Carlton Supporters Club

Really ? I thought he came across as a petulant, entitled little sh1t......which has been my take on him from the get go.

Maybe he'll mature one day.....but as someone who's followed motor racing for most of 40 years....and grew up listening to my Dad tell stories of watching the likes of Jim Clark, Jack Brabham, Graeme Hill, Bruce McLaren etc. racing around country roads in Northern Tassie.......the current f1 drivers for the most part leave me completely cold.

Maybe it's generational thing....but most of them just have no sort of engaging personality whatsoever.  Riccardo excepted.

I recently saw an interesting F1 trivia item.

The South African army has a remote control mine detection vehicle that uses wheels and tyres left over from the South African Grand Prix.  Apparently, the wide, smooth tyres distribute the weight of the vehicle so that it doesn’t detonate mines or IEDs.

Can you imagine our armed forces, or those of our allies, making use of second hand kit, let alone in such an innovative way?

That’s about the extent of my interest in F1 ?

Interesting to read Hamilton has equalled or is about to equal a bunch of Schumacher's records.

Hamilton is probably the best of the bunch at the moment, and he has maintained a long period of tenancy in the fastest car, which means he betters his team-mates regularly. Does that make Hamilton the driver equal of Schumacher, Senna or some other greats?

I do realise there was a lot of politics in the Schumacher era, but I don't think there is any less now, it's just delivered differently.

I'm not sure modern F1 is a true measure of driver, for me there is too much remote control influenced by engineers and technology, technology that allows cars to be reconfigured on the fly. I preferred the old days, when how a car left the grid was how the car performed, all configured and setup in advance.

I particularly dislike drivers begging over the radio mid-race for permission to dial up more power.

Interesting to read Hamilton has equalled or is about to equal a bunch of Schumacher's records.

Hamilton is probably the best of the bunch at the moment, and he has maintained a long period of tenancy in the fastest car, which means he betters his team-mates regularly. Does that make Hamilton the driver equal of Schumacher, Senna or some other greats?

I do realise there was a lot of politics in the Schumacher era, but I don't think there is any less now, it's just delivered differently.

I'm not sure modern F1 is a true measure of driver, for me there is too much remote control influenced by engineers and technology, technology that allows cars to be reconfigured on the fly. I preferred the old days, when how a car left the grid was how the car performed, all configured and setup in advance.

I particularly dislike drivers begging over the radio mid-race for permission to dial up more power.

Engine being turned up & down is also because they only have a certain number of engines they can use in a season without being penalised so don't want them to break early.

Correct.

Its no longer push push push.
Its all about 'manage, manage, manage'. Engine, tyres, fuel..... 

I wonder what Fangio or Nuvolari would make of all of this, looking down?

I understand the sentiment, but the olden days argument is a bit like saying Airbags......Pffft!

It's a very hard question to answer, I think the safety and technological upgrades are good, but the contest should be strictly and rigorously limited to the drivers.

I suspect the only thing allowing F1 to persist, the thing stopping alternatives from rising, are the legal and contractual barriers that it wields with a big $stick.

It's interesting, that apparently there was a survey last season or the season before, polling F1 drivers, and they almost universally agreed that Carting is the pinnacle of motor sport as a raw measure of ability. In this I read between the lines, and infer that F1 is the reward you get for being among the best at Carting.