Let’s be real: Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motorsports because it’s the richest, not because it’s the best. Aside from a handful of races in the past five years, F1 hasn’t fielded the best racing product out there by a longshot. For the newly converted fans, that might not make much of a difference; the drama that sustains “Drive to Survive” mostly comes off the track. For the fans who’ve known F1 before the turbo-hybrid era, it’s a shame. And it's an opportunity wasted. Last weekend, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff accurately summed up the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as a “boring race,” which is true (but also something he didn’t say during Mercedes's reign at the top of F1).
Not all that long ago, the racing could be spectacular, and it was spectacular for multiple driving styles. Swashbuckling Fernando Alonso could improvise his way around clinical Michael Schumacher and vice versa all the time. Rain wasn’t merely an inconvenience for the leaders who would’ve won the race anyway; rain legitimately threw everything into the air, and the finishes were wild. What made F1 great in the past is debatable, and opinions will probably vary based on age.
Read Article