Not seen it in ages, forgot how good it could be. Far better than F1. Seems equally about the driver as well as the car. F1 it's more the car and how they are structured to be able to spend money. Guaranteed if you put Hamilton in the crappest car, he would never win another race.
Yeah. It's much more competitive than F1. Like watching the DTM on BT Sport as well. Most entertaining thing about F1 at the moment is watching Vettel fail miserably every weekend and moan over the radio about it
For pure driving skill you need to watch the WRC. Touring cats might have a slightly fairer mix of car and skill but it’s still roundy roundy racing. Driving round and round some tarmac in the summer doesn’t compare to testing your skills on snow, mud, tarmac, gravel and ice in all conditions. All the top F1 drivers will tell you who the ‘best drivers in the world’ are, and they drive in WRC.
I used to watch the BTCC religiously, I've stopped over the last few years just because I've been busy on Sundays, and the full programme takes up an entire day. With the reverse grid system, and success ballast added, it does make it an even playing field. There was an instance a few years ago, where I think 7 different drivers shared the first 9 wins of the season. The Ginetta juniors are quite fun to watch as well, which is usually one of the support races.
I see this argument a lot. How many races would Senna, Schumacher, Fangio, Prost, in fact anyone have won if they were exclusively driving the crappest car? Hamilton gets a little derided. Unfairly. He’s come across as a bit of a knob sometimes you might argue with some of the things he says - but he’s amongst the greatest ever F1 drivers and will soon have the most wins and joint most championships to go along with the most polls and podiums he already has. He also won races in the seasons McLaren and then Mercedes weren’t competitive enough to challenge for titles, and has been beaten over a season by a teammate on very few occasions, just two I think, despite never having proper team orders in the way Schumacher always did. He has had three world champions as teammates too, they haven’t all been Kovalainen’s or Bottas’s. F1 has always been that way - the team with the best car generally also employ the best driver and also generally have the most money. You do get the odd outlier of smaller teams winning races (Like last week), even titles (Button in the Brawn). That is no different to the biggest clubs always competing for the big titles in football - with the odd Leicester premier league win thrown in now and again. I like F1, I have since childhood in the early 90’s. I don’t really remember Senna winning a title but I do Mansell and Prost with Williams, Schumacher at Benetton then Damon Hill winning for Williams then being discarded. I don’t recall one season where there wasn’t a car pretty dominant at the front and often a single driver too, be that Schumacher, Hakkinen (always had the edge over Coulthard), Alonso or Vettel, before Hamilton. Also, unlike football where the biggest teams tend to stay that way, it is cyclical and changes when the rules change around - Ferrari have dominated in years passed but are crap now, they won’t stay that way forever. Williams won title after title, they’re back of the grid currently. McLaren have been the worst car on the grid more or less for a few years, they have pace this year. Red Bull dominated but are only competitive now in one car as they have an outstanding talent in Verstappen (for me the only driver who could even begin to be argued to be at Hamilton’s level). I enjoy it a lot. I do agree there’s probably a lot more skill required to drive in rallies and that touring cars with the grid reversal and ballast handicapping is more unpredictable racing - but I just don’t enjoy them as much as F1, I see that as the pinnacle of motor racing. Each to their own though. I’ve never got the appeal of rugby league, just can’t get into it, but like to watch union. Not the usual opinion of someone living in an ex pit house in South Yorkshire!
@troff I couldn't agree more. Seasons where it has been close between teams are usually far and few between. I watch F1 because it's a spectacle of engineering and speed. For close racing I watch F2 and F3.
If you put any driver in the crappest car they'd never win a race. Similarly, you wouldn't put a crap driver in the best car. People forget that Hamilton took a risk joining Merc and many predicted he might never win another title when he joined them. F1 is desperate for the rule changes, but I feel the level of negativity directed at Hamilton in general is shocking. Particularly by British people. (I'm not suggesting that's what you've done, just making my own point off the back of yours).
Not a big fan of F1 but taken to watching it more. Don’t understand the negativity against Hamilton. The brits are best at knocking their own. Unlike the yanks. He has worked hard to get to the position he’s in. And there are still skills regardless of cars. His record is phenomenal and will go on to be the greatest of all time. His wins per race blows Schumacher out of the water. Bit like horse racing. You prove your abilities and get the best horses. Would struggle to name half a dozen jockeys as I have little or no interest,
I've got the BTCC on today for the first time in a while. It's the Mini Cooper support race that's on at the minute. There's been more action in the first lap of this than there is in a season of F1. It's obviously much slower, but seeing 5 cars side by side flying through a long sweeping corner at 80mph is great to watch.
I think they should all have to drive each others cars over the length of the season. Only fair way to decide the best driver imo!
MotoGP & World/British Superbikes for me every time. Close Contact racing, no quarter asked or given.