The dangers revealed by F1's best 'worst' season

Ever since Lewis Hamilton hit his stride with a run of four straight victories from the Spanish to the French Grands Prix, there has been little doubt about where this year's Formula 1 drivers' championship title is heading.

Mercedes was so supremely dominant at the start of the campaign and, as Valtteri Bottas has not quite able to find enough to topple his team-mate consistently, it's been clear for some time that only the most remarkable amount of misfortune will stop Hamilton ending the year with a sixth crown.

You could be forgiven for thinking that with such an obvious outcome on the cards, many fans would switch off their televisions and go to follow something else.

But instead, F1 has been finding the opposite. Television audiences are up in a lot of major markets, social media engagement is booming, website traffic is climbing. People want more and more F1. Rather than being turned off by a practically non-existent title fight, they are excited.

It's been the best 'worst' season. And the reason why is simple: unpredictable racing.

Yes, the championship battle has not really been much of a talking point, but people have been drawn in by the three-way fights between Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari at recent races - a battle that has swung backwards and forwards since just before the summer break.

As both Red Bull and Ferrari have found their feet with upgrades that brought their cars alive, so too Mercedes has found itself facing more pressure. It's been unable to respond to Ferrari's power advantage, finding itself on the backfoot in qualifying yet having a stronger race car.

Throw a bit of friction between the two Ferrari drivers into the mix too, and the ingredients have been perfect for ensuring that whichever track F1 goes to it's not easy to predict which team is going to come out on top. It's enough to make people tune in to find out what will happen next.

Form fluctuations have been seen in the midfield too, where the fight for 'best of the rest' has had even more twists and turns than the battle at the front.

It has produced some classic moments, such as that monumental last lap battle between Romain Grosjean, Carlos Sainz Jr, Lance Stroll and Daniel Ricciardo in Singapore - which is one of the most spectacular two minutes of F1 action you could possibly want. If you haven't seen the onboard footage yet, go hunt it out - it's worth it.

This season has been made because of gaps between the teams closing up, and cars being developed over time to give them strengths and weaknesses that lead to fluctuations in form

The huge fan interest sparked by that sequence, which was not caught on television at the time, even prompted Sainz to suggest that midfield drivers are a bit miffed at their best moments being ignored.

"Many midfield drivers have complained about it," he said last weekend. "It's not only me. I was talking to a few of them the other day, we can clearly see a few battles they are missing.

"It's something I've been very critical about and something I think every midfield driver has been critical about. We feel like the fans are missing out on a lot of battles in the midfield, many of them you don't get at the front."

But if F1's vision for a future without a two-tier grid comes off, then what was missed live in Singapore could become the norm in the future.

The perfect scenario for F1 is that the revenue shake-up that is coming longer term will bring the top teams and the midfield pack closer together. The hope is that if the gulf between Class A and Class B can be eradicated, then 2019 may not be a patch on what is to come.

This season is the way it is because gaps between the teams have closed up, and the way cars have been developed over time to give them strengths and weaknesses that lead to fluctuations in form.

It points to the top three getting even closer next year, which could result in a campaign in which the racing is as good as this season, but there is also a much more open championship battle involving a handful of drivers.

But a chance of even better things has highlighted potential dangers on the horizon.

If 2020 really is so good, then is F1 doing the right thing with such a dramatic overhaul for '21? Sure, the financial make-up of money distribution in F1 desperately needs fixing, but if the grid keeps closing up from where it is now, is it really necessary to rip up everything and start afresh with all the risks that brings?

After all, new rules often end up handing one team a huge advantage, and then it takes time for others to catch up. It's a sequence that's been repeated so many times in F1.

It is something Racing Point's Sergio Perez is wary of - that F1 could be biting off too much in its desperation to fix problems that are not as bad as some have made out.

Asked in Russia about ongoing discussions between teams, F1 and the FIA over the 2021 rules, Perez said: "If they listen to the teams, they'll never improve the sport. They have to stop listening to the teams and just focus on bringing the grid together.

"We try to change so much, it can only go wrong. I think we prove to everyone in the midfield how good the races can be without changing anything. What they have to focus on, is just to make sure they bring the whole grid together. That's the important thing they should do."

The ebbs and flows of a close fight between several teams has made F1 2019 truly exciting, irrespective of the title battle. It's taught us one thing: get the racing sorted, and get several teams in the mix, and that's all anyone wants to watch.