#F1 hysteria already

We've only had two practice sessions of the first Grand Prix of the new Formula 1 season, and already I am incandescent with rage.  And that's nothing to do with what's happening on the track...

Having read this report about the first day of practice on the BBC Sport website, I then decided to read a few of the posts in the comments section at the bottom of the page.  That was a mistake.

At the time of writing, there are 151 comments on that article - and most of them seem to be from people moaning about how "boring" F1 is.  After one day of practice!

Only four hours in to the new season and im bored. Vettel to coast to pole tomorrow with webber second (dominate red bull again!!!)
The chasing pack look close. Is it just a fight for second already??

-  THEgreatgatsby

I realise that its early days but after the promise of testing it has now returned to the boring inevitable even before the first race has begun.I can't stand the prospect of Red Bull dominating again.Put a monkey in that car and it would win. Instaed of that we have to suffer Vettel and his whoopee cushion. Now where do I find coverage of synchronized swimming?

- thisisridiculous

Just a couple of the comments from internet geniuses who think they can tell how a whole season of racing, on nineteen different circuits across the world, in variable weather conditions, at different times of the day or night, having to manage fuel loads, on often unpredictable tyres, managing engine and gearbox usage to ensure no more than eight engines are used over the season, will pan out - just from a couple of hours' free running before the first race.

(Apparently, these people would prefer an almost theatrical melodrama which rewards inconsistency and unreliability and produces flukey, anomalous results - Maldonado in Barcelona last year, for example - meaning that we never truly know which team, or which driver, is actually the best.  But that's a topic for another post, I think.)

But these idiots are to be expected, and there will always be people who claim a certain sport is "boring".  Why they feel they have to comment on every article about that sport, expressing just how bored they are with it, instead of filling their time reading about things which actually interest them, is anybody's guess - but at least their inane jabbering is relatively easy to block out.

What really winds me up, though, is comments like this one:

Can they not just BAN ADRIAN NEWEY from the sport? If this is anything to go by for the rest of the season I can safely say I will be losing interest quite quickly

- timmyotoole

Ban Adrian Newey?  For what crime, precisely, Timmy?  Oh, y'know - for being good at his job.

Is that how sport is supposed to work, then?  As soon as anyone who's actually any good at it appears, they get shunted out of the nearest exit...?!  I must have missed that memo.

So I guess now we have to ban Lionel Messi from playing football, as well?  We'd better tell Venus and Serena Williams that they can't enter Wimbledon this year, too.  It's a good job Michael Phelps has already retired from competitive swimming - otherwise we'd have had to ban him (and his incredible 22 Olympic Medals) too.

I think people like Timmy forget what this sport - or, indeed, any sport - is all about.  He, and others like him, seem to think that twenty-two of the world's best and fastest drivers have all converged on a little tarmac-ed area in Australian purely to entertain them.

Sport is about pushing the limits (within the rules of that particular sport) and trying to be the best you can be - the fastest, the strongest, the most accurate, the most agile, or whatever.  They're not just there to "put on a good show" for us back home - they want to win.  And, as a sports fan, I enjoy watching them trying to win.

I think this year's Formula 1 season will be very interesting, for a number of reasons.  I am hugely looking forward to seeing how things develop between now and the final race in Brazil, in November. Maybe Red Bull will dominate - and if they do, though I'm no Red Bull fan myself, fair play to them! - or maybe they won't.  We'll have to wait and see.

One thing's for sure, though - Adrian Newey is not likely to be going anywhere soon.  And that's got to be a good thing.