One of the commentators likes to yse this line: the only things that are interchangeable between the top 3 teams’ cars are brake lights and tyres. Yet week in week out they are separated by less than 0,3 seconds to the finish line. The teams have gone through a great filter that makes the barrier of entry pretty limited, but there definitely is a place for the engineering battle side of F1.
> week in week out they are separated by less than 0,3 seconds to the finish line
I don't think that's true though, at least not this year. Separation this year has generally either been "within 1 second, or about 20" and seems to be every other race.
I think the closest gap this season has been ~.5 seconds, but many races have been somewhere between 5 and 20 seconds. And that's only considering the podium spots. Generally we see the top 1-3 teams dominate, with the feeder/mid pack teams all being 20+ seconds behind. Look at Azerbaijan, 4th place was over a _minute_ behind first place.
I love f1 but it's been many years since I've felt like the sport was truly competitive. This year is way better than previous years now that Mercedes isn't in a rocket ship, but it's still just a Ferrari Red Bull battle (with Ferrari reliability and management biting them in the ass race after race)
