Quote:
Originally Posted by DOF_power  >
^ Hallen:
2003 was in some ways better than this year. The cars had more ground effects and stickier tires and overtaking was better, and there were more winning drivers and teams.
HORNDAWG :
- it's a Circus, and things like this always happened, although now it gets more tabloid coverage
- overtaking happens on the track too, tough mostly it's left to the mid-field and backmarkers, and unfortunately the TV coverage kinda sucks
- without a serious dumbing-down/spec-ing/penalties like in other racing series there won't be a close(r) field. But in turns this denies it pinnacle status. |
I am not sure what you are quoting there.. but I assume the text below my name is your comments.
The cars did not have "more ground effects" this year and they definitely did not have more sticky tires. The aero specs this year were the same as last year with no real change. The tires were spec Bridgestone so there was a definite drop off in tire performance compared to last year when there were two manufacturers duking it out.
Even though I am not a Ron Dennis fan, I think I know what he meant when he implied the internet was responsible for most of the internal strife at McLaren this year. I think he was saying that because the internet can have stories up in minutes, and there is a wide variety of quality and bias in the reporting, almost anything can get posted as factual news when it really isn't. You have to take most F1 "reports" with a large grain of salt.
I think the TV coverage is actually quite good. No, SPEED does not have control over the cameras, so the cameras will tend to focus on the local hero, but the announcing team and the coverage of practice and qualifying has been very good. I love Steve Machett (
err, as an announcer that is, purely platonic
).
I agree that without dumbing it down you will have a harder time getting closer racing and more overtaking. However, the quality of racing is still very good, and I think F1 still deserves the "pinnacle of motorsports" title.
That is very arguable because people favor different types of racing (like us here being partial to ALMS), and because people expect different things out of racing. I like F1 for many of the same reasons I like ALMS. The technology and pure majesty of the machines is a big thing to me. I still prefer the ALMS sports car mix over F1, but that doesn't mean that ALMS is the "pinnacle of motorsports". It is more a marketing thing than anything else anyway.
Alonso out at McLaren 
