Formula One starts this weekend, am I the only fan?
- Thread starter NenoFone
- Start date
That is very cool. Yes take lots of pictures. Monaco doesn't usually have the best races, although there have been surprises (remember Ligier?) But the atmosphere is the best in the world.
I would have to say I'm not much of a road course guy myself. I find the races pretty boring when NASCAR goes to Sonoma or The Glen. I agree that F1 is tough to follow, and I think that plays a part as to why I haven't really gotten into it
Love a lot of forms of racing. Sprint Cars, F1, Indy, Cup, etc. For the guy who said Tony George ruined CART. False. Penske has done more to ruin big time Open Wheel racing since the 70's by pushing for rear engine cars, which pushed Sprint Car and Silver Crown drivers out. Why I hate Penske in all forms of racing. The last 5 Indy 500's have been the best ever and it isn't even debatable.
I can never understand when a NASCAR fan or even Dirt racing fan says they don't like Road Courses. Every Oval is basically a high speed corner on a road course. Difference being there are many more turns on a road course. The Road Course race in the Xfinity series at Road America has always been very good. I think Cup should be there and at Circuit of The Americas.
Anyway I think most Cup fans also like the idea of being able to see the whole track. This doesn't usually lend itself to road course racing. I think most NASCAR fans would be in favor of a road course race at either Daytona or Charlotte especially under the lights. I think NASCAR is toying with the idea of replacing the 2018 Fall Charlotte oval race in the Playoffs with a road course race under the lights at the Charlotte Road Course.
Anyone watch qualifying? Those cars are flying compared to what we have seen the last few years. Should be an interesting start to the race tomorrow.
I forgot one draw back to NBCs F1 coverage, their absolute infatuation with Ferrari. I get it Ferrari is the giant in the sport, and Steve worked there. But come on, Mercedes have been the best for 3 straight years and Red Bull were the best for 4 years before that. Let Ferrari prove they deserve the praise before you give them a hand job on television. And I really don't have anything against Ferrari, except I am not a Vettle fan. Love Kimi. They just need to stop with their love affair. Sorry for the rant.
I forgot one draw back to NBCs F1 coverage, their absolute infatuation with Ferrari. I get it Ferrari is the giant in the sport, and Steve worked there. But come on, Mercedes have been the best for 3 straight years and Red Bull were the best for 4 years before that. Let Ferrari prove they deserve the praise before you give them a hand job on television. And I really don't have anything against Ferrari, except I am not a Vettle fan. Love Kimi. They just need to stop with their love affair. Sorry for the rant.
How did the Haas team look? I know they had a surprising start to the season last year but faded pretty quickly. Nice to have an American team to root for.
Not much change at the top end of the time charts. Similar to last year only one Hass doing well. Poor old McLaren just can't get it together, or I should say Honda can't get it together. The new cars are much faster.
Steve Matchett worked for Benetton not Ferrari. Benetton was more known for their wild liveries and Flavio Briatorre before a young man named Michael Schumacher came along and won two championships for them. He then moved to Ferrari and became the dominant force that he was. Benetton slowly faded away.
Steve Matchett worked for Benetton not Ferrari. Benetton was more known for their wild liveries and Flavio Briatorre before a young man named Michael Schumacher came along and won two championships for them. He then moved to Ferrari and became the dominant force that he was. Benetton slowly faded away.
SOB, I knew that. Doesn't change the fact that still can't help themselves from falling all over themselves if Ferrari are within a half second in qualifying.
