r/FormulaDrift

Scrolling through YouTube and in my “Watch Again”, I was reminded of this beautiful, perfect JTP run. I watched it live and had the same excitement Jarod did in this clip, because it was an actual shocking moment. I’ve watched this clip countless times since it happened at Wall 2019.

Notice how excited the crowd and both Jarod and Ryan are? You don’t get anything close to that now with anyone. It feels robotic.

Long gone are the glory days, folks.

A year ago I made this thread detailing what I felt was a lot of the prevailing problems in FD at the moment, it was pretty popular in this sub and garnered quite a bit of feed back and opinions. We've now finished 5/8 rounds and I've got to say.. it is not looking good at all.

1. Tracks - I think despite us getting two new tracks so far and still having a new one to look forward to, it's been extremely underwhelming, and even disappointing one might say. Last year I mentioned it seeming like for every 4 decent battles there's a crash, I think this year that ratio has just gotten even worse. RD8 last year turned to out to be.. alright at best? For as great as Stafford was (and it was pretty awesome imo) it doesn't even come close to drown out the absolute SHIT SHOW that Indy was. Not even considering the rain cancelation (which by now we all know was handled absolutely horrendously) it was simply just a bad track. They chose to run that goofy ass layout for what..? I really just find it impossible with the ease of access with simulators & the virtual track creator really doing a great job that the prevalence of crashes on Indy was just seemingly ignored before the drivers even got there. Then we watch practice and pro spec seeding and it's still just crash after crash, we get minor changes to the track and STILL have crash after crash. I'm really not sure why FD chose to handle Indy this way, I feel like the track designers probably just had a vision months ago of what they thought was a good line and were tunnel visioned on it and refused to consider anything else at all.
2. Judging/Data - We actually got a win here!!! I have really enjoyed the implementation of the Wally system, it is still far from perfect and very susceptible to making a mistake or controversial decision, but I think it was a huge step in the right direction. There is obviously still progress desired towards the judging of battles, but I think I'm starting to accept something like that might just never have a 'perfect way' of being done.
3. Seeding/Qualifying - Once again, another win!!! They implemented exactly what I suggested. Though, I'm sad we haven't seen a 100 point run and with how harsh the Wally judges, and I kinda doubt we will ever see a uptrend of drivers scoring in the high 90's like you might see in DMGP. The Wally is just extraordinarily strict (which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing), it forces drivers to conform to the line it wants and get shit done. Don't get shit done, don't get points.
4. Livestreams
   1. Viewing experience - So yeah.. it's still terrible, some might even say worse. Poorly organized, still no time stamp break downs even on the new stupid RacerPlus app. I think Indy was the first event so far where we weren't force fed a bunch of FPV footage.. and that was because the conditions didn't allow for drones to fly lol.
   2. Gambling - Yep so this is still terrible and nothing can ever change my mind on it. Generally just a terrible and nasty predatory thing to add to our wonderful pure of heart motorsport.
   3. Jarod DeAnda - I think it's resurfaced again quite a bit after Indy, but good lord this guy is still and will always be terrible and simply stated, horrible at his job. I saw someone try and defend him by saying he's been there since the start of FD and doesn't take a pay.. WHO CARES?? The guy is absolutely insufferable and makes me want to watch every live stream on mute. It doesn't matter how passionate you are for your job.. if your horrible at it, maybe step away and let someone else take up the mantle!
   4. RacerPlus - Yeah.. I've been waiting for this one. Really just can't figure out why on gods green earth FD would choose to take this deal. It just deters viewership, no one wants to use that horribly configured cesspool of a website. I would honestly be able to adapt and deal with it if it changed something production wise but.. it's the same exact horrible quality horribly ran livestream we have had for years. This site does not have one single redeeming quality.

So yeah.. we've been in for a rough season and I don't think it's looking to change in the next 3 events. I think how FD tackles events for the rest of this season and next will be extremely pivotal in the success/future of the series, might even make it or break it possibly. This is still leaving out a LOT of stuff, curious what people think.

Note: I don't mean for this to just be a beat down on FD, but it's really hard to watch your favorite sport.. seemingly crumple to shit more and more every year.