No F1 thread?

[NotoriousREV]

I think Perez is a pretty good driver contrary to what most other people seem to think!

He’s done well for himself.

[Mito Man]

[GG.]

Saw this yesterday - very funny.

[Orange Cola]

Link dead.

[Mito Man]

Link dead.

Press play then click to play on YouTube... It’s not rocket science, all FOM stuff can only be viewed through their official channels.

[Pete_]

That's great.

The official F1 Youtube has been good this year.

[Orange Cola]

Testing has started. Ferrari are said to be looking strong, Merc are trying too hard at sandbagging and Williams have excelled themselves in finding a way of being worse than last year. Some reports coming through that’s it’s awful to work at Williams at the moment.

[Mito Man]

I caught some of the highlights on Sky - Hamilton spent a few laps following a car to see how the car handled and surprise surpise it’s no different to last year from what he could tell. The DRS slot is now so big that we will get plenty of overtaking but it is predicted to all happen on the straights as there’s not much incentive risking a fight in the corners.
Midfield fight should be good this year as all the cars seem to have exceptionally reliability bar the turd that is Williams - won’t be surprised if they end up requiring a bail out mid season.
Honda seem to have got their shit together. Finally.
I reckon much like last year Ferrari will have the better car and kill off their own chances.

[duncs500]

I caught some of the highlights on Sky - Hamilton spent a few laps following a car to see how the car handled and surprise surpise it’s no different to last year from what he could tell. The DRS slot is now so big that we will get plenty of overtaking but it is predicted to all happen on the straights as there’s not much incentive risking a fight in the corners.
Midfield fight should be good this year as all the cars seem to have exceptionally reliability bar the turd that is Williams - won’t be surprised if they end up requiring a bail out mid season.
Honda seem to have got their shit together. Finally.
I reckon much like last year Ferrari will have the better car and kill off their own chances.

Surely if that happened they'd just shorten the DRS zones to keep it from being too much of an advantage?

[Mito Man]

I thought the DRS was strong enough last year with most overtakes with DRS happening long before the braking zone so to see the flap made even bigger is surprising.

[Richard]

Maybe let’s not watch f1 and stick to BTCC instead

Shorter races for those with poor attention spans (me)
Different looking cars
They mix the grids for actual excitement
Accessible drivers
You can watch it in person for relative peanuts
They televise the excellent support races
It’s on free to broadcast TV

[Rich B]

Maybe let’s not watch f1 and stick to BTCC instead

Shorter races for those with poor attention spans (me)
Different looking cars
They mix the grids for actual excitement
Accessible drivers
You can watch it in person for relative peanuts
They televise the excellent support races
It’s on free to broadcast TV

Sounds like the same sort of arguments that people offer for watching women’s football.

I’ve been to loads of BTCC races and watched plenty more on TV over the years, but it still isn’t enough to properly hold my attention for whole seasons in the same way F1 does. Especially these days when it’s all private teams in hatchbacks. Back in the 80/90s with manufacturer teams it was way more interesting (because you could support the team who drove the car your dad drove!)

[integrale_evo]

Btcc is fun, but far from perfect. I preferred it when the cars looked more like the cars people actually drove rather than random bodykits and drive train layouts which don't match the real versions.

I hate the reverse grid race too, it goes against what sport should be, the best should be at the front on merit.

And being almost all privately entered teams, a lot of drives seem to be about who's mummy and daddy are richest instead of an active talent based drivers market other than a handful of drivers.

[Mito Man]

I saw BTCC at Brands and found it quite underwhelming if I’m honest. Blancpain and DTM were much more impressive as a spectator. Truck racing is probably the best thing I’ve seen round there.

Must say I really like Lando and Max since they’re quite relatable in that they spend their free time messing about gaming and seem like decent guys. If you have any experience with iracing then it’s pretty mind boggling watching Lando do a flying lap whilst reading the chat and texting and going about 2 seconds a lap faster than your best effort

[Pete_]

Having Channel 4 only broadcast highlights from this year on kinda sucks; I've never been able to get excited about watching races that aren't live. If Channel 4 can up the game with their highlights shows, which up to now have been considerably worse productions than their live shows, I might continue paying some attention this year... but otherwise this will likely be the first year since I started watching F1 properly aged 11 that I don't follow the sport.

[Mito Man]

There’s a twitter outrage going on as it appears that Sky F1 has a new boss who is a cunt resulting in Ted Kravitz and Anthony Davidson walking out and being replaced by Karun and Button. I was wondering where Ted was during testing and why Karun was doing his role - his weird accent still annoys me. He keeps switching from 100% posh English to full Indian on a word by word basis! Pick one or the other man!

[NotoriousREV]

Davidson leaving is particularly bad because it means we’ll end up with Paul Di Resta trying to explain things when he can barely string a sentence together.

Re: F1 vs BTCC. I didn’t realise I was only allowed to watch one or the other. I’ve been breaking the rules for years.

[Simon]

I've given up on F1. The death knell was signalled when they only started showing half the full race, then the move to Channel 4, now suddenly 'freeview' doesn't get any full races. What's the point in a sport I can't watch properly?

[NotoriousREV]

I've given up on F1. The death knell was signalled when they only started showing half the full race, then the move to Channel 4, now suddenly 'freeview' doesn't get any full races. What's the point in a sport I can't watch properly?

You can watch it properly, you just choose not to.

[Simon]

Correct - We don't have Sky. I'd never choose to pay money to Murdoch and I particularly wouldn't pay hundreds of pounds a year just to access one sport that's disappeared up its own arse.