Or something that was all three, and beautiful to boot. (especially seeing as that was Jim Clark’s car)
I do agree with you to a great extent. Though of course in some of those “golden ages” we did have pretty much a Cosworth in every car…so, plus ca change as they say.
I would prefer to see less downforce and less driver aids but I’mnot sure how they put the genie back in the bottle. Until then I think we are stuck with artificial aids to overcome the difficulty in passing.
Conceptually, at least, I think I prefer the Indycar push-to-pass system, where I don’t believe there’s any restriction on the leading car using it , but they can only do it a certain number of times per race total.
Which I guess might be more like just limiting the number of times KERS can be used, not sure what the HP differences are.
But DRS really just does feel like something put in more to increase the number of passes more than to increase the quality or strategy of racing.
The concept of DRS is sound. It’s designed to compensate for the penalty incurred due to downforce lost when following another F1 car, which makes it impossible to stick close through fast corners. It’s meant to give the following car a chance to get alongside at the end of the main straights, not to let them blast past before the corner. It may need a bit of tweaking to get it right. At Barcelona and Monaco it wasn’t all that effective, while at Turkey and Canada it seemed to give too much of an advantage. But you’d need hard data to check this properly. There are other factors at play, such as tyre wear, driver skill and KERS. Bear in mind, the faster wearing Pirelli tyres have probably had more effect on passing than DRS this season.
As for Button’s win at Canada, where he went from last to 1st in 30 laps, that was mostly down to driver skill. Without DRS he’d have lost more time trying to get past people, but he was about 2 seconds a lap faster than anyone else for most of that stint on a drying track. By going faster, he was able to get more heat into his tyres, giving him more grip. You saw what happened when Vettel tried to respond. Hamilton, and probably a few other drivers, are generally faster than Button in qualifying, but he has had 3 or 4 races in his career where he has absolutely dominated the field in changeable weather.
I respectfully disagree.
Button is a hack. A hack that is in the top .01% of car drivers, but a hack non-the-less.
He caught Seb because he was allowed an unfair advantage to get around Micheal and Fernando, and had tires that weren’t on the edge of “the cliff” of performance drop-off. All due to dumb luck of the SafetyCar.
Button is good. But Button is more lucky than good. Examine his wins outside the Brawn flash. “Wild-card” rain events. Even in the Brawn, all he had to do was beat Rubins (both of them).
My main point is that the tire situation, the DRS and all the gimmick crap is ruining the elite of the sport. Might as well watch NASCAR now. Or Pro Wrestling.
And to Airman Doors, I was an enthusiastic viewer thru the McLaren and Ferrari years. So, yeah. I want to see the best team design, build and race a car to victory.
Giving a following car an advantage and mandating the use of inferior tire compounds aren’t racing in my book.
I don’t think Button quite belongs in the top rung of F1 drivers, as he is uable to drive around setup problems and can’t always get the best of the car. He has a very specific driving style. However, it’s ridiculous to call him a hack, as there are times when he is genuinely the fastest driver on track, as we saw in Canada.
That’s very dismissive of one of the best drives I’ve ever seen. The win was in Vettel’s hands, all he had to do was stay ahead of Button for a couple laps, he didn’t even have to match his pace. He couldn’t do it. Button had been driving faster on a tiny ribbon of dry track for lap after lap without making a mistake. Luck certainly played it’s part, it often does, but the fastest driver won, there is no better example of a deserved victory.
What is the problem, it’s the same rules for every team and driver, who have to make the best of them. You’ll notice that despite DRS and an underpowered or sometimes non-functional KERS system, other cars haven’t been blasting past the Red Bulls. Neither system has unbalanced the racing.
I really doubt that such an amazing comeback could be just by luck. That said, I can certainly sympathize with the idea that we’re too quick to credit drivers just for having the best car. Nobody would have thought Button was that great before he wound up on Brawn GP the year that they put together the Best Car Ever. I’m not sure that Vettel is especially good at all —he started doing well when he clearly had the best car by far, and he still clearly has the best car by far. And unlike Button, he didn’t even manage to beat his teammate the year of his championship until Webber broke his hand (wrist?) in a bike accident and had to drive through the pain for the last bit of the championship. And Webber’s a nobody too!
