F1 is for idiots anymore. Second, tires are probably the cheapest part of the car.

I think they ought to go to timed races, 2 hours and whatever happens, happens. Red flags included? Maybe, maybe not, that's not settled in my mind.

It's a bad sign where the most fun part of a race week end is Lando breaking Max's trophy...

That's 2 very boring races in a row.. Wondering if Ottmar will survive the new management after another catastrophic w/e at Alpine (not his fault, he doesn't make that turd of a car)... He says he's safe, sounds like Binotto 3 days before the pink slip.

Pretty crazy how McLaren jumped from 20th to consistent top 3 like that, I don't recall seeing that before. Considering how long Mercedes struggled, for the papaya team to turn it around like that within a 1/2 season season is impressive/odd. Toto must have satellites spying over them !

News report says that that trophy cost €40,000 (£35,000 / $44,000). Yeesh!

Which resulted in a boycotted race. I was in attendance, and thankful to have gotten my money refunded. What a load of crap though.

I didn't see the trophy break until I saw it on Instagram. Thanks to ESPN, once again, which cut broadcast coverage in the middle of champagne spraying.

Nothing new though. Tour de France started on broadcast TV for the first week then switched to Peacock. Ditto for The Open, at a certain point in the day they just switched to Peacock.

I don't think these outlets realize the risk of losing the US fan base. I saw only one or two stages of the Tour. Not that I don't have Peacock, but it is a PITA to get to it when I'm getting ready for work in the mornings.

Boring races: it is getting to processionals once again. I think the tire nonsense this past weekend was just an attempt to shake things up and possibly in large part to get the favored driver to the top, which it did if only for qualy.

I do like Lando and hope he has a bright future. But someone needs to have a discussion with him about childish antics. Last podium, he nearly hosed down a dignitary after he had done the same trick with his champagne bottle. Now this.

Add to that, him and Carlos trading hits to each other's nuts which were caught on camera.

Honestly, if you are an F1 fan which you seem to be, I can;t recommend the F1Tv app enough. I mean it was like $79 for a year (divided by a gazillion races it's cheap now). You really get a lot for your $, pre shows, post shows, Fabrega's technical demos, fred vasseur interviews are generally worth the price of admission alone, practice, everything, all the way.

And, Porsche supercup which are a great indicator of how boring or fun a race will be (being similar cars they are good predictors)... I'd pay the $ just for supercup myself.

It's great and I'm normally cheap.. I watch P1 P2 P3 while working, on my other computer generally, and enjoy the rest on TV and if the race is boring I switch to a driver camera for 15 minutes at a time - no commentary just the car - for a different perspective...

Also, and I cannot emphasize this enough, no shouty Crofty !! The commentators on F1Tv are a lot quieter and very good !

Can you watch the coverage later, and not live? I like F1, but I refuse to get up at crazy hours to watch it live.

ESPN does have the the three practices, and the Qualifying and that is nice. It just sucks to have them cut away in mid sentence, to show the corn hole games or a 1970s basketball game.

Of course, that is how I always watch... you can watch later, start delayed while it's still going, or live. No ads, no Crofty, full coverage. I do like Porsche Supercup at Monaco or spa, too. And access to the full back catalog (watch a 1985 race if you feel like it). Might be worth picking up a monthly fee for the rest of the season after the summer break ?

PS: I recall once watching 90% of a race from the driver view of a top contender that started last for some reason (don't recall who). Fascinating !

ESPN also has Supercup.

Pretty sure I've paid for ESPN + already.

Tried to get F1 TV last year but could never make it work on Firestick. My TVs are older and Firestick is how I get to all Apps. So the thought of paying more to make this work isn't appealing.

I'm seeing why I'll never cut the cord. I like to be able to change channels and even though you can do so on an App, it takes much longer and the delay is just painful to me.

What I find amusing and infuriating at the same time is how ESPN/ABC have no rhyme or reason to which races they will show fully and even some at length post race coverage and some that they cut off early like yesterday. Then add in 1.5 hours of pre-race but no post race (except Miami and you can bet Vegas will have all the post race they can broadcast).

I can go either way on Krofty, but the others I like, so I wouldn't be leaving the current set up for that. Plus, unless I'm mistaken the Sky post race is only 30 minutes. So yesterday ESPN could have delayed the film Stewart by just 30 minutes and showed the post race coverage.

Actually, that was politics, and had very little to do with tires. But yes, it was a **** show for the fan, which is typical when the wealthy team owners throw their toys out of the pram just to piss off the ringmaster.

Hey! I'm up for the live races.

All top staff at Alpine gone.

Getting ready for a fire sale?

I liked Ottmar but it kinda makes sense in a way, there have been a lot of silly mistakes this year all around and they've gone backwards, the buck stops somewhere.
Ottmar and Alan Permane were let go.. Pat Fry apparently quit and is joining Williams.
Ugly... There are my underdog team, I guess I better get used to 13-14th on the grid now.
I hope they're not sold to Andretti - nothing against him but I like the ALpine brand and their sports car...I dream of buying an A110 someday.

Apparently Binotto is on top of their shopping list !

