...and it never improved after that
It's not a 'race' when you know before the start the grid leaders are statistically the likeliest winners, and that 80% of the fielf have less than a 5% chance of winning. The top teams will take turns in winning as usual, and when one of the 5% gets on the podium a big fuss is made of it, but it's usually because so many of the faster cars either broke, crashed or spun off in the rain.
If it was a horse race, and you used the same horses for 18 races through the year, people would just be bored sick by the end of it seeing the same Class animals winning .... and the handicapper would be shot.