Boring formula 1 racing

[Thornaby48]

I was just reading the letters page of the Daily Express this morning and I saw a letter about  Formula One  racing having similar problems to speed way. I quote "What used to be motor racing has now been reduced to a fast procession, the cars often finishing in the order they started. Super-expensive machines overloaded with electronics, some of the best drivers in the world and the result? Total boredom." He goes on " But the FP3 and F2 races are great, fast and exciting.Young drivers really going for it, overtaking close racing,what F1 used to be before the dead- hand of engineering took over.

 

Sounds familiar? Except F1 pulls in the British GP more fans in one meeting than speed way combined attracts in one season.

[foamfence]

1 hour ago, Thornaby48 said:

I was just reading the letters page of the Daily Express this morning and I saw a letter about  Formula One  racing having similar problems to speed way. I quote "What used to be motor racing has now been reduced to a fast procession, the cars often finishing in the order they started. Super-expensive machines overloaded with electronics, some of the best drivers in the world and the result? Total boredom." He goes on " But the FP3 and F2 races are great, fast and exciting.Young drivers really going for it, overtaking close racing,what F1 used to be before the dead- hand of engineering took over.

 

Sounds familiar? Except F1 pulls in the British GP more fans in one meeting than speed way combined attracts in one season.

I think the difference is that F1 is even more dependent on the car, almost any of the drivers could be champion in the right car, while Speedway hasn't quite got to that yet, even though it's gone a long way down that road.

[waiheke1]

13 hours ago, Thornaby48 said:

I was just reading the letters page of the Daily Express this morning and I saw a letter about  Formula One  racing having similar problems to speed way. I quote "What used to be motor racing has now been reduced to a fast procession, the cars often finishing in the order they started. Super-expensive machines overloaded with electronics, some of the best drivers in the world and the result? Total boredom." He goes on " But the FP3 and F2 races are great, fast and exciting.Young drivers really going for it, overtaking close racing,what F1 used to be before the dead- hand of engineering took over.

 

Sounds familiar? Except F1 pulls in the British GP more fans in one meeting than speed way combined attracts in one season.

Except the quality of racing in speedway gps is better than it was "back in the day."

So I'm not sure what the parallels you are seeing are?

Unless you mean sports with better quality racing are less popular than F1?

If you genuinely think speedway hasnt always been a sport where first from the gate and best bikes is a massive advantage, maybe ask why Mauger won 6 world titles to peter Collins 1.

[Aces51]

8 hours ago, waiheke1 said:

Except the quality of racing in speedway gps is better than it was "back in the day."

So I'm not sure what the parallels you are seeing are?

Unless you mean sports with better quality racing are less popular than F1?

If you genuinely think speedway hasnt always been a sport where first from the gate and best bikes is a massive advantage, maybe ask why Mauger won 6 world titles to peter Collins 1.

I don't disagree with your point, people often said to me as long ago as the 50's that it was first from the gate that won but the Mauger,  Collins comparison is perhaps not the best to prove the point. Arguably, Peter only winning one title was more down to his badly broken leg in 1977, the sugar in his tank at the British Final in 1978, which resulted in him not qualifying for the final that year and his serious arm injury in the KO Cup final in 1980, from which he never fully recovered and was never quite as good.

Perhaps it's just me but there has seemed to be more than the usual number of boring GP's this year but the overall standard is better than the one off finals. However, just imagine the racing we would get now if we had those finals with everything depending on winning one meeting.

Edited October 3, 2018 by Aces51

[Thornaby48]

9 hours ago, waiheke1 said:

Except the quality of racing in speedway gps is better than it was "back in the day."

So I'm not sure what the parallels you are seeing are?

Unless you mean sports with better quality racing are less popular than F1?

If you genuinely think speedway hasnt always been a sport where first from the gate and best bikes is a massive advantage, maybe ask why Mauger won 6 world titles to peter Collins 1.

