Just curious. I started watching F1 back when DTS started airing (so during Hamilton's domination). It was fun, even though results were often predictable (HAM-BOT-VER).
Then there was this awesome season when Max got his 1st WDC title. It was the most fun I ever had with any sport ever.
But now? I still watch races, but, I won't lie, it's getting less and less exciting. I noticed that F1 is no longer a huge talking-point in my friend's group, as there is just less going on. Max has so huuuge advantage, that it feels like all that sport magic is gone.
What are your thoughts on this? Are you still watching races every rawe ceek? Do you still feel engaged in F1 community?
This season is pretty damn exciting if you exclude Max imo. With Checos form being nowhere at the moment, P2 is a free for all. I find the battle between Merc, AM and Ferrari super entertaining, and the same goes for the rest of the grid, especially with McLaren and Alpine trying to find their rhythm.
I'm watching F1 since the early 90s. I got to enjoy the golden Senna/Prost years before back to back Schumacher - Hamilton - Verstappen reigns. I, for one, welcome our new VER overlord.
This, but since 1990. 4 notable dominant periods since then (Schuey, Seb, Lewis & now Max), but I've never stopped enjoying it. The dominance never lasts forever. Focus on the midfield & there's always entertainment to be had.
If all you care about is who wins, then yes it's boring. But you're totally ignoring the fact that there are 19 other places. Today was a good race. Leclerc was happy being second, Norris was happy being fourth, Hamilton was whining and received an extra penalty.
Yeah, everything from P2 back is great, at least there are some great battles to watch. A few years ago it seemed like a lot of races were just parades with no overtaking because of dirty air.
I'm loving it. Ignoring Max, every race is different. Basically anyone can finish at any place, even though there are definitely trends. Hulkenberg and Norris suddenly being up in the top 5, Albon in the points. Then you have the constant fight between Aston, Mercedes, Ferrari, and Perez. There's plenty of good racing, you just shouldn't care too much about who wins (since that's almost a given).
Idk about putting Perez in there, he's mostly just been fighting his own qualifying pace and ability to overtake in what is far and away the fastest car on the grid. I mean he has now missed Q3 5 out of 9 races. Even hard core Perez fans have to admit he's bottling it
He has been in the past few races. Before that he was challenging Max. Last weekend he was again battling in the Mercedes/Ferrari/Aston area. That's where I'd expect him to be the rest of the season. In a good weekend he can easily beat them, and maybe even keep Max honest. But in a worse weekend he'll be fighting for a podium just like those teams I mentioned.
I think it's an exciting season so far, as long as you ignore Max a bit. Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston Martin competing. Drivers and teams up and down the field struggling sometimes and excelling other times. Clear rules, which sometimes seem a bit silly but remove a lot of the arbitrary stewarding which I hated. Haas and Williams scoring points.
Then again watching Max is also exciting. It's Schumacher levels of dominance as he goes for every bit of pace on every race and every lap. Watching Max is watching a master athlete in his prime. That qualifying lap in Monaco was * chefs kiss *
I screamed when Max pulled out that lap. I really wanted Alonso to have poll, and I'm not a huge Max fan, but he earned it. No one can ever say Max just "had a good car" because it is clear as day he's a generational talent and extremely hard working at racing and doesn't rest on his laurels for a moment, every GP.
The little details of him holding back while overtaking to get a bit more DRS. He is meticulous in his driving. I quite like it! But I’m hyping Albon up every race hoping for good Williams results as well.
I've been watching F1 for over 20 years and to be fair, most of the time there's been one guy who's dominating. Before Max it was Lewis, then Vettel, then before him Schumacher. Of course, the years with tight battles until the very last race are the most exciting ones, but at the same time it's very interesting to see history being made. Plus, the midfield has been quite interesting this year and with McLaren hopefully closing the gap, it will be even more interesting.
The wife and I watch almost every race. I don’t mind Red Bull dominating at the moment since they’re my favorite team to rag on but it’s undeniable they have a great car.
I’m basically a fan of everyone on the grid except Max since I find him and his dad to be annoying. Karen
Horner is also pretty funny 😂
Yes, his dad's a piece of shit, and sometimes I feel like Max lets the mask slip. He's very jokey-jokey when things go well, but I remember his shitty attacking, post-race petulance and running people off the track when he didn't quite have a winning car.
He can afford to have great wheel-to-wheel racing skills now that he's got the thick end of one second in his pocket over the other cars and his teammate is pottering around in P10.
Yes, on the surface it might look predictable with Verstappen so much better than the rest, but this season there are often battles/unpredictability for up to p2.
The midfield action hasn't been bad this year and that seems to get most of the commentary spotlight with Verstappen 30 seconds ahead every race. Big Mclaren fan myself, which has been hard to watch this season, but seeing Aston improve the pace substantially this year has been great.
Also Ferrari seeming to be just as confused every week even without Mattia has been hilarious. Great drives from Carlos though this year!
