turotufas

iTrader: (7)

I missed the race but luckily theres a rerun on right now. Liuzzi looking good.

Mobius

iTrader: (2)

Vettel was dominant until he lost power. And even after that, he managed to maintain 4th, which was quite remarkable since it was obvious on the straightaways how much power he was down compared to the rest of the field leaders. Alonso admitted in the press conference when asked that yes, he had "a little bit of pace in his pocket" during the first stages of the race, but that he didn't think he could have kept up with Vettel even had he gone all out.

This will be an interesting year. I'm disappointed that the disparities between the front and rear of the grid are so large. But there are at least 6 solid contenders, possibly 8, and Shumacher got points in his first race after 3 years off. It's good to see Massa back, and in good form. He was in cruise control mode for the last half of the race due to cooling issues with his car, otherwise he would have been right up next to Alonso.

webby459

iTrader: (8)

Why does everyone care so much about how much the backmarkers suck? An exciting race only needs two cars, and speed disparities really don't screw up a race that much. Think about it this way, wouldn't it be better for two frontrunners pass up a lapped car really quickly, rather than have it muck up their race because he was within a second of their lap times?

Sparetire

I think the only chance NASCAR has in the long run is to get real as far as the cars they run. For me, there are two kinds of cars I am interested in watching race. Those that are based primarily on a production chassis, and those that are basically full-on badass track built weapons. I dont mind if said weapons are built to spec to keep costs down, just so long as the chassis itself is not a lame sedan look alike. NASCAR is a full-on track weapon, yet its heavy, uses a carb, has a live axle, and for stupid archaic reasons must look 'like' a production car that it has absolutely nothing in common with.

So what I propose (which will not happen.....ever) is that Nascar require the engines to be built with production blocks and head castings. I want the new 5.0 32V Ford engine racing the LS7s, 6.1 Hemis (Hopefully), and something halfway decent in the way of Toyota engines. With EFI, but no forced induction. Those teams will be making just as much if not more power by the end of the first damn season, and then road cars will get much more direct R&D benefits too. Nobody will pull out of NASCAR as a result of this because frankly they are paying out the *** for the engines thay have now. Those valve trains are insanely expensive and the whole damned engine is bespoke. This will save money in the long run, not cost more. It may well bring some new manufacturers in, which may be the real reason it does not happen.

Second, if the car is not available to the public with power going to the rear wheels somehow, then it has to race FWD. Dont like it? Build a damn better chassis that is actually fun. Toyota needs a mid-level car thats exciting anyway. It wont be a problem for Ford, the SHO is AWD, and in my book that should allow them to run a RWD car. The Charger is good to go too if they so choose. Not sure on what Chevy is even running out there. Frankly the G8 should have been in NASCAR and frankly the fact that Buick is going on and Pontiac is not is a stupidity beyond my comprehension.

So they keep thier tube chassis, even the lame 'car of tomorow' crap, but the vehicles are based in a real way on the stuff non-billionaire racing dynasty drivers can get their hands on. For a sport if the common man, NASCAR is a pretty rarefied series full of sons of very rich former drivers in cars none of us can hope to duplicate. Where ALMS, Rolex, and others are out there with cars that often started life as a production unit. Often, mid to low cost production cars even like RX8s, STis, Mustangs, etc.

And more road races. You dont need restrictors nearly as much if you are not running a pile of races on tri-ovals all year. The best ratings they get are from Bristol and the road courses I bet.

End rant/hijack. Sorry.

turotufas

iTrader: (7)

Australian Grand Prix 2010 was a great one.

curly

iTrader: (25)

The virgins are too small!

Get it? Get it? lulz.

turotufas

iTrader: (7)

I get it Hobbs can't control himself.

curly

iTrader: (25)

at formula1.com, in the pictures below all the headlines, forth row down, picture on the far right. Looks to be Alonso in a car with miata seats, cool little cameo for our cars.

kotomile

iTrader: (24)

Ozzie GP was fantastic! I nearly killed my DVR though, more on that later.

webby459

iTrader: (8)

It was a good GP. I won't even spoil it, in case someone has yet to watch their DVR.