The point I was making is that here is a sport (Formula 1) where billions of pounds is spent ,run by millionaire owners and drivers, massive sponsorship and tv coverage and attendances in the tens of thousands and yet some fans find the racing processional with little overtaking ( what do they expect when the fastest drivers start at the front of the grid ) and boring.So speedway  ,with its limited budget, is not the only sport where some of its fans complain about boring,processional racing. It was just an observation.

[IainB]

I speak as a fan of both sports and I watch and like them both for very different reasons, for me Speedway is purely about the racing at it's rawest. F1 is much more layered, there's the money, glamour, politics, technology and probably a long way down the list the racing. If I watched F1 for the racing, I wouldn't watch it.

There's probably even 2 fan bases that watch F1 also, those that go live and those that follow it on TV. I've been to Silverstone a couple of times and both times never stopped for the race preferring to watch it at home on the TV. I got the experience of hearing the old high revving engines and seeing the impossible cornering speeds but couldn't get into it as a sporting event live, effectively just watching a car go by every few seconds.

I don't feel you can compare them... It's like comparing Speedway to Horse Racing or Greyhounds or 1500m Atheletcs... All racing but attracting very different audiences.

Edited October 3, 2018 by iainb

[Aces51]

I used to be a fan of Formula 1. These days I watch it on TV and even then usually only the start and first few laps and then I dip in from time to time and watch the last few laps.  I can't really be bothered when passing usually depends on pit stops and only a select few have cars capable of winning.

 

[PHILIPRISING]

THE last race at Poole on Monday and the brace of recent Heat 13s at Belle Vue underlined in my view that speedway CAN be the most exciting and enthralling form of motorsport but there can be a lot of dross as well. F1 is just a borefest especially when Sky Sports replay a whole race to literally fill in air time.

[Fromafar]

1 minute ago, PHILIPRISING said:

THE last race at Poole on Monday and the brace of recent Heat 13s at Belle Vue underlined in my view that speedway CAN be the most exciting and enthralling form of motorsport but there can be a lot of dross as well. F1 is just a borefest especially when Sky Sports replay a whole race to literally fill in air time.

Yes it can,but we really need more than 2-3 races per meeting which IMO is all we get at some tracks most weeks it's only the match score which keeps it interesting a lot of the time the entertainment factor can be poor.Though Poole was decent the other night.

[PHILIPRISING]

2 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

Yes it can,but we really need more than 2-3 races per meeting which IMO is all we get at some tracks most weeks it's only the match score which keeps it interesting a lot of the time the entertainment factor can be poor.Though Poole was decent the other night.

GOOD point...

[RPNY]

This argument seems to get rehashed a fair bit.. Along with "there are no superstars anymore" I Guarantee that we can look back and someone was saying this 10 years ago and in 10 years it'll be said again. Just a human trait, we all look back with rose tinted specs..

[Aces51]

3 hours ago, RPNY said:

This argument seems to get rehashed a fair bit.. Along with "there are no superstars anymore" I Guarantee that we can look back and someone was saying this 10 years ago and in 10 years it'll be said again. Just a human trait, we all look back with rose tinted specs..

You're right. I remember taking my father to a meeting in the 60's and him telling me how much better the racing was in the 30's, how good Eric Langton was and how he would have easily beaten those racing that day. It's human nature, most of us tend to think whatever music was popular when we were in our teens and early twenties was superior to todays offerings. I must admit to having gone through a period when I thought I would never see racing comparable to that served up at Hyde Road during the Craven, Mauger, Collins and Morton eras but the quality of racing in the GP's and at the NSS has changed my mind. It is at least as good and quite often better.

[Fromafar]

1 hour ago, Aces51 said:

You're right. I remember taking my father to a meeting in the 60's and him telling me how much better the racing was in the 30's, how good Eric Langton was and how he would have easily beaten those racing that day. It's human nature, most of us tend to think whatever music was popular when we were in our teens and early twenties was superior to todays offerings. I must admit to having gone through a period when I thought I would never see racing comparable to that served up at Hyde Road during the Craven, Mauger, Collins and Morton eras but the quality of racing in the GP's and at the NSS has changed my mind. It is at least as good and quite often bette

Let's face it the NSS is the exception,the track was built to modern specifications and suits modern machinery,most track in UK have no scope to change track size  or shape even if they wanted too ,to suit modern Machinery.I Personaly think the quality of the racing has suffered at most tracks these days.

