Has F1 jumped the shark?
 

I know the interest in F1 has gone down but I am surprised there is no discussion about Ron Dennis being forced out of then quitting McLaren. Has it really gotten so bad no one cares anymore?

Who's Ron Dennis? Ha ha

Never really liked him. He seemed to be a condescending arrogant jerk. They even ousted a genius called Steve Jobs and eventually he came back. We'll see if McLaren does better without him.

He's 69 yrs old, wealthy beyond words, and as driven as he is IMO I really don't think he needs the grief anymore i.e. dealing with Alonso in a backmarker that's going nowhere fast as just one example. Plus he still owns 25% of the McLaren Group as a whole so he's not going completely away.....of course, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if at some point the lawsuits start flying :D

Gary

Zak. Brown.

Ronny D should have walked away years ago. He is/was well respected but not liked. So his departure is a relief to most.

F1 of the other hand is about to blow up. The new regs for 2017 are going to produce amazing machines and the new owners, Liberty Media, are on the verge a huge expansion/promotion endeavor.

You think so? I thought maybe the rumors of him taking an executive position in F1 sounded more likely...

Has the offer for the McLaren sport already been made?

Interesting times.

Don't know, but there is a connection and I can see it happening...

Ron has never been a warm and fuzzy guy. I've always thought him a cold, calculating man. But Jim Rose told me a different story, that Ron would go to the absolute mat for the people that worked for him. And he did, for several decades...

I think F1 has passed people like Sir Frank, Sir Patrick and Ron by.
In the days of Ken Tyrell working in his lumber mill, those guys, through sheer force of will, could carry the enterprise, but now in the days of three, four and five hundred people staff, hundreds of millions in budget, this sport is not them.

Not anymore...

I think the biggest problem is that the FIA thinks racing is some big green social experiment.

It's not. It's entertainment! Give the people what they want. It's that simple.

True, sadly.

One can easily envision RD plotting his revenge now.

^^^ RD has already made it public that once his contractual obligations are behind him there will be more to come.

I think it's sad that they ousted him. Ron started his career turning wrenches and look at the empire he created. McLaren is a massive company with a reputation for excellence that spreads a lot further than just the F1 team. Most of that is due to the vision and drive of Ron Dennis. I can think of a lot of companies that would benefit greatly from a leader like him.

As a huge F1 fan, the answer is YES, F1 has jumped the shark years ago. Very few care about what's going on because it's not compelling enough on track. In a year where the championship will be decided on track in the last race of a 21 race year, no one cares and I'm not optimistic that the 2017 regs are going to be much better. Basically, the golden goose has been cooked and they (FIA, F1) are riding on the coat tails of yesteryear.

With regard to Ron Dennis, he already left once and then came back but they are no better than when he was gone. He may have started McLaren from the ground up, but he is perhaps the worst micro manager of talent you'll ever encounter -- and I'm referring to the time of Senna/Prost and more recently when he single handily lost McLaren a WDC in 2007 when he couldn't manage the rift in the garage between Alonso and Hamilton.

For those in the know, and I wish I had a strong historical baseline in my personal knowledge but don't:

Is what Mercedes AMG is doing now unprecedented? Or has it always been 1 team dominates to the point of boredom up front? In the days of Schumacher was it also Ferrari was so superior in performance that nobody ever challenged 1st place, and the excitement was back in the pack? As a relatively new "Super-fan" I get sort of bored with no challenge for 1st place.

^ +1

McLaren has only won three driver championships and one constructor championship in formula one in the past 20 years. The road car division got underway with the leadership of Martin Witnarsh. Not Ron Dennis.

Ron Dennis has not been that great at his job.

There have been other dominant eras, most notably the Schumacher/Ferrari era and the Red Bull era before the Mercedes dominance. The difference is that there were other teams who won races or even had championship opportunities that came down to the last race of the year. For example, Renault/Alonso won 2 consecutive in Ferrari/Schumacher era and in the 4 that Vettel/Red Bull won, two of those 4 years literally came down to the last race where Alonso had to get past a Renault (the irony) to win the WDC at Abu Dhabi and the other was at Interlagos where Vettel spun on the first lap of the race and was literally going backwards down the track, but managed to get back up and running and came in a points paying position (off podium) to secure just enough to win the WDC. Exciting stuff!

Last year both the Mercs won 86% of the possible paying points, a historical record. This year they appear to be on track to break that record -- that's how dominant they are.

Basically, both Mercs are so fast that they can gap the field with little effort, then turn down their engines and manage the gap. This has been Nico's strategy with about 4 races left... he doesn't need to push for a race victory.