I was in Las Vegas this week and the roads are a mess with all of the construction going on in prep for the F1 race there- next year, I think?

I already got my Caesar’s Palace race tickets; measly pocket change for us Porsche owners- only. $5,000,000!

No, this year Nov. 18 at night

So the Vegas F1 promoter is struggling to sell tickets . Imagine that . A 3 day ticket is $6600.00 . Not sure what level of fan can afford that . At some point greed reaches a level that can't be sustained .

For that kind of money I would expect to be at Monte Carlo or have unlimited access at another venue.

I'm hopeful that Vegas will flop spectacularly - not this year but next - it'll be a flex for the mega rich one time, and then those people that are there only to show themselves and be rude to Martin brundle will realize they don't need F1 to do that (esp in Vegas) and move on.

Honestly F1 is rather boring most of the time for "common folks" unless you're an F1 nerd and enjoy the chess being played, and I'm hoping the sport will collapse back to it's normal attendance with less races, on traditional circuits! It's grown way too much of late in a strange "entertainment vs sport" direction. Most of the new circuits are terrible and now they're even talking of castrating Spa by cutting off Eau rouge !!! it's not heading in the right direction, for me anyway.

As for spectating for $$, i had a recent experience at Le Mans that confirmed to me it's cool to go once smell the exhausts but it's much nicer on TV at home to actually follow the race ! I'd go to Austin but $6000 for Vegas, please... Should be fun to see how much effort they make shielding the track to non-paying folks can't see..

Vegas will be a bigger "show" than Miami. Lots of movie stars and hype. I will not be there!

Nearly 100 years of F1 experience with those 3 guys, all well respected within F1

Now Alpine has 1 guy at the top with 1 year of F1 experience from working on the slowest engine on the grid

Unsettling times ahead for everyone at Enstone

Never enough experienced F1 folk to go around so exsisting teams and if there are new teams will be all be using the situation to their advantage

For that kind of money, I would expect a lap or 2 in the car. Driving! :cool:

Well, the rain made for interesting qualifying, and then the second qualifying for the sprint race. And the Sprint race was started behind a safety car it was so wet.

And now we all know why teams were fighting over Oscar Piastri.

It's a place to be seen, a status symbol event where a race broke out.
The long Beach Grand Prix crowd are not rich, all the locals attend.
That's a keg party where a race broke out.
I expect half of the spectators at either race will not attend any other race this year.

Dominant............ Dominant............ Dominant . Crazy good drive by the leader .

Lots of passing in the race. And dominate is the word.

Just loving this season, 12 wins in 12 races or 20 wins in 21 races :)

Breaking a win record set by the mighty McLaren team in 1988 is a monster achievement :cool:

Max is just playing with the rest of the grid :eek:

I don't know, dominate? The winner missed the fastest lap bonus point....race strategy needs to be tightened up...\

(Message to the pits -"Maybe I should come in so we can practice pit stops")

Yep, that kinda sums up the World's Fastest Beach Party.

But it's also a race where a non-race fan could be entertained, as there's so much to see and do. The fan experience at most other IndyCar races is much more geared towards the race fan, and the race fan alone.

I looked as closely as I could at the damage on Sainz's car.
It looked like a large puncture to the side pod,
and some damage to the floor.

I wondered if the significant loss of pace was due
to the floor or the side pod or both?

And that led to a question:
why doesn't F1 use that sticky thick tape to repair
cars like every other form of motorsport does?
I've been watching F1 for several decades and don't recall
ever seeing it used.

If the damage to the side pod was affecting the aero,
seems like a couple slabs of that tape would have
it fixed in a jiffy (a jiffy is roughly 5 seconds).
If the floor was the only problem I doubt sticky tape
would help much ;)


So, is that tape against the rules or just too redneck
for the snooty F1 types?




http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1690786107.jpg

For comparison, here's a pic of the floor from Barcelona

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1690786248.jpg

I nominate this as the quote of the week:

Probably too declasse. If speed tape is good enough for this, it should be fine for F1.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Speed_tape.jpg

Received pre-selection notice for marshal duties at the Vegas race. More paperwork and a background check before completion of process.

I think most of the 'celebs', especially athletes from the US are there to see Hamilton; ditto for many of the Euros in attendance. They only know of the sport due to that relationship. Once he retires, I'm thinking (hoping) they will all disappear back to where they came from.

Yesterday I watched Stewart which ESPN aired after the Hungarian GP. Great film and really takes you back to when fans watched F1 at the traditional circuits. The only thing watching it on ESPN was they blurred the topless women at the beach and for some reason blurred Francois Cevert's crotch when he was in his fireproof underwear.

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LBGP harkens back to Riverside which was the ultimate party Can Am or NASCAR. Epic parties. I guess it's a SoCal thing.

I use it a lot talking about PMs. Project managers are folks who believe 9 women together can deliver a baby in a month.

I hate that profession. Very few good ones.

I had heard that same sentiment phrased in reverse:

No matter how many men you put on the project, it will take 9 month to make a baby.

I've been a PM or in project planning and frequently use the phrase myself. I'm often shocked at how limited the scheduling and resourcing skills are with some PMs.