So I wrote in my F1 blog for the Canadian GP that there is a possibility that F1 is losing a bit of its excitement.
Now this is purely personal and I don't even mean "is the racing exciting" because believe you me condensed down into a highlights package and you SEE that the races are exciting, and all races in the history of F1 have had lulls in the middle of a race or when one driver is slowing down a bit to make sure they get to the end of the GP.
I mean in a totally different way.
To start with away from the track. I'm always saying we're losing characters in the sport. Too many drivers will just come out with any old PR talk. But even when some drivers try to be "different" all they do is come out and whine. "Ohhh look at me I'm not doing the PR talk I'm going to tell you how much my team or another driver sucks" yeah that won't make people like you. People who already like you will point to that as "character" but to be honest it is just boring.
Now people will ask "what do you mean by character then?" and I just purely mean why don't we see drivers just being themselves anymore? Kimi is a character, he doesn't give a fuck and will do things his way, Webber is a character, he's a big mouthed Australian, Alonso has a character, he might whine but he does it flamboyantly, Hamilton is a character, he's like the stereotype "rapper" celeb thing that he wants to be.
The driver that proves my point is Bottas.
Now before the season all we heard was Bottas this and Bottas that, but I've totally forgotten about Bottas all season so far! OK he hasn't had the best race results but I knew who Tonio Liuzzi was whether he retired every race or not, I knew who Scott Speed was and I adored Jarno Trulli. Bottas just doesn't DO anything, a reporter won't go and talk to you if they think you'll just give them PR speak so the BBC rarely bother with him. He's just Bottas. I've only seen him on TV once and I forgot who he was about 10 minutes later, I have trouble remembering who the other Williams driver is at times.
I don't want people to "shock" me by swearing (well that is Cal in MotoGP but it could be di Resta in the future I feel) or moan, I want people to be themselves. And maybe it is just because of the way the BBC is at the moment that we don't get to see as much personality, maybe it just so happens that we've had quite a stalemate of drivers recently and any new blood comes into teams too far down the grid for TV to care about, but there just doesn't seem to be anything different on the grid. No real character that takes everyone by the heart strings. Even the "monsters" of F1 are nothing more then an escape goat by people who moan and drip about "injustices" to others.
On track it starts with the first corner.
Now I don't want to see a pile up in the first corner every race, I don't like to think drivers will get hurt, but gone are the days that it seems every driver thought they could come out of the first corner in first place and so accidents and mayhem start. OK we still get drivers overtaking, three or four drivers side by side and all that, but it just feels like... I don't know... Like by the time we get to corner two unless we have first and second right next to each other then there is no point looking at them again until pit stops.
I personally love that the tyres go off and drivers have to pit sometimes more than planned because it shakes it up. To be honest I don't think DRS really helps, I don't think we get "fake" overtakes like some people moan about but a lot of the time it just feels like it gets the right car in the right position and if there are more then one car in the "fight" then all of them have DRS anyway.
I don't know sometimes when cars don't bother with DRS or they have a broken front wing they go a lot better then fully kitted out and I just feel that there is too much technology now. I feel like we've lost some of the fighting spirit because too many teams have to fight the technical curve. You can start the season doing well but if Ferrari or Red Bull slap on a new front wing that takes them one second in front you'll spend the rest of the year catching up with them. Yes that has always been a part of F1 but without in season testing you haven't been able to work on it properly and waste race time trying to figure out whether it was A,B or C that worked or didn't work.
Thankfully in season testing is back next year which I think is a good idea!
This season has had good races, exciting races. But the sport on a whole doesn't feel exciting to me. When the BBC shows montages of fans, drivers with fans, the BBC team with fans I get excited, when they interview a Bottas or similar I lose interest.
Though I'll throw my hands up and say I probably miss fan interaction, I don't get to see races live and even if I do (like this weekend) I don't seem to be talking to any of my friends about it. We used to sit on our forum live posting the races and that brought up some interesting conversations when the race lulled (what was the Spanish commentator saying things like that) but at the same time the fact that I couldn't find the heart to actually live tweet the action spoke millions for me.
The Canadian GP is usually one of the most exciting GPs but this year it lacked something. Some spark. And half of that was down to the fact most drivers seem to lack in personality (which I know isn't the case but I feel teams force them to be super business like during the weekend and that is boring!)
I want Flavio back. He'd brighten up the races!
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