Even Montreal can’t lift F1 from its 2015 torpor

2015 Canadian Grand Prix Rate the Race result

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No other circuit reliably produces entertaining races like the home of the Canadian Grand Prix. But the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve failed to produce the goods this time.

The previous six races in Montreal had averaged a rating of 8.2 out of ten from F1 Fanatic readers – higher than any other track. But the 2015 edition merited a mere 5.5 out of ten.

Various theories were put forward for why it failed to produce the goods. But many singled out the apparent ease with which some drivers were able to overtake.

DRS

A substantial number of your responses to the race pointed the finger at F1’s Drag Reduction System for making overtaking too easy:

Well that was boring. There were some interesting bits, like watching Massa and Vettel come through the field and Rosberg trying to catch Hamilton. However, the former was pretty much spoiled by DRS (it was always a question of “when”, not “if”) and the latter fight never really materialised, as Hamilton just managed to always keep the gap at around 1.3 seconds.
@Kaiie

What makes it worse is this is the one track that always delivers good races. Doesn’t make me feel to much excitement for the rest of the year. DRS has taken all the tension and excitement out of battles for position. I turned off after 20 laps. One out of ten.
Broom (@Brum55)

For me the biggest turn off are those DRS passes. I don’t mind races being processional from time to time and the lift and coast doesn’t really bother me that much because I believe that it was always a part of F1 racing but we weren’t aware of that before but I just can’t stand DRS passes. I would rather have races without DRS in which we see fewer overtakes because I prefer quality over quantity. Every time there is a potential battle for positions I hope to see a real fight but most of the times I’m left disappointed. And that’s what ruined today’s race for me, too powerful DRS.
Kashi (@Kashi13)

I’m not the biggest fan of DRS (I hate it just as much as a lot of others) but I feel it needs to be mentioned that most of the real easy passes were more a result of the Renault’s/Honda’s having really bad straght line speed.

When we saw Mercedes and Ferrari powered cars racing DRS didn’t make things that easy at all.
@Gt-racer

“Some great moments”

While those who thought highly of the race were in the minority, some of them were puzzled by the negative response which came from others.

Watching Vettel climb up the pack from essentially last place to finish well within the points at 5th even after a slow stop was brilliant. Masa got to work as well which was lovely to watch… and Maldonado actually finishing a race? In the points no less.. Lotus must be ecstatic having two drivers actually finish in paying positions.

The action up front was less enthralling, of course, but overall there were some great moments.
Michael Baumert (@Nothingreal)

I am getting so brassed off at the constant stream of negative comments from so called F1 fans these days. I’m sorry, but if you felt that race was boring, I have to question why you watch the sport or indeed if you understand it. That was a fine race, a classic no but it had its moments and it had a number of good sub-plots that played out well. If you cant see that it is your loss and you should look elsewhere.
@GeeMac

Plenty of racing in the midfield and watching Massa and Vettel move through the field for fifth and sixth was fun. A more enjoyable race to watch then most of the others despite no battle for the win.
Corey (@Dragon86)

Routine and predictable

However the lack of tension in recent races has led many to conclude F1 has fundamental problems at the moment:

It’s all so routine nowadays. Reliability is spotless for all top teams. Mercedes is quicker than the others, so they qualify ahead of the rest, drive away from the field and finish one-two. Hamilton is quicker than Rosberg, so he qualifies ahead of him and then manages the gap just enough so that he finishes ahead of Rosberg, the gap being comfortable but not too big. Just lift and coast it home, Lewis.

But then there was the fight for P3. Raikkonen spun at the hairpin, falls behind Bottas and pits for different tyres. Will he take P3? No, because the Williams engineer told Bottas over the radio they calculated it was not going to happen.

Vettel and Massa qualify right at the back. Will they make up ground during the race and make it into the top six? Well, yes, of course, I mean, they have DRS so they can quickly cut their way through the field. All the pre-race excitement of two top cars out of position, all vaporised after about twenty laps.

IS there going to be a safety car then? Not very likely, because none of the driver are actually pushing – you have to be pretty unfocused to make a mistake. Just make the DRS passes and get the car home, guys.
@Andae23

People say fans ‘forget how boring it used to be’, but at least it was pure. If a driver couldn’t pass another, that was that. If he did manage it, the manoeuvre was completely down to driver skill, or good fortune. It wasn’t due to DRS, fuel saving, or driving over a car park outside of the white lines to avoid a collision.