Needless to say, there's a lot of interesting things still happening in F1. Even with the Verstappen dominance.
This season is a bit of a snoozer no doubt. Even 2020 was more fun because the rest of the field was so crazy tight that anyone could get a podium if one of the top 3 had a DNF.
This year the hierarchy is very obvious, so less chance for anything crazy or unexpected happening.
Get an VPN & F1TV... I'm in the UK but I refuse to give a penny to Murdoch & the channel 4 coverage is compromised of course.
Getting F1TV has completely revolutionised my F1 watching. Being able to watch easily, with time shift if needed, & no streaming stress. The commentary is even better imho (though you can choose the Sky feed if you miss Martin & Crofty). The pundits are better too. And you can watch any in car view at any time. It's worth every penny.
Overall I have lost interest. After the title was stolen from Lewis I was pretty bitter. I have been watching for about 15 years (American) and this year is just incredibly boring. This is by far the most dominant car I have ever seen and no one can challenge Max, not even his teammate. At least when Lewis was winning all the time he had a competent teammate to challenge every weekend.
When it comes to who wins the race, sure, it's fairly boring. I just focus on the midfield, and my personal favorite Albon. Watching it with that mindset makes it a lot more interesting in my mind.
Been watching F1 since the early Schumacher years, so one driver/team dominating all years long is nothing new. At least the field as a whole is a lot closer than it has been in those days. No more people getting lapped 4-5 times, and a genuine battle in the midfield. Could it be more exciting, sure, but phases of dominance is pretty much how F1 works these days. I hope the cost-cap will change that going forward a bit more. And stuff like Aston/Alonso just surprising everybody with their amazing performance still makes for a great story and races.
It's back to the status quo. It's been like this forever. Senna, Prost, Mansell, D. Hill, Schumi, Vettel, Ham and now Max. It was the worst during the Mansell years, when Williams Renault had that active suspension magic going on. I remember races where the 2 Williams drivers where not seconds but literally minutes away from the 3rd place.
'21 really was a crazy season. Looking back the dumbest decision F1 made was firing Massi. Massi allowed it to happen. Massi created the circumstances and environment for such a very entertaining season.
Massi was the real architect for all that engagement. It was crazy. It was magnificent. We got spoiled and dumb people who couldn't live with the loss of their favourite team/driver brigaded for his head. And got their way.
And what do we have now, without Massi?
all this talk about F1 being stale, without magic, predictable.
Yup.
Sometimes you really should be careful about what you're wishing for.
The front of the field has not been exciting this year. I feel like the mid-pack battle has been one of the best I remember in years.
I also love seeing Hamilton struggle with a car and Russell put pressure on him. I’m not a Hamilton fan at all but I have to say he has had some tremendous drives this year.
Alonso’s performance this year has also been very exciting to watch.
Because of the 2022 rule change, F1 has not had racing this physically close in a long time. Being able to be in and around each other and have proper battles, take different lines over/under etc and all that racecraft is fantastic to see. Thats what I love to see in motorsport. And while yes, Max is off in the distance, the rest of the field are often fantastic to watch.
The 5 car battle in Austria last year would not have been seen in anything but the wet or 1st lap previously (unless you go back 30-40 years).
Generally i think it's pretty good, not as good as some of the recent seasons but still watching all the races. I have found myself watching more endurance racing (WEC/IMSA) but that might be just my growing interest in motorsports.
If F1 isn't doing it for you watch F2/3 or Super Formula (motorsport.tv)
I’m Dutch and rooted for Verstappen in 21 & 22. But now I’m hoping he has some reliability issues. Just to make it more interesting. If Fernando can win a race this year, the season would be great.
I started watching in 2006, I've never followed one particular driver or team, always rooted for a good race. There's 20 or so drivers out there having 20 different races.
I'm always looking out for something while watching, who's gaining on who, will Norris pit now to undercut Stroll or go long etc etc.
I think drive to survive misrepresented the sport in a lot of ways, it's glossed over the real stories of engineering and endurance. I honestly couldn't watch past episode 3 of season one
I'm enjoying this season, we had 7 seasons of Mercedes absolute dominance, I'm not bored of something different just yet
I’m still enjoying F1, yes. I can’t say the same for some of my friends who are long-time fans.
I have the same gripe as they do, however. The Red Bull and Max combo is absolutely untouchable, and now with the budget cap and restrictions we can’t really see a way for other teams to catch up. There is no sense of guidance.
The domination of Red Bull/Max is definitely making me walk away from each race feeling disappointed/bored but I keep reminding myself every time that this season has been full of excitement other than 1st.
To be honest, no. I started watching in 2020 with the pandemic. Merc’s dominance was fine then because I was still learning all the history. 2021 was super exciting. 2022 is when my interest slowly started to wane, and now it has to be convenient for me to even watch a race since it is so predictable.
I’ll probably continue to keep tabs on the F1 lemmies and watch the start of each season to get a feel for whether it has my interest that year.
