Playing Field, Leveling Of

Drive Time, Sports

NASCAR fans or non-Formula 1 devotees can skip this post.

Consider the final standings for the 2023 F1 season:

 

If that looks like a runaway train for both Max Verstappen and Red Bull, then it was.  Verstappen won 19 out of the 21 races of the season, and Red Bull’s Perez won one.

Which has led to an interesting game among fans, thinking about leveling the field, so to speak, for the 2024 season.  Here are the favorites:

  • Level the driver playing field and find another Perez-level driver for Red Bull to replace Max.
  • Force Max to wear an eye patch and strap one arm to his leg.
  • Force Red Bull to use Trabant engines. (“Then they’d only come 3rd.”)
  • …and Reliant Robin 3-wheel technology.  (“Okay, 4th.”)
  • Fire Max and sign Daniel Ricciardo.  Or Logan Sargeant.
  • …and so on.

Let’s see;  only 90 days till the new season begins.

In the meantime, there are the college football championships and the Super Bowl… which I care about as much as most of you care about F1.

10 comments

  1. I’ve been an F1 fan ever since guys named J Clark / G Hill / C Chapman dominated the competition. it’s always been like this. One team of driver and manufacturer dominate for a few years because they stumble on the secret sauce that ties everything together. It’s the way it’s supposed to work . Eventually some other group of drivers / engineers / Car designers and owners come up with a new way to bend the rules, find something that’s not even in the rules yet, or some other cheat / advantage that moves the state of the art forward and makes the cars even faster.

    That’s the part that makes F1 interesting. No amount of “tweaking the rules” will change that. That sort of thing just changes the problem to be solved and adds to the challenge. That’s what the CAN AM demonstrated so well. No rules – one team dominates ( Bruce and Denny ) until they don’t ( Mark and Roger ) Lots of rules – Closer racing but the interest goes away and the series dies.

  2. In days gone by, drivers could and did win in anything, Graham Hill being a great example as the only winner so far of the Triple Crown of wins at Le Mans, the Indianapolis 500 and Monaco. Nando has come very close although victory at the Brickyard has eluded him. Kimi has raced dirt bikes and rally cars. Schumi did well in DTM and WEC. Compare that with the current batch of poofters who have only ever raced open-wheel formula cars. Is Carlos Sainz even half the man that his dad is?

    1. Well to be fair, a 23 race schedule doesn’t leave a lot of open weekends for other events. The old GP season was 9 events. Plus this current bunch is being paid a whole lot more for one race than Graham ever made in several seasons so those guys needed to race in more forms of racing just to keep from starving.

  4. “level the playing field?” Isn’t that what the left is determined to do by vilifying the successful and productive?

    JQ

  5. I’m a NASCAR and F1 fan

    I admire the people who operate F1 much more than the 3rd and 4th generation clowns who run NASCAR and change the rules every other race in the spirit of promoting competitiveness

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