Formula One anybody?

[jasc15]

I decided I wanted to start watching formula one.  Prior to this weekend, I watched replays of the Belgian, Italian and Azerbaijan Grand Prix races from this season.  I've become somewhat familiar with the top teams/drivers and watched today's Singapore Grand Prix.  If you're a fan, I don't need to tell you about this race, but the resulting drama is enough to keep me interested.

Are there enough fans to keep a discussion thread active here?

[PowerSlave]

I'm a huge open wheel racing fan (sprint cars, super modified and some indy car). I've never really got into formula one very much, though. But I'll probably follow along if there's an active discussion.

[ReaperKK]

I've been meaning to try and get into F1 for a while now. I think I'll enjoy it, I used to love watching MotoGP

[MirrorMask]

I'm a very casual fan. Being italian it's in my culture to root for Ferrari, but I never watch full races. Only the beginning, and boy, what a major clusterfuck was yesterday's in Singapore.

[Nekov]

I've been watching F1 for a couple of years now and actually attended the Belgian GP while I was on vacation. I started watching several years back when Mika Hakkinen was running for McLaren and I became a fan of them. My interest dropped at some point but in recent years it's picked up again. On one hand I like that Ferrari was able to come back from a few years of disaster because they're being able to dispute the championship with Mercedes and that makes it a little more fun however I expect some other teams to be better next year in order for it to be even more competitive.
Singapore's race was crazy, that first lap with 4 cars going out was totally unexpected and then Ricciardo not being able to handle Hamilton was surprising to say the least

[bl5150]

Ricciardo not being able to handle Hamilton was surprising to say the least

Ricciardo was nursing a dud gearbox for the whole 2nd half of the race.  An amazing drive in context.

Just a casual fan 

[T-ski]

are Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet still racing?

[Nekov]

Ricciardo not being able to handle Hamilton was surprising to say the least

Ricciardo was nursing a dud gearbox for the whole 2nd half of the race.  An amazing drive in context.

Ah, didn't know that. In that case yes, it was one hell of a drive

[soupytwist]

I used to be a huge F1 fan.  Been to 5 races at Silverstone, twice to Spa and once to Germany.   I would say my interest has waned in recent years, I still watch most of the races on TV though.   Depict being from England I can't stand Lewis Hamilton - I simply can't warm to him at all - He's a great driver, definatly in line to be in the Top Ten of all time....but yeah, not for me.  So him winning all the time tends to wind me up    I'm also not so keen on this current iteration of cars, the engine (or powerplant) is just to important, it's slightly better this year but the last few years have been utterly dominated by the Mercs, and it's never good when one team dominates (like the Schumacher Ferreri era of the early 00's).

Danny Ric is awesome though, great guy, top driver.  He's got my support now Jensen has retired.

I believe 92 was the first season I started to take an interest (Mansell's championship year).  Best season in my opinion was 2010 - Vettel's first Red Bull Championship.  5 Drivers (Vettel, Ham, Alonso, Webber and Button) all trading blows thoughout the season, and all 5 having at shot at the title.

[jasc15]

I'm not sure which team/driver to support.  With the Singapore fiasco likely putting Vettel out of the championship contention, I suppose it would be nice to see him overcome that.  I also realized after watching a few of the replay races that there is actually a US team, Haas.  Their drivers qualified in positions 15 and 16 at Singapore, if I remember correctly and Grosjean picked up some points in that race.  Not contenders by a long shot, but I will keep an eye out for them.  Hamilton has won every race I've watched, so its a bit boring already to see him on top.

[soupytwist]

I'm not sure which team/driver to support.  With the Singapore fiasco likely putting Vettel out of the championship contention, I suppose it would be nice to see him overcome that.  I also realized after watching a few of the replay races that there is actually a US team, Haas.  Their drivers qualified in positions 15 and 16 at Singapore, if I remember correctly and Grosjean picked up some points in that race.  Not contenders by a long shot, but I will keep an eye out for them.  Hamilton has won every race I've watched, so its a bit boring already to see him on top.

Here are some of the drivers from my perspective..

Danny Ric has the best personality on the grid.

Max Verstappen is more than likely going to end up a superstar driver, I can honestly see him dominating the next few years - ignore his lack of points this season, he's been hit (literally) by a string of non finishes.

The Hulk (Hulkenberg) is a pretty cool guy, sort of a hipsters choice.

Sainz has the makings of a top driver, next years move he moves to Renault and how well he stacks against The Hulk may define his career.

Bottas is consistant, but lacks that real top quality, he's also a bit is a dullard.

