Excellent...hopefully in the New Year once you have settled in....
My car lives in oxford so we can sort out somewhere reasonable to meet up....

Final race
 

Another Abu Dhabi snooze Fest. Boring track, always worst of the year IMO

Aside from a couple of retirements, hardly anyone changed places.

I literally slept thru most of the race. Hoping that next year will bring more competition. I would love to see multiple drivers from 5 or 6 teams in the mix.

glad i got up for the 6am start here. needed my additional sleep

Well, now we wait, and we get cars without big dorsal fins but with those ugly Halos...

And we watch even more stupid penalties because they are down to 3 engines per year in 2018... It's formula endurance apparently...

Hybrid, quiet, super complex super expensive engines that nobody really cares about as opposed so say, a V10 or 12 screamer... I think I'll watch the new "World feed" assuming ESPN even bothers showing all races, now that we lost NBCSN, a few races anyway, to see how ugly the cars are, if McLaren can come back and after that pay more attention to Indycars which so look pretty cool next next ! All in all the timing of the broadcast chang eis pretty good because I'm losing interest...

They really are trying to kill off the sport.

I think that once Liberty Media asserts firmer control of the sport, things will be better. I've already noticed that steward decisions seem to be faster and more consistent. Remember having podiums changed days after a race was over? Or having a red car cause a crash and the crashee getting penalized for being in the way?

Under Bernie, Ferrari had the most say in how the sport was run, followed by other teams. The teams favored rules that they thought would give them an advantage but have also degraded the sport. Some examples are the hybrid engines, current engine penalties, a push for faster lap times. Some things that haven't happened under the current system are a push for better racing, equitable disbursement of winnings, equitable treatment by stewards, and all teams having equal say in the sport.

Consistent stewarding would be good but I'm not seeing it yet... This w/e the HULK pass on Perez and the subsequent 5 sec penalty was a joke (and I really dislike mobile-chicane-Perez so I don't like taking his side). So you cut the track, and all you gotta do is make a 5 sec gap? Seems like a great deal if you have a slightly faster car at a track where it's hard to pass! That penalty only makes sense if a pitstop is coming, otherwise he should have given the spot back right then and there... They need the same stewards at all the races, and track limits made out of grass... Then let'em race.

I don't understand that supposed manufacturers' pressure to have relevant hybrid tech. None of the fans like those silent KERS engines. High tech hybridization killed endurance racing,and F1 doubles down on 3 engines ???? I own an electric car and I could not care less about that in F1. If you want KERS then use that as a driver manageable push to pass instead of DRS ?

Everyone wants a screaming 18000+RPM engine, and preferably a car that doesn't look like crap (We've endured a lot of those in F1, remember the broken noses?).. Enough... I 've watched for 30yrs but I suspect I'll be enjoying Indy/WRC more this year...

Make of this what you will...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1511903843.jpg

On the one hand (unintended pun) Robert Kubica is pretty far from the top time in a williams... On the other hand (still a pun) he's faster than Alonso and also Stroll in the same car (but different day)!

Someone noted he's running a red light on the car (not green) meaning he is a superlicence holder, not a rookie... Given the cost of that superlicence paid by a team (near 1/2 a mil), it would suggest this is a done deal...

Yeah, that was tough to watch. I watched until the end to see their sendoff. I think they did a good job with the highlight real thanks to the network. Not sure how coverage will be next year, maybe I'll be wishing for Hobbs. Hope he rights off into the sunset, quite a career.

He as also running the softs, while everyone else was in the hypersofts!!

Great to see Kubica putting in a lot of laps for Williams.

IMHO, his return is the only hope for F1 in 2018. The halo is even sprouting appendages now, double yikes. I am pleased, though to hear of the Alfa Romeo-Sauber partnership.

Me too... I was about to sell my GTV, now I'm flip flopping ;-) Go Alfa ! Vasseur is a good manager too, Leclerc is excellent, I can see sauber doing much better next year with a newer Ferrari engine. Too bad the return of Alfa coincides with at ugly halo (talking about flip flops)

did you watch the F-2 race before the f-1 ?
same track lots of passes for places inc a lead change
to me it is the cars not the track and perhaps drivers skill levels also
as boatass did not error all day nor did most of the front end of the field

my idea is with the el power adders
test the cars before Q for gas motor HP on a wheel dino
only allow the additional el power to equalize total HP at the wheels for all cars
if the factory M-B makes 800hp and honda 700 honda gets 100 el extra power use
if the motor makes 820 in the race disQ them

the dino show would be neat to see what power they make real time no BS or hiding

perfect no but better then now
and M-B will still win mostly

100 laps from Kubica, no worries about his fitness and quickest of the Williams drivers

He is also manged by Nico Rosberg and brings a big chunk of cash with him so fingers crossed we see him in F1 next year

I read that the complication was mostly how and how much to repay to his insurance, for all the $ he got on being disabled as a driver... Now if he can drive an F1 again, he'll have to pay that back (or some of it ? no denying there's damage there).... Tricky deal to sort out... I hope he gets the drive too, I'd love to see what he can do vs. Stroll, with one hand (mostly)... I image the Stroll family has been pushing strongly against KUB for that very reason..

Funny story from Joe Saward:
[...]
Down in Grove, Frank Williams is reputed to have pulled off a similar stunt when he was signing his contract with BMW in June 1997. Frank has the corner office on the top floor at Grove, with plenty of sky and it was here that Frank signed the contract with the heavy-hitters from Munich. As soon as the deed was done, one of Frank’s mates, Robs Lamplough, a decent racing driver in the late 1960s and early 1970s, who raced non-championship F1 events before retiring to life as a farmer, and an aeroplane collector. Robs’s pride and joy was a World War II Spitfire, which he had bought in Australia and had lovingly restored over many years. At the appointed hour Lamplough took off from his own grass strip on his farm near Hungerford and arrived at full tilt, heading straight for Frank’s office, allowing the team boss to utter the memorable words: ” Achtung Spitfeurer!” to his German guests, as they looked on in horror as the plane passed just over the roof above them.