31 replies to this topic

[Michael Ferner]

Max Verstappen on the first lap/first corner incident with Charles Leclerc:
 

As soon as you're a bit offline here, it's a super low grip and that's what happened. I braked and there was no grip. I didn't mean to push Charles off the track, but I couldn't slow it down and I just kept sliding wide on four wheels. So that's why we had to go wide.

 

It's a wonder how racing drivers, in the last century, managed to negotiate the first corner of a race without much trouble, and without the benefit of miles of tarmac runoff.

 

Today's driving standards are at a pathetic all-time low. Modern drivers get coached all around the track, yet they are still unable to negotiate a corner safely because - oops! - the grip isn't there? In my opinion, Max Verstappen is way overrated, and has no place amongst the greats of this sport, which by extension means that neither has any of the other hot shots in the field - what a bunch of lame-os. They'd be all off within two corners in a real race on a real track.

 

Some time earlier this year, TV started showing pictures from a pedal cam, but quickly stopped because the images were just too pathetic - only two pedals! In my youth, I used to watch in awe when F1 and other racing drivers were doing their stuff, thinking "No way could I ever do that!" Nowadays, every spotty youth with a playstation is already qualified enough, he just needs the courage and LOTS OF MONEY to jump through the hoops.

 

Oh, yes, we're told that modern drivers need so much brain capacity for the many buttons and levers on the steering wheel, it's become such a complex job! In reality, the only important knob is the one for the intercom, though, as they can always ask "What's that shiny green button for, again?" Their 'race engineer' will always tell them what to do. "Remember to brake for the pit entry, and turn left for the stall..." Ugh!

 

F1 has become a joke, and a bad one at that.

Edited by Michael Ferner, 20 November 2023 - 09:32.

[Porsche718]

Michael, I agree whole heartedly. "lame-os". Love it.

 

But we better get straight into nostalgia before we end up in trouble.

 

Two things I always marvel at.

 

Firstly ... 1300 bhp in qually trim and 7 speed manual shift around Monaco or the like!!! Yikes.

 

and back even further ... I wonder if I could get my head around a pre-selector ENV box. The idea of selecting the gear, then at the right moment popping the clutch!

 

Then, you've pre-slected your gear, then someone has an off ahead of you and cars are baulked or slow unexpectedly. Man, what gear am I in, and what will happen if I need a lower gear to get through any rapidly slowing cars?

 

I can see me quickly destroying a pre-selector (or engine) for constanty picking the wrong gear.

 

Maybe there are some TNFers out there who have had experience with them?

Edited by Porsche718, 21 November 2023 - 03:45.

[Michael Ferner]

I hear you on the pre-selector gearbox, almost as difficult as pressing the "engine mode" button on the steering wheel!!

 
As for "1300 bhp in qually trim and 7 speed manual shift around Monaco or the like!!! Yikes"...
 

Fernando Alonso believes current Formula 1 cars “are not made” for the slow-speed corners present in Las Vegas after the high-speed straights.

He added it was “not much fun” in driving that kind of layout in the cold conditions, with grip and temperatures proving to be tough to find for the drivers all weekend long in Las Vegas.

While it was the first event on a freshly-surfaced track, Alonso believes modern Formula 1 cars are designed for the sweeping corners of some of the series’ classics, rather than the long straights and big stops of Las Vegas.

Poor Alonso pines for the days of the turbo monsters, tailormade for Monaco, or for the cigar-shaped gas tanks on four wheels that were so perfect for the Nürburgring. Maybe he'd rather drive in a Silberpfeil up and down Pescara's mountain serpentines, and along the five-kilometre straights? Much more comfortable than a present day's F1 car, isn't it? Or a supercharged Miller on a 20s board track, what could be more pleasant to drive? Maybe a Mors on the roads down to Bordeaux...