Hamilton Great driver, I can't warm to him though.

Vettel can be quite a likeable funny guy, but definately has a nasty ruthless side that can be off putting.

Grosjean used to be real error prone, he's also a bit of a whiner.

Alonso is still rated by many as the best driver on the grid, but though bad luck and some of his own choices hasn't been in a decent car for years.

Perez and Ocon who both drive for Force India have quality.  Ocon is still a rookie and the fact he's nearly matching the more experienced Perez might mean he has a future at a top team one day.

The rest are much of a muchness.   Could just throw in Massa, the veteran on the grid - actually retired last year, but came back to Williams after Bottas left them to Merc.   Massa is pretty much the ultimate good guy.

[jasc15]

Watching Malaysia qualifying.  Looks like a really bad spot for Vettel getting the last grid position due to engine problems.  I understand that if your time is more than 107% of the fastest, you cannot enter the race.  Why is this not the case for Vettel?

[jasc15]

Vettel is a beast.  I don't yet have a feel for how difficult it is to come from last position and finish 4th, but it looked pretty impressive.  After the first three crossed, the camera suddenly showed Vettel's wrecked car and my jaw dropped.  I couldn't tell, and the commentators didn't immediately clarify if that collision happened before or after crossing the line.  Very entertaining race.  Looks like I picked a good year to start watching.  Also great to see Verstappen win.  He really shows a high level of mental toughness to come out with a performance like that after what he's been through this season.

[soupytwist]

Vettel is a beast.  I don't yet have a feel for how difficult it is to come from last position and finish 4th, but it looked pretty impressive.  After the first three crossed, the camera suddenly showed Vettel's wrecked car and my jaw dropped.  I couldn't tell, and the commentators didn't immediately clarify if that collision happened before or after crossing the line.  Very entertaining race.  Looks like I picked a good year to start watching.  Also great to see Verstappen win.  He really shows a high level of mental toughness to come out with a performance like that after what he's been through this season.

You'll see it quite often when one of the top cars is demoted to the back of the grid,  if there had been a saftey car around the middle of the race I actually think Vettel could have won.  However it looks like Vettel damaged his gearbox in the warm down lap incident with Stroll - so he's heading for a 5 place grid penalty for the next race.

[red barchetta]

Hello there, I'm glad to see a post about F1 and I hope we can talk more and more about it.  I'm a fan since the end of the 70's.  I'm a french Canadian so when Gilles Villeneuve got into F1 with Ferrari, it was huge for us.  When he died in '82 and also the same year, Piletti got killed in Montreal and later on that year Didier Pironi tragic accident which ended is F1 career, I lost interest about car racing.  It went back a few years later to again disappear after Ayrton Senna tragic death in '94.  When Jacques Villeneuve became world champ, my interest came back for good.  In the recent years, I lost a bit of my interest because I don't like the noise these amazing cars sound today and I don't like their looks that much.  The shark tale is really ugly.  Also, nowadays F1 cars are slower than the cars of 10-15 years ago.  And another thing is the opened rear wing for easier pass.  It's kind of an automatic pass.

My favorite drive is still Alonso.  I use to like Hamilton when he started his career but not anymore.  Can't stand all his gestures and manners.  I have always been a Ferrari fan except during the Schumacher era.

Next year I will attend my first ever GP in Montreal.  I have already my tickets and the dream trip would be to go to Spa in Belgium. 

[jasc15]

My favorite drive is still Alonso.

With Hamilton having to fight his way back from last place today in Mexico, it was great to see Alonso defend against him as well as he did.  I've heard about Alonso's skill, but never saw anything noteworthy from him until now.  It was also interesting to see how hard a tone Hamilton had overtaking to hey up to 9th position.  Maybe from all his recent poles and wins he doesn't have much practice lately overtaking.

[jasc15]

Thought I would bump for the Australian Grand Prix this weekend.

[Nekov]

I just recently got back to reading news about this. There's been lots of interesting changes which I'm not sure will make this year more exciting or not. I hope we get a tighter fight at the top and that some of the second tier teams can get better and make this more competitive in the future.

[jasc15]

I haven't followed the offseason, so all I know is about the silly looking new debris shields.

ESPN is the broadcaster in the US, so I hope their coverage doesn't suck.  F1 has its own subscription-based streaming service which looks good, but I'm not really interested enough to pay ~$10 a month for it.

[LudwigVan]

A sport that never really took hold in America.  I guess it doesn't help when there's zero US driver presence.

