OT - Formula 1 GP of Malaysia
Any other F1 fans out there? Thoughts on today's Grand Prix of Malaysia?
- What a start by Renault, especially Heidfeld. Really impressive after last race. As the announcers say every race, Kubica must feel so frustrated to not be in that car.
- Also what a start by Schumacher, ran much better than teammate Rosberg, who out-qualified him. I'm a Schumacher fan so that was nice to see.
- Even without Varsha, I love this announcing crew. Hobbs is my favorite. Matchett gets on my nerves on occassion with what I perceive as a McLaren bias, but his technical insight is invaluable. Will Buxton has filled in for Peter Windsor wonderfully; lots of energy, knowledge, and always well-spoken. Nothing lost in that transition at all. Hope that Peter landed back on his feet after the USGP disaster last year.
- The DRS really does seem to aid in overtaking. Gimmicky or not, at least it works, unlike other attempts by the rules officials at this in past years.
- Extremely impressive effort by HRT to get within about 6% of the top teams in lap-time performance after the off-season and first race they had. I still doubt they'll live to see the 2012 season, but I'm still happy for them in the meantime.
- Will Red Bull ever get their KERS system working? Will they ever need to, really?
- I'm a little disappointed there wasn't any rain during the race (or qualifying). That always makes things more interesting. Seems like there's always rain in Malaysia.
- Any thoughts on what this 'special announcement' about the Austin GP track on Tues evening might be about? Will be televised on Speed at 8pm.
Final classification: 1. S Vettel 2. J Button 3. N Heidfeld(!) 4. M Weber 5. F Massa 6. F Alonso 7. L Hamilton 8. K Kobayashi 9. M Schumacher 10. P DiResta
For those that don't closely follow F1, the next race (along with qualifying and practice) will be televised on Speed TV next weekend. Check your local listings! It's a great sport, and Speed TV does a great job of supporting it.
This may be the most obscure sports thread I've ever seen on here. I thought FA's college Rugby threads or whatever were odd, but F1 in Malaysia takes the cake. This thread is cool on that basis alone.
It had lots of posts but for me the cricket thread was very obscure.
I started the cricket thread - and that is by far more obscure to the average Michigan sports fan than F1. ~5 years ago there was an F1 race in Indianapolis, next year there'll be one in Austin, TX, and in the '80s they held a race in Downtown Detroit.
While F1 has lost it's prominence on the American Motorsports scene, so has really everything when compared to NASCAR. But they're all starting to come back
April 10th, 2011 at 10:51 PM ^
Hard to raise interst when the last two American World Champs were Mario Andretti and Phil Hill in 60's-70's. And no American constructor doesn't help eitther
Good race, though I too was waiting for rain to mess with things. Vettel has the field covered. If Red Bull's KERS becomes reliable, watch out.
Heard recently that Indianapolis may lose the motorcycle race to Austin in 2013. My guess is this is the announcement.
I missed this race (stupid finals) and I'm sad I did after reading the summary.
Vettel is starting to look like 03-04 Schumacher which sucks b/c I was really hoping for Fernando to have a similar run with Ferrari. I guess that's what happens when you lose Ross Brawn and the up-and-coming team gets one of the best aerodynamicists in the world.
Nice to see some F1 fans. Where do you all watch it? What channel?
Speed has most of the races live though the Canadian GP and some of the European races are on FOX
In response to Wolverine's reponse about obscure threads, I race motocross here in Michigan (my avatar is a pic. of me landing a 85' tabletop in Midland at Polka Dots) and it is cool to see other motorsports fans talking racing. This time of year, action sports heat up and I am outside until its too cold or I get hurt riding (usually injured before cold weather). So by the fall, I'm watching Michigan football or getting my hands wet in a fishtank, or in the really odd year, still riding MX in the fall.
That said, Formula 1 racing is unbelievably cool. I am always surprised when Ferrari is bettered by a Renault or some other team that I didn't think could pull it off. I love helmet cams, or other random camera placement that shows two cars battling at speed to show how hard these guys race.
I have been travelling all day and DVR'd the race and will watch it tomorrow.
Someone mentioned that F1 was obscure. Hardly. It is the most popular spectator sport in the worlde, bar none. For each race, it is not uncommon to have a world wide audience of hundreds of millions of fans.