 

Meanwhile, he entertains us by barrelling into the first corner like a loose canon, taken by complete surprise that there wasn't any grip! No, we can't have that, cars adhering to simple principles of physics!!? Multiple champions, unable to cope with F1 cars that aren't build for the sanitized tracks of today, what's next...

Edited by Michael Ferner, 20 November 2023 - 10:44.

[B Squared]

I thought you've claimed to have not watched Formula 1 since the 1980s; what made you change your mind on viewing?

[F1Frog]

Max Verstappen absolutely deserves his place among the all time greats because he is the best of his era. It is just a different game to the 1950s. He knew that he could afford to be more daring on the brakes because of the run off and obviously got away with very little penalty. If braking late and finding no grip would have sent him into the wall, he wouldn’t have done it, but it was far less a risk than in the past.

You can prefer the motorsport of the past and that is totally fine, I probably do as well mostly. But modern drivers are just playing to different rules to those of the past, and it doesn’t lessen their ability.

To me, drivers of all eras are equally talented and I would rank them based on how special I think they were for their era.

Edited by F1Frog, 20 November 2023 - 12:28.

[JonnyA]

I think it's quite clear Max's excuse is just that - an excuse, and he never had any intention of making the corner on the correct line, but would have been very capable of doing so if he wasn't intent on barging the Ferrari out of the way.

[ensign14]

 Today's driving standards are at a pathetic all-time low.  

 

As opposed to when dear old Dottorino Ottorino could pootle around the Nurburgring at road-car speeds and be a World Championship F1 driver?  Or when Fangio could pick up cheap wins by bursting his car but hopping into a benighted team-mate's?  Or when Goux could win a GP ahead of a banker and an engineer with a crippled engine because there was nobody else there?  And that's just F1 - I haven't got to Herman the Turtle or Flyin' Phil Caliva.

 

It's not the driving standards - this is the age-old thing of drivers doing what they can get away with if it is permitted.  No doubt had there been a 30 second penalty for Verstappen at the first corner he would not have done it.  It is not the driving standards at an all-time low, but their enforcement.  Once upon a time the enforcement was the Grim Reaper; then it was stewards with teeth giving penalties; now it is a patchwork of stewards unfit for the job but who will do the political job imposed on them.

[Michael Ferner]

I thought you've claimed to have not watched Formula 1 since the 1980s; what made you change your mind on viewing?

 

It's actually a very sad story, not wanting to expand on the trigger for ending a (very enjoyable!) twenty-year break. But anyway, I'm adamant to break the bad habit again, and have just watched a few minutes highlights of the last half dozen races, or so. Winter break can't come soon enough!

 

 

To F1Frog, I can see in your byline another sign of the times, the driver bashing which has become such a nuisance. "X has destroyed Y...", "X was found out by Y..." and all that nonsense. If Latifi was that bad, how come he regularly qualified within a couple of seconds of 'all-time' greats such as Verstappen, even in a dog of a car? If he's trash, then all the others are, too. Verstappen is the best of his era, I concurr, but the era is sheet. You're damn right it's a different game to the 1950s!!

 

 

To ensign, topic missed, but playing your game I'm sure Volonterio would be a points finisher these days.

Edited by Michael Ferner, 20 November 2023 - 13:07.

[dmj]

Volonterio would be able to score points only if he’d first spend twenty years training and preparing his body and mind for the racing career, as more or less every racing driver today has to do. Differences across the grid are generally much less than in previous decades just due to that – all of the current pack are highly trained and able to achieve times much closer to the best ones that journeymen of the past could back then.

We can argue that sport itself was better in the days gone (and most of us wouldn’t be here if we don’t think and feel just so) but in reality it isn’t, it is just different. Drivers do whatever they are allowed to do at current set of regulations/standards, being it fair or not. But greatness always shows. Same “clumsy” “low grip” Verstappen earlier this year drove a Q3 lap in Monaco that equals any "magic" performance I saw from Senna or Schumacher, or any performance I read about from Fangio or Clark. Simply, the greatest of its era at its best. Details and circumstances may be different but greatness isn’t.

