Be Excellent To Each Other

Yeah, but they were inaccurate, too.

I'll be on a fucking train.

"Oh my God! look at this overtake, incredible!"

Yeah, we saw it a few minutes ago, it's a replay you mong.

Or the talk of how much overtaking Hamilton would need to do to get the 4th needed to stay in contention.

While he was 4th.

Yesterday would have been a far better race if the old rule of allowing lapped cars out of the pack under safety car was still in force. If only for the times Legard referred to an overtake that was actually a lapped car moving aside under blue flags.

Is that one that keeps going in and out of tunnels?

Nah, it's Abu Dhabi this week. Monaco is always May.

I think the McLaren has been a bit unwieldy this year and they've suffered again by not being able to brute force their way out of the situation with the in season testing ban. I suspect Hamilton is simply frustrated with the fact that he's driving the car as hard as he can and it always looks like the Red Bulls in particular and the Ferrari as well have plenty in reserve to simply pull away whenever they feel like. I still think Hamilton needs to develop as a technical driver with the way he interacts with the team — it always feels to me that he's too beholden to the team and not prepared to make executive decisions off his own back. Whether or not this is because he's been there forever and feels indebted is an unanswerable question, but I have noticed some very bizarre tactical decisions by the team since he's been driving for them.

That Red Bull is something else though. I've read some very interesting pieces on the tech with some people claiming it has a switchable flexing undertray that the drivers trigger by throwing the car over the curbs. This apparently triggers a spring loaded switch that allows the front wing to flex much lower and it resets after a lap. Not sure how much credence I give this but it would appear to explain why an underpowered car is so good in qualifying and race trim when you factor in the massive weight discrepancy between the two situations. Ah, what would F1 be without conspiracy theories!

That's that, then.

Yep, not at all the way everyone was expecting things to turn out.
It's a shame that it was strategy that decided things rather than car-to-car racing but it looks like Vettel would have been the match for the competition anyway.

I'd have preferred Webber to win, but rather Vettel than Alonso. Did you see the way he was gesturing at Petrov after the race, as though he should have pulled aside to let him through? Sorry, but that's not how it works....

So what started off as the most promising F1 season in I don't know how long finished with fuck-awful boring tactics.

It's Abu Dhabi. It's a crap course, so pretty much what I expected.

Although there's probably going to be little this year which will make me laugh as much as seeing Alonso utterly screwed over by Ferrari.

I'd really like to never have to see an accident like the one at the beginning again, though.

Unless your name's Webber, of course.

I feel fairly sanguine about things as I recognise the difference between being a spectator and being involved — I understand if you're there competing then winning is everything, but there's a diminishing level of spectacle in F1 and no matter how much anybody crows about it this race looked like a lot of people going through the motions of a predetermined fate that was decided five laps in. You can throw statistics in about accidents and car failures but the harsh reality is that it's becoming more apparent with each passing year that F1 isn't racing. I'm not sure I have the appetite for the possibility of chance and driver error when it's so difficult to actually race on a lot of the circuits.

I stayed up to watch this race to the end. It was really boring and now I'm quite tired, I wish I hadn't bothered.

Nor am I, but as someone sad recently it's on a Sunday at about the time where you want everyone to leave you alone to you for two or three hours, so it gets the job done even if the racing's shit.

I don't think F1 has ever really been about constant close racing has it? It's just that people cherry pick moments from the preceding twenty years they've watched it and moan that the current season isn't like that. I thought this was a pretty enjoyable season.

Yeah, so did I. KERS (or KERS system as Jake Humprheys insists on calling it) coming back next year will help with overtaking - what else are they fiddling with? Oh year, adjustable rear wings and no f-ducts.
What they need, of course, is bigger fucking tyres.
Anything else they're doing?

Changing tyre suppliers. Adding more tracks.

Not more tracks designed by that German bloke who designs all the worst tracks are they?

Hermann Tilke (sp?)

I have no idea if it's him, but yes he does design tedious tracks.

Next years race calendar is here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsp ... efault.stm

Haven't really looked for anything on the new rules for next year.

Oh, in case some of you missed this, Richard Branson and Tony Fernandes had a bet that whichever one of their teams finished lower (Virgin and Lotus) in the constructors championship, would serve drinks on their opponents airline. Dressed as a Stewardess.

