Australia was much better but I am still not convinced

The Australian Grand Prix was much better than Bahrain for three main reasons, rain, a first lap crash that put some drivers, notably Alonso and Schumacher out of position, and the fact that tyre degredation was much more of an issue.

I was away this weekend and have only just watched a recording of the full race, but I was interested enough to watch the end of the race in the hotel yesterday, delaying my full English breakfast. I am still not convinced though there are enough variables to play with to always make the racing interesting.

One point that this the race made clear was that if you could pit less and keep the same tyres, it could give you an advantage. Drivers nursing tyres for longer periods does not make for exciting races, but it could provide some interest in future races if the difference between old and new tyres was larger.

The jury is still out.

Why is Formula 1 so boring

I have been following Formula 1, watching most races for over 15 years, and Sunday’s race was probably the most boring race I have ever seen. There have been many times over the years when I have thought of stopping watching, but I never have, though I am thinking about it again now. It is ironic that the first race of such a hyped season became such a damp squib.

So  how can the pinnacle of motorsport be so boring? Partly, it has got to be down to the rules. The basic problem is this:

• Formula 1 cars struggle to overtake each other and rule changes designed to help this seem to have made little difference
• From this season, cars cannot refuel during the race, so all cars effectively have the same fuel in them at all times. The main interest in past seasons has been differences in fuel levels, and drivers with more fuel able to stay out longer and put in some ‘hot’ laps to take some positions. This is gone. In Bahrain on Sunday, all drivers just stopped once to change tyres and it made very little difference to the main outcome of the race,
• Tyre rules made little difference on Sunday as the tyres did not degrade as some people feared.

Fernando Alonso said after the race that “with no refuelling, it will be difficult to see any overtaking, so after the first lap the positions will be set”. Just need to watch the first five minutes then. A friend of mine said that even the highlights programme on Sunday was not even worthy of the name. Another article had the headline “Bahrain was so dull here’s hoping it rains at Melbourne.” Perhaps the other races will be better, it was a long lap at Bahrain, but I suspect it is largely going to stay the same.

I’m not suggesting that there should be some knee jerk change of rules, but clearly some thing needs to be done. If the main interest in a race comes from mechanical problems, or one tyre going off a bit to soon, I’m not sure I can keep the interest up. I have been enjoying the WRC, and BTCC starts on 4th April, so perhaps I’ll just stick to them.