The 2015 turn-off goes on in Brazil

2015 Brazilian Grand Prix Rate the Race result

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The Brazilian Grand Prix was so short on action it left the top three drivers calling for changes to improve the racing.

With an average score of just 4.5 out of ten from F1 Fanatic readers, this was the 13th race this year to scored lower than last year’s average of 7.1.

Not everyone was displeased with what they say, though as usual the conversation about the quality of the racing action revealed a split between those who enjoyed how the Drag Reduction System influenced the racing, and those who didn’t.

Mercedes’ strategy also came in for some criticism as Lewis Hamilton spent the race stuck behind eventual winner Nico Rosberg and urged his team to vary his tactics. They decided against it as they were concerned about the threat from Sebastian Vettel, who ended the race seven seconds behind Hamilton after leading the trio in switching to a three-stop strategy.

Here’s what you had to say about the Brazilian Grand Prix.

It was interesting to see Rosberg versus Hamilton, but to be honest I would have loved different strategies between the two, since they couldn’t fight on track.

As for the rest… well, only four drivers completed every single racing lap, the first eight places were more or less set in stone after the start, the battle for the last places of the points was interesting as usual. Yeah, pretty normal race, especially considering that it’s the end of the championship, there’s not much at stake.
Yoshisune (@Yobo01)

Lots of close racing, Lots of great battles, Fair bit of overtaking and some good tension with the battle at the front at times…. Good race, Enjoyed watching that.
PeterG

The battle up front was non-existent for much of the race as Hamilton struggled to follow Rosberg, but the midfield did more than its fair share to make up for it as they had some good overtaking moves going on, particularly with Verstappen as always and Nasr’s move on Button. It’s a dull race, sure, but not terrible by any means.
Paulo Ruiz (@Omegadetra)

I’m amazed how dull that race ended up being. Verstappen gave us some entertainment but that was about it as even Hamilton’s assault on Rosberg was stunted not by the fact the latter was faster, but by how bad these cars are at following each other and this on a track famous for wheel to wheel racing.
Craig Wilde (@Wildfire15)

This race, it was so stupid. You knew Hamilton wasn’t going to dive down the inside, he was just going to moan for a different strategy, which he ultimately never received from the team.
DanimalHouse (@Thrillerwa09)

I’m at the point where I probably won’t watch the next race and that will be the first missed race in over 30 years. I can accept the aero issues inhibiting close racing, but with the bullet proof reliability, the limited options for race strategies and the extent to which the engineers manage a race, we pretty much know the finishing positions after the first corner.
@Velocityboy

It bored me to the point of being glad I was watching it on catch-up, I found myself skipping through it and occasionally checking if anything had changed.

I really don’t like DRS overtakes as once a car is in range it just drifts past on the straight with no real fight going on. There are many other race series out there who manage to get the balance right of aero versus mechanical grip while still allowing drivers the ability to race each other.

Other than the DRS zones there were very few overtaking opportunities so it was a boring procession around the infield section playing follow-my-leader. If cars are in dirty air and their front wings are so sensitive that they can’t follow properly then something really needs to be done other than artificial overtakes. I’ve found myself falling asleep in front of more F1 races this year than any other year – is this really what they are aiming for with their attempts to improve the show? I don’t want a show, if I want a show I’ll go to the theatre, I want racing at its best!

An uneventful start, far too many highway passes, no battles for the leading positions, only a few real battles elsewhere, mainly thanks to Verstappen. Also, there are no interesting championship battles left. Probably the worst race of the year.
@Girts

RaceAverage score
2015 Australian Grand Prix4.754
2015 Malaysian Grand Prix8.369
2015 Chinese Grand Prix5.721
2015 Bahrain Grand Prix7.366
2015 Spanish Grand Prix5.154
2015 Monaco Grand Prix5.627
2015 Canadian Grand Prix5.545
2015 Austrian Grand Prix5.602
2015 British Grand Prix7.949
2015 Hungarian Grand Prix9.115
2015 Belgian Grand Prix6.391
2015 Italian Grand Prix5.636
2015 Singapore Grand Prix6.552
2015 Japanese Grand Prix5.208
2015 Russian Grand Prix6.969
2015 United States Grand Prix9.096
2015 Mexican Grand Prix5.437
2015 Brazilian Grand Prix4.566

2015 Brazilian 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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35 comments on “The 2015 turn-off goes on in Brazil”

  1. 2017 cannot come soon enough!

    1. Travis Humphery (@)
      23rd November 2015, 12:39

      Unfortunately, I doubt it will be much different…

    2. Honestly, the way the sport and fans have been hyping 2017, I fully expect a major letdown.

      After 2009 everybody was excited for 2010 (which ended up to be a good season) but after Bahrain 2010 I’m pretty sure most people were feeling even worse over the state of F1 than they did before. Be wary of the hype, is all I’m saying.

