This is an extract from an article in Autocar magazine, written by Scott Swift, about the lack of excitement in modern F1:

" I bought a ticket to an event last weekend called the Goodwood Revival Meeting, in which balding, buffed-up tycoons drive 50-year-old racing cars that have been genetically reassigned with modern rubber and all the 21st-century engine tweaks money can buy.

" This explosive combo of over-excited cars and under-talented drivers is an inspired way to replace the thrills that are seeping out of mainstream motor sport while the FIA Neroes fiddle on. Friend of mine overheard a conversation in the Goodwood paddock a couple of years ago between multi-world champion John Surtees and a millionaire in a silver racesuit with the price tag still on it. This chap was twirling the keys to a '62 Ferrari 250 GTO, a demanding sort of car which to my knowledge has never appeared on the British School of Motoring fleet buyer's list. He asked Surtees for driving tips, on account of how he had only just bought the car and hadn't really driven it yet.

" Surtees's response was understandably curt. Failing to limit performance and grip of modern racing cars is daft enough; encouraging the raising of both in old ones that were designed to be driven at pipe-smoking speeds is stupid. Allowing unqualified people to drive the results could be described as criminally negligent.

" My solution for F1 boredom is to fit the cars with adjustable underbody wings, rather like venetian blinds, which could be remotely controlled by a mischievously sniggering TV audience in order to modify a driver's straightline speed and cornering grip. Unpopular but skilful drivers like Schumacher should be perfectly capable of compensating for the zero grip scenarios with which they would be constantly faced, while the underdogs (many of them British) would be borne on wings of speed by the popular vote".

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