Does anyone other than me continue to question what Michael is doing? If you think about it, he doesn't have anything to prove, he isn't paying his dues or trying to get experience, and he doesn't need the money. The only reasons I can think of for him to be there is 1. to pay back M-B for giving him his start in motorsports (not likely) or 2. to pay back Ross Brawn for engineering all of his championships (more likely). He is, effectively doing RB a favor by coming back. I'm sure that he is giving the team a bunch of car development feedback, and the team will be further ahead than if they had a lesser driver behind the wheel in terms of development.

However, am I the only one that can't help but think of the Zanardi effect in Michael's comeback?

Efini~FC3S

iTrader: (4)

My recording had no sound. What problem did you have w/ your DVR? What cable service do you have? I have no freakin clue what the deal with my was, all the other recordings worked fine and other people in my area didn't seem to have the same problem.

Having to wait all day to download the BBC version of the race was pretty annoying.

Ozzie GP was a very good watch though.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

link or screenshot?

ZX-Tex

iTrader: (15)

Yes agreed, good race. I enjoyed it. I'll avoid the spoiler as well though it is really tempting to break the silence.

I am also wondering what MSC is doing. He is not doing quite as awesomely as I thought he might. It would seem below his level to come back as a development driver unless he really, really wanted to get back in an F1 car. I wonder what they are paying him; supposedly it is around 7M Euros for 2010. But then again unless he squandered his money he should be so loaded that it would not matter much. Estimates are his worth is in the upper 9 figures range.

It is probably just trying to get back up to speed, compounded by significant changes in the cars since he drove last.

turotufas

iTrader: (7)

Yeah those are miata seats! I wonder what car that is. Its copyrighted so. Formula 1? - The Official F1? Website

kotomile

iTrader: (24)

I'll show you with two pics, in the order I saw them:




Before I saw they hadn't just spoiled it, I was pissed.

This. Probably.

turotufas

iTrader: (7)

Super spoiler! That there is what made the race what it was.

Bond

iTrader: (6)

that there donut make cents mkay.

turotufas

iTrader: (7)

I know. I had did dat on purpose.

gospeed81

iTrader: (51)

WARNING: LIGHT SPOILERS (not race winner, but some elimination)



Finally, a good race. Apparently the back of the ingredients package for a good recipe this year said "just add water."

I was really surprised, and the race winner proved once again how smooth and consistent he can be. You can call it a "bold" strategy move (so tired of hearing that) if you want, but it was only bold because of the driving he had to do to back it up. I feel for his teammate though, I'd be irate too. I would have thought any team directives this year would have gone the other way, and I didn't expect to see him playing second fiddle. Just goes to show that much more how talented the winner is.


Schumi is finally faster than his teammate which is nice to see. And god how I feel for Vettel. Guy is driving, the cars just can't keep up with him.



As far as predictions go, I'm glad I was wrong on a lot of things. Looks like it will be an interesting year, and not for the things we thought we could call out a month before the boring opener.



And webby's got a good point on the backmarkers. A two tier playing field is allowing the competitive guys to duke it out up front. This race the only guys that were held up by traffic were the ones that had taken an off, and couldn't quite work their way back to the front.

Good race, and I hope they keep it up.

ZX-Tex

iTrader: (15)

I feel for Vettel too. Twice he was knocked out by reliability.

I am completely surprised how 'easy' it has been for the teams to transition to no fuel stops. Of course there were a lot of Engineers busting their asses behind the scenes to make it happen but still it has been surprisingly uneventful for almost all the teams. It also does not seem to change the team racing much (as I thought) other than of course the steep drop in lap times as the race progresses. In fact IMO it makes the racing more head-to-head, since they are all coming out with the same fuel loads. And Q3 is all-out again with light fuel loads, go as fast as you+car possibly can, refuel for the race. That is cool.

And the pits stops are awesomely fast now. Wow... The pressure is all on the tire changers, pun intended. Speaking of which, they did not talk about it, but it looked like one of MSC's tire change was really bungled and kept him in the pit for a long time. He was #2 in a stacked pit stop right?