It was a spectacle back then. I didn’t mind a procession in the mid-00s, because it was mesmerising. Races were entertaining enough just watching the cars screaming around the circuit. These cars are a dull as dishwater to watch. The old Hockenheim used to absolutely thrill me as a young boy.

I am waiting for DRS to be rid of. It needs to be written into the 2017 regulations, otherwise my twenty-something years of interest will likely evaporate entirely. I’m tired of persevering with this sub-par formula, waiting for things to be addressed that seemingly never will be. I spent half of Montreal tapping away on my laptop with the race in the background. I doubt I’m not the only viewer to whom an F1 race is now just wallpaper to casually glance at.
@Newfangled

I, like some others on here, fell asleep at about lap 24. I know this because that is where my lap chart fizzled out. (Justification, if any were needed that a hideously expensive Sky Sports package would be a waste of my precious pennies). People are claiming that F1 is boring and I would have to agree with that. The FIA have to take the blame for most of the problems and really put their foot in it when they decided to take charge of the design the cars for 2014. For overstepping the boundaries of it’s expertise the FIA were suitably punished by the car makers ‘with knobs on’.

I have been watching, avidly, since the 70’s. The ‘show’ is now so predictable that we all know that the 2015 world champion will be Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes will win the 2015 constructors championship and Bernie will get even richer.

What is missing from the ‘sport’ is unpredictability. Exploding engines, melting gearboxes, smoking tyres, red hot brake discs et. al. F1 racing should be proper racing. Fill it with fuel, put four new tyres on it and go (very noisily) like hell from the start until you either win or you break something and retire.
@Lotus49

Something better coming?

This was the fourth race in a row which scored less than six out of ten. Surely we’re due a change for the better in the near future?

2015 has been a bit of a dull affair so far, but don’t lose faith, people. Fingers crossed for better races to come. F1 will get better.
@Deej92

2015 Canadian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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71 comments on “Even Montreal can’t lift F1 from its 2015 torpor”

  1. I agree most with the comment made by @geemac in there. I didn’t find the race boring at all. I had a good time watching on board racing of cars that were on the edge of slipping away from their drivers in quite a few places on track.

    1. @bascb, I agree. Enjoyed the race. The thing disapoints me time and time again though is Rosberg failing to catch Hamilton. Crofty hyping it up doesn’t help. Still waiting for some decent on track battles for the win.

      1. @me4me – I’m curious how much of it is down to clear air. I think most of us could agree that Hamilton has had something extra this year that he didn’t have last year (aside from fewer technical issues). But if you look at Spain, for example, Hamilton never really challenged Rosberg and said over the radio that he couldn’t get close.

        If you combine that with Hamilton’s edge in qualifying this year (which he did not have last year), that may be enough. At the very least it would be interesting to see how things would play out with Rosberg having he qualifying edge he had last year. I still think Hamilton, with how he’s been racing of late, would have the edge, but at least it might be closer.

        1. *the qualifying edge… not “he”

        2. I understand what you’re saying and I’m curious about that myself.

    2. knoxploration
      15th June 2015, 17:14

      I’m presuming you found it to be a thrilling break from your main hobby, watching paint peel. F1 has been completely unwatchable for the last two years because just about every single aspect of it is now a forgone conclusion.

  2. For me this was the most exciting race of the season so far. Alas, that probably says more about F1 2015 vintage (which feels the like F1 2014-lite) than about the particular excitements of Canada. Double DRS with one detection point did not help…

    1. 2014-lite LOL

  3. Sadly, I agree with @Andae23 and @Newfangled.

    The Canadian GP marked my 20 years of watching F1 and I’m just 29. Over the years I had highs and lows with the sport, but I’ve watched all the races live. From 6am to 9pm, from march to november, from 1995 to 2015.

    I loved F1 when it was “boring” (2000 era) but nowadays it’s not the same borefest as it used to be, the atmosphere is just not there anymore.
    Obviously, over the years I watched different form of motor racing from F3000 to IndyCar, through F3, GP2, GP3, FR3.5, FR2.0, FE, Nascar, WEC…, and I’m now asking myself if spec series racing isn’t the purest form of racing.
    I’m just as lost as F1 and the problem is I don’t see the end of the tunnel for my long-time favorite sport.

