a) The cars are more relaible – and that I think is not a good direction. That only means that the cars no longer race on the limit. The 2 race enginbe rule is as stupid as the 1 weekend engine rule was. And the fact that Fridays now do not count as a race weekend does not change anything. There is no cost saving, nobody will ever make the teams to save money. They save on engine, they blow it on aero etc. They will spend millions on adding extra winglet here and there and create more turbulence. Better have them spend the money on engine development, go back to unlimited revs …

b) Drivers are not more reliable, they are more cautious … If the chance of actually overtaking the car in front is 0.001% unless the car ahead is much inferior or driver makes a mistake, why trying at all, why take risks … How many times did Alonso actually tried yesterday to overtake Heidfeld… Look at who takes risks – midfield cars that have nothing to loose, or McLaren or Ferrari if starting way down the grid and again, having nothing to loose … And this leads to the other post here with heated up discussion on aero …

But this brings up a difficult question. Do we want the cars to be absolutely bulletproof? Obviously we don’t want to see drivers losing championships based on one engine failure or whatever, something out of their control. But as you say, the revised rules incentivise reliability. So any mechanical DNF these days is actually magnified, because it’s so much harder to come back from. The points structure doesnt help either. They used to say the perfect Formula 1 car is one which falls apart literally as it crosses the line. That was because the emphasis was on absolute performance. I don’t know how you can claim absolute performance if you have to make things last for longer than it should have to. Maybe it’s neccessary for “cost-cutting”, or whatever, but I think it loses some of the drama. A decade ago you’d be on the edge of your seat if your driver was in the lead, because you’d always think something (normally the engine) could fail any minute. These days engine failure is a rarity.

And the driver-related DNF stats are interesting too. I’m sure the drivers are a little better, I’m sure the cars are also a little easier to drive than 20 or even 10 years ago. But again I agree that increased run-off tarmac areas rather than gravel are the biggest factor. The drivers are no longer properly penalised for making mistakes. Before, you missed a braking point and maybe your race was over. Now, you lose 5 or 6 seconds. Again, the emphasis used to be “to finish first, first you have to finish”. But now everyone finishes anyway. Look at Monaco, they moved back the barriers in places and lessened the challenge a bit.

Obviously F1 is never going to stand still on any area, any technology, any philosophy. But I think the wrong direction has been taken in both these areas.