I’d even dare to say that certain level of clumsiness is what we are missing today. I prefer old days at least partly due to much bigger differences between cars, drivers’ skills and pretty much everything. It’s not just racing: I hate high level of professionalism required for any sport today. Racing drivers, footballers, tennis players… don’t do anything else in their lives, from very early age, becoming sort of human machines intended to do just one thing. They don’t have time to develop their personalities through multitude of different experiences – if they diversify, they will inevitably lack the focus and never reach the highest level at their respective sports.

Thus, in my racing heroes of the past I adore complete human beings first, racing drivers second, while with today’s drivers it is the opposite way.

Edited by dmj, 20 November 2023 - 14:27.

[F1Frog]

The Latifi thing in the byline is nothing to do with Latifi himself, it is a personal story which I just like to see when I write a comment although it means nothing to other people on here. But Latifi was the worst driver on the grid in 2022 so is bad for an F1 driver but obviously not overall as a driver. And I very much doubt that driver bashing has not been a thing forever.

 

But I suspect if Max Verstappen and Nicholas Latifi were teammates, Verstappen would average about 1.5% faster than Latifi. That is a much smaller gap than between Juan Manuel Fangio and Peter Collins in 1956, or between Alberto Ascari and Mike Hawthorn in 1953. This is because drivers get so much more help today to be closer to the limit as possible, and allows average drivers to be closer on outright pace to the greats than in the past. In Fangio's great drive on the Nurburgring in 1957, he said that there were corners that he was taking in a gear higher than usual and realising he could. If that happened today, all the drivers would already have been doing that, because they would have seen the telemetry that suggested as such. And they would have done many laps on a simulator and tried it. And they probably would have tried it in free practice to make sure because, if they did crash as a result, they wouldn't be killed unlike in the 1950s. And they also have plenty of psychological and physical training to help them never make mistakes that drivers of the past didn't have.

 

So if you were to take the theoretical fastest possible lap in the RB19, Verstappen is close to that, and an average F1 driver like Perez is also quite close to that. And even a 'bad' F1 driver like Latifi isn't too far away. If you do the same with the Maserati 250F, Fangio would probably be further away from that theoretical fastest possible lap than Latifi is today. So that is the argument for modern drivers being better than drivers of the past, nothing to do with memorising buttons. But for me, that is cancelled out by the fact that they are trained so much and given so much help to get so close to that limit, for reasons explained above. But that training is still a skill in itself.

 

In my opinion, Hamilton, Verstappen and Alonso are approximately equal in ability to Fangio, Moss and Ascari, but they are playing a totally different game. In terms of who is the best of those six is down to personal opinion, and who you think is the most special for their era. Then Hawthorn, Collins and Musso are probably approximately equal to Perez, Bottas and Ocon. And Volonterio is approximately equal to Latifi. 

[68targa]

. Then Hawthorn, Collins and Musso are probably approximately equal to Perez,

 

No way - Hawthorn and Collins had much more fun

[ensign14]

 

To ensign, topic missed, but playing your game I'm sure Volonterio would be a points finisher these days.

 

Well, he would have been in 1956, had they given the logical 1 point for 6th...

 

Differences across the grid are generally much less than in previous decades just due to that – all of the current pack are highly trained and able to achieve times much closer to the best ones that journeymen of the past could back then.

 

 

Actually I think that's more down to formula design.  The cars do not allow the best to exploit their talents.  If, say, Hamilton could get the best possible time out of a car driving at 90% of his potential, while Latifi could only by driving at 105%, then the difference between them is going to be 5% rather than 15%.  (not real maths, but an indication)

 

The best indication of this was that remarkable run of Hamilton's in wet races - something like 9 wins in a row when that difference was something that could be exploited.

[Michael Ferner]

Interesting points brought forward.

