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Re: Formula 1
Being a F1 fan since 1976 I would like to express my view given that there is a lot of talk about lack of overtaking and boring races.
Overtaking in any official car racing (not bike and not dragster) that takes place in the same race circuits as in F1 (DTM, ETCR, BTCC etc) is analogically as seldom as in F1 without being less spectacular. In rallye racing (WRC) there is no overtaking at all (track-wise) but nontheless spectacular driving.
Limited overtaking is due to limited differences in car performances and/or less driving skill differences/less driving errors.
Overtaking in F1 in the old times (50s 60s 70s or 80s) was a result of greater differences in car performances and driving skills and more enthousiastic driving by less proffesional (in the contemporary manner) driving by several drivers. As example of car performance I would like to mention the Mercedes, Ferrari and Lotus domination for many years then the first turbo cars domination (Renault and BMW) and so on.
Drivers like Nuvolari, Fangio and later Regazzoni, Lauda, Andretti, Villeneuve, Senna stood out from the rest whereas enthousiastic driving like James Hunt's, Giles Villeneuve's or even Nigel Mansel's and Ayrton Senna's gave place to more rational driving, sticking to the rules, increasing sponsoring budgets etc. that makes the result more valuable than the spectacle (as in most modern sports).
Don't forget that the first rational, non-spectacular, calculating driver in more heart-driving times was Alain Prost who, for that reason, was named "The Proffesor". Spectacular driving is obvious even without overtaking (example Montoya-Schumacher hunt, Alonso-Schumacher hunt, Truli-Barrichelo hunt and so many others).
Conclusion is that you cannot enforce overtaking by increasing car differences or technically affecting the drivers' abilities and skills and that a motor sport can be in many ways spectacular without depending necessarily on overtaking alone.
Alfa Romeo e PAOK....oggetti del desiderio a Macedonia
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). It is a very different type of racing than rally etc - more about strategy and finesse, than the all-out manic excitment of WRC.
