Comments on: Boring races

By: Steve Rogers

Steve Rogers — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:52:33 +0000

Racing has to work for racers first and foremost. OK, if it doesn’t please an audience it won’t earn as much money as if it does, but that’s not a problem for the actual participants. F1 takes in just the amount of money it does – no more, no less – because it is just as entertaining as it is – no more, no less. As long as the drivers and teams and sponsors feel like doing it, who are we to criticise? Just a bunch of couch potatoes. If you don’t enjoy a technical sport like F1 – or cricket! – change the channel, or visit another venue, and watch something else.

By: 2wheelnuts

2wheelnuts — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 03:24:11 +0000

I just read of Peter Windsor’s comments now. As a youngster I was a complete F1 devotee, I lived for F1. Now I consider it a drawn-out yawn. I much prefer to watch motorcycle racing because it is a much more worthy arena for the display of skill and courage. I suspect Michael Schumacher would agree with me. Mr. Windor can disparage other forms of automobile racing as much as he likes, I do not really care. But to include motorcycle racing in his comments – to dismiss the frequent passing that occurs there as meaningless – is simply unacceptable. For one supposedly so knowledgeable he completely misses the point. It is when racers are in very close proximity to each other in passing situations that one can truly witness their ability. To appreciate their nerve and skill balancing on that knife edge. The more times this occurs in a race the more times one is left in awe. Think of the duels between Villeneuve and Arnoux. Mansell and Piquet, Senna Versus Prost. I defy anyone to watch the fights between Rainey and Schwantz, Rossi and Capirossi or Biaggi, Spies and Mladin and walk away unmoved. If they can do so – dismiss them as meaningless – they should be engaged in politics or some other reality flawed occupation. I always liked Peter Windsor but that has now diminished. Clearly his opinions carry no weight.

By: Harry O

Harry O — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:38:06 +0000

Every so often we have these boring races discussions and I do think that the Turkish GP was about as exciting as a bout of flu but the behind the scenes soap opera shenanigans always make up for the lack of drama on the track. I watch the races on the Ten Network in Australia and they do use the ITV commentators but before every race they do cross over to Peter Windsor whom the hosts treat as the font of all knowledge which always makes me smile.

By: Ogami

Ogami — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:20:18 +0000

The problem is absolutely NOT the amount of downforce.

Group C cars and GTP one had over 5 tons of downforce at 30km/h and more than 2 tonns a 250km/h yet close racing was possible.

The real problem is HOW the downforce is produced, and this problem just comes from…the restrictions made by FIA.

Increasing the ride height of cars,banning understray’s channel (thus making the need for a enormous diffuser), increasing the front wing height (making it far more sensible to turbulences) and restricting wing’s width made a need for very agressive profiles and a lot of vortex lift generators that end in turbulence.

By far the main problems are the diffuser shape and the front wing height and guess what? the OWC decided to reshape the diffuser and possibly lower the front wing height.

By 2011 overlapping appendages will be banned.

To me so far, the problem is just that you can’t overtake easily, this is not normal.

Besides that, i have no problem with strategies, fuel savings (to save fuel and still be competitive=that’s racing) and thus F1 is very fine to me except that overtaking problem.

F1 is definitely not for me a “super speed racing series” it is another series with different parameters, just like endurance is different, nascar is different ,IRL too..

By: Paul Sainsbury

Paul Sainsbury — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:34:34 +0000

The thing is, vertigo, the fact that we are having a great season is despite the rules and not because of them. We have only had proper racing when it rained, the other races have been useless.

By: Vertigo

Vertigo — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 17:25:44 +0000

Windsor is right. With the current rules, we are having one of the best seasons for a decade. Tinkering with the format is pointless – which has been proved by the constant stream of rubbish qualifying systems (although the one we have now is good).

By: Carldec

Carldec — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 08:23:45 +0000

if you think the main reason most americans dont follow F1 is because there is not enough passing or on track racing… I think you have it all wrong. That said, as a f1 fan I would love to see more overtaking and better racing. But better racing is not what keeps americans from watching the sport.

Americans dont watch because:

1) There are no Americans to root for (two years of Scott Speed finishing towards the back really didnt change that much.) Getting an American dicing for the WDC would do more than anything else to bring US viewership up. See what Lance Armstrong did for bike racing.

2) Most races are on very early in the morning here in the states. However, the networks would be clamering to show time delayed broadcasts if we had a winning American to root for.

3) the network that shows most of the races is a very minor network only sent to a limited number of homes. They treat F1 as a bit of a stepchild… the majority of their racing shows are about Nascar.

Just improving the racing won’t make that much of a differrence.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 22:44:58 +0000

Peter Windsor is kidding himself. Maybe if he had to pay to attend a Grand Prix rather then BEING paid to attend, he would consider whether F1 needs to be improved or not. I would love to go to the Australian GP every year but $500 for a good seat to see… cars drive past in formation is not good value. As for everyone getting shirty about NASCAR style overtaking, aren’t the slipstreaming fests at the old Monza feted as being classic races?? As I recall, P.Windsor himself gets misty eyed about these events! I suspect he has the purple haze about Jim Clark in Lotus 49 but can’t stretch himself over to the same feelings towards Billiy Bob in a Dodge. Now in F1 we can’t even reward proper slipstreaming. Recall if you will the US GP when Nando did everything right to get past Lewis and then got jammed on the rev limit and couldn’t squeeze past. Ridiculous.
Sorry to rant but Peter Windsor is wrong wrong WRONG!!!!!

By: chunter

chunter — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 20:04:27 +0000

I think I don’t know enough about bicycle racing to know how they deal with retirements; you wouldn’t want Alex Wurz and David Coulthard out of the world championship just because they had to retire from Australia, do you?

I only see Windor’s point in that we have something to watch this year in the driver’s championship and the usual desperation of the backmarkers messing with their cars and drivers. There’s also a part of me that sadistically enjoys watching him get ignored on the paddock when he tries to do pre-race interviews for Speed TV in the USA. (He might wrestle a sentence out of someone at best and otherwise gets pushed aside by other reporters quite regularly.)

I wonder if the goal of FIA is to create something that watches more like WRC on a flat surface, and if that’s the case, why race simultaneously, and why race on circuits?

By the coincidence of what I was physically able to watch, I saw the NASCAR attempts at road racing in Circuit Gilles Villenueve and Watkins Glen over the past couple of weeks, and I agree completely with the fellow that said that controlled racing watches more like you win by luck than skill, and of course, the Nascar vehicles look like school buses in comparison to single-seaters.

I saw the obvious difference in the spectators that come to watch, as well as what occurrences they applaud. The best drivers and cars did not win either race, and frankly, most of the American series’ reach to the full caution way too quickly, and allow cars to reenter races that frankly shouldn’t.

Am I the only one that noticed that ChampCar at Road America and American Le Mans at Road America aired at the same time?

By: Alianora La Canta

Alianora La Canta — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:21:05 +0000

Peter Windsor has been consistent on his “F1 doesn’t need improving; everything will be OK if the money is kept secret and in Bernie’s hands” outlook. He was saying it in July 2004 (3 issues after I started my F1 Racing subscription), he said it this month, and if he’s still in F1 then, he’ll be saying it at the last F1 race that gets held. That not many people agree with him occasionally gets mentioned in his columns, but is generally brushed off.

I don’t ask for lots of overtaking – F1 is supposed to be about quality of racing after all. But to see a quality overtaking move, overtaking has got to be possible in the first place!