 

I can buy that the Verstappen explanation is reeking of BS - he's probably just exploiting how far he can go, without terminal damage to his car or risking a penalty. Does that make it better? Not in my opinion, because it makes a poor spectacle of the contest between drivers on the track. And it doesn't explain away Alonso's brain fart. Yes, drivers (even the best of them) always made mistakes, also in the past. Maybe with the margins being smaller these days (which I can also accept, due to the reason pointed out) they have to push closer to the limits, and with the increased safety they are effectively encouraged to do that.

 

What it all represents though, in my opinion, is a dumbing down of the sport. Nobody wants to go back to the days of blood and death, but without the ultimate punishment (I'm sounding like Moss now) we end up with real life video games. I'm also with Dino about the high level of professionalism, it doesn't help the sport. Nor do the rules, with the many pit stops keeping the cars at optimum performance levels throughout the races. We need cars and drivers making (tiny) mistakes to bring back overtaking and on-track action, not faux DRS passes. I remain unimpressed with today's drivers, I don't think Verstappen or Alonso can hold a candle to the likes of Derek Warwick or Jean-Pierre Jarier in the past. It's just not cricket.

[PlatenGlass]

Interesting points brought forward.

 

I can buy that the Verstappen explanation is reeking of BS - he's probably just exploiting how far he can go, without terminal damage to his car or risking a penalty. Does that make it better? Not in my opinion, because it makes a poor spectacle of the contest between drivers on the track. And it doesn't explain away Alonso's brain fart. Yes, drivers (even the best of them) always made mistakes, also in the past. Maybe with the margins being smaller these days (which I can also accept, due to the reason pointed out) they have to push closer to the limits, and with the increased safety they are effectively encouraged to do that.

 

What it all represents though, in my opinion, is a dumbing down of the sport. Nobody wants to go back to the days of blood and death, but without the ultimate punishment (I'm sounding like Moss now) we end up with real life video games. I'm also with Dino about the high level of professionalism, it doesn't help the sport. Nor do the rules, with the many pit stops keeping the cars at optimum performance levels throughout the races. We need cars and drivers making (tiny) mistakes to bring back overtaking and on-track action, not faux DRS passes. I remain unimpressed with today's drivers, I don't think Verstappen or Alonso can hold a candle to the likes of Derek Warwick or Jean-Pierre Jarier in the past. It's just not cricket.

 

I don't think anyone can hold a candle to Jean-Pierre Jarier.

 

[funformula]

These comparisons of racing drivers of different eras is pointless. They all had to deal with different tasks and each of these tasks required a special talent to make the best out of it. 

 

Missing the first corner at the Las Vegas GP wasn´t a matter of lack of talent, it was done on purpose... and both drivers knew that. There was no misjudging or that they were caught off by a lack of grip, judging this is basic race craft already learned in kart, there these guys already showed their talent...without being guided by intercom.

 

Driving a race car on it´s very limit was never easy, not in the past and not today.

I wish some of the folk here on TNF had been behind the wheel of a race car rather than in an armchair.

[Jim Thurman]

I think, to put it simply, Michael is really more against all the driver's aids and lack (or inconsistency) of standards.

 

Am I right Michael? Or have I put it too oversimplistically? 

 

It reminds me of watching a lower class (Sportsman) drag racing telecast back in the early 90s with my father. The driver explained how he set the automatic line launch, set the automatic gear change, set this, set that...it left my father asking: "Does he do anything other than steer?"    At the end of that season, the sanctioning body banned most driver aids.

[Jim Thurman]

Also, along the lines of high tech ruining the sport. Michael, I know your feelings about "taxicabs"  , but pavement short track stock car racing truly was ruined when everyone was able to buy the best chassis, best engines and best tires, that they could get from suppliers (sometimes even at stores!). It made the fields so "equal" that passing became nearly impossible and it often became processional. Prior to that time, chassis set up, engine building, tire choice and driver ability shined through and the differences between the true talents and the rest was readily apparent. As was seeing driving talent in uncompetitive cars.

[Ray Bell]

And on the subject of the kids being raised to be World Champions...

