On a lighter note Hamilton got lucky today to an extent.... makes next week interesting anyway. Albon is beginning to worry me. he seems to always be involved in the same sort of incident and while I know some are judged to be the fault of the other driver it can't be an accident it keeps happening.
The 2020 F1 Season
- Thread starter Tony Lockhart
- Start date
clivem2
pfm Member
I agree, he's putting himself in places where these comings together are likely. He either has to be more decisive or take a different line. He maybe he's mostly in the right but it's not a contact sport. Other drivers don't have the same issue consistently.
narabdela
who?
Also worth noting that if Verstappen hadn't stopped for a tyre change to try for fastest lap, he'd have won.
Spot on.
The occasional whinger gets told this by someone different each time, so great to hear it from you Tiggers.
clivem2
pfm Member
Or he could have suffered a puncture too. His tyres weren't great and had cuts.
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
My usual response at work is “So why on Earth do you watch it?” Sometimes it’ll be “How many races have you been to at a circuit?” Until someone has been to any top flight race, they’ve absolutely no idea what it’s like to be there.
“I race on a sim” has been one response. Well whoopee effin do!
Have to say I totally agree with you, I've been very lucky to have been to a lot of GPs in the late 1990s and the 2000s and the TV does not do the speed or jockeying for position justice. My 'claim to fame' is I was at Mansell's first ever victory at Brands in 1985.
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
I was at Brands in 1986! But my claim to fame is being one of the marauding crowd that took to the track at Silverstone (before it took on the appearance of a rough trading estate) in 1987, right where Mansell carried out ‘that overtake’. Those cars were immense. And sounded good too. Such a lucky boy... Group B rally cars, turbo F1 cars, Group B in rallycross, and working on fly by wire components off Tornado. Happy days.
windhoek
The Phoolosopher
I was thinking about Perez there: now that he's had Covid-19, does that mean he can't be confirmed as having it again and so he won't miss any more races?
I know there are big bucks at stake for teams depending on where they finish at the end of the season and Covid-19 might have a hand to play in that regard, but it occurs to me it might also have a hand to play in the drivers championship as well. Hamilton and Bottas could gain or lose anywhere up to 52 points at the drop of a hat, depending on the host nation's quarantine protocols and it being back-to-back race weekends, should either of them catch Covid-19. In that context, a 30 point gap between the two is hardly cushy.
I know there are big bucks at stake for teams depending on where they finish at the end of the season and Covid-19 might have a hand to play in that regard, but it occurs to me it might also have a hand to play in the drivers championship as well. Hamilton and Bottas could gain or lose anywhere up to 52 points at the drop of a hat, depending on the host nation's quarantine protocols and it being back-to-back race weekends, should either of them catch Covid-19. In that context, a 30 point gap between the two is hardly cushy.
The only F1 GP I've attended was that one, I remember sitting in the stand on the start/finish line
tones
Tones deaf
I think this is one of F1's problems and the reason why we get the usual litany of complaints. In the past, F1 was very much for the aficionados, and the fact that Jim Clark frequently won races by a country mile mattered not at all - it was (for me anyway) a fascination with the technology and how it was utilised in a never-ending game of one-upmanship*. Bernie Ecclestone made it the major entertainment spectacle it now is, drawing in many new people, who don't really understand what's going on, hence all the constant changes to make the racing more "competitive". Really, the only way to do this is to adopt US-type rules, where everyone uses the same chassis, has a choice of a couple of engines and a limited package of aerodynamic aids. This is contrary to the whole idea of F1.
*In my particular field (patent law), I was often asked, "Why don't teams patent their developments and stop competitors from using them?" (a) Many of the developments were already known and merely adapted - Jaguar's Le Mans-winning disc brakes came from aircraft practice, Colin Chapman's monocoque construction was preceded by Malcolm Sayer's D-Type Jaguars, etc., therefore unpatentable (b) the pace of development is such that, by the time a patent was granted (remember that you can only infringe a granted patent) the thing would probably already be superceded.
Eyebroughty
JohnC
Hi,
I would agree with what has been said above about the sport being for a certain type of viewer.
I have been watching F1 since Raymond Baxter was doing the commentary, quite a long time ago now.
I would admit to saying on here, in the past, I had found it boring compaired to Moto GP, because when you see a bike rider you see it all, the rider fully, not just a helmet, ok you do see the steering wheel now and again, in Moto GP you can see the skill of the rider at 200mph braking hard and going up on one wheel the bike sliding around corners, it is that type of action to some extent what is missing in F1. (if that all makes sense.)
What might be good would be more in cockpit action, I think a few years ago did they not have a camera inside the footwell showing the feet and what was going on there, maybe now less relevant? The way the cameras are positioned now at times it looks like a video game, I remember seeing in car action, cannot remember what racing, where the camera was able to be moved around and was at helmet level rather than looking down. Maybe of course there are plans in the pipeline for more active cameras like this.
I also enjoy the whole spectacle of the Sky coverage, not just the racing, they do try their best to cover as many aspects as possible, I even like Ted's Notebook!
One thing I think I have been lucky in is that the drivers I liked to follow over the years all have been race winners, and being Scottish we have had a few good drivers that were race winners and yes I like Lewis, he is just something else. In fact there are few of the current drivers if any that I don't enjoy watching race or hearing what they say before or after a race. It might be interesting to have a poll to see which drivers are liked the most and which are lower down the list
The current drivers all seem very good, I think there are a few who given a good car would be far higher up the grid than they currently are.