Richard Branson will be serving drinks and food on an Air Asia flight between London and Kuala Lumpur dressed as a Stewardess.

Branson should have had a bet as to which one of them would keep their team name into 2011, rather than have the rights snatched back by a bunch of wankers*


*Must admit, I havent read the story, just seen some reaction.

Yeah Both India in 2011 and the US in 2012 being designed by someone who consistently shits out poor circuits.
Branson should have had a bet as to which one of them would keep their team name into 2011, rather than have the rights snatched back by a bunch of wankers*


*Must admit, I havent read the story, just seen some reaction.[/quote]

What you've got there is pretty accurate.

I'm definitely going to have another crack at this again now I have a week off at home. Hopefully I can at least finish my first season.

Go you posting about the game in the F1 thread!

So. My nephew loaned me this a few weeks ago and I have to say it's not very engaging is it?

No. Although I like what they've done, the lack of F1-ness made me sad.

It is a pretty game, and a good drive.

The main problem is the career aspect of the game, which codemasters themselves have admitted is pretty much cobbled together. This wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't the central premise. From some of the comments, they've been screwed over by licensing, and have gone so far as to say that they think it ruins the game so much that they hope the FIA will release some of the restrictions next year.

However, there are still some gamebreaking flaws in the racing itself. Even after the patch, I hit a bug racing at Istanbul where I was leading the race, pitted on the penultimate lap with plenty of time to exit and stay in the lead, and it held me in the pits for 60 seconds despite there being no-one else in the pits. I was so angry I didn't go back to the game for a couple of weeks.

Also, in your first season, if you meet the ridiculously easy R&D objectives, the huuuuge upgrades to your car mean that although you start in Bahrain about 3 seconds off the pace no matter how well you drive, by the time you get to Silverstone, you're doing it wrong if you aren't winning qualifying by a clear second. I've not started a second season to see if you start that season with a borked car again yet.

Not long to go now. New season soon

The usual anticipation just Isn't there. Mainly due to the cocking awful new rear wing rule.

Need to see it in the first race to see if it makes any difference, with that and KERS on some cars, Renault new exhaust system. Can't wait

This new rear wing rule just sounds confusing. Can only be used on certain points on each track if less than one second behind the car in front. wtf?

Must be difficult to monitor & manage. First race will tell all

Still, at least they got rid of the no team orders rule so it's an end to that fucking charade.

Too many rules and regs for me these days. I'd be really interested in a championship where anyone could build anything they like, no limits*
Although I do think I would be more interested if I bought the iPad timing app to run alongside the race, however being as I hardly ever watch them live, and at £20 for the year it can fuck right off.

* I also want an olympics where everyone can take whatever drugs they want, lets see how fast a man can really run...

There is one, but I forget the name.

Red Bull should build their X-1:

I think some hill climbing is still completely unlimited isn't it?

Well, yes. But I was talking more about circuit racing, with big budgets, the best drivers and no limits

Yeah it would be awesome to see what the cars would be like but I think it would be so precarious that any notion of wheel to wheel racing would be right out.

I'd also like to see more than 3 laps before all the cars blow up, and for the teams not to go through 10 drivers a season due to fatalaties.

I'd imagine the drivers would be the first thing to go.

Details, details, people like you are the reason we never got to the moon.

I still think the nadir of F1 was when they banned that funky independant braking system that McClaren were using. It was a clever idea, there were no safety issues, in F1 terms cost peanuts and McClaren were shopping it around to the other teams, so its not like it was ultra-secret. It appears to have been banned entirely because Schumacher couldn't get on with it.

Formula 1, at the cutting edge of technology! (Unless Ferrari doesn't like it, cos we're Ferrari's bitch!)

Kubica has hurt himself quite badly:


http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/06022011/ ... -hand.html

Yeah. Never mind bones, muscles and tendons, reattaching fucking veins. How the fuck did the roll cage give way that badly? What the fuck was he doing in the car when he wasn't even driving a stage?

I mean, I hope he's able to get back in an F1 and all but fuck.

Heidfeld, Senna or Luizzi looking at getting his seat, probably for the season or most of it. If Kubica can recover that is & drive.

'Please keep your arms and hands inside the car at all times'

Bring back Piquet Jr!

Quick Nick it is then.
Will amend my Fantasy F1 site this evening.