    3. Average score this season is now 6.392. (And frankly, it should be way lower than that.)

  2. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
    23rd November 2015, 13:50

    I’ll be issuing a quit threat from rating the races if the next race is undramatic and boring…Nope just joking :D

  3. – 10 out of 18 races below 6
    – Brazil, Australia, Japan, Canada, Austria, Monaco and Italy all scoring less than a 6

    There is something really wrong with F1 (and with us scorers probably ;))

    1. @matthijs Nothing wrong with IMO, the racing is robotic and boring, the pace is decided by tyres, strategies by engineers, no spare cars to spice up the show in case of a first lap incident, and a restrictive set of rules punishing nearly every single mistake, best example is Massa, and mammoth slow cars …

      1. @abdelilah Spare cars….. wow. But wouldn’t that be hard for the already cash strapped teams ??

  4. Oddly enough, I am optimistic regarding next season but not with 2017. If F1’s recent history has taught us anything, it’s that whenever there is a major overhaul in the regulation, one team ends up dominating the field, simply because they have planned beforehand, usually giving up on the preceding season and have carefully scrutinized the rulebook. Happened with Brawn in 2009 and Mercedes in 2014. So I expect Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull to rule in two years time (My money is on Red Bull because they have the least to lose).

    In 2016, however, the rules will be pretty much the same, and Ferrari not only appears to have gotten their house back in order but are producing a much stronger car. So I expect next season to be a much closer and, hopefully exciting, battle between Hamilton and Vettel, with Rosberg playing spoiler.

    1. Don’t forget Mclaren in ’98.

  5. The regulation creation in F1 for the last 2 decades has been “reactive”. It only responded to dominant powers, constructions, equipments, which literally deprived the rest of the field from the chance to win. There was a Schumacher+Ferrari era, there was a Vettel+Red Bull era, and some white spaces in between. Both of them lasted for about 5 years, and the basis of the regulation was like “do something to prevent Schumacher/Vettel from winning again, for gods sake!”. Now the target is somewhat similar, “Mercedes should be stopped”. But this is wrong in my opinion, rule making should not eye such short living goals. F1 is not sick because Mercedes wipes the floor with the rest of the field. F1 is also not sick because overtaking, wheel-to-wheel racing does not happen. These are not the causes, these are the symptoms, and we want to do something about the causes. And these causes don’t let F1 to simply fine tuned, it must be turned upside down to even survive the next 5-10 years, it must be fundamentally changed.

    The role of this sport must be reconsidered.
    Is it green enough? Does it have to be green at all? Does it matter if 20 cars run green for 2 hours every 2 sundays? Does the car mass production capitalize on F1’s green achievements?
    Is it cost efficient? Do the teams receive the amount of market share according their contribution and value? Is it alright that generally one man sets the prices? How is it cost-efficient if you can’t touch the engines you manufactured, however they are far from the ideal, and because of the the companies image might be compromised.
    Is it a sport? If it is, does it have to be spectacular and attractive? Is it a business? If it is, does it have to be paying off for every parties? Is it a mix of these two and some other elements? What are the different sides expecting F1 to be?

    These are the basic things for consideration, and if we can get through this, the rules according to achieve this state (and not simply to elbow out Mercedes from the top) can then be created. I’m not hoping for enjoyable races until this is not happening. Even if there a couple them, it’s only there because of the random factor of mostly the rain, or at least for now.

    1. @andrewt if one day I manage to get into a relevant position at FOM I swear I’ll bring you with me. Keep yourself free in case you get a call!

      1. @fixy i’m glad someone took the time to read it through : )

    2. I might agree, but before that, the so called domint team decides whos gonna win. This time is Hamilton, who loves to be favored by the same teamate strategy whenever it suits him, but is fond to complain when it suits the other guy even when everything is already lost. I had tickets for brazilian GP. I just didnt go. Im quitting this UNsport this year. Fed up.

  6. I feel like my life regarding formula one is now the same as when I had a windows phone, always buying the current year phone hoping that next year would be different and not disappoint. Not really much else to add. But you know what they say crazy is doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.

  7. I think the Brazilian Grand Prix was really boring but I would say that this has been an average season, not a bad one. Then again, I like Mercedes. I guess that no matter how neutral you try to be, your own preferences have impact on how you see F1.

    I have to admit that I missed a lot of things in 2015. Hamilton’s third championship title somehow always seemed inevitable, Vettel has almost always been “the best of the rest”, the pole position has almost always been decided between both Mercedes drivers, there are not enough cars on the grid, there are not enough competitive cars on the grid, the misery of McLaren-Honda stopped being funny in May or so, there have been only three different Grand Prix winners, the German Grand Prix did not happen and 2012 starts to feel so long ago.

    So I guess your view on the 2015 season depends on how many other things were able to grab your attention and if you were somehow able to enjoy the racing despite the lack of competition and unpredictability.

    1. @girts In all honesty, the only thing that has kept me gripped all season has been the two Toro Rosso guys. Without them, this year would have been absolutely diabolical in my view.

  8. The comments already here says pretty much everything there’s to say.

    I’ll just drop here the fact that this is the lowest rated race of this year, and i thought that the AUS GP already had an abysmall score…

  9. Not like this year is totally different from last year. Races are more or less same: pretty lackluster. Last season people acted like it was oh so exciting for some reason. 2015 puts 2014 into perspective too.