 

This encouragement was offered up at a go-kart meeting...

 

Encouragement. This sign was up in the marshalling area of a round of the Dutch National Championship...

 

Encouraged? ...for six to eleven-year-olds.

 

...two weeks after Max had his first win.

[Porsche718]

Whilst not supporting the modern "steerer's" and "button pushers" of this modern era, it would be fair to ask ... how many of the chain-smoking, hard-drinking, long-partying champions of the past would be in good enough condition to cope with the G forces of the latest machines?

 

I have heard numbers of 2G accelerating, over 4G in braking, and up to 6G in cornering. Not to mention the sudden change from one to another.

 

How long would it have taken James Hunt to pass out?

Edited by Porsche718, 20 November 2023 - 22:08.

[Stephen W]

Max Verstappen absolutely deserves his place among the all time greats because he is the best of his era. It is just a different game to the 1950s. He knew that he could afford to be more daring on the brakes because of the run off and obviously got away with very little penalty. If braking late and finding no grip would have sent him into the wall, he wouldn’t have done it, but it was far less a risk than in the past.

 

I would agree that Mad Max is probably one of the top three drivers of this era. This does not make him an "all time great" not by a long chalk. I doubt he would have survived against the likes of Reutemann and Jones. He would have been a backmarker in the Clark, Surtees, Hill & Stewart era. So yes I'll concede that he's the best of a bad bunch.

 

I think it's quite clear Max's excuse is just that - an excuse, and he never had any intention of making the corner on the correct line, but would have been very capable of doing so if he wasn't intent on barging the Ferrari out of the way.

 

From the on-board there is an interesting moment when Max steers towards the Ferrari. Just enough to close up the gap and cause Charles to head further into the boon-docks. 

[Gabrci]

I would agree that Mad Max is probably one of the top three drivers of this era. This does not make him an "all time great" not by a long chalk. I doubt he would have survived against the likes of Reutemann and Jones. He would have been a backmarker in the Clark, Surtees, Hill & Stewart era. So yes I'll concede that he's the best of a bad bunch.

 

How can someone watch motor racing for so long and say something this dumb? 

 

His breakfast, that's what Jones and Reutemann would have been. 

[dmj]

Actually, each of mentioned drivers would have the others for breakfast if provided with much more familiar equipment. Today’s drivers would be indefinitely better in modern cars, old ones in old cars. And I am a deep believer that any great driver would shine in other eras after some time of learning and training. It might be harder for old drivers to adapt to modern cars physically, simply due to really long time spent in gym needed to reach the level of stamina modern drivers have.

Looking at modern F1 people tend to forget that today’s drivers gone through many lesser categories and do know how to handle a manual gearbox (although I’m not sure if any lower category has manual clutch anymore), so my belief is that they could physically adapt to driving old cars relatively easy – could they mentally handle dangers, unreliability, continuous stream of losing friends and rivals in fatal accidents, and other once common aspects of racing, that is the other question.

It is something that we will never know, however I strongly believe that they would.

It reminds me of that famous DSJ story, when a guy walked into a room, somewhere in USA, and Jenks saw him, concluding he’s a racing driver, just because he walked like a racing driver and had a certain look in his eyes, that only racing drivers have. Guy turned out to be certain Cale Yarborough.

IMHO, if DSJ would somehow be revived and if Verstappen or Leclerc walk into a room, he would instantly recognize them as the racing drivers.

[ensign14]

With some exceptions for things like physiology, drivers from Era A would be competitive in Era B, because the requirements to get to the top in racing - a natural talent, dedication, ruthlessness - are common across all eras.  A driver like, say, Alonso would not be bothered by the lack of safety in the 1960s if he had grown up with it.  It would have been as expected.

 

Indeed we get some idea the way he flung Bernie's 375 around Silverstone.  Similarly Clark's run in Lindsay's ERA.  And I bet Rosemeyer would have had fun in a Lautenschlager Mercedes given half the chance.

