree with this rule of the inside guy has right of way. If you look at the exact situation in NASCAR for example MS would have to have given room for Montoya to stay beside him. I think this would help promote passing.
I do not think F1 cares about the excitement for the fans. Why do they not design tracks and rules that promote passing and competition. I know they can design turns with variable banking such that cars could run "side by side" and have the same lap times. This would promote passing. Also if two cars are side by side they must give room to each other at the apex and track out points. In the case of the MS vs. Montoya pass MS would have been penalized for a stop and go. This would promote passing of near equal cars.
This still would not "fix" the Ferrari and MS dominance, but could help the back markers. When you consider the attendance at the Imola race at 80,000 is about what NASCAR gets at a Busch series event in a small town like Bristol for example; go figure.
In comparison for example, the typical NASCAR fan travels ~380 miles to attend the events at Charlotte with ~200,000 fans. They expect on any given Sunday "their man" might win. Even if he is Dick Trickle. I would bet the average fan would not drive ~380 miles and pay $65 per ticket if they were fairly sure Jeff Gordon were going to win every race by 20 seconds. I understand that F1 is the best racing on the planet, but I am not sure F1 has the right balance between technology showcase and sporting competition.
RANT OFF:
I feel better now!