I know this may sound crazy to some, but I've came from different sports prior to joining F1 in late 90s, and F1 a lot of times disappoints because of the way teams and FIA handles situations. Just a few minutes ago I caught myself thinking about this. Even tho I am a huge F1 fan, I am pretty sure that no other sport manipulates its own results as Formula 1 does. F1 is so political!! There are so many tricks (fuel, tyre pressure, setup, aero parts, strategy) the teams do to keep the unfavoured driver as so called number 2 driver behind the number 1, that sometimes it gets too predictable and boring (unless you are a diehard fan of the favoured ones). Doesn't it go against all the moral of what should be called a "sport"?? Is it okay to not give all the competitors on the same team an equal chance to compete?? Does F1 lose fans by doing that??
Last race in Singapore Bottas and Ricciardo couldn't understand why they lost so much pace on Q3, why their car felt so bad when it looked as if they could fight for pole. Bottas for instance was really a match for Hamilton at the begining of the season, as soon as all the bad luck happened to him and he lost a ton of points, his pace dropped massively. I remember when Massa was alongside Alonso and a lot of times he was faster through practices, but you knew it that qualifying time something would happen to him and the chance of him beating Alonso was pretty low. I remember one day Felipe couldn't understand why his car with a harder tyre was quicker in Q1 than with a brand new softer tyre in Q2. Even when he outqualified Fernando, you knew that they would do the worst strategy calls to Massa's car, and he could only really fight for something when Fernando was out. Something similar happens to Kimi in Ferrari too, when Seb is racing Kimi would get the worst strategy calls just to get out of Seb's way. Is there something F1 could do to get the 2nd drivers a fair chance, so their supporters could watch the race being sure that they can compete?? Some kind of technical inspection on each car or something.
Note: I am not saying that Bottas, Ricciardo, Massa and Kimi are better drivers than Hamilton, Verstappen, Alonso and Vettel, there is a big chance they are not, BUT, the fact that they don't get the same treatment and the same chance to compete go totally against the principles of sport. In the end, is it fair??
Last race in Singapore Bottas and Ricciardo couldn't understand why they lost so much pace on Q3, why their car felt so bad when it looked as if they could fight for pole. Bottas for instance was really a match for Hamilton at the begining of the season, as soon as all the bad luck happened to him and he lost a ton of points, his pace dropped massively. I remember when Massa was alongside Alonso and a lot of times he was faster through practices, but you knew it that qualifying time something would happen to him and the chance of him beating Alonso was pretty low. I remember one day Felipe couldn't understand why his car with a harder tyre was quicker in Q1 than with a brand new softer tyre in Q2. Even when he outqualified Fernando, you knew that they would do the worst strategy calls to Massa's car, and he could only really fight for something when Fernando was out. Something similar happens to Kimi in Ferrari too, when Seb is racing Kimi would get the worst strategy calls just to get out of Seb's way. Is there something F1 could do to get the 2nd drivers a fair chance, so their supporters could watch the race being sure that they can compete?? Some kind of technical inspection on each car or something.
Note: I am not saying that Bottas, Ricciardo, Massa and Kimi are better drivers than Hamilton, Verstappen, Alonso and Vettel, there is a big chance they are not, BUT, the fact that they don't get the same treatment and the same chance to compete go totally against the principles of sport. In the end, is it fair??
However, the engineering is mind-blowing, but after all I want to see humans winning and not cars.