    1. there seem to be a lot of disillusioned people of our type – fans for around 20 years who stuck it out through the schumacher era. i don’t know if spec racing is the purest form of motor racing (it has always been about the manufacturer) but the current regs are so restrictive that it doesn’t feel like much of a contest (ferrari vs. mercedes vs. william vs. red bull vs. etc., etc.) – you are right about the lack of atmosphere and spectacle.

      it would be interesting to look at what affects other sports (even other motorsports) and what they did to lose/regain fan interest. for example, WRC and BTCC were thriving in the late 90’s – now they are pastiches of their former selves.

      1. maybe it is time to forget this hype about “manufacturerers”, because supporting them is supporting capitalism – ie supporting the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. spec racing is “pure” racing, but it is hard to fathom for the fans of how F1 has been for so long. F1 does not need to be a spec series, but it needs parity in performance. when there is parity, the success of one team or manufacturer has better merit anyway, and the best still come out on top.

    2. It’s simple really. You are missing the speed and intensity of those years. You are missing the best drivers in the world going toe to toe with each other without being given a helping hand (DRS). You are missing how dangerous it used to be and how gladiatorial it made the drivers look. If you really sit down and think about it every aspect of F1 that made the fans adore it is now inferior to how it used to be.

    3. I’d think the first thing to consider is that Formula 1 is now Formula H(ybrid).

      WEC permits engine variations within classes (hybrid, naturally aspirated, V6, V8). F1 should do the same.

  4. Fastest lap:
    2005 – 1:14.384
    2015 – 1:16.987

    What’s the point of spending hundreds of millions of pounds, in fact, probably billions of pounds over the decade, to end up with cars that are 2.6 seconds slower ?
    It wouldn’t be so bad if the races were interesting or exciting but this season has been one of the least interesting I’ve ever watched and I’m still waiting for something to happen. The closest we’ve had to excitement has been Ferrari’s ability to handle high temperature and Mercedes inability to manage a Safety Car.
    I’m glad I cancelled my Sky Sports subscription, I’d be pretty upset if I’d been paying £20 a month to watch this.

    I’d be interested to see the results of a rate the race poll for Le Mans, while there were a few complaints most of the comments I’ve seen were positive and most people appeared to have enjoyed the opportunity to watch some top class racing that hadn’t been ruined with clown car tires and DRS.

    1. The fact that cars do less 2.6 seconds than 2005 cars (that were fast as hell), does not make it boring.. 2.6 seconds a lap isn´t even noticeable, thats basically an average of 211,06km/h and 203,93Km/h respectively, which is not the problem for why races get boring..
      From my perspective the problem is that cars are too dissimilar from each other, which make viewers cry out for battles in the race track.. And the fact that they seem to take a huge disadvantage for driving right behind the other drivers, takes out that stress and excitement feeling that anything can happen..
      Also, the fact that it seems everyone expect huge “drama” for podium positions, does not to let them enjoy medium grid fights so much, that, I believe, should take more attention from media, when nothing interesting is happening for the higher positions..
      The rest is more a matter of taste.. Tyres, fuel, pitstops, DRS, KERS…..

      1. you see beneboy its people like you that think you know how F1 works yet you have no idea about why the cars are slower now 2005/2015.

        looking at why DRS looks bad,
        Mercedes and Ferrari powered cars are way faster on the straights so DRS make’s passing look easy, yet when these same cars are racing each other not one pass is happen unless they hit each other.
        look at the overall picture without DRS cars will be stuck behind one another because the areo is not able to hold the front down when cars are close, hence you will get no passing at all, mark my words you cant change one without changing another.

        1. lethalnz

          The DRS look easy with the Merc engine. Vettel in the Ferrari was struggling quite a bit to pull even. He had trouble with Alonso the second time, then again it took a couple of laps and a very late braking to get Hulkenberg. If I recall correctly, Vettel was mid pack or lower in the speed traps in Montreal, so was running more down force probably expecting to be in the top 3.

        2. @lethanlnz, we all know how f1 works, but even if someone doesnt, at the end of the day, the sport is slower and less spectacular – trying to defend it is like beating a dead animal at the moment. @beneboy is 100% correct, the sport has increased costs in engine development and produced an inferior product. why fix something that isnt broken is the first thing that comes to mind looking back a decade.