Speed has a great set of announcers...on top of their game, articulate, witty.
It is strange how Red Bull went from virtual obscurity to top dog a few years ago. I have heard that they have a brilliant aerodynamacist and very good drivers.
As for Schumacher, he should have stayed retired and I truly don't see him every coming close again to being in the running for a title. At this point a podium finish might be inviting.
If anybody is curious, here is a link to a crash in the 2007 Canadian F1 race - guy was back a few weeks later. Watch the whole thing or start about 1:30 into the vid. F1 cars are at a technological level like few other things you run across.
April 10th, 2011 at 10:34 PM ^
The F1 cars are a thing of beauty. They are so much more technologically advanced compared to any other type of racing car out there.
April 10th, 2011 at 10:47 PM ^
It was a good race, I agree Vettel is starting to look like a young schumacher, but as in years past one team usually starts out well, then the other teams catch up. I'm not the biggest fan of DRS/KERS, passing should not be up to a push of a button but it does seem to be improving the show a little bit.
Yeah that Kubica crash was insane, pity he got hurt in that rally car earlier this year, It would be interesting to see what he could do with this year's Renault considering that he's a much better driver than Heidfeld or Petrov. Looks like Renault are just getting over losing Briatore and Pat Symonds.
Red Bull are insane. Adrian Newey is the aerodynamicist you're talking about and that guy is probably the most valuable person in the pit lane. He's egineered, most single-handidly, some of the most dominant F1 cars in history, he knows what he's doing. I can't believe the huge amounts of money he has turned down from Ferrari fom time to time, but I sure Dieter Mateschitz pays him fine.
F1 is an awesome sport and if you're interested in watching a sport where almost 3 billion dollars is spent to make a race car go an extra tenth of a second, and where the competition is as heated as the politics, you have a very interesting sport.
April 11th, 2011 at 12:34 AM ^
I used to follow F1 back in the Schumacher/Hakkinen/Coulthard glory days but got tired of it in the "Schumacher wins everything" years.
Decided to give it another go this year, but missed the Australian Grand Prix. So I started here...and what a fantastic race it was! Pole wasn't ever really in question, but there were some killer battles for 2nd, 3rd, etc.
Vettel's done an amazing job so far, but he should get tested more in China...think Button might pull this one off. Or, at least, make it a little more interesting.
I don't know anything about F1 but this seems like the perfect place on the internet to implore white guys to stop running on the field at Korean baseball games.
i got into F1 when Michael went over, watched him get run off/run himself off the track off the start too many times, and stopped watching after that. Yeah, the cars are boss, but it really ain't racing.
April 11th, 2011 at 10:46 AM ^
It's more interesting than NASCAR and doesn't have the stigma, either.
April 11th, 2011 at 10:51 AM ^
Sometimes it's fun to take an interest in something severly un-American, to be honest. Even if there's plenty of Eurotrash and odd-looking clothes sometimes, it's kind of nice to take a break from American sports and American fans. I will not, however, NOT take an interest in futbol! F1 fills my Eurotrash quota sufficiently.
April 12th, 2011 at 10:03 AM ^
"Sometimes it's fun to take an interest in something severly un-American, to be honest."
So that's where soccer fans come from...
April 11th, 2011 at 11:00 AM ^
How is it not racing? Because of the different kinds of turns? I don't think Indy Car or NASCAR is racing because all they do is drive in a circle and half the people there are hoping to see a crash. I guess that is just my European bias though
April 11th, 2011 at 11:12 AM ^
Regarding the Austin, TX track blurb;
Scuttlebut from the motorcycle side of the scene (MotoGP, World Superbike, AMA) is that this Austin track will officially be homoglated for F1 and bikes and that there are going to be 3 US Grand Prix's in 2013 (Austin, Laguna Seca, and Indy). So I would imagine their presser will be that they are getting a US round for F1.
April 11th, 2011 at 11:32 PM ^
For anyone who's into racing, that makes it worth watching.
Of course, the extreme emphasis on technology reduces the role of the driver. In some ways, that makes the Indy500 "more pure racing." But I think, really, it's just two different approaches, both of which have merit.
Love 24-Hours of Le Mans too.