F1 Thread, 2015 season, sponsored by MardyBum

[arbboy]

Nothing more than WWE on wheels imo.  Haven't watched a race or took any interest in the sport since someone was told to pull over and let his team mate through to win on the final lap (can't remember who or when).  Also remember a comical race in 2005 when i was working in Antigua when only 6 cars took part because of some tyre issue/legal dispute.

[The Camel]

I love it to bits

off the track there are characters, intrigue , politics and skullduggery

on it (and there is nothing like being there to appreciate the noise, smell and atmosphere) there are good and bad races, just like there are good and bad matches in any sport and it certainly helps if weather jumbles things up

who can forget jenson button going from last to first in Canada?

Hamilton winning the title on the last corner at interlagos?

now of course there is plenty wrong with the sport and it currently lacks some competitive depth but it is ironic that this conversation has sprung up 24 ghours after the biggest surprise win in many years

with the exception of the US Sports NFL, NBA, MLB etc which all structure to provide competitive balance, a lot of sports are less competitive than they were because of the huge tv deals which create bigger inequalities in acquistion of talent.

in F1s case this is not only drivers, but engineers, designers, wind tunnels, factories, engines etc etc

I have long thought F1 is complete sham, but I moved to post because the extreme levels of excitement and consternation which someone other than the favourite daring to win a race provided.

US sports have it exactly right.

Profit sharing and competitive balance is the only way to provide entertaining sporting contests and seasons.

Whether the big teams would ever allow it is another matter.

[hector62]

Tighty.

I didn't see any of this weeks GP. Can I ask you what were the 2 best bits for you? From the report I read it seemed that the most exciting thing was when Lewis Hamilton's pit used the radio accidently when he was driving round a corner.

[TightEnd]

Tighty.

I didn't see any of this weeks GP. Can I ask you what were the 2 best bits for you? From the report I read it seemed that the most exciting thing was when Lewis Hamilton's pit used the radio accidently when he was driving round a corner.

(i agree with the camel on American sports by the way. the use of salary caps, drafts, free agency and equal division of tv deals produces the genuine opportunity for teams to go from bottom of the pile to the top in reasonable timeframes)

to answer your question

a) team strategies around the first safety car was the ley moment in the race
b) the realisation at the final pit stop that mercedes had it wrong, had no softer tyres to put on hamilton and that vettel would hold on


its quite a cerebral sport really, a lot of strategy

the first race in australia was a stinker, admittedly

this race, by virtue of it being a tyre limited track, produced a lot of complexity

[DungBeetle]

Oh for the days of Senna, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Jim Clark, James Hunt and Emerson Fittipaldi.

It all started to go downhill when Mansell hit the top. From Schumacher onwards it has been a snoozefest.

It's not all bad.  I bet you'd have a good night out with Kobyashi, Eddie Irvine and Montoya.

[AndrewT]

A big appeal of Formula 1 was, sadly, that someone might die.

Not necessarily in the ghoulish sense, but that here were a group of guys lining up at the start of a race in which there was a significant non-zero chance that they weren't going to finish it, which engendered a feeling of, at the least respect, if not awe. They were the gladiators of their day.

Now, despite the fact that accidents still happen, it's all so sanitized that we berate Hamilton for acting like a dick, because we don't feel as though he's earned it by putting his life on the line.

[nirvana]

its quite a cerebral sport really

Think this is right, terrific brain RAM to find something interesting about it. Once you've seen a stupidly fast pitstop on youtube I think we're all done.

My bro clutters up facebook with all kinds of insanely boring posts on practice and racedays - he's an otherwise fun and intelligent guy. Known him all my life but there's this fundamentally boreass part of him I'm never gonna get. Everyone around the sport is a bit like everyone around golf as well - just stupendously dull.

[neeko]

I have always enjoyed F1 and still do, but I find horse racing pointless, as a Rory Bremner sketch once described it, it's a horse, followed by a horse, then a horse, and of another horse - yawn.

[The Camel]

I have always enjoyed F1 and still do, but I find horse racing pointless, as a Rory Bremner sketch once described it, it's a horse, followed by a horse, then a horse, and of another horse - yawn.

LOLZ and motor racing isn't a car (the same car that was in 1st last race) from a car (the same car that was in 2nd last race) then a car (the same car that was in 3rd last race) etc etc and etc.?

[david3103]

I have always enjoyed F1 and still do, but I find horse racing pointless, as a Rory Bremner sketch once described it, it's a horse, followed by a horse, then a horse, and of another horse - yawn.

