While it is true Max is dominating, anything goes from P2 onwards. McLaren - Aston Martin - Mercedes - Alpine - Ferrari are all fighting roughly for the same spots and Williams is arguably up there too. I have been enjoying the races a lot since Macca and Merc improved
I know I am a broken record on this but âŚ
Iâve watched Indycar for a long time now, and IndyCarâs unpredictability from lap 1 to whenever it finishes is often due to fuel strategy combined with safety cars and tyres. itâs not uncommon for whoever is only pole to lead and then through just bad luck they find themselves p16. So the unpredictability is sometimes just randomness masking as competitiveness. None of the races feel particularly special. Thereâs never any shock results. Nothing really to grab the attention. So for you F1 is tune out after Lap 1, but IndyCar is tune out until the end.
Also, predictability to some extent is desired because it creates coherent narratives. This forum alone is testament to that
VS
So even on a largely US based forum, the interest F1 is measurably higher. I donât sign up to this notion predictability is always bad. Jett Lawrence just did a perfect season in Outdoor 450 Motocross. An astounding achievement and that will set up the SMX and SX season very nicely because we now have someone everyone is looking at.
Of course I think F1âs season of 23/24 races is way too much and this is the biggest problem. But itâs not a bad thing to have a performance reference. it makes the races that are close even more special. More narratively satisfying. Like Mclaren suddenly being the second fastest car (in qualifying form) has come from no where and itâs awesome.
The only predictability IndyCar really has is Newgarden on certain oval tracks, and THAT is interesting because we have a reference (i.e not just random) and we can discuss they whys and hows and rejoice when he is finally challenged by someone else.
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As they say, 2nd is first loser. Not much to root forâŚ
99% of sport participation is teams/individuals with no chance of winning.
Thereâs millions of fans of football teams whoâll never win a title, yet their stands are full every weekend. Itâs about narrative. F1 has a lot of it Albon getting a top 5 IS a big story for example. So 2nd isnât âfirstâ loser.
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The thing is, those teams or people have to win at least some of the time to make it interesting. Otherwise, you have participation mentality which I find pathetic.
Now I understand why a driver would go initially go into a lessor team like HAAS to show what they can do and eventually move up. What I donât understand is why anyone would stay there for very long, or even more someone who moves from a wining team to one that doesnât. Maybe thatâs ego, thinking they are the big difference, only to find out you can only drag a second rate car up so much no matter how good of a driver you are. But if you have essentially no chance at winning, why stay? Go into another race series where you can.
So yes, itâs great that Albon is doing better and Alonso is again pulling up a lessor car. But I watch to see who will win, because that is what matters in the end. And the way it is now, F1 has become rather dull and not something I rush to go watch. A highlight reel is good enough at this point.
Narratively speaking though you need dominant periods. 2021 was so legendary because it came from at the end of the era of dominance. I look at these things over a long period of time. What weâre seeing now is a legacy being built. A team and driver at an unheard of level. itâs like watching Usain Bolt. Every 100m/200m was predictable when he raced, but the world was transfixed. I can barely remember who has won in IndyCar this year, or who the defending champion is. Thereâs a reason none of us really talk about IndyCar and Iâve watched every race.
What we are seeing now in F1 will make the season where another team nails the regulations something very special.
2, 3, and 5 were a suspension failure. 4 was slicks on a wet track. 7 was him getting hit from behind. Not denying max was extremely EXTREMELY reckless when it came to overtakes from 2016-2020, but just binning it for no apparent reason just doesnât happen for him. At least after his rookie season.
Also you heard it here first, but Albono will win Monza
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Albono = forbidden love child of Alonso and Taylor Swift? Resembles Albon?
Albono is the nickname of Albon 
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If you watch practice sessions, youâll find almost every driver making a mistake. Thatâs why practice exists in the first place. It is not representative for a driverâs consistency.
He spun in Q3 in Britain. So what? Verstappen also spun in that session. It wasnât the Q3 spin that cost him anything in the race, it was Ferrariâs awful strategy. Also, how exactly can you blame him for Brazil 2022? Norris understeered into him.
He did not crash in qualifying in Azerbaijan 2021 either. Sainz and Tsunoda did.