What didn't happen is an easy question to answer. Because everything happened. Bottas and Kimi kicked it off coming together in turn two of lap one, with Bottas coming out worse, limping back to the pits being a lap down after one lap. Around lap 20 everything went nuts. I think Kyvat's car lost power and brought out a safety car, everyone jumped into the pits to get, tires, Bottas got a wave around to put him back on the lead lap, the restart happened, and after turn two the Force India's came together, during the safety car because of debris shortly following that, Hamilton was in the lead, he turns a corner slows, after the safety car has turned its lights off, Vettle runs into the back up him, then pulls along side and purposely drives into him, neither car was in bad shape following this. They restart, more carnage from bumping ensues. They red flag the race to clean the whole circuit to much debris. Crews go to work on everyone's damaged parts. They restart, got a clean one. Daniel Riccardo makes a hell of start and jumps both Williams and maybe a Haas to get to third which proved vital to him, please note at one time he was in 17th following and early than expected pitstop. Hamilton's, foam around the **** pit came loose so he has to stop to get a new one, took about 10 seconds, Right after that Vettle got his 10 second stop and go penalty for dangerous driving (ramming Hamilton under SC). Vettle gets back out in front of Hamilton but they were something like 7 and 8 or 8 and 9th. Bottas is in front of them. Final running order was Ricciardo, Bottas, passed Stroll at the line, to get 2nd, Stroll 3rd, Vettle 4th and Hamilton 5th.
It was crazy, and if you have time watch the replay on NBC Sports or on demand. I didn't list everything that happened, I hope I have it in the right order, someone can correct me if they want.
Completely bizarre couple of weeks for Ferrari. The start in Singapore and then everything that happened this weekend.
Also I can't believe the Malaysian Gov doesn't want to continue their deal with Formula 1. The Malaysian GP has always been a wildcard race and always very interesting. Whether it is the heat, the rain that can come at any time or the width of the track and 2 long straights that provide great racing, Malaysia always seems to deliver. Hate to see this race go. With that said Circuit Paul Ricard should be a great addition to the 2018 calendar
Also I can't believe the Malaysian Gov doesn't want to continue their deal with Formula 1. The Malaysian GP has always been a wildcard race and always very interesting. Whether it is the heat, the rain that can come at any time or the width of the track and 2 long straights that provide great racing, Malaysia always seems to deliver. Hate to see this race go. With that said Circuit Paul Ricard should be a great addition to the 2018 calendar
Ferrari haven't done themselves any favors the past two weeks, had it right there to close the gap. Haas is falling behind, did that last year too.
I've looked at the track map for the revised Paul Ricard. They put a chicane right in the middle of the Mistral Straight....Boo.
I've looked at the track map for the revised Paul Ricard. They put a chicane right in the middle of the Mistral Straight....Boo.
Just thought everyone who is a fan would like to know this bit of information. Not sure how I feel about it yet.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/espn-f1-rights-tv-nbc-961233/
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/espn-f1-rights-tv-nbc-961233/
I'm not a big fan of the current F1 broadcast team. Especially the goofball they send down to the grid pre-race. It really adds nothing to the broadcast and I feel it's more of a "Look what I get to do" situation, rather than getting any real information.
All it would take for me to be all on board would be to get Bob Varsha, that guy is great at calling races and really knows his stuff without being so enamored with the whole F1 mystique. The current team just seem to refer to F1 with a bit of an elitist attitude. Don't get me wrong, it's the pinnacle of motorsport for sure, but I feel to appeal to an American audience, you need to take a more middle class attitude to your broadcasts and I always felt Bob was great at that.
In the end though, it won't really matter much on the actual broadcast of the race, will it? I was always under the impression, at least it was stated in the past, that the actual broadcast was dictated straight from F1. It's not up to the channel itself who the cameras are focused on or who they are featuring, the feed comes directly from F1 and you just have to comment on what you see. It would be nice if ESPN had the muscle to direct their own broadcast. There is a lot of good racing that goes on back in the pack usually, but the F1 Broadcasts tend to only focus on the front runners, weather they are in a tight race or 10 seconds ahead of everyone else.
You are right F1 controls what you see of the race. I feel they have done a little better job with this, this year. Just last race, the finally cut to Verstappen out front and one of them in the booth cracked the "well who is that" joke because it had been so long since they showed the leader. Of course, they were following Vettel through the field as he was coming through, but they show quite a bit of the racing that goes on from 6 - 12 this year.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see what comes of it. Also NBC's comments seem to make it likely we are getting a streaming service of some kind directly from F1. Which I guess we will see what that is.
Is anyone going to watch Mercedes win a 6th straight title? While I am not a fan of Ferrari (mainly because I don't like Vettel) I was hoping we would have a good scrap at the top of the constructors this year. Not sure that is going to happen based on qualifying today.
