Is Formula 1 becoming too slow?

[Stradivarius]

F1 could well be 5 seconds slower than GP2 without it being very noticable to the audience.

http://i.imgur.com/ZEzhzd8.gif

What I mean is that I don't think you could look at a car without checking any timing information and see a very noticeable difference between one that takes 90 seconds to complete a lap and one that takes 95 seconds to complete a lap. That difference is actually smaller than the variations we see from qualifying to the start of the races anyway. Upon direct comparison it is of course possible to tell the difference if you study videos carefully, but I doubt that direct comparisons to 2004 are made during the races by the majority of TV viewers. I also doubt that people find the end of the races more interesting than the start of the races because the lap times have droped a few seconds. The fact that anyone can study results and lap times and find a numerical difference is a different matter.

My point is that the speed is not directly important because it doesn't impact the visual impression when looking at the car to a large extent. But it may be of importance indirectly because people know that the cars they are watching are not fastest cars in the world anymore, but significantly slower than the cars used a decade ago. I think this could potentially serve to dilute some of the factors that make formula 1 special.

[SectorOne]

That difference is actually smaller than the variations we see from qualifying to the start of the races anyway.

Which is very easy to spot in of itself as they for the most part don´t even run the same gear in various high speed corners.
150kg´s of fuel makes a clear difference from a car running on fumes on an all out attack lap.

then to go back to your original statement of not just being 5 seconds slower then a current F1 car but 5 seconds slower then a GP2 car, i don´t agree on that at all.
It´s a huge difference.

[Stradivarius]

That difference is actually smaller than the variations we see from qualifying to the start of the races anyway.

Which is very easy to spot in of itself as they for the most part don´t even run the same gear in various high speed corners.
150kg´s of fuel makes a clear difference from a car running on fumes on an all out attack lap.

then to go back to your original statement of not just being 5 seconds slower then a current F1 car but 5 seconds slower then a GP2 car, i don´t agree on that at all.
It´s a huge difference.

As I said, upon direct comparison, it is possible to tell the difference, but that isn't really relevant here, as I am talking about the visual impression, not timing information. You say that they are not running the same gear in various high speed corners and that actually illustrates my point exactly. You are making a direct comparison, which is not applicable. If f1-cars would be 5 seconds faster or 5 seconds slower next year, you couldn't find out by looking at what gears they were running. Next year, the gearing will not be comparable to this year anyway, so you couldn't make use of a direct comparison.

Imagine that I presented you a video where you see a car running at a given circuit running through a couple of fast and slow corners, which is typically what you would see during a race before focus is switched to a different car. I could blur out details on the car to make it hard for you to know which driver it is and maybe also which season and car it is. Are you saying that you can determine the lap time this car is doing by observing the car driving through some corners in such a video, without looking at any timing information? Would you accept such a challenge?

Let's say that you are able to come up with a 5 second interval that covers the lap time of the video in question. How many percent of the TV viewers do you think would be able to do the same? And how many would discover a 5 second change in lap times if they were not explicitly made aware of the fact in advance? And how many of these would find that the change significantly affected their interest of watching? This is pure speculation, but I would guess less than a percent, and hence I don't think the lap times are of much importance, visually.