Bonus:
Saying that Michael and the other greats didnât make mistakes is just revisionism. Michael wasnât exactly a consistency monster like Prost. You know why? Because he was trying to push a lesser car to places it didnât deserve to be at. Almost as if there is a common pattern.
Itâs easy not to crash in a W11, RB19 or F2004, where you can cruise and still beat everyone. This isnât the same if youâre in an RB16B, SF-23 or F300, where you will need to pull out something special to make up for the carâs lack of speed.
Yeah, itâs not like he moved under breaking, which he had been doing for the past 10 laps.
you can send all the videos you would like, my final point here is that they donât make mistakes when it counts. LeClerc struggles under pressure, and thatâs what makes a champion. Send me every video of every F1 champion spinning, but thereâs a reason they won a championship, and, unless LeClerc controls his driving, he never will.
And moving under breaking in T1 is so insanely common, itâs how you avoid collisions. every driver does it when they have to
Alonsoâs spin is from the sprint race in Spa and Hamiltonâs lockup is from the race in Singapore. Itâs not that much different from Leclerc in Imola, is it?
Leclerc is a good car away from winning a title. The car plays the biggest role in modern F1. Just think that if Max did not exist, Perez be a 2-time world champion this year. Yes, the same Perez who did not make Q3 for 5 races in a row with a dominant car would have the same number of titles as Fernando Alonso and Jim Clark.
I like Max, but he was moving very late and weaving like a cobra on the straight, and not just on the lap that they collided.
No, if Max didnât exist, LeClerc would have won in 2022, Perez probably would win this year, but it would be close, i think more teams would focus on their 2023 car if it was just Perez. Max has pushed the championship so far away that teams are now focusing 2024 and beyond. I would love to see max be unable to drive and have someone else drive his car for a weekend just to see a pace comparison between ricciardo and perez. But LeClerc would need a perfect car and a lackluster teammate to win a championship at the rate he is going.
Actually, no:
https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/z5cwl7/f1_2022_drivers_championship_without_max/
Perez had a lot of P2s which would have become P1s and thus he would gain more points and win the title. Although if Ferrari didnât drop the ball in so many occasions, Leclerc would have walked to the title in that alternate universe. (no France crash without Verstappen either)
Leclerc isnât struggling to beat his current teammate, who is a very good consistent driver (the points are not the whole story), so all he really needs is a car which doesnât have a horrible balance and suits his driving style, unlike this understeering mess that is the SF-23.
Is it really pathetic though? Itâs not like they just turn up for a baseball game or something and get a trophy. To even get to that level of having an F1 team you have to be elite in competition, commerce and engineering.
In my mind, making it to F1 is a win in and of itself.
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Sure itâs a win to make it to F1. But then Iâd think you need to continue to improve and move up teams so you can win at some time in the near future. Otherwise doesnât it become monotonous to be in the circus mid-field or back-marker? Would you rather be an also-ran in F1, or a winner in LMP, Indycar, or WRC?
At least thatâs the way I view work and everything I do. Either I have to be the best at what I do and make and get those occasional wins, or I find something else that better suits me. Participation is never enough.
I can see where you are coming from, but there is so much more going on behind the scenes in F1 as compared to Indy. In Indy, everyone is in a stock Lola Chassis and there are tight rules with regards to changing anything. It comes down to setup and strategy. Complicate that with shorter tire life and refueling stops, it can be just a roll of the dice some days. I still enjoy it, but F1 throws in a twist. On top of the fact that they reset the âFormulaâ every so many years, the teams are allowed to make engineering changes to the cars in the form of Mechanical, Aero and Design. Beyond the Initial Design Phase, these changes are happening from race to race. Thatâs why you see back markers and mid-fielders suddenly running up near the front. Indy does not have that. So, yes the individual races may play out with less flare than Indy, but over the season there is far more Drama going on in F1. Whoâs upgrade is going to get them to the front this race? Will any team be able to match the strength of the RB this year? In past years it was Merc being chased. Next year it may be McLaren or Williams again. Its been a while since an underdog come out of nowhere to bring home an Indy title. Seems like every few years F1 has a new top dog (Team/Driver) racking up the points.
From a single race standpoint I do enjoy Indy. There are more crashes, hence flags and restarts which always shakes up the fields.