Okay, end of rant. 
BTW, has anybody else been enjoying watching Schumacher not win? The Montreal GP has me worried again.
Schumacher benefited from the weird weather more than anybody, I’d say. He got his position in the Safety Car jumbling and tire-changing and sort of held onto it. I’ve been pretty pleased to watch Nico Rosberg consistently outperform the Brett Favre of F1.
This is what I’m on about. And yes, “Hack” is a bit uncalled for. He is one of the very best *second tier *Formula One drivers. He’s a Trulli, a Barrichello, an Irvine. Great driver, deserves to be in the car, but not a winner. He’s more a Webber. (Another great driver that will never be champion)
In my opinion, the bulk of his wins (and Championship) are due to A) Having a vastly superior car, and B) Abnormal weather/conditions that make the entire race a crap-shoot.
I would say his Championship was a fluke, and he’ll never win another. Sure, he is a great driver and the race in Canada was pretty exciting. He got lucky. Right tires at the right time, safety cars, DRS and rain/drying spells.
Hell, I wish* I* was as lucky and good as Button! 
Calling Barrichello a “second-tier driver” is very uncharitable. He would have won a Drivers Championship had he not been made to play second fiddle to Schumacher all those years. It’s not by accident that he and Schumacher finished 1-2 regularly, and had he been the featured driver with team orders in his favor he could have taken at least one title.
Then again, as usual in F1, it’s the equipment and not the driver. Scott Speed could have won a title with Ferrari in those years had he gotten the ride.
I doubt it.
Hey, Airman, I only tossed those names out *'cause they were the only ones I could spell *without looking them up! :smack:
You doubt it? In a sport where Jacques Villeneuve won a Drivers Championship, you don’t think that the equipment is the deciding factor? The number one driver on the most dominant team, of which one typically exists, is a virtual lock for the title. The winner of the Drivers Championship is almost never a surprise.
Would Barrichello even have been driving for Ferrari if not to play second fiddle to Schumacher?
Exactly. He would have been second fiddle to someone else if not for Schumy. And if he left to be a No. 1 for someone else, he would have been beaten in the championship by Schumy and his second fiddle.
I was talking some time ago with a friend about how many drivers careers the Schumy/Ferrari years just ruined. Good drivers, bad timing. (of course, I can’t come up with a good example right now!)
Nice Grand-Slam for the current/next world champ today.
I just woke up from the nap the Valencia track lulled me into. And now I see Valencia might replace Barcelona as the home of the Spanish Grand Prix. Damn. Not that Barcelona is a classic track, but it puts on a slightly better show than Valencia.
Hope the New and Improved Silverstone puts on a better show, some passing heavy showers mid-race would be nice too.
Those last few laps were pretty cool. Good result. Ferrari on the top step and Vettel 2nd. Good times. I’m sure Webber doesn’t agree.
I’d been hoping for some more mixing of the field due to rain. If there’s going to be inclement weather, it should at least give us interesting action on track and in the pits. As it was, not a bad race anyway.
Looking forward to the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. I love racing that track in all manner of video games.
You know that the track they race on now isn’t the same as the one you play in the video games, right? I mention this because I wouldn’t want you to be disappointed. They haven’t raced the Nordschleife in F1 for over 40 years.
Minor nitpick: 1976 to be precise - although to be fair, I’m pretty sure they used Hockenheim on alternate years from 1971 onwards. But yeah, after King Rat was read the Last Rites (somewhat in advance), they weren’t going back to the Nordschleife any time soon. Jackie Stewart, with Jack Brabham’s help, had been trying to avoid the original circuit since 1968.
Oh, yeah, I know. I can’t remember which game it was (I want to say Forza 3, but I think that’s wrong), but it had the Grand Prix circuit as well as the Nordschleife. Still love that track, even abbreviated. 
It isn’t even abbreviated - the GP track is actually a separate track.