I find F1 fascinating but it's hard for me to keep up with all the international time zones.  Followed it quite a bit back in the day though, when Prost duked it out with Senna (my favorite).

[Nekov]

I haven't followed the offseason, so all I know is about the silly looking new debris shields.

They've dropped the shark fins, several teams have changed engine manufacturer, there are new tire compounds, one at each end of the spectrum, Pilots can now use only 3 engines instead of the 4 they had last year, they've prohibited a type of suspension that some teams used last year that allowed them way too much wiggle room when it came to the height of the car. There are some other changes but I think those are the most important ones.

Followed it quite a bit back in the day though, when Prost duked it out with Senna (my favorite).

Nice, I've seen some video from that time, those 2 put up one hell of a show.

[jasc15]

Yeah, i did know about the hypersoft tire and the fewer components allowed during the season.  Maybe next year there will be ludicrously soft tires?

[Nekov]

Yeah, i did know about the hypersoft tire and the fewer components allowed during the season.  Maybe next year there will be ludicrously soft tires?

I think the hypersoft are already ludicrously soft. It'll be interesting to see how those degrade and if they are worth it or not.

[jasc15]

Wow, heartbreaking day for Haas.  I think they had a decent shot at maintaining their positions till the end.  Maybe that's an indication of their performance for the rest of the season.

Virtual safety car thing with Vettel and Hamilton was a bit confusing for me, but I had a chat with a friend who sorted it out for me.  I still don't know how a pit gets you ahead of the safety car pace, but I guess it works out that way sometimes

[Nekov]

Virtual safety car thing with Vettel and Hamilton was a bit confusing for me, but I had a chat with a friend who sorted it out for me.  I still don't know how a pit gets you ahead of the safety car pace, but I guess it works out that way sometimes

Yeah, that rule is interesting. Even though it seems unfair I think it gives teams the opportunities to win based on strategy which I find interesting. As for HAAS, I think they have a great chance this year, they just need to figure out what went wrong this time to make sure the car is reliable. Their engine and car development has been top notch this off-season.

[MirrorMask]

I believe that they lifted the "No faster than 80 KM/H in the box lane" rule. So if you pass through the boxes, you can speed as much as you want now. That was what gave Vettel the edge.

[jasc15]

Some are saying that Haas is not likely to finish as high as they might have in Australia since the other teams will outpace them in development throughout the rest of the season.

[Nekov]

I expect some changes (except Ferrari & Mercedes), I've read that McLaren is aiming for a big implementation of improvements in the next 3 or 4 races which would push them close to Red Bull. That would be interesting. But the truth is that as Helmut Marko said this weekend, Mercedes is on another level, with Ferrari close to them and that takes a little bit out of the competition.

[jasc15]

I was talking to a friend and I said that unlike other sports, there are very clearly 2 (or more) classes: elites and everyone else.  Maybe other racing series are like that too, but this is the first I've paid any attention to.

[Nekov]

Alonso just announced he will be retiring from F1 at the end of the season. A great loss to the sport IMO. I've read a lot of comments about him altering the mood in the teams he has been it which is probably why non of the big teams wanted him, but on the race track he was nothing short of fantastic.

[Indiscipline]

It's a real shame to see the best "pure driver" of his generation giving up, but I'm relieved I'm not watching him humiliated on subpar cars/teams anymore.

[jasc15]

Heard that too.  I guess the top teams have the drivers they want, and don't need someone like Alonso.  Its a shame in any sport for there to be no room for a driver like him.  He should take Ricciardo's spot at red bull*.

I haven't heard any reporting on what he might do next, but speculation suggests WEC and or Indy.  I would watch Indy if he went there.

*https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/11466825/red-bull-rule-out-fernando-alonso-replacing-daniel-ricciardo
 

[Phoenix87x]

Formula one is very cool, but my heart belongs to MotoGP. Valentino Rossi is my current favorite motorcycle racer.

[Indiscipline]

Valentino Rossi is my current favorite motorcycle racer.

Change current with all time and it makes two of us *wink*

The man is a freak of nature.

[Nekov]

Heard that too.  I guess the top teams have the drivers they want, and don't need someone like Alonso.  Its a shame in any sport for there to be no room for a driver like him.  He should take Ricciardo's spot at red bull*.

I haven't heard any reporting on what he might do next, but speculation suggests WEC and or Indy.  I would watch Indy if he went there.

*https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/11466825/red-bull-rule-out-fernando-alonso-replacing-daniel-ricciardo
 

I read Indy is doing all they can to have him there, which makes sense.