I'll be honest, usually my interest is carried by at least one of two things. First thing: Ferrari doing well. I'll take podiums. I'm a blatant favoritist and I won't deny it one bit. But that clearly isn't happening these days, is it. For all the beauty that the F138 has dazzled us with, it clearly isn't as fast as the other cars out there. Alonso has locked up second place in the driver's championship, but he should be fighting for the lead, not trying to stay ahead of third.I don't enjoy seeing Mercedes do well. Red Bull I don't mind so much, I have no problem with their success. Lotus, too, I like seeing do well, if only because the financial mess behinds the scenes is about to bring the whole thing crashing down. And I don't like seeing Ferrari factory cars fighting with their customer-engined brethren. These other cars should be behind the factory team.
Like I said, I'm a blatant favoritist.
Second thing: close racing. Cars streaming along in a parade isn't interesting. And while DRS and KERS and mandatory pit stops have spiced things up somewhat, we still have long periods of time where it is one car running two thirds of a second ahead of a second car.
There were moments, yes. The terrible US broadcast aside -- I was clearly seeing the picture about two seconds before the commentator's reactions to it were sent to me -- there were some good moves made, both offensive and defensive. But not enough.
Some of this can be laid at the feet of Pirelli, who brought two tire types which were rock-hard and lasted forever. So a single stop for all was more or less in the cards, except for the unlucky few who had to stop a second time late in the race. There was no incentive to try a two-stop. So passes had to be made on track, by cars with similar fuel loads and tire states. Fair racing, yes, but it was extremely dry.
Maybe I'm just in a terrible mood today, but that was boring.
For whatever reason, I think the only way I'll remember 2013 fondly is for the beauty of the cars.
