At the moment it so dull you might as well put a boiler on the front and call it Ivor.

The cars simply aren't cars anymore. Ban aerodynamics, traction control, paddle-shift gears, stall arresters and wide tyres.

Oh and the circuits are dull too. Bahrain is awful.

Dont have traction control and fornt tires are narrower this year. Its still [LIFTED] though. I hope it had more to do with the track than the cars. If the rest of the season goes that way I'll be turning off.

When you have drivers saying that they are conserving their tyres rather than racing it says something. Even Schumi, whom I dislike hugely, says it is not too good. 2 more races then the off switch if it gets no better...

How about this.

The cars have to have 4 wheels (provided by Bridgestone) each of the tyres within a set distance from the others (i.e. width and length).
They have to have a driver in a certain position.
The cockpit has to pass certain safety precautions.
etc...

Other than that the engineers are free to do what they like.

i.e. no Aero rules. The designers/engineers can do what they want. Design a car that's better at overtaking or one that makes it hard to overtake etc...

Do we have to start listing issues with that idea? I think the level of precision in the rules is fine, they just don't describe suitable cars.

Didn't Gordon Murray have a similar idea a few years ago? The car must fit into a box of a fixed set of dimensions, wheelbase x etc. Also why don't they give them a fixed number of litres of fuel like motogp..

Banning refuelling is the only reason I am watching it this year! After knowing for years on end that as soon as Michael Schumacher has pitted and come out in front, the race is effectively over, I am sooooooooo glad they've ditched refuelling. But WTF are these new tyre rules all about?

When I used to watch F1 religiously (including the Aussie GP Live!) Knowing whether someone- essentially out in the lead or otherwise well-placed- might have to come in for fresh rubber, or not as the case may be, was all part of the tension.

The lead driver might have a problem in the closing stages of the race, come into the pits for a blisteringly fast 4 second wheel change and the second place would take the lead. Then, the new leader would be forced to pit and you thought it was all over until they changed the wheels in 3.1 second. THAT was exciting.

Now, we still have enforced pit stops and for what? It seems like a load of bulldung to me.

I haven't seen Bahrain before, but I think that there was little overtaking partly because the field was so strung out and the cars/drivers in each group were probably well matched. BUT, once again, we see passing in the pits. If it carries on like this, I'll be resigning my post as Born Again F1 Fan.

Not good for the crew but removing the pit lane speed limit would help to return things to how they used to be. Though I would hate to be one of those guys staring at screens for the whole race, constantly thinking about the strategies.

If they removed the tyre rules then everyone would go out on the harder set of tyres and go the full distance.

I think it's the lack of pit stops that are now going to kill it.

Yes, it'll remove pretty much the only overtaking opportunities...

I gave up watching F1 regularly after Schumacher moved to Ferrari.

The last race I actually remember is when he was at Benetton and got stuck in 5th gear, made 2 pitstops and still finished 2nd and still managed to overtake dozens of cars! With the aerodynamics today, they can't overtake, even when they have a working gearbox...

(CLICKY)
Bernie calls for calm after dull opener

Ecclestone thinks that the longer-term solution to improving the racing will be to sideline the teams and their technical chiefs from the rule-making process.

Yeah, well there was precious little "racing and entertaining the public" on Sunday.
The more I hear from Bernie, the more I think the guy's lost his sense of reality.

There is a fatal flaw in that observation. It is based on the premise that he had any sense of reality in the first place.

Well, he's right that there is nothing quick that they can do to fix this.

The earliest any proper fixes can come is next season.