      2. I never said that the slower times were what makes the sport boring, I asked what was the point of spending billions of pounds to end up with cars that are several seconds slower than we had a decade ago.
        Which seems like a legitimate question given that we’ve already lost two teams, and could lose several more due to the financial problems the smaller teams are experiencing, which directly effects the number of teams competing, which makes the sport less interesting.

    2. @beneboy – But, …, but they are going to be 4-5 seconds faster soon.

      1. @xtwl
        They will be, the day the teams agree to a new set of rules…
        In other news, Hell has just frozen over and Turkeys have been spotted voting for Christmas ;-)

    3. Fastest Lap:
      2001 – 1:17.205
      2004 – 1:13.622
      It’s easy to forget what kind of insane performance gain we saw under these regulations.

    4. ColdFly F1 (@)
      15th June 2015, 21:12

      Fastest lap (qualifying):
      2005 – 1:14.384
      2015 – 1:14.393
      I call this a tie.
      And that with less cylinders and smaller engines ;P
      (I know – many more factors; but still quite impressive)
      @beneboy, @xtwl, @uan, @samhainhell

      1. @coldfly Now wouldn’t it be funny if it turned out the 2005 was wet. Either way it’s impressive what they are doing but we all know there is more. Not more in the sense of spend another 100milj euro but more pretty easily to be found in tryes and aero with this engine.

      2. @coldfly, there you have the crux of the matter, it’s not a matter of how fast the cars are, it’s a matter of how many laps will the tyres last at that speed, the v6t hybrid is more powerful than the 2.4V8 but the cars are knobbled by the tyres. +1 @beneboy.

        1. @hohum The crux of the matter is that they are now having to carry around all of their fuel for the race distance. Nothing to do with the tyres.

          God forbid someone suggest that re-fuelling make a come back though!

          1. @asanator, if you think carefully about it you will realise that the cars today are carrying no more fuel for the last 10-15 laps than they were in the early 2000s, the difference today is that the tyres can be destroyed by 2-3 fast laps.

          2. @hohum yes what you say is true, however most of the lap records of the mid 00’s were set with a good 20+ laps to go. Unfortunately I can’t find the laps that the cars pitted so that we can see whether it was just before or after a stop thus putting some ‘meat on the bones’ of the argument ;)

  5. F1 now is so predictable, that now we know even who’s gonna be second, third, fourth and fifth at the end of year. This is true both for the WDC and WCC. Lewis, Rosberg, Vettel, Kimi and Bottas. Mercedes, Ferrari, Williams, Red Bull and Lotus.

    I’m missing times that we know just who would be the World Champion, but at least the others positions were open.

  6. @GeeMac‘s comment.. how he talks of ‘so-called F1 fans” – little does he realise you can be a fan and be critical when the sport turns sour. im an f1 fan since 1994, but i am full of negatives at the moment about this series, and i think if the fans voice their frustration, then change might happen again, this time for the better not for the worse as of late.

    1. problem is your wishes will be heard like the tires, make them last longer, so they did and what do you hear now? why was it just a one stopper in Canada, so boring.
      F1 cant make up their minds as to what they want,
      DRS is another, take it away and lets see how boring a race will become then, even the faster driver will be stuck, the strategy will be keep your driver out till everyone else has pitted other wise you will stay stuck in traffic until the others pit.

  7. All this complaining about the state of F1 is such a drag. Even this post, which complains about the amount of complaining (which somehow reminds me of “Dear Sirs, I object to being objected to by the last letter”), is contributing to the negative discussion that currently surrounds F1.

    I disagree with many of the current complaints, particularly with the emphasis on fuel saving after one Grand Prix in which it was slightly excessive (usually many teams do not even put 100kgs of fuel in at the start). I do agree with the complaints about DRS, and I would also say that F1 is currently missing that je-ne-sais-qoui of past seasons. Perhaps making the cars faster can restore that, although I do fear that faster cars will mean less overtaking.

    The biggest problem in my opinion is the current lack of competition between the front runners, and the resulting predictability of the races and the championship. I think the (engine) rules themselves are fine, but it’s just unfortunate that Renault massively messed up, and Honda is still nowhere. I think a lot of people still enjoyed 2014, despite the Mercedes dominance, but for 2015 my hopes were that the other teams could catch up. Instead, Red Bull has fallen away, Williams has dropped back a bit too, and only Ferrari has made a step forward, but they’ve only been in contention for the win once.

