2018 Formula 1 Season

Posts
404
Likes
722
Hi all

I thought it looks like a great start to this years F1 season to me and seems to promise a close competition between the top teams but lets all wait and see what goes down tomorrow before we get too excited. So far the most entertaining thing for me was seeing Vettel's new haircut as he now looks like a total dick head IMHO. What was he thinking? it looks like a reverse Monks haircut of sorts but worse.

Marc
 
Posts
18,107
Likes
27,413
While the NBCSN crew had its silliness, they did a good job presenting F1 to the US audience. The Sky coverage is very good, it just feels off after the years with NBC. Ultimately doesn’t matter for serious fans but when it comes to growing the US audience, it helps to have the presentation skewed to that audience as opposed to one filled with British humor and references that a lot of Americans don’t get. It also helps to explain the sport using dollars rather than euros or pounds, mph rather than kph, pounds rather than kilos etc.

I thought we where getting Coulthard Jordan et all as commentators I like them and their race banter.

The Sky’s good just seems cross purposes to what the whole purpose of leaving NBC to ESPN was for. If the move was for higher visibility then why move to less broadcast on regular tv and commentators not tailored to your audience for the above listed reasons.
 
Posts
90
Likes
199
Quali mode on the Mercedes obviously still is insane.

Other than that, I think in the race the 3 top teams will be quite equally matched. Max less than a tenth of a second behind both the ferrari’s with a less than optimal lap.

Red bulls start on super softs where the rest start on ultras. Can’t wait, it will definitely be a great race 😀

Yeah quali was a bit disappointing (but expected). Bottas crash shaking things up made it a little more interesting. Top 4 at race start will be fun to watch
 
Posts
368
Likes
452
I thought we where getting Coulthard Jordan et all as commentators I like them and their race banter.

The Sky’s good just seems cross purposes to what the whole purpose of leaving NBC to ESPN was for. If the move was for higher visibility then why move to less broadcast on regular tv and commentators not tailored to your audience for the above listed reasons.

That’s not what happened. I work in the business so I know some things. Basically Liberty wants to control everything other than the TV broadcasts. (Digital etc.) NBC said no thanks to that, we don’t want to compete against you for the same eyeballs, and walked away from renewing the deal. Left in the lurch late in the game for 2018, Liberty gave the US broadcast rights to ESPN for nothing. That’s also why it’s just the Sky feed. ESPN is investing nothing in these broadcasts other than the blocks of air time. So in the short term this is what we get. The long term is TBD.
 
Posts
465
Likes
786
Yeah quali was a bit disappointing (but expected). Bottas crash shaking things up made it a little more interesting. Top 4 at race start will be fun to watch
Top 4, but also interesting to see Bottas and Ricciardo work their way to the front. Can’t wait 😀
 
Posts
2,587
Likes
2,871
Top 4, but also interesting to see Bottas and Ricciardo work their way to the front. Can’t wait 😀
I don’t quite get the obsession with Bottas. He’s a solid driver but hardly exciting and not really much of a match to the top tier drivers in a top car.
 
Posts
18,107
Likes
27,413
I don’t quite get the obsession with Bottas. He’s a solid driver but hardly exciting and not really much of a match to the top tier drivers in a top car.
Did you watch the last 5 races where Bottas dominated?
 
Posts
2,587
Likes
2,871
The races where Lewis won 2 of the last 5 and basically locked up the WDC before Bottas turned it back on in Mexico after Vettel damaged Lewis’s car? Lewis destroyed him the first 17 races with a couple of exceptions.

Bottas crashing in Q today isn’t helping either.
 
Posts
18,107
Likes
27,413
The races where Lewis won 2 of the last 5 and basically locked up the WDC before Bottas turned it back on in Mexico after Vettel damaged Lewis’s car? Lewis destroyed him the first 17 races with a couple of exceptions.

Bottas crashing in Q today isn’t helping either.
You know Bottas hates that car he had no input into it and it was set up for Lewis hence his issues at the start of the season.
 
Posts
2,587
Likes
2,871
You know Bottas hates that car he had no input into it and it was set up for Lewis hence his issues at the start of the season.
I’ll concede that point. There is no excuse this year though. Either he performs and is competitive or he’s forever a #2 to Lewis. He doesn’t need to win the WDC but he has to be more competitive.
 
Posts
18,107
Likes
27,413
I’ll concede that point. There is no excuse this year though. Either he performs and is competitive or he’s forever a #2 to Lewis. He doesn’t need to win the WDC but he has to be more competitive.


Idk seems competitive to me.
 
Posts
90
Likes
199
watching espn's broadcast for the first time and man they have perfect timing, so much interesting stuff goes on during the commercials
 
Posts
465
Likes
786
Same problem with Australia, too much dirty air and almost no overtaking opportunity.
 
Posts
833
Likes
1,778
I'm very happy this morning - a 'clean' race victory for Vettel, showing his skill and experience in resisting pressure from Hamilton. I remain very unimpressed by Hamilton the man: even at this first race of the season, he was on his radio, petulant and blame-seeking about his loss of the lead through the pit stops/safety car period. OK, Ferrari had a bit of luck there, but last year - and 2016 - it was usually Mercedes which had all the luck - and good calls - on strategy issues.
 
Posts
227
Likes
606
Just back from the track.
Yes a good clean race and a well deserved win for Ferrari, and some good mid race battles mid race.
Red Bulls one stop strategy did not work as everyone did it.
All looks good for the rest of the year with many teams in the mix.
 
Posts
4,239
Likes
10,082
Vettel with a pass for the lead!!!!!!!!!, wait, he didn't pass anyone, how did he get into the lead? Was there even a pass in the race? I think I saw Bottas pass someone in the mid pack somewhere 🤦

When you say "good clean race", I think you mean "clean race". Race highlights will be summed up in about 3 sentences. Good for the writers. Bad for F1. I hope this isn't going to be the way the rest of the season goes 🙁
 
Posts
535
Likes
854
Wait, did I miss something??? How did vettel get past.... I knew I shouldn’t have tuned off early!
 
Posts
2,587
Likes
2,871
Kimi has to be pissed that whenever he legitimately beats Vettel, Vettel gets some gift to give him the win.

Bottas wasn’t impressive at all. Took him quite a few laps to move up one place from 15.

Lewis got screwed but that happens.

Max was pressing too much once Kevin passed him on lap 1. He was all over the place and was gifted his finish due to Haas deciding to pull a Ferrari and self implode.
 
Posts
2,587
Likes
2,871
One more thing to add. ESPN was a joke. For the non-Americans who watched the race and don’t know what I’m talking about. It was a bunch of clowns running the broadcast because it was on late and they couldn’t get a real team to cover the broadcast. Commercial breaks on a race restart, commercial breaks during live interviews, feed cutting back in mid conversation and not explaining what happened during the break.

If Liberty really wants to grow the sport in the US, they can’t have their broadcast partners treat it like a joke.
Edited:
 
Posts
1,897
Likes
17,018
Well that was interesting. McClarens looked good, spat tea everywhere when the Honda lunched itself. Team of the day for me were Haas, should make the midfield battles more entertaining. When they can keep the wheels on.