LOLZ and motor racing isn't a car (the same car that was in 1st last race) from a car (the same car that was in 2nd last race) then a car (the same car that was in 3rd last race) etc etc and etc.?

Seems to me that both motor racing and horse racing originated from a desire to prove that my horse/car is faster than your horse/car.
Horse racing mutated into a vehicle for gambling, whilst motor racing mutated into a vehicle for advertising.

[tikay]

I have always enjoyed F1 and still do, but I find horse racing pointless, as a Rory Bremner sketch once described it, it's a horse, followed by a horse, then a horse, and of another horse - yawn.

LOLZ and motor racing isn't a car (the same car that was in 1st last race) from a car (the same car that was in 2nd last race) then a car (the same car that was in 3rd last race) etc etc and etc.?

Keith,

If it were not for the betting aspect, would you watch, & could you say it was interesting, all-weather horse racing from, say, Southwell or Wolverhampton?

I don't need to bet to enjoy Cheltenham, Royal Ascot & so on. It's a wonderful spectacle in every way. But all-weather at Southwell?.........

[TightEnd]

World champion Lewis Hamilton expects to sign a new Mercedes contract this week that could be worth more than £27m a year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula-one/32124091

might be a 7 out of 10 happy day the day he does

Click to see full-size image.

[Oxford_HRV]

I've got to take my hat off to verstappen the kid is a pure talent I still can't believe he's only 18 in September! FIA made it illegal to be under 18 now to have a super licence so this kid will be in a HOF of his own.

Alonsos start as an F1 driver at Minardi albeit 19yrs old qualified 19th and placed 12th which back then in the era was incred an he was in top 3 youngest drivers ever, kimi raikonnen joined this year as well and they both came out to be world champions.

Alonso is the best driver out there strangely enough, and gets the money for it. But he is incredibly hard to work with under strict management cus he's such a boss and does what he wants, even though he is always in a slower car its hilarious actually how tough he makes it for faster teams to get past. The real discussion within F1 communities now is how, well, ill say it lightly "easy" the cars are to drive, vs back when alonso started 2001 with imo the best set up ever, the 7spd semi auto V10s that were insane! Then the engine output restrictions that came in from 2005 mean that still today most of the fastest lap records around F1 circuits are from 2004.


http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/12/03/fia-moves-block-future-verstappens-f1-age-limit/

[Tal]

Lewis Hamilton: “I wasn’t controlling his race, I was controlling my own race. A great race, though, I’m really happy. Definitely going into the race I thought it would be a lot closer. We knew that the Ferraris were very good with their long-run pace and also looking after their tyres, so today the real goal was to manage the tyres.

 “As I said, my goal was to look after my own car. I had no real threat from Nico through the whole race.”

Nico Rosberg: “It’s interesting to hear from you Lewis that you were just thinking about yourself with the pace. Unnecessarily that was compromising my race, because driving slower than was maybe necessary at the beginning of stints meant that Sebastian was very close to me and that opened up the opportunity for Sebastian to try that early pit-stop, to try and jump me.

“I was unnecessarily close to Sebastian as a result and it cost me race time as a result.”

Interviewer asks, "Lewis, do you want to respond to that?"

Lewis Hamilton: “Not really. It’s not my job to look after Nico’s race. My job is to manage the car and bring the car home as fast as possible and that’s what I did. I didn’t do anything intentionally to slow the cars up.”

[tikay]

Lewis Hamilton: “I wasn’t controlling his race, I was controlling my own race. A great race, though, I’m really happy. Definitely going into the race I thought it would be a lot closer. We knew that the Ferraris were very good with their long-run pace and also looking after their tyres, so today the real goal was to manage the tyres.

 “As I said, my goal was to look after my own car. I had no real threat from Nico through the whole race.”

Nico Rosberg: “It’s interesting to hear from you Lewis that you were just thinking about yourself with the pace. Unnecessarily that was compromising my race, because driving slower than was maybe necessary at the beginning of stints meant that Sebastian was very close to me and that opened up the opportunity for Sebastian to try that early pit-stop, to try and jump me.

“I was unnecessarily close to Sebastian as a result and it cost me race time as a result.”

Interviewer asks, "Lewis, do you want to respond to that?"

Lewis Hamilton: “Not really. It’s not my job to look after Nico’s race. My job is to manage the car and bring the car home as fast as possible and that’s what I did. I didn’t do anything intentionally to slow the cars up.”

That was amazing stuff, but to be fair, Lewis was completely correct imo.

The pit to car message "speed up or else" was quite interesting, too. Wish we had heard Lewis's reply.