  10. 2 very poor ratings in a row. Guess who didn’t win. Honestly both races were not that bad, actually above avg of the season in my view. USA set the bar high let’s just hope that’s the reason behind the numbers.

    1. 2 very poor ratings in a row. Guess who didn’t win.

      As they say in French: Honi soit qui mal y pense …

    2. @peartree Right, because the ratings are always high when Hamilton does win, and always drop when he doesn’t? Oh wait no, the overall data does not support that at all. The rating was very low when he won in Japan and the highest rating of the whole season came at his worst race of the year, for example.

      The website and readership here is not biased towards Hamilton like you seem to think it is.

      1. @weeniebeenie @nase The people commenting are not the bulk of the poll results. I didn’t imply a direct and exclusive correlation to the man who won the races. In my view though it is a factor perhaps it can’t be seen on the data, although if were too follow 2014 pattern it has to be there. Having novelty winners and not having a downer of an opening round, are isolated cases, these things set the mood but don’t set the ratings for the season that’s set by the how the championship is like and whether who’s winning is of your liking.In the end everyone has a man they would like to win the title or at least a preference amongst a small group. Honestly the biggest factor has to be the high of the USA race which moved the goal posts for fanatics ratings.

        1. I completely agree with you. My French quote was meant to ridicule you.

          1. Ugh, obviously, I wanted to write “was NOT meant to ridicule you” …

  11. I continue to say that DRS is not a bad thing, only badly implemented. If drivers were allowed to use it for a maximum of, say, 40 seconds in a race to either attack, catch up or defend I think it could add a new dimension. I went to the Race of Champions this weekend which was thoroughly enjoyable: if F1 needs to “improve the show”, they could look closely at this. Ok, the ROC is always going to be too gimmicky for F1, but close racing the occasional gimmick and being able to see the drivers actually work the cars provided a thrilling evening. Please, F1, do something!

    1. @mattb the DRS is not a problem, it is a wrong answer to the problem of the cars not being able to follow each other. Remove front wings, degrading tyres and DRS altogether and it should be racy.

  12. I started following F1 in 2009, and it soon became my favorite sport. I love the elegance of the cars, the level of the technology, the precision of the drivers. I love that fans can look at a car simply going straight, braking, and turning left (or right!) and see so much more, because we know the slightest mistake would be disaster.

    The one thing I dislike about F1 is all the negativity and hate poured on it by its so-called fans. It’s fair play to compare races within the season, or discuss ways to improve the sport. But it gets so tiresome reading the same negative comments after every race, every season. If you have nothing to say except that there wasn’t enough passing, maybe you are the boring factor, not F1. I hear NASCAR has lots of passing…

    1. Good effort if its your favourite sport and you started from 2009! I know a lot of people who turned off F1 pretty much from 2009

      1. @johns23 I hear what you are saying, but @mclarennyc you are the good fan here, you know it and I’m with you. The “fans” jon is referring to, didn’t like the shake up of 09 with the new regs, unfortunately all sports suffer commercially when their superficial make-up gets messy. Anyway there’s always new people coming over and these new fans came up to admire the RBR reign and a new cycle is born, when someone else starts to win, f1 loses these fans. This has happened in recent times with the Ferrari McLaren and RBR dominance, overwhelming the fans voice are fanatic journalists, it’s really hard to sift through what the specialist media is saying over F1. A part of it tries to protect it negating everything, and the other half wreak havoc by igniting every droplet of fuel.
        Honestly F1 needs to deal with what aero is doing to racing and that’s it. Play the capitalism and the championship shall be economically stable. In the end if there’s no overtaking, at least we can’t say it is because someone lobbied for it.

    2. If you think the complaints are about the *number* of passes, you are not reading these comments very carefully. And many of the complaints are coming from people who have loyally followed this sport for *decades* and have a very broad experience base. We love it and don’t want to give up on it, so we vent our frustrations rather than simply walking away. Insulting these fans by suggesting that we are the problem is like someone who has only ever had hamburgers telling fans of filet mignon to shut up and enjoy this great ground beef.

      1. Exactly. I have been passionately watching for years, spending a lot of time for F1 during 20 race weekends every season. Once I bought a champagne (well not me as I was under-age then Haha) and followed Brazil radars all the day long before seeing arguably the best race ever which I re-watched 10+ times in a month. It is not the sort of stuff I looked at occasionally like WWE and stopped for periods when got bored. I don’t think I am alone. Your last sentence is spot on. It’s like got tickets for Germany vs Brazil football match, turn up and see it is actually U16 one.

  13. It deserves. It was very boring.

  14. Hello.
    I am Bernie.
    I am going to bring in artificial rains next season as and when and where as I think necessary. Please support me.
    coz if you don’t, I will still do it.

    P.S. If that doesn’t work, prepare for artificial earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

    1. I have made a promise to myself that if sprinklers ever make it into F1 i will walk away. I’m fully prepared for it because there is no limit to the sheer stupidity of F1 and the people who shape it’s future.

      Having said that, i would definitely stick around for the earthquakes and volcanoes. No way i’m missing that!

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