If I had to bet there are probably a lot of recent fans that feel similarly. I think DTS brought in a lot new fans that got hooked on the excitement of the '21 season (and first part of '22). Unfortunately that level of competition for 1st is more uncommon than the type of domination we're seeing now.
While there is incredible competition in the midfield this year, I don't think it has the same impact as tight competition for 1st for many people.
Not at al honestly, I missed like half of the races and I find MotoGP a lot more interesting. Maybe some interest will come back now that MotoGP has its big break but it's not a given. There's also not much new technical or silly stuff coming out of F1 now honestly, everyone is converging extremely fast on a couple of design and we can only wait until they get there, which might be never because Red Bull has a massive advantage. I bet that by October or so interest in F1 will be significantly lowered.
I’m new to F1 and think I understand the dominance Max is showing so I’m trying to appreciate that but most of the excitement for me right now comes from watching the other teams. If someone starts to challenge Max, all the better.
I don’t necessarily support anyone right now so maybe that’s the fun of it for me. I’m interested in who I start pulling for as the races come and go.
The domination of Red Bull/Max is definitely making me walk away from each race feeling disappointed/bored but I keep reminding myself every time that this season has been full of excitement other than 1st.
It's only boring if you focus on the top three, the rest of the grid is were the fun happens.
Although I'm happy Max is doing well and that it isn't another season of Mercedes Wins again lol, it's boring when one team is so far ahead of the competition. Wish it was more like motoGP were you have several drivers fighting for the world title.
Will you categorize the premier league as boring considering that man City is winning almost everytime. No because the other games are interesting and the fight for other positions is close. Think of F1 in a similar way. Just because the guy who wins is fixed doesn't mean that there isn't merit in who finishes in thr other positions
This is his second season dominating. Before that, Merc was untouchable for about 6 years. Nobody complained about that, so I'm a bit surprised that this is popping up so much this season.
But if you want to watch races where there are a lot of contenders for the win, F1 is not for you to be honest. F1 was meant as a constructors championship, and it still is. That means that the battle is mostly "who can build the best car" and less "who is the fastest driver". If you want to watch close racing, there are lots of other options. Indycar is a very nice series with spec-cars and therefore a lot of different winners. But if you are watching F1 with that expectation, it's going to be a tough one.
Nobody complained about that, so I’m a bit surprised that this is popping up so much this season.
You're joking, lying, or you've no idea what you're on about. Plenty of people moaned plenty about Mercedes' crazy dominance. We moaned when they did an illegal tyre test, but got a slap on the wrist and kept the gains. We moaned when they just spent boatloads and threw money and people at the car. We moaned all the time. If the winner is completely predictable, barring breakdowns/crashes, it's a big black mark on a race. That's been the way even before Mercedes when Vettel was just smashing races weekend after weekend.
It's hit or miss, honestly. Some weekends are great, some weekends are pretty bad. Max and RB dominating this year, so I expect it to stay the same. I don't think it'll be very fun again until a challenger to RB appears.
Even F1 has indirectly acknowledged how boring having Max so far ahead is. The last several races have almost ignored him outside of pitsops and finishes.
In fact, most of the screen time I can remember has been for cars that aren't even scoring points in the last few races becausethey are actually battling.
Today's race was quite exciting! It seems like there hasn't been much passing the previous few races, but there was plenty throughout the 71 laps today.
If the rest of season is like today, I'd be happy. However, I know it is very track dependent on whether there are amply passing opportunities or not.
I'm not going out of my way to watch the races as much at this stage—as a number of others stated, I don't feel like I'm missing out on who finishes second to Max in real-time. I've been a fan since the early 90s and have watched the likes of Schumacher, Vettel, and Hamilton (and I'll call myself out that I loved watching those seasons) do what Max is doing, but I'm starting to grow tired of the trend of absolute dominance from one team with no response from the rest of the field.
I agree Max's dominance in that RB is a little boring even if it is historic. The battle behind him has been pretty exciting though and with McLaren's updates looking like the business it should be even better going forward.
There were some decent battles but I do find the RB dominance rather boring. Verstappen had time to stop for a tire change on lap 70 and could have grabbed a sandwich while he was there with virtually no risk. Sure, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but there's no real challenger to even make them work for it anymore.
The winner is a foregone conclusion in every race. RB and VER are just too good. However, the midfield has been pretty good. Today's race, for example.
But yeah, it's definitely overall less exciting this year.
The wife and I watch almost every race. I don’t mind Red Bull dominating at the moment since they’re my favorite team to rag on but it’s undeniable they have a great car.
I’m basically a fan of everyone on the grid except Max since I find him and his dad to be annoying. Karen
Horner is also pretty funny 😂
@elmartinez85@Purr Max, lives and dreams racing. Off the grid he is siming (dare I say it, faces competition).
I would like to see someone else win, but he's unbeatable. The car has a massive amount to do with it, but he's very very good and really deserves all these wins.