 

There may have been some differences at the edges.  Would Hawthorn have kept off the booze in the modern era?  Would Graham Hill have even got to the entry level?  Also some drivers were fitted to some formulae - Hunt and Mansell seemed to get better the more powerful the cars were, so may have struggled a bit in the 1.5 litre era, while the drifters would have needed to adapt to high aero; but given drivers like Mario and Bell were able to do so, why not Nuvolari?

[AJCee]

How can someone watch motor racing for so long and say something this dumb?

His breakfast, that's what Jones and Reutemann would have been.

I think Alan Jones would have had him wearing his breakfast if he’d tried…


Rather under-rated Mr Jones I think. A tough and fair racer and for three years in a very competitive field one of the very best.

[Michael Ferner]

I don't think anyone can hold a candle to Jean-Pierre Jarier.

 

 

All this talk about 'mental age' and James Hunt, the word "glasshouse" keeps ringing in my ears...

 

 

My initial thought was, hell, this is the best driver of his generation by far, and he's surprised by finding no grip in a standard situation like that? But, on reflection, I'm sure it was done on purpose, so the whole thing becomes irrelevant, in a way. Yes, you could easily avoid situations like that with a 'power off' modus, like it was done in video games back in the eighties already: leave the track, and your gas pedal won't respond for about five seconds, before you can continue. I can't imagine implementation would present any problems these days, but hey, it's probably not wanted by the authorities, and I couldn't care less. The product is flawed in many ways already, so no use peddling with the symptoms.

 

As for current drivers being as skillful as those of the past, I still have my doubts. There's the argument that you can only be the best for the given conditions, and that's certainly right, but the conditions are just... pathetic. I can't really say it with another word. It's like real life video games, and I'm in favour of banning it to save the planet - let the 'drivers' loose on a playstation, that's what they do 24/7 anyway as I understand, and it would make a contribution to energy saving and pollution avoidance. Motor racing is so 20th century...

[F1matt]

I don’t think we can blame the drivers; they can only adapt to the situation they are placed in. For me a genuine street circuit shouldn’t have any run off, but over on racing comments I am a dinosaur or a masochist. 

 

Didn’t Mario Andretti once say if you can drive, you can drive. Period. Or something along those lines, who am I to argue with someone of that calibre. Good drivers find a way to adapt and win, when the car has a chance of getting across the line first some drivers make sure they are behind the wheel. If we sent Lewis Hamiton or Max Verstappen back to another period you can’t tell me they wouldn’t adapt and be in the mix, and at the same time if we were to forward Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart to a Red Bull or a Mercedes they would be in the mix. 

 

To be at the top of your tree in any era needs skill, intelligence, and commitment, and all the best drivers have that. If Clark or Stewart had to spend 6 hours a day in a simulator to find a few extra 10ths, or spend countless hours in debriefs to manage their tyres so they can get the most out of the car to ensure they would come out on top I have no doubt they will be there. And having watched Lewis Hamilton in a Formula Renault at Croft years ago he clearly has very little fear and stepping into a car with reduced safety and gimmicks clearly doesn’t hinder him. 

[Jim Thurman]

Whilst not supporting the modern "steerer's" and "button pushers" of this modern era, it would be fair to ask ... how many of the chain-smoking, hard-drinking, long-partying champions of the past would be in good enough condition to cope with the G forces of the latest machines?

 

I have heard numbers of 2G accelerating, over 4G in braking, and up to 6G in cornering. Not to mention the sudden change from one to another.

 

How long would it have taken James Hunt to pass out?

A lot of this is viewed through current lenses. Recency bias makes some feel like things have never been better. Yet "we know so much more now" always pales in the future, with each generation getting more obnoxious about it  And, despite all of that, humanity keeps making the same mistakes as well. This applies to conditioning. What's to say some of chain-smoking, hard-drinking long partying drivers of the past wouldn't adapt? Or that any of the current drivers would fall into those were they in that era? More importantly, all of the drivers in the past weren't chain-smoking, hard-drinking and long partying and there have been some of the current/recent drivers who were hardly the model of propriety and fitness    Just a long-winded way of saying things weren't all one way or the other, aren't all one way or the other and never will be.