    I think the Canada race was in itself not bad, but in the midst of a boring season that needed an upset, it was certainly disappointing.

    1. All this complaining about the state of F1 is such a drag. Even this post, which complains about the amount of complaining (which somehow reminds me of “Dear Sirs, I object to being objected to by the last letter”), is contributing to the negative discussion that currently surrounds F1.

      Indeed. Sometimes I think we should just shut down all comment sections on all F1-related websites for a year or two and see how we all feel at the end of that time.
      Other than that, I basically agree with your assessment, we all had high expectations of Canada, and sometimes expectations aren’t met. It was like that with the Bahrain 2010 race which has iirc one of the worst ratings on F1 Fanatic, only because the hype for the 2010 season was through the roof and could never be fulfilled.

      1. @klon, Shutting down the comments on F1 websites would leave us with only Bernies unquestioned words of wisdom, and if I only listened to Bernie I would have given up on F1 years ago, it is only the faint hope that F1 may change for the better and the knowledge that I am not alone in wishing for that, that keeps my interest going.

    2. Totally Agree with you mate

  8. 5.5? Come on guys it wasn’t Interlagos 2008 but it wasn’t that bad!

  9. mattshaw85 (@)
    15th June 2015, 14:37

    I do think a part of the problem is with social media, everyone is knee-jerk and keen to express what needs fixing after each dull race. Negativity can breed more negativity. There have always been plenty of dull races – the best races I can think of only came about by something unexpected happening (rain, an accident etc…).

    On the flip side, I can’t pretend F1 is really doing it for me like it used to. I missed the Canadian GP because I was on holiday. It’s the first race I’ve missed in years. I normally watch out of duty/habit and plan my social events around races. I didn’t miss it one bit. I’m cancelling my Sky sports subscription on the back of this, perhaps I’m being knee-jerk myself – but I’ve decided it’s not worth the £20+ a month it costs me.

    I hate the comparisons between WEC and F1, however I enjoy the former immeasurably more. Along with Indycar and MotoGP there is plenty of close racing for me to get my fix.

    The way I see it there are a few things F1 could do to improve things, (scrap DRS, free up regulations) but until the teams are taken out of the decision/rule making process I don’t believe we will see any real progress in this area.

  10. Fuel saving is part of the strategy; with more SafetyCars that you can count on your fingers in the last years, it would have been stupid to carry enough fuel for 70 green laps.
    The only disappointing thing about this race was Rosberg not trying to attack Hamilton; after Kimi spun there was no reason not to try.

    1. Well, he did “try.” The thing is, Hamilton was getting information on Rosberg’s tatics (I don’t like that MB does this but so it is) and was thus able to keep 1+s ahead while preserving his car as much as possible. That’s the hard part about watching the races, it’s really hard to tell what is actually happening. Rosberg is managing his charge state and brakes condition for a run at Hamilton, Hamilton is preparing his defenses. And so they thrust and parry.

  11. I think @andae23 is spot on here. The race was simply too predictable, nothing unexpected happened. I love watching F1 cars in action, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is beautiful and there was some interesting team radio but I could as well have watched a free practice session.

    That probably explains why many F1 fans fall in love with the WEC and Le Mans in particular. You know that almost anything can happen there during the 6 / 24 hours. Cars might suffer reliability issues, break down or crash and there are real battles instead of highway passes. And if there is boredom in the main class, then at least one of the other classes will provide us with unpredictable racing.

    Refuelling or no refueeling? Michelin or Pirelli? Are fuel limits and the current engines the way to go? I do not think one can easily answer those questions because even if you change just one variable in F1, it will have a lot of different consequences and the sport also never stands still so you never really know where you are going to end up with rule changes. Hardcore fans might appreciate faster cars and “pure racing” but if races are predictable, then the majority will still turn their TVs off.

    So I agree with F1 Fanatic – forget surveys and surprise me.

  12. Samraat Dash
    15th June 2015, 14:57

    I have fallen asleep within half an hour in almost all the F1 races this year. Strangely, I was wide awake and actually saw almost the entire 24 hours of the Le Mans race. F1 is so damn boring, even my dog shakes his head in disdain.

    1. Haha, sure. The fact that you’re still here speaks volumes.

      1. Agree completely with @Samraat.

        And I’m still here because I hope that F1 (aka Formula H(ybrid)) will eventually come to its senses.

        “The show” (how I disdain that term) has lost its way, almost completely. They will correct course when the money goes away.

