It's ironic but even as F1 mania swept over Singapore last weekend, with the nation hosting the motorsport's first night race, the answer appears to be "yes".
I would put the reason down as automation.
Technology - the force behind ever-more aerodynamic efficiency and horsepower - has become the Achilles' heel of the sport.
In fact, aerodynamic efficiency has become so critical to winning that teams spend tens of millions of dollars on high-tech R&D each year.
With it, cars can take corners at high speed without losing track grip and produce little drag to slow them down.
It has come to a stage where the driver's skill is overshadowed by technological prowess and enthusiasts are questioning the spirit of the sport.
What used to be drivers working the steering wheels and "manhandling" their cars around the bends is now a millisecond flash of metal chunks, they lament.
F1, it seems, is on the brink of turning into a technology race.
The dilemma over how much tech should be allowed in a sporting event is by no means confined to F1.
Even in the recent Beijing Olympics, streamlined suits to reduce friction that were used by runners and swimmers were a contentious issue.
Critics said advanced technology gave those who could afford them an unfair leg-up over other competitors.
Could the proof be in the abnormally large number of world records broken - 25 compared with eight at the Athens Olympics four years ago?
(The record-breakers had the advanced suits.)
Bringing sport back into motorsports is perhaps the reason the governing body, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), has imposed more and more restrictions.
It banned the turbocharger (which increases the air mass entering the engine for more power) in 1989. In 2006, it reduced the engine capacity from 3l to 2.4l. Last year, F1 engines were restricted to an 19,000 rpm operating limit.
From this year, traction control (for accelerating without wheel spin) is once again banned. It was first banned in 1994 but allowed later in 2001.
Also, from this year, all race teams will have to use a common electronic control unit (ECU) to help the FIA police the ban on traction control.
The ECU is a piece of hardware onboard the F1 car. Its embedded code gathers and transmits data from the 100-plus sensors in the car to the trackside team.
Factors such as suspension force, engine speed and tyre pressure are monitored by the sensors and computer-analysed real-time during a race. So the pit crew know the precise fixes to boost the car's performance.
Even with the new rules, the race is far from being a tech-free zone.
Case in point: the appointment of McLaren Electronic Systems - linked to one of the racing teams - as the sole ECU supplier created a big row.
Rival teams complained that the new ECU didn't work with their engines, while others whined about the unfair advantage it would give the McLaren team.
Technology has always been part of the sport - from the design of engines to body aerodynamics to the sensors that monitor the health of cars.
Fans, I reckon, still want innovation in F1 as advances do get filtered down to everyday vehicles.
However, more can be explored to bring the thrill of manual overtaking manoeuvres back into the sport.
What the FIA did - reducing automation in the car and capping engine throughput - is a step in the right direction. Perhaps it should also ban the use of computer analytics that enhance track performance while the race is on and limit automation to just car designs.
Only then will the legendary outer-lane manoeuvres of late French-Canadian Gilles Villeneuve at the 1979 Dutch Grand Prix live on - and not just as a memory archived on YouTube.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on Oct 1, 2008.
