I think the tyres, the lack of refueling, the engine restrictions, gearbox restrictions, the shorter practice sessions, tyre-set restrictions, no spare-cars, lack of in-season testing and many other regulations that have been brought in since 2002 have all been for the better. Why? Because they have all made F1 more challenging for the teams.
Gone are the days when the teams had everything under control and the teams with the best resources and most money (Ferrari) could use that to their advantage. Gone are the days when you could go flat out all the time and if you crashed, wrecked an engine or a gearbox, everything would be fine. Drivers have to take more care not to cock up, because stuffing your car in the wall during FP3 can have a massive impact on the rest of your race weekend (Alonso, Monaco 2010) and teams now have to make sure their equipment doesn't break down on them, because they will suffer for it. This, for me, is a good thing. It makes competing in F1 much more difficult and means that success is earned, not bought.
If F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport, I think it should be the most difficult and challenging form of international circuit racing there is. The lack of testing has been another good thing, because teams can no longer 'perfect' their cars before a race. There's now an element of 'this upgrade might not even work at all' and that, again, is a good thing as that makes it even more vital to get it right first time. I think having a small number of official tests in-season is a good thing, but only two or three at set points in the season at the most.
Ultimately, I'm as happy with how F1 is now as I've ever been. Having lived through the Ferrari domination years of 2000-2004, I never ever want to have to go through a time where not only is the winner virtually guaranteed from the start of Friday, but there's minimal competition throughout the field too. I'm loving F1 2012 and hoping there's more of the same to come for the rest of the season.