Yesterdays race was very good, sat through all Friday/Saturday/Sunday Sky coverage, I think it just needs some way of showing how much skill there is in driving a F1 car, something like you can see in Moto GP, how that could be achieved I am not sure, however if it was I think there would be less viewers saying that a race was boring.
Cheers
John
PS, I will wait for the flak now
I would agree with what has been said above about the sport being for a certain type of viewer.
I have been watching F1 since Raymond Baxter was doing the commentary, quite a long time ago now.
I would admit to saying on here, in the past, I had found it boring compaired to Moto GP, because when you see a bike rider you see it all, the rider fully, not just a helmet, ok you do see the steering wheel now and again, in Moto GP you can see the skill of the rider at 200mph braking hard and going up on one wheel the bike sliding around corners, it is that type of action to some extent what is missing in F1. (if that all makes sense.)
What might be good would be more in cockpit action, I think a few years ago did they not have a camera inside the footwell showing the feet and what was going on there, maybe now less relevant? The way the cameras are positioned now at times it looks like a video game, I remember seeing in car action, cannot remember what racing, where the camera was able to be moved around and was at helmet level rather than looking down. Maybe of course there are plans in the pipeline for more active cameras like this.
I also enjoy the whole spectacle of the Sky coverage, not just the racing, they do try their best to cover as many aspects as possible, I even like Ted's Notebook!
One thing I think I have been lucky in is that the drivers I liked to follow over the years all have been race winners, and being Scottish we have had a few good drivers that were race winners and yes I like Lewis, he is just something else. In fact there are few of the current drivers if any that I don't enjoy watching race or hearing what they say before or after a race. It might be interesting to have a poll to see which drivers are liked the most and which are lower down the list
The current drivers all seem very good, I think there are a few who given a good car would be far higher up the grid than they currently are.
Yesterdays race was very good, sat through all Friday/Saturday/Sunday Sky coverage, I think it just needs some way of showing how much skill there is in driving a F1 car, something like you can see in Moto GP, how that could be achieved I am not sure, however if it was I think there would be less viewers saying that a race was boring.
Cheers
John
PS, I will wait for the flak now
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The only F1 GP I've attended was that one, I remember sitting in the stand on the start/finish line
Me too, was my first experience of F1 live.... I was even more hooked after that!
Not the most exciting race to watch apart from the tyre problems which was edge of the seat stuff .
I agree Alban seems to be making risky choices with his overtaking , in most cases he has a superior car so is almost certain to be able to pass the car in front . Maybe he is under immense pressure to perform forcing him to make these poor decisions , without the pressure Gasly seems to be performing well
I agree Alban seems to be making risky choices with his overtaking , in most cases he has a superior car so is almost certain to be able to pass the car in front . Maybe he is under immense pressure to perform forcing him to make these poor decisions , without the pressure Gasly seems to be performing well
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
Murray Walker on Lewis Hamilton:
"But he's also in my opinion - and this is very contentious indeed - better than either Schumacher or Senna because both of them, Schumacher and Senna, adopted at various times in their career, highly debatable driving tactics.
"Like Schumacher stopping deliberately at Monaco to prevent [Fernando Alonso] getting pole position, like Schumacher colliding with Villeneuve at Jerez in 1997, like Senna with [Alain] Prost in 1990 in Japan.
"Lewis Hamilton has never been anything like that. He's always driven as clean as a whistle.
"He's an extremely nice, gigantically talented driver, and I don't think we've ever seen anybody like him before."
I’m starting to think the same.
His fashion sense and BLM beliefs won’t sit comfortably with some, and that may affect their judgement, but he’s proving pretty faultless, and it looks like he has annihilated Bottas already this year.
"But he's also in my opinion - and this is very contentious indeed - better than either Schumacher or Senna because both of them, Schumacher and Senna, adopted at various times in their career, highly debatable driving tactics.
"Like Schumacher stopping deliberately at Monaco to prevent [Fernando Alonso] getting pole position, like Schumacher colliding with Villeneuve at Jerez in 1997, like Senna with [Alain] Prost in 1990 in Japan.
"Lewis Hamilton has never been anything like that. He's always driven as clean as a whistle.
"He's an extremely nice, gigantically talented driver, and I don't think we've ever seen anybody like him before."
I’m starting to think the same.
His fashion sense and BLM beliefs won’t sit comfortably with some, and that may affect their judgement, but he’s proving pretty faultless, and it looks like he has annihilated Bottas already this year.
I am a massive Senna and Schumacher fan, but I agree.... Lewis has it all and delivers it in a mainly sporting manner, yes he's had a few minor indiscretions, but nothing like Ayrton or Michael's mischief. He's hard, but fair and blindingly quick, very few drivers do something with an F1 car that the team's engineers can barely believe and some of Lewis's pole laps have been exactly that.... the true greats can do this, the others who are still very very good cannot. The thing is you can tell he enjoys driving the car, that is the best thing about him.... if anyone saw the segment on Sky where he, Bottas and Toto Wolff race AMG GTs around Silverstone... he was just loving it... it's not a chore to him in any way, he loves racing. It seems inevitable he will statistically be the greatest of all time, whether he is or not is impossible to quantify, but he's right up there with Fangio, Clark, Senna, Schumacher et al. Best of luck to him and I feel honoured to have seen his career and watched what he can do with a car that most would struggle to even get moving.