Formula 1

[Linliel]

Saw a lot of other sporting threads in this forum, I'm sure there must be some car nuts! Surprised I couldn't find a thread on this already ^^; Apologies if I'm blind!

Looking forward to the first of the season tonight, here in sunny ole Oz! Wish I coulda gone down to Melbourne for it but I'll survive with full coverage on free-to-air TV ^^

So who're your picks this year? Brawn is looking pretty good so far, it'll be interesting to see how they go. From the practise runs they seem to have the guts for it!

What do you think of the cars this year too?

[Killgannon]

i didnt know australia had red necks o.O

[guartz]

Formula 1? Is that like nascar except it takes skill and talent?

[DiomedesSylph]

Just getting into F1, watched it years ago when it was just about weird cars going fast. Now I'm much more interested in the technical aspects, and have a deeper appreciation for the engineering aspects and process required to make a winning car. From watching the practices/qualifying, concerned about all the changes they've imposed so far.

[Linliel]

Just getting into F1, watched it years ago when it was just about weird cars going fast. Now I'm much more interested in the technical aspects, and have a deeper appreciation for the engineering aspects and process required to make a winning car. From watching the practices/qualifying, concerned about all the changes they've imposed so far.

I haven't watched practise runs before but it seems to me there's been a lot of problems with the cars so far... the McLarens in particular!
Hope they iron them out :/

[Devek]

Isn't this yet another sport taken over by black people?

[Jefe]

Eh, the only racing I used to watch back in the days was Formula CART. Then it went under and lost all interest. The reason why I liked it over F1 was because they had restrictions. Meaning that the richest team won't have the better machine (halu Ferrari, Williams, and McLaren), like in F1. Sometimes I'd check Indy and it was fucking boring, nothing but ovals. It was like nascar minus the rednex and w/ awesome cars.

Lewis Hamilton is the only negro driver I recall winning a championship.

[Zilong]

Isn't this yet another sport taken over by black people?

Did Schumacher die or something?

[0ni0n]

I used to follow formula one racing religiously as a kid, but i stopped after Senna died in a crash in 1994 since he was enthralling to watch.

[Linliel]

Well, half an hour til start, I'm excited! :D

Also Mark Webber (AUS/Red Bull) is doing it for the Victorian bushfire victims, so give him a cheer :D

[untouchable]

i always wanted to see F1 races on tv but i never know what channel its on or when its on :/

i was a schumacher fan when i was a little kid though

[Nara]

McLaren F1 is it still the best? I haven't been keeping up with the latest cars much..

[Amastacia]

Did Schumacher die or something?

Retired.

Lewis Hamilton (only black F1 driver) has sort of picked up where Michael left off, will be interesting to see how his career progresses. 2nd overall (lost in the 11th hour) his first season, 1st last year.

I'm jealous as hell that if he wins 2 more in a row he gets the McLaren F1 LM that's been sitting pristine in their museum with like 100 miles on the clock. /boner

Eh, the only racing I used to watch back in the days was Formula CART. Then it went under and lost all interest. The reason why I liked it over F1 was because they had restrictions. Meaning that the richest team won't have the better machine (halu Ferrari, Williams, and McLaren), like in F1. Sometimes I'd check Indy and it was fucking boring, nothing but ovals. It was like nascar minus the rednex and w/ awesome cars.

Lewis Hamilton is the only negro driver I recall winning a championship.

Truth. I just keep track of the highlights, shit is so boring to watch.

The teams with the most money to throw around do the best. They've all pretty much got the aerodynamics worked out, the people with the most money to spend end up with the most reliable and fast cars.

This kind of stuff is why WRC was so fun to watch, though I'm not happy about the new rule changes or Loeb's complete dominance of the sport (though he is entertaining to watch). Plus, same thing started happening, where only a few teams were really competitive due to having bigger wallets.

McLaren F1 is it still the best? I haven't been keeping up with the latest cars much..

Ferrari's been winning the constructor's championship pretty reliably. Hamilton for McMerc won the driver's title last year though.

[Cesaria]

I got into F1 while at uni - despite being a girl, I was the only person in our group of friends that had a TV in their room in halls of residence so got hauled out of bed at 3am or something stupid so all my friends could pile into the room to watch the first races of the season - eventually I gave up trying to sleep and just got into watching them with them all and got hooked on it.