  13. i to are getting to the point i will not read the dribble that is written any more, its like one big let down every F1 site seams to have the same bash F1 attitude, i reckon just watch the races stay away from the negativity and enjoy like ive done in years gone past without the internet, that is when i enjoyed F1…

    1. if you think there is nothing wrong with f1, go enjoy it by yourself then :) you seem to have noticed a trend of bash F1 attitude but fail to see reason for it, each to their own.

  14. “I didn’t mind a procession in the mid-00s, because it was mesmerising. Races were entertaining enough just watching the cars screaming around the circuit.”

    I am afraid this is not enough anymore. Nowadays we are used to being exposed to all sorts of stimuli. Result, we are too easily bored, not only teenagers.

    But I understand the feeling @Newfangled describes. Up to mid 2000’s, the races were often boring but the cars were mythical. After that the cars became boring but the races were often entertaining. Now it’s neither of both (although I gave the last few races a higher rating than average).

    Fia: I don’t need more overtaking, I need more close racing.

    1. THE SPECTACUL!!! that is what f1 use to be, even if racing was boring with one car dominating, the cars were record breaking fast and the loudest and highest pitch of any racing series, it was Spectacular! – now with the spectacul gone, we want to see racing, and it is not there!! so we notice other racing series are actually offering better “motorsport” and we are bagging F1 for how it currently is.

    2. @Matthijs “Easily bored”?!?!?!

      This weekend I watched about 16 hours of Le Mans 24. It was superlative racing. I’ll attend next year.

      The weekend before, GP Canada lost my interest after 16 minutes! I was very glad that I’d cancelled my hotel reservations in Montreal this year.

      It’s not us. It’s the FIA , the money, the insular F1 teams, the politicking, the Formula H(ybrid), “the show” (ugg)!

  15. Mercifully, we were once again spared from the usual tables comparing previous results for the actual GP and for the GPs of this season.

    I actually don’t really know if I’m happy or sad about this.

    (Still, those tables were good, we want ’em back, @keithcollantine.)

  16. @Brum55 “DRS has taken all the tension and excitement out of battles for position”

    Right on the money. The sad part is that they could easily disable it for this weekend, but they won’t. My personal opinion is that people have simply forgotten how good it used to be to see two drivers have an honest scrap for position. 2010 didn’t have DRS and refuelling and it was fantastic so why can’t we go back to that format?

  17. I wouldn’t normally mind a bit of a slow start to a season but with an abnormally stretched out Summer programme across tracks that although are classic in nature probably rely on the elements to deliver a classic race and a back-end of the season where the championship winner for the past few years has won most of the last 6-9 races at a canter I must say I’m a bit non-plussed by it all.

    Everyone likes to talk about the sport’s issues but this is par for the course for the 2nd year of a set of regulations and the only way we’ll get better racing is for the cars to be similar in performance which only tends to come after a long period of stability. As bad as it sounds we may want to sit this out for a bit rather than rip up the rulebook for Ferrari to step in and dominate how Mercedes are currently.

  18. Keith can you put the tables at the end of the article of this years ratings and the circuits’ ratings?

  19. Quite a lot of people want to see the DRS gone. But let’s not forget why invent this at the first place: hard to overtake when following a car in the modern areo configuration. Fix the root, then there is no need for DRS.

    1. This is a good comment but fails to point out that all attempts to reduce the aero problem have been totally undermined by the Pirelli tyres rapid degradation when in even slightly turbulent air. Good tyres would go a long way to reducing any need for DRS, but no doubt we will not get good tyres until such time as Bernie gets his bigger wings to increase downforce ( and therefore turbulence ) resulting in a net gain of zero.

      1. Mr win or lose
        16th June 2015, 10:16

        The tyres are not the problem. Without tyre wear or differences in tyre wear it’s almost impossible to get close enough without DRS. Increasing the ground effect will enable the cars to get closer, then keep the Pirelli tyres (and make them maybe even more durable) and abolish that two-compound rule so there will be more strategic variation.

  20. @keithcollantine – With another ‘boring’ GP done I was wondering whether all this boring racing has also had it’s influence on the site. Have you noticed a drop in new accounts / posts / activity…

    Or has activity increased, are people looking for a good site to vent their frustration?

