Did any of you guys go to races this past year? My friends and I thought the sound of the new Turbo V6 was pretty disappointing. Looks like Bernie wants the "power units" changed again, seems like he wants to go back to a more lively sound. What do you all think? Do you like the newer, quieter engines? I miss the shriek of the cars, but at the same time, it was nice to be able to have a conversation with the guys during the race. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2293 ... -formula-1
Didn't make it to any races last year myself, but am hoping to make it to Montreal this coming year. Having raced turbos in the past I have a bit of a soft spot for the muffled sound they produce... to me, all that loud noise is just energy that hasn't been harnessed. Sure, it's awe inspiring when they're that loud, but it's not a big deal to me that they're quieter. More than anything I want to see how they're going to handle the dwindling grid... that was the talk that totally overshadowed the last few races of the year.
With Marussia and Caterham gone, I'm not sure about the Bonus payouts at the end of the year. I understand they're performance based, but shouldn't they make it more of a "profit sharing" thing, just to keep some of the more economically challenged teams in the sport? American Sports do this all the time to balance out the money deficit with small market teams. Also, Haas is starting a team in 2016, which should be interesting. There were rumors of allowing teams to add another car to increase the number of cars out there. Have you heard if there's anything to that?
There were a lot of crazy stories floating around the paddock. It sounded like they wanted the major teams to run a third car that could be "borrowed" by the "poor" teams, and all sorts of "what-if" bullshit to try and figure something out. The big thing was that Bernie didn't keep to his "low cost" formula, and the raw development costs sunk most of those teams. I usually wait until the first week of racing to catch up on everything, otherwise you'd just go insane trying to keep track of the rumors.
Me too, but I was watching "Rush" and kind of got the bug. Also, my friends that go with me to Austin every year were at my party last night, and we drunk talked about this coming year.
I don't give a shit about the sound. I'm well passed the point in my life to go to live sporting events. I've been to a couple F1 races, and what you sacrifice just to see in live time, is massively diminished by watching at home. I can remember seeing the my last F1 race at Indy years ago, having seats right on the straight, and thinking I'd never go back to a live race again. And I used to live at the infield during the week prior to the Indy 500. The only live racing event I would go to would be NHRA. Its fucking awesome and its all right in front of you. Although I do have a hankering to go get drunk in Mexico at watch a Baja race. But I'd never do it. Because you know. Mexicans of course. I'm joking..... Its because that entire country looks like a fucking open septic tank. I'm real interested to see what happens with Haas. I'd like to figure out why they chose Ferrari engines? I know Mercedes power is the soup de jour these days, which makes why they'd choose Ferrari to me strange? I mean at least with Mclaren they knew they were switching to Honda before anyone knew how good Mercedes power was going to be.
Three races I have no problem attending in person any time: 1 - F1 Race in Montreal. Been there a few times, and the race is almost an afterthought. Montreal during race week is an incredible time. 2 - 24 Hours of Le Mans. 3 - 24 Hours of Daytona. Competed in it many times, but will always want to attend, even as a spectator. You just cannot capture that atmosphere and team interaction on TV. 4? - GoodWood Festival of Speed. As for other races; "meh". I'll enjoy them equally either in person or televised, but have no real preference.
New points system to determine an experience level to keep the young kids out of F1. http://m.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/117281 Doesn't start until 2016, so it looks like Verstappen is grandfathered in. Personally I think this is less of an issue than the pay to drive guys.
2015 season starts in 15 minutes if anyone is still awake. I was quite surprised to see Mclaren on the back row. I was more surprised to see only 18 entries for the race. It looks like the recession has finally caught up to F1.
Yeah, watched the qualifying today, and holy shit did that blow chunks for Button. He's just trying to finish the race, period. I don't know if he's ever started 2nd last on the grid before. I won't actually watch the race until tomorrow after I download the Sky coverage, but I'm looking forward to it.
I wonder how many people are still questioning Hamilton's move? You have to think Button is doing a lot of "what-if" right now. It's going to be interesting to see how things shake out this year... it felt like this was the shakiest start to an F1 season that I've seen in a long, long time. Also going to be interested to see how Vettel and Kimi get along as teammates, or if there will be any fallout due to the opening lap bumping. Just glad the season has started... should be a fun year.
Its actually amazing how well he timed the move to Petronas. What I find more amazing is that Mclaren switching to Honda away from a Mercedes powerplant when they are well ahead of other manufacturer's for the last two years. What the fuck did they expect was going to happen? Did they think they were going to have an advantage on the other teams who had a years worth of experience with the new engine changes? I thought it was embarrassing for the sport to have 12 fucking cars finish a race. If 3 more cars DNF'd Jules Bianchi would have scored a point.
Mclaren made the switch to Honda for financial reasons. They were having to buy Mercedes engines where as Honda is giving them their engines and doing the development work on them to boot. When you consider Mclaren has a long previous history with Honda, it was a no brainer. Honda may struggle this year with their engines, but make no mistake, they will learn and adapt and in less time than you think they will have the best power plant going. I hate Honda, mostly cause I fear what they can do when motivated in racing.
Yeah, there is no doubt at all that Honda can build an engine, eventually... I'm just really, really surprised they came out of the gate that bad. Bad, as in "we haven't finished a race length yet" bad. I think it's going to be interesting to see how far they get this year, and whether or not they're at all competitive near the end of the season. Hopefully they'll get their shit together in the first few races and be in contention at the end, but we'll see.
Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend. The race will be on Saturday night due to international date line shit and all. Just stay up a little later on Saturday night to watch. Hamilton led the first practice.
Ferrari are looking quite racy too - if Kimi had gotten more fortunate with his timing of the weather, he would've been on the 2nd or 3rd row of the grid. Williams are in a bit of trouble if it rains. I think Honda will have a competitive engine after the 5th or 6th race this season as they have improved a LOT between Australia and Malaysia - they're now only a few tenths off Q2, as opposed to 2+ seconds in Australia, which probably explains Ron Dennis' wry smile at the end. Manor/Marussia will struggle to make the grid at all in my opinion.
It's almost surreal to see Kimi, Button, and Alonso all knocked out so early. Some of that footage with the monster bolt lightning going on nearby was pretty incredible. And yeah, Vettel was looking really solid in that Ferrari. Looking forward to the race.
Just starting in on the F1 race from last night/this morning, and am watching the SkyF1 pre-race. Watching a segment now with Brundle going through the pole-setting lap with Lewis Hamilton. Very, very interesting stuff... I don't think I've ever seen them do that before, and as a grassroots race driver, it's fucking interesting as hell to hear him break down the lap. Hope they do more of that in future races.
Very entertaining race. It looks like itmight be more than a fight between teammates this year in F 1. I am no Vettel fan by any means, but he drove a smart race and certainly deserved the win.