Grand Prix of Japan (Indianapolis) 10/09/2011
in Formula 1 ·
stormybadger8 said:What do you mean "it's been a while"? 🤣
I can only remember a handful of seasons over the last decade where we didn't have a single dominant car or driver sitting at the top. Honestly, there seem to be more eras defined by total dominance than anything else. Then again, that’s just how it goes—some drivers simply couldn't squeeze everything out of their machinery to turn raw pace into actual wins.
Red Bull was way more dominant last year than they are this season. It’s a whole different story when you look at Vettel—he was making mistakes last year, but he's dialed in now. On top of that, Hamilton is messing up so much lately it's actually getting ridiculous.
Since the era of Michael Schumacher, no one has swept the competition quite like this.
If Sebastian Vettel manages to secure a third consecutive title, then we must extend our utmost respect to Red Bull and the tactical genius pulling all the strings behind the scenes.
While watching the rest of the field battle for a podium finish can be engaging, my true interest lies in observing how the drivers contend for those crucial 25 points at the top spot.
In this scenario, Vettel takes pole position (though even if he starts second in a worst-case case, Mark Webber would likely drop three spots 😕)
Between DRS (which essentially facilitates artificial overtaking) and the Goodyear tires, we should see a much more intense struggle for first place. However, I find myself agreeing with your thesis: who can blame them if they simply failed to harness the absolute potential of their cars?
The "big teams" have been complaining about "excessive front wing flexibility," but a master craftsman, finely tuning his craft, simply engineered it to perform at its peak.