  21. I watched the IndyCar race yesterday and you know why it was so exciting? (not Leigh Diffey’s weird shouting all the time; he needs to see someone about that.) There were SC periods for everything–debris, one guy stalled in the run-off, whatever. Also, IndyCar also has refueling. And thus combined with the SC periods, you had a lot of cars “out of position” and so a lot of passing. Yes, it was pretty nuts a lot of the time and entertaining.

    Now most F1 fans would be squealing like stuck pigs if F1 started throwing “debris cautions” with the gusto seen in IndyCar. People don’t want to see an “SC lottery.” Also, no one wants “passing in the pits” and so they want to minimize the possible role of pit stops, even though it can jumble the field at opportune times. Furthermore, the cars are basically spec, so even the teams with few resources can get wtihin 1s of the top cars on the grid (and are thus quick enough to resist a pass when they end up ahead of a Penske). F1 by contrast is more “pure.” When the lights go out, people race, and the fastest car/driver wins. F1 actually tries very hard to minimize disruptions to the course of the race, so that justice is done in the end. And the cars are supposed to be different, by rule. So it should be no surprise that in a dry race without any major wrecks, there was no scintillating chaos.

    In the F1 race, you were supposed to be looking very closely at fuel consumption, gaps, the minutiae, to understand exactly how, say, Hamilton had to manage a myriad of factors and still drive hard to stay ahead, and how Rosberg conversely had to manage his variables to try to catch Hamilton at the end. F1 is like going to see a classical pianist—you look for the nuances of timing, subtle modulations of key and tempo. If you can’t hear the shift to an augmented chord in a theme, you may get bored. IndyCar is the rock show–the songs progress with 3 chords each and modulate to the minor 6th once per song and that’s it. And then someone spills a beer down your back and then wants to fight you for spilling his drink. But it can be a blast. There is room for both things.

    1. Well said

    2. Awesome comment my friend…COMMENT OF THE DAY!!!!!

    3. @dmw, thank you! You couldn’t be more eloquent.

      It’s so frustrating to read comment after comment of people complaining. They claim to understand the sport, they claim to be fans for X amount of years yet show very clearly in their posts they understand nothing!

  22. How has the circuit failed? The layout is the same shape, it has all the same corners, its the same tarmac, all the walls that people crash into every year are in the same place.

    The difference this year, no crashing. Does crashing mean excitement? Not to me, i found the race sufficiently pleasing. There was plenty of overtaking and not knowing what the outcome at the front was going to be until the last lap.

  23. Canada usually produces good races but remember no more than 10 cars have finished on the same lap in 15 years. most races have finished with less than 7.

  24. For me the biggest problem is the aero. How you all expect to see fights when none of the cars can sit behind of another car and avoid problems in Tyres and in corners? When in FIA understood that then all will be better.
    1. Make the front wings with less downforce.
    2. Take out the DRS.
    3. Give more mechanical grip with bigger rear tyres.
    4. Make the rear wings lower.
    5. Increase the fuel flow and permit 20 more liters of fuel.

    We all know where is the problem, all the rest is politics.

    1. The tyres are artificially fragile, you have to fix them before points 1,2,3 can be instigated. Points 4 and 5 are unnecessary .

  25. “Fuel saving, DRS and dull engine notes really turn me on.” And nobody believes that statement do they? Rightly so. Who makes these rules up? Mercedes? F1 is in such a state right now that people are arguing on comments sections everywhere and people are even complaining about those complaining. Knee-jerk reactions? Yes. But long term problems? Yes. This is a ship with no captain- FIA- SORT IT OUT.

    1. And let’s not forget that MB loves Formula H(ybrid).

      1. @geeyore Why don’t you just write ‘Formula H(ybrid)’ after every comment and forget the other words!

  26. The cars are designed in such a way that they cannot follow each other. The band-aid known as DRS was then applied. Fix the areo sensitivity of the cars such that they can follow each other, remove DRS and you fix F1.

    1. @clustr1, 1st. you have to fix the tyres.

  27. Mark in Florida
    16th June 2015, 2:15

    All I can say is that I managed to get a good nap while this poor excuse of a procession went on. Vettle proved that he is a great driver by coming from the back like he did. Other than that it was not very entertaining. IndyCar is looking better and better especially since they are running full aero kits now. The races have been everything that F1 needs, compelling races and some unexpected winners.

  28. Forget fuel saving and F1 2015, this is what we need to get back to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbqovmFh5sw

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