 

I mentioned years ago in Racing Comments that there's something that makes people believe that their time was the best, be it arguing the current or the past. And, as I wrote at the time, those on each side are both completely right and completely wrong 

[chr1s]

 

 

How long would it have taken James Hunt to pass out?

About the same amount of time as Verstappen would have lasted on a night out with him!

[Lee Nicolle]

Max Verstappen on the first lap/first corner incident with Charles Leclerc:
 

 

It's a wonder how racing drivers, in the last century, managed to negotiate the first corner of a race without much trouble, and without the benefit of miles of tarmac runoff.

 

Today's driving standards are at a pathetic all-time low. Modern drivers get coached all around the track, yet they are still unable to negotiate a corner safely because - oops! - the grip isn't there? In my opinion, Max Verstappen is way overrated, and has no place amongst the greats of this sport, which by extension means that neither has any of the other hot shots in the field - what a bunch of lame-os. They'd be all off within two corners in a real race on a real track.

 

Some time earlier this year, TV started showing pictures from a pedal cam, but quickly stopped because the images were just too pathetic - only two pedals! In my youth, I used to watch in awe when F1 and other racing drivers were doing their stuff, thinking "No way could I ever do that!" Nowadays, every spotty youth with a playstation is already qualified enough, he just needs the courage and LOTS OF MONEY to jump through the hoops.

 

Oh, yes, we're told that modern drivers need so much brain capacity for the many buttons and levers on the steering wheel, it's become such a complex job! In reality, the only important knob is the one for the intercom, though, as they can always ask "What's that shiny green button for, again?" Their 'race engineer' will always tell them what to do. "Remember to brake for the pit entry, and turn left for the stall..." Ugh!

 

F1 has become a joke, and a bad one at that.

Max simply did not even attempt to go around the corner, just pushed Leclerc way offline.

[uechtel]

 

All this talk about 'mental age' and James Hunt, the word "glasshouse" keeps ringing in my ears...

 

 

My initial thought was, hell, this is the best driver of his generation by far, and he's surprised by finding no grip in a standard situation like that? But, on reflection, I'm sure it was done on purpose, so the whole thing becomes irrelevant, in a way. Yes, you could easily avoid situations like that with a 'power off' modus, like it was done in video games back in the eighties already: leave the track, and your gas pedal won't respond for about five seconds, before you can continue. I can't imagine implementation would present any problems these days, but hey, it's probably not wanted by the authorities, and I couldn't care less. The product is flawed in many ways already, so no use peddling with the symptoms.

 

As for current drivers being as skillful as those of the past, I still have my doubts. There's the argument that you can only be the best for the given conditions, and that's certainly right, but the conditions are just... pathetic. I can't really say it with another word. It's like real life video games, and I'm in favour of banning it to save the planet - let the 'drivers' loose on a playstation, that's what they do 24/7 anyway as I understand, and it would make a contribution to energy saving and pollution avoidance. Motor racing is so 20th century...

When after Paris-Madrid town-to-town races were stopped in 1903 surely many people said this is the end of real racing...

[ensign14]

I think Charles Jarrott did - thought 50 mile circuits were repetitive...

[Jim Thurman]

I think Charles Jarrott did - thought 50 mile circuits were repetitive...

It's sort of getting away, in a way, from Michael's point, but I've seen journalists decrying racing as "not what it used to be" from as early as the 1910s and 1920s ("it's not like the days of Eddie Hearne"), and former drivers doing so from the 1920s (Oldfield) and 1940s (DePalma) onward. Fred Frame complained not so much about the racing itself, but the decline in purses, stating that drivers had to compete almost nightly, most of the year 'round, in midgets, to come close to making what he used to in far fewer races.