Cracking race (yes I'm sad and set the alarm to get up to watch it) - so glad for the Brawn team that things came off how they did considering it looked like they wouldn't race at all this year till things finally came together for them. Glad Lewis came where he did as well considering that car isn't going at all well for him this year. Looks like they have actually managed to get some overtaking, strategy and not watching two Ferrari and Mclaren go around in circles into the races this season which is nice to see.

The BBC pre-race coverage had a good segment on Webber going to the scenes of the Australian bush fires and talking to some of the affected people - it was very well done, not over the top or hideously calculated in terms of trying to pull on emotions - just showed the utter scale of the devastation... although in terms of his race I think the comment made was "Webber's got all the luck this afternoon... and all of it's bad"

Also (for the UK) good to see it back on the BBC without the endless ad breaks during which stuff always happens that it was getting over on ITV - AND WITH THE PROPER THEME TUNE BACK!!! F1 was never the same without that.

[Bartylby]

so i was watching this with my dad last weekend. and i'm curious if anyone knows

when they show the racing hud showing their speed rpm when they hit the accelerator and brake there is a battery symbol under the brake indicator, but it was draining seemingly way too fast to be a normal battery indicator and at one point i seen that instead of being all or mostly red (showing a full "charge") it was totally gray.

i'm curious what this battery symbol is indicating cause it can't be a normal indicator unless F1 cars drain their batteries THAT fast but i doubt that highly.

[Dak Rey]

The battery symbol represents the new "KERS" (kinetic energy recovery system) that has been added to some of the cars. The battery stores excess energy created wihle driving and can be used to give an extra 80 horsepower for about 7 seconds a lap - great for overtaking. Some drivers are using it, some aren't, it is completely
optional. (Disadvantages are the extra weight and space it takes up meaning that space inside the car has to be sacrificed, such as a slightly smaller fuel tank, which can compromise certain strategies and makes for less flexibility in dealing with accidents and the like on track if the safety car gets called out)

[Bartylby]

ahh i see, thanks much

[Linliel]

Well it's shaping up to be an interesting race today, with the Ferraris and McLarens mostly out of the top ten!

Massa is cranky with his team for being arrogant after only driving 4 laps in Q1 and finishing 16th, Vettel's pushed back 10 places for causing a collision in the Melbourne race, Raikonnen isn't using his flaky KERS so has added weight but no benefits, and the drama continues!

Here's what the grid will look like:

Pos  	No  	Driver  	Team  	           
1 	22 	Jenson Button 	Brawn-Mercedes 
2 	9 	Jarno Trulli 	Toyota 
3 	15 	Sebastian Vettel 	RBR-Renault 
4 	23 	Rubens Barrichello 	Brawn-Mercedes 	
5 	10 	Timo Glock 	Toyota 	
6 	16 	Nico Rosberg 	Williams-Toyota 
7 	14 	Mark Webber 	RBR-Renault 	
8 	5 	Robert Kubica 	BMW Sauber 	
9 	4 	Kimi Räikkönen 	Ferrari 	
10 	7 	Fernando Alonso 	Renault 	
11 	6 	Nick Heidfeld 	BMW Sauber 	
12 	17 	Kazuki Nakajima 	Williams-Toyota 	
13 	1 	Lewis Hamilton 	McLaren-Mercedes 	
14 	2 	Heikki Kovalainen 	McLaren-Mercedes 	
15 	11 	Sebastien Bourdais 	STR-Ferrari 	
16 	3 	Felipe Massa 	Ferrari 	
17 	8 	Nelsinho Piquet 	Renault 	
18 	21 	Giancarlo Fisichella 	Force India-Mercedes 
19 	20 	Adrian Sutil 	Force India-Mercedes 	
20 	12 	Sebastien Buemi 	STR-Ferrari

(note Vettel will be back in 13th)

The cars are amazingly close now though, with the Q2 times ranging from 1:33.784 to 1:35.431. So it will be an exciting race, expect rain too!

[Cesaria]

The rain is nuts

[Cesaria]

Finished for half points based on where things were standing at lap 31 - still good to see another win for Button... and Ferrari continuing to get stuffed (but I've always disliked Ferrari :D )