Growing up I never missed a Formula 1 race.
I still remember the adrenaline I felt watching them.
I was too young to remember the prowess of Ayrton Senna—perhaps the greatest in the sport.
But I reminisce the fierce competition between Michael Schumacher and Mikka Hakkinen.
To me—a Ferrari fan—the competition between McClaren and Ferrari was like a fight between good and evil.
Then came Fernando Alonso to win a world championship with Renault of all cars. He shook the world two years in a row.
And then Sebastian Vettel dominated for four years straight with Red Bull.
By this point though the sport had changed too much too fast.
New rules in efficiency and mechanics meant that teams now had to optimize for multiple variables, not just make the fastest car a driver could handle.
So, a new era of F1 started.
Car technology became more important than drivers, despite them having the most difficult role.
Everybody remembers Schumacher's 7 world championships but not all know that Lewis Hamilton equaled that record.
It's not that Hamilton is a lesser driver—he's one of the best to ever do it.
The problem is that F1 has lost its soul. There's too much focus on efficiency and perfection.
I dream of a new era where, with even more sophisticated cars, drivers go at each other making every race an adrenaline feast rather than a meticulous game of chess.