Exactly, been watching since 1994, before DRS and budget caps it had whole seasons where a team would dominate with cars almost 1s faster per lap than others, and the only thing keeping the championship a little entertaining was the reliability failures.

Teams running 3 different engines during a weekend between qualification/race while others only had money for 1 engine every few races. Teams that could outspend other teams by a factor of 10 sometimes, quite ridiculous.

I wish cars to get smaller, these behemoths really crowd narrow historical tracks such as Suzuka, the 2026 regs seem to be taming the size of the cars and I hope it's a direction they continue for the next formula changes.

Reliability was such a huge wild card!

I would say Ferrari, in their post-2000 domination, were the first team to make reliability not a factor, for the most part.

M Schumacher still holds the record for most consecutive podium finishes, 19 (!), across the 2001-2002 seasons:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Formula_One_driver_rec...

Ironically, one reliability mishap arguably cost them the 2006 season.