Speaking of Sky, I kinda compare their coverage to NFL since it’s a weekly event.

They’ve paid billions to get the broadcast rights, think they can learn from American TV as far as production goes to make the show better especially pregame/race. Used to get so pumped for Sunday games back when I was following NFL.

You’re right. Professional sports casters should tell everyone that the contest is over and there’s nothing left to watch for instead

Well I'm definitely right that's it *my* biggest complaint which is independent from what everyone should be told or not be told

Some things that would make F1 more engaging more often.

- Get rid of the hard compound slicks. Pick a red & yellow slick that will require teams to have at least four pit stops per race. These one-stop races are usually quite boring and are over by the 5th lap.
- Relegation! (Ok, that's never going to happen but it would cause a lot of backmarker interest)
- Encourage and allow more upgrades throughout the season. This would have to include some wriggle-room in the regs. Look at how that has revitalized McLaren recently.
- Increase the number of DRS zones on some of these boring tracks
- Drop Monaco
- Encourage the drivers to fight after the race when they get knocked out by another driver. Who doesn't want to see an Alonso v Hamilton brawl? (I know, I know, not going happen)

If anything, I feel like there should be less DRS rather than more

Serious question : a spending cap was introduced yet it doesn't really seem we are seeing any evidence of it affecting competitive balance, are we? Or is it one of those things that will take years until we see the results of it?

i dont really understand how they ****ed it up so bad. they put a ton of effort into making the thing more competitive and we have the most one sided year since whatever year it was that schumacher won every race

a possible answer is to make the regulations very restrictive so that everyone is forced to come up with the same overall concept and roughly the same aerodynamic package. you end up with a bunch of frustrated car designers and engineers, and a much tighter grid

you can even make certain parts standard so that every car has to have the same front wing or same gearbox etc, which also saves the teams a load of money

The same thing happened in the recent pre-Max Merc years in 2019 where Hamilton and Bottas would lead some races by a minute or more. I can remember one race where Hamilton lapped almost every car. It was ridiculous and boring af. The only interesting bits were listening to Bottas bitch about how he wasn't allowed to race Hamilton.

A spending cap was never really going to achieve much. It would just reinforce the advantage of the teams that already had the edge as the other teams couldn't spend more to catch up which is why I have proposed a spending cap based on a sliding scale of where you finished in the team's championship in the previous year (so for example your 2023 spending cap would be based on where you finished in the championship in 2021).

Manufacturers won't like that and become less inclined to stay or get involved as part of the interest is the innovation that a team brings to the sport and the credit that goes to a manufacturer for that innovation which they can then market for their road car sales. As otherwise you will just get manufacturers supplying engines only.

I mean, yeah, you can make it a spec series, but that's not what F1 is there for. There are plenty of those, and they're awesome, but F1 is there so 3 manufacturers can dump billions into design and have a shot while 4 back markers hang out and the other 3 teams pretend they aren't back markers.

There's probably some legit concern that this new found boom in popularity is going to go away quick if it's just RB lapping the field every week for another year, but I don't think that's fixable while the engine freeze is in effect.

If you actually want competition and don't care that it's a gimmick, then allow bottom teams from last year more spending/test time/whatever and allow top teams less.

To be fair, this kind of thing drives me nuts too. Like I'll be watching a rugby game and it'll be 31-6 with 10 mins to go and the commentators will give it a 'don't go anywhere. if they can just score quickly now the pressure will really start mounting up.

it's just part of their job description though. need those eyeballs for as long as possible

I think the problem is too we are being hyped up so much by the broadcast because we get that much coverage nowadays. All practice sessions and qualifying and then the hours leading up to both with the commentary, interviews and just standing around talking that when we get to the main event (i.e the race) that even if it is exciting for the places from 2nd down it isn't enough because of just how much this sport is being glammed up.

Spending cap in combination with the windtunnel and CFD allocations are working. It is why Ferrari and Mercedes are now fighting with McLaren and Aston Martin which never happened before the spending cap. It is just being ignored because RedBull found something with the floor and suspension that the other teams still don't understand. You also see a lot of great engineers moving from the top 3 teams to the other teams as the top 3 can no longer just pay more to keep them.
It will take more than one regulation change to push the pack together including the front running team but this would have been the best season ever if you ignore RedBull.

Wouldn’t be granted but if Newey pushed for a small piece of equity, would be hard to reject him.

Alonso already poisoning his team internally. Decline is unrelenting.

This is based on what exactly?

Hulk and k-mag extend their contracts @ Haas

Good result for k-mag who has been crap all year

Haas has said they will no longer take rookies so not sure what better option there is for them.

Will be fun seeing Liam finally get his shot.

Pérez 1.3s behind Max
Beaten by Albon in a ****ing Williams. Awesome work by Albon obv

Also 6 different teams in the top 6.

At this point why are we even discussing Perez v Max anymore - it's a done deal he is leaving next year

Also F1 is at its most competitive level probably for about 14 to 15 years - sure Red bull are winning but the fight for 2nd to 6th has never been closer.

Awesome moment to start raining

Max gained 4.2s in one lap on Perez with the same car and tires

Zhou on podium places

Epic

Lol what happened to Hamilton and Russell

There's no point ever switching to full wets b/c if the conditions ever get bad enough that they're needed, then they're just gonna stop the race anyway.

Issue is also that teams want to stay on inters too long and then someone bins it and causes a red flag. A shame really as Alpine made the right call with Ocon but didn't get rewarded for it because Zhou bins it.