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2017 F1 Chat Thread


Ebized

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So why no gravel traps anymore, safety or cost to repair cars, being cynical i would say its the latter under the guise of the former, to me track limits should mean track limits, not some huge tarmac area where there really isnt too much penalty for running off the track. The ruling is a bit vague too, some places they seem happy as long as they dont deem it a time advantage, as Ekona says, just make it simple, all wheels off the "track limit" every corner at every track, 5 sec penalty.

 

I know i bang on about MotoGp when it comes to F1, but if anyone has the inclination, check out the weekend just gone race at Philip Island, simply stunning motorsport!

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15 minutes ago, Jetpilot said:

So why no gravel traps anymore, safety or cost to repair cars, being cynical i would say its the latter under the guise of the former, to me track limits should mean track limits, not some huge tarmac area where there really isnt too much penalty for running off the track. The ruling is a bit vague too, some places they seem happy as long as they dont deem it a time advantage, as Ekona says, just make it simple, all wheels off the "track limit" every corner at every track, 5 sec penalty.

From what I saw on Sunday every car would had at least one 5 second penalty for off track stuff - it was ...... free for all until the last vital moment for Max  and even Kimi, who is usually quick to complain, had no issue with it.

 

More seriously, with the new powers of F1 and the US hosts trying to make race weekend more entertaining I suspect they were cringing when they saw that an 'official', who cannot be challenged, effectively destroyed the outcome most at the track thought had occurred and given its been hard going to get the US public on board with F1, I expect that was in the back of Max's mind when he made his comment in the heat of the moment - as unfortunate as it was.

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2 minutes ago, Ebized said:

even Kimi, who is usually quick to complain, had no issue with it.

Excellent point, normally Moaning Kimi would be whinging like mental if he saw even the slightest thing wrong. That he didn't (that I'm aware of) screams volumes, as does the fact he backed off like crazy after Max went past and nearly didn't get 3rd despite the 5sec penalty! He thought he'd been done fairly and just gave up.

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1 hour ago, Jetpilot said:

So why no gravel traps anymore, safety or cost to repair cars, being cynical i would say its the latter under the guise of the former

Safety is a fair one, they are far from the best way of stopping a car and can cause them to flip, I think a lot of it is to avoid safety cars too as youd have one everytime a car went in. 


For me its pretty straightforward, if there had been a wall there ......... 

 

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I genuinely believe that Ferrari need F1 more than F1 need Ferrari.

 

F1 coped just fine with McLaren being sh*t for the last few years, it'd cope perfectly well with no Ferrari if they threw their toys out of the pram. Who knows, less money to them would mean more money to give to other teams so we could see more competitive racing.

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I think its less about racing and more about money coming in through prestige and marketability and the like not about performance. F1 is all about image, it just doesn't shout as loud with its standard bearers being Mercedes or Red Bull than it does if its got Ferrari on there and Ferrari knows it. If Ferrari left, what if Toyota stepped in with a works team, had tonnes more money than all the smaller teams, it doesn't guarantee competitiveness at all in my view and quite easily could just swap one team out for another.

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I was looking at the 2017 payments ( https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/129388/formula-1-team-payments-for-2017-revealed ) and basically if the money was divided equally then even the lowest team would be getting $94M which is $45M more than they got this year. Ferrari got more than Mercedes despite finishing third in the championship!

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Because more sponsors and TV revenue comes in because of the bigger teams being present, companies are not really looking to be associated with Toro Rosso when Ferrari and Mercedes are on the scene. Its the same for so many sports, the bigger players get more money. Say football, its slightly different as an attending fan of a club goes to watch their club rather than the whole league each weekend, but fan base and marketing spend of fans of bigger clubs is going to massively outweigh the smaller ones - if fans attending formula 1 had to say who they were supporting its likely in many cases to be one of Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull or McLaren  - thats why they are spending their money. Thats why Ferrari have power, because they know their appeal is what keeps fans coming in to watch, to buy tshirts and caps, to pay subscription TV and so on.

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  • 5 weeks later...
On 2 August 2017 at 17:16, Ebized said:

Not bad for someone who has lost part of his right arm and not been in F1 for 6 years..........yes we could see Kubica in F1 again - a guy with so much natural talent:

 

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/131089/kubica-fourth-on-test-return-vettel-quickest

 

B)

Latest informed update with Kubica scheduled to do two days of tyre testing post the Abu Dhabi race this coming weekend:

 

http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/opinion/f1/kubica-deal-delayed-paperwork

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Hey guys,

 

I recently had an epic road trip in the USA where i helped my Dad move from New York to Texas.  We drove a U-Haul van 2000 miles in 43 hours non-stop.

