Hamilton: Don't blame the drivers for boring F1
Lewis Hamilton on Sunday said it is not his fault if this year's world championship is boring.
At Paul Ricard, the Briton continued to utterly dominate in a season also dominated by Mercedes. Even teammate Valtteri Bottas' early challenge to Hamilton seems now to be fading.
"A faster man won," a despondent Bottas said after the French GP.
The Finn wasn't the only despondent one. One reporter looked so down about the plight of F1 after the French GP that Hamilton observed: "You look so bored."
That reporter had asked Hamilton if he has thought about 'showboating' in a desperate attempt to spice up the season.
"I think with the world we're in today, you can't win and you lose any way you do it," said Hamilton.
"I think what's really important for people to realise is it's not the drivers' fault.
"This is a constant cycle of Formula 1 for years and years and years, even before I got here, and it's because the way Bernie had it set up and the decisions they were making back then. It's still the same."
For a driver who often calls in sick for other appearances, it is significant that Hamilton took part in the crisis meeting about F1's rules for 2021 recently in Paris.
Luca Budel, the correspondent for Italy's Mediaset, observes: "Lewis risks being remembered as the champion who won alone in a boring era dominated by a single team.
"If the goal is to annihilate Formula 1, the road being taken is correct."
And clearly, Hamilton thinks what is being proposed for 2021 is not going to fix F1.
"There is a discussion about making the cars heavier," Hamilton told Bild newspaper.
"That is not the right way. They are much heavier now than when I started. We have the best brakes in the world, but if we make the cars heavier, the brakes get too hot and we're just saving more and more fuel."
He also says the Pirelli tyres are wrong, observing: "I don't know who wrote the brief for these tyres, but they have never spoken to a driver.
"Those responsible have taken too long to understand that us drivers should be in the discussion about the rules."
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Perhaps it's the track, it looks very nice but as with many it's boring. Never seen a boring race at Spa for example. There are too many tracks where the commentators say "it's difficult to overtake here".
Your right Ken. It's beyond me why tracks that are hard to overtake are even on the calendar? For except Monaco, they all should be banned until they have figured out how to make overtaking more easy (without DRS). I would not be surprised if they go back to the cars of 2012. The racing was much better back then, we had 7 different winners in the first 7 races that season.
boring, boring, boring, bring back the old types of car's where the driver's had to think for them selves and work out any problems, not getting the answers from a team of overpaid engineers, you might as well stick robot's in the car
Didn't boring start to show when the FIA decided to curtail competition between suppliers, ie. tires, brakes, many components ? They made a lot of limiting changes to help the smaller teams. How has that worked out? What they should have done was allot more funds to the lesser teams so they could compete. Everything is too standardized leaving everything status quo.
Hamilton is right, F1 should go back to cars less technical, cars that the drivers have to drive. The Paul Ricard track is a joke. When did F1 decide to race on a go cart track? Boring isn't a strong enough word to describe F1 racing today.
F1 today is the equivalent of going into some little theater and being forced to sit their and watch 20 kids play the F1 video game on a big screen TV........Whats the point ??? YOU'VE LOST ME AS A FAN