I thought this race was one most exciting in a while. I like the turbo noises on decell, but the announcers talk to damn loud and you can hear the cars. The drama of fuel flow regs have already started, poor Daniel

 

Besides the T1 crash, I regret getting up at 7am on a Sunday. Another dreary procession and a result eventually decided by the stewards. The noise is, once again, a huge disappointment. There's 80s diesels with nicer sounds. I hope the Sebring 12h I'm about to catch the replay of is more exciting.

 

Yea sound was definitely a let down.

Sucks for Ricciardo, at least he got to enjoy the podium celebration. Eff Red Bull though.

Looks like the race for P3 is going to be good though. Red Bull, McLaren, Williams, Force India and Ferrari all seem to be about the same pace. At least for the first few races the fight for P3 will be the most interesting.

 

I enjoyed it actually. Disappointing for Hamilton. I have no sympathy for RB on Daniel. Sucks for him as a driver, but I am not really buying Red Bull's excuse.

Anyways, definitely looks a bit lopsided with Merc ahead. Still getting a lull in the middle of the race. With Kamui back, we are sure to get plenty of Safety cars so fuel saving should be minimized (I kid! I kid!). I am seriously glad there weren't a bunch of teams limping the cars in fuel saving mode for the last few laps.

If what Ferrari has said is true, they should be quite competitive in the future once they work out their reliability issue.

Lotus lost both cars...no surprise. Poor Grosjean.

Cars sound fine to me. they don't sound good in pits, but they have a nice deeper note around the track.

 

The new kid with McLaren. That was cool to see a rook do well like that. Let's see if he can keep it up.

 

Finally watched the race...

Too bad for Hamilton, good win for Nico. It sucked to be Seb and a dream to be Ricciardo (edit: nightmare - get it together RBR)! Kamui's back - ask Massa how he feels about that. Magnussen in second? McLaren in SECOND?! And both Loti crap the bucket.

Thoughts; I hate the sound of the engines (too "blatty" if that's a word). Reliability will play a part in early races (maybe through the entire season?), moreso than tires. Power slides will catch out the inattentive driver (can't wait to see how this will play out in Monaco).

"What if" (playing the devil's advocate);
- both Mercs finished the race?
- Vettle's car ran the whole race?
- Bottas hadn't hit the wall?
- Ricciardo's fuel flow was legal?
- Massa wasn't punted by Kobiashi?

 

From the ESPN F1 site;

 

anyone see this: Mercedes F1's Secret Is It Split Its Turbo In Half

more in-depth link in comments, basically mercedes has figured out how to make the turbo shaft run the length of the engine- turbine at the back, compressor at the front. neat.


Log mani?

 

That's really cool. Pun intended. LOL.

 

Great race so far

 

The teams that are big surprise is Force India and Williams.

 

Kind of sad that the best sounding car on track today was the safety car.

 

Enough about the noise, if you want noise go watch top fuel. Absolutely excellent race !!! On what is considered a boring track no less.

 

has anyone ever been to a recent F1 race? I'm thinking of going to either canada or COTA this year, but is it worth the cost? it looks like it will be $1500 for Canada and $2500 for USA.

 

I'm going to canada next summer, significantly cheaper than going to COTA.

 

I haven't buy a few of buddies used to go to Indy every year and now they have been to COTA the last two.

From what I gather the only way it's affordable for "normal" folks is to camp. Some of the quotes for hotel rooms they were getting were beyond in insane.

I might try to go this year since we won't be going to the Caribbean, if I do, my plan is to rent an RV to drive down and stay in.

 

Barring mechanical difficulties/retirements/etc I cannot see this season being anything other than a playground battle between Rossberg and Hamilton. Mercedes has both the best engine (moar power, moar reliabilty, moar fuel efficient) and a fundamentally superior packaging solution which is a double whammy the other teams will be hard pressed to beat. Even next year I can only see it continuing unless Renault pulls something magical out of their asses, or Red Bull drops them for McLarens' unused Mercedes engines. Even then they'd have to start that design process immediately.

Red Bull has found pace and can qualify in the second row area now. Even if they continue aero development and manage to claim poll, they will never be able to pass the Mercs without divine intervention of some kind. The Mercs will blow by them with DRS and the Red Bulls will be helpless after that.

 

This - especially Force India. "The Hulk" and Perez duking it out was cool. As for Williams...Bottas is no pushover but Massa ain't giving up anything either.

I'm not mad at the "Merc train". Red Bull have had it all their way for too long - time for another dominator. I've been a McLaren fan for years (since the Senna/Prost days) but I'm 'bout ready to jump ship. Will Hamilton/Rosberg become another Senna/Prost? Nico didn't seem to be too pleased with Louis.

I can't see RBR staying where they are for too much longer. Right now, they're saddled with Renault engine, but they may be able to find some magic with the handling. Ricciardo (sp?) seems to be able to make the current package work better than Vettel (blasphemy?), but there's no telling how long that will last.

 

Vettel? Who's that?