 

Anyway, my Dad was relocating to Austin, Tx and we managed to plan the move for the same time as the F1 at COTA.  I was sat in the GA area at the first corner.  The view was absolutely fantastic.  Its true what they say about the first corner - i couldn't believe how steep the run up to it was.

 

The highlight for me was being able to watch the podium celebrations and seeing Bill Clinton and Usain Bolt up there... and seeing all the goings on in the pit lane etc.

 

Check out some pics and a video of the start, below.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmavUVQZErg

 

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Edited by marzman
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Well, if we are doing reviews ......... :lol:

I went to the British GP, we work closely with the company that operates the heliport and they supplied us some passes for the weekend, nice one :) 
I should probably add at this point that as well a few bike and car race meets a year I go to the LM24 every year so comparisons were going to be difficult to avoid.  

Got there about an hour before qually started on the Saturday so found some hospitality inbetween Copse and Maggots, turns out it was the most expensive there, result :lol:
First sight of the cars and got quite excited, they looked very cool, and once they started running you could see they were quick but the noise was  quite frankly rubbish, a decent trackday sounds better. They highlighted this fact beautifully by running the old 2 seat V10 cars immediately after qualifying, you could actually see the crowd reacting to them, why cant it sound like that anymore? Even the GP2 and GP3 cars actually sound like racing cars ......
Cant say qually was particularly exciting but then you wouldnt expect it to be, fair enough but I wouldnt pay even £10 just to watch that.  

Onto raceday - apparently Siverstone were clamping down on passholders being places they shouldnt be ;) so we stayed at the Heliport and ended up watching the race from the top of a Fire Engine with a crate of beer - very cool, but even from our elevated position you could still only see about 150 yards of track. We were sat down at Club which watching back was where all the "action" was but realistically we saw Danny Ric nailing a few people on the inside, Lewis and Max having a tussle and not a lot else to write home about. 

By the end of the race we had moved to the infield heliport so could see a lot more track but it was pretty processional, we only knew the race had finished via the (excellent) F1 App, at LM you can hear the roar for miles! 

The verdict? Good weekend but I dont think Id go again with hospitality and I dont think Id pay for it either. 
When the races arent that stimulating even on the TV they arent going to be any better in real life, add huge number of spectators and  dull sounding cars and Id rather be at a clubman meet or a bike race TBH.
It doesnt come close to LM - we see over 40 hours of track action with constant overtaking, varied cars, battles all over the track and an atmosphere that you just dont get at an airfield in Towcester.  
We checked and the hospitality we were in was over £2K per person for the weekend, for 80 minutes of quiet cars following each other round a track thats mental, quite frankly. 

Ive no doubt other circuits offer a better view, better VFM or even better racing but as an event ........ naaah. Go to one to say you did it, then watch WEC/MotoGP/Classic/RallyX/BSB or just about anything else for your entertainment :)
 

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I don't understand why anyone bothers going to Silverstone for the British GP at all. I can't think of a race I'd like to go to less: Literally any of the other F1 circuits appeal much more. As you point out Doc, it's ridiculously expensive there too, so why bother? But then, after LM everything is a bit disappointing :lol:

 

COTA, on the other hand, looks absolutely immense B)

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Well yeah, there is that :lol:

 

Why Joe Public spend £££ going there though and treat it like it's the Best Race Ever, I've no idea. I'd be quite happy for it to fall off the calendar, at least that way they might have a rethink about improving it rather than just raping wallets.

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1 hour ago, Ekona said:

Well yeah, there is that :lol:

 

Why Joe Public spend £££ going there though and treat it like it's the Best Race Ever, I've no idea. I'd be quite happy for it to fall off the calendar, at least that way they might have a rethink about improving it rather than just raping wallets.

Because Lewis! :yahoo:

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Yeah, I went to Silverstone too this year.  It was pretty boring to be fair.  We were sat at Stowe so got a great view of Vettel's flat tyre on the last lap, but other than that it was fairly disappointing.  I genuinely fell asleep during the race.  Shows how quiet the cars are.

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