I think it depends

Other motor sports have people driving similar machines. In those sports you'd only really follow a driver - when the driver changed teams there wouldn't be much point continuing to support the team, 'cos the team don't add that much.

F1 has always been a bit different to that - a lot of fans follow a team rather than a driver. So Ferrari have tons of fans, for example.

Those people are interested in whether Ferrari can come up with a faster car that will win races, as well as whether a particular driver is quick. So it's the combination of car and driver that F1 fans are interested in.

It does mean that there are fewer combinations of car and driver actually competing for the win in any given race. But over a season it's often quite tight (eg, it's five years since the same team's drivers came first and second in the championship). And then there's always been more to F1 than just winning the race (at least until Mosley and Bernie's latest mad idea).

Having said all that, this year has been a bit more boring because Brawn have dominated so much up until now. But that's likely to change going forwards (for example, Red Bull may well be quicker this weekend). ...

Posted By: Tricky Hawes, Jun 19, 16:41:58