For years we've seen a lack of racing and domination by one team or driver in F1. We also had noisy engines. This year we're seeing quieter engines, and a new team and driver dominate - yet F1 2014 is better than it has been for a long time.
The Bahrain Grand Prix, despite taking place at a soulless track, was one of the best Formula 1 races in years. One team dominated but that team, Mercedes, allowed its drivers to race right 'til the end, and neither Lewis nor Nico suffered a mysterious engine problem or fluffed pit stop.
In recent times Vettel has been dominant in his Red Bull, and the real fans all cheered when Mark Webber scored a win because we knew Mark could only win despite, not because of, the car he was in. Vettel was number 1 and Mark had to put up with it. Multi 21.
Ferrari's attitude was similar with Michael Schumacher and his long suffering sidekick Rubens Barrichello, then with Alonso and Felipe Massa.
Mercedes, though, have opted to hire two top level drivers and let them race. This shows a respect to the sport and to the fans from a manufacturer that has been racing in Formula 1 since 1932 that Red Bull and Ferrari have both failed to achieve. Mercedes could quite easily have soured everybody's day by telling their drivers to hold station after the late safety car in Bahrain but they didn't, and all credit to them for that.
So it is of no surprise that the two teams complaining about F1's new engine regulations turn out to be Red Bull (powered by Renault) and Ferrari. Both are hindered for the entire year by power units that are not as good as the Mercedes one and both are complaining like hell about it.
The Mercedes engine is more reliable, more powerful and more frugal than the Ferrari and Renault units. Mercedes has simply done a better job. So what do Ferrari and Red Bull want to do? Make the races shorter so they don't have to conserve fuel and change their engines to make them more equal with the Mercedes'.
What a bunch of whinging, idiotic, bad losers.
F1's new engines use less fuel and take engine technology into new and exciting areas. For the first time in years F1 tech can lead to better engines for our road cars. F1 is looking forwards rather than backwards.
The V8 era may have given us louder engines but it gave us worse racing than we've seen so far in 2014. The more complex, and torquey, cars this year have also allowed some fantastic young drivers to flourish (Bottas, Hulkenberg, Ricciardio, Magnussen) as well as letting the experienced drivers show us their skills with more complex and hard to handle machinery.
F1 2014 is in great shape. Only the losers are complaining. Bernie Ecclestone reckons two more teams want to join F1. The sport won't worry too much if a couple of the existing teams get out of the kitchen because they can't stand the heat.
By Matt Hubbard