Edited October 3, 2018 by Fromafar

[steve roberts]

8 hours ago, Fromafar said:

Let's face it the NSS is the exception,the track was built to modern specifications and suits modern machinery,most track in UK have no scope to change track size  or shape even if they wanted too ,to suit modern Machinery.I Personaly think the quality of the racing has suffered at most tracks these days.

Personally I've never really understood the fixation about the quality of the racing over many year since the introduction of speedway as a form of entertainment. It's always been variable and much of it based upon the type and shape of track and machinery and many other criteria which often dictates the standard of racing.There were good and not so good racks in my years following he sport and no doubt the same applies today. I've just re-read an interview with Joe Screen who mentioned that during his career dirt became somewhat scarce when 'lay-down' engines were introduced because they couldn't perform efficiently on heavy tracks thereby tracks became a lot slicker and racing suffered. 

[Fromafar]

47 minutes ago, steve roberts said:

Personally I've never really understood the fixation about the quality of the racing over many year since the introduction of speedway as a form of entertainment. It's always been variable and much of it based upon the type and shape of track and machinery and many other criteria which often dictates the standard of racing.There were good and not so good racks in my years following he sport and no doubt the same applies today. I've just re-read an interview with Joe Screen who mentioned that during his career dirt became somewhat scarce when 'lay-down' engines were introduced because they couldn't perform efficiently on heavy tracks thereby tracks became a lot slicker and racing suffered. 

That explains the crowd levels that attend meetings these days then.

[Aces51]

It will depend on track size and shape. It didn't matter what you did with the Belle Vue dog track, better preparation improved the racing but it was never of the standard of Hyde Road or the NSS. It was a trick or technical, if you prefer that description, track where most passing was down to  home rider knowledge and rider mistakes. However, it now seems that grippy tracks provide processional racing and it is the slick tracks that provide exciting racing.

[Aces51]

21 minutes ago, Richard Weston said:

I knew the world was going mad

It goes against everything we knew to be true but the proof is there. Look at King's Lynn, look at the NSS for the World Cup Final. Friday night grippy, fast but processional racing, Saturday slick, brilliant exciting entertainment with lots of passing. Diferrent bikes, different eras.

Edited October 4, 2018 by Aces51

[moxey63]

It isn't all about the racing, is it? If there were overtakes on every bend, it would become the norm and we would, therefore, be wanting more overtakes. My attraction wasn't about exciting racing. It was about my team beating the other, whether from the gate or through overtaking. The racing didn't matter. I suppose it would if you didn't know what was going on - a first-timer perhaps. In fact, sometimes the gap between both sides scores was more entertaining than the racing, and at other times the huge difference in scores between teams in a match didn't always portray what superb racing we had seen out on the track. First out of the gate it may be, but sometimes it's the effort put in of those behind that matters.

Edited October 12, 2018 by moxey63

[IainB]

Speaking as somebody who has been fortunate enough to attend Belle Vue and unfortunate enough to attend Leicester regularly over the last few years, given the choice I'd take the NSS every day of the week for the sheer unpredictability of the racing, you know it's going to be good but nobody is in a safe position on that track, where as the only unpredictability at Leicester is who is going to make the gate.

I used to think that making a pass should be something that is difficult (although perhaps not as difficult as at Leicester) and requires skill to complete but having witnessed Speedway at the NSS my opinion on that has changed.

Edited October 4, 2018 by iainb

[geoff100]

A bad speedway race beats f1 everytime ,they practice for 3 days put the fastest at the front and  call it "racing" sky spent millions for the rights to f1 yet can sum it up in 1 sentance after every race "lewis hamilton lead from start to finish".luv it when the guy on the mike says such and such is 1000th of a second behind the leaader and u look hes half a lap behind with  no chance of a pass lol.