Any Formula One fans here??

beecee

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Excellent race going on now 11:30 EST..

I'm partial to the two Finnish drivers as I am 25% Finn.

Old adage in Formula racing: Ya want to win? Hire a Finn!
 

SFIV1967

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I used to watch almost all races when Michael Schumacher was still there, nowadays I lost a bit of interest to be honest.
Ralf
 

beecee

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His son is in the pits and is slated to be w/Ferrari in a few years.

Not a Vettle fan??
 

kakerlak

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I used to watch F1 a lot with my dad, growing up in the late eighties/nineties. Senna was my guy. Got kind of back into it in the early 2000s, when Raikkonen was hitting the scene, but haven't really watched in several years. It ended up being one too many sport to follow, between NHL, NBA, NFL, and all the college stuff my wife and I follow and work/sleep.
 

Nuuska

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I’m on-off with it.

Right now it is interesting to see how Valtteri is going to be in future. Seems that new rules have freed him from starving issues and he has some more juice.

And Räikkönen - he must be passionate about racing after so many years. Hope he gets better car in future.

I said ”car” - how much has F1-mobile in common with regular car? If given chance to try it on empty track, would I be able to make even one round?
 

Brucebubs

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I'm Australian - been watching since Alan Jones was champion in 1980.

Dan Ricciardo not having a dream start with Renault but it's a 'work-in-progress'.
 

beecee

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I saw Alan win in person at Watkins Glen in 1980. Frankly I have never really enjoyed a road course event live but that was fun.

Ronnie, Mikka, Kimi, Keke, Mario.

Not really names that roll off the tongue like Maris, Ruth et al.

Riccardo has got to be the classiest guy to go into a corner side by side at over 180 mph. You just know you'll get a clean run...unless it's Vettle or Verstappen...
 

adorshki

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I'm a Ferrari loyalist and they just extended their 5-year run of making things difficult for even a diehard fan like me.
Ferrari's the only make to enter every single season and race since Formula One rose from the ashes of pre-war Grand Prix racing in 1950.
They're also the only team to build the whole car, chassis and engine, completely in-house.
Everybody else sends their engines out to the dedicated construction facility (chassis builder) even if they happen to own said chassis builder.
Things were a lot more interesting back before the great recession when BMW, Toyota, and even Ford (through Jaguar) were all in the series too.
These days there are only 4 and that only because Honda got back in a couple of years back.

My favorite driver of all time is Kimi Raikonnen.
Posted the fastest lap time in F1 history last year.
For Ferrari.
Before Kimi it was Niki Lauda.
It was easy to be a Ferrari fan in the Schumacher era, and even when Kimi was their number one driver and took their last championship in '09, but while Schumacher might have actually had superior skill sets he didn't have the same type of guts to keep going that Kimi and Lauda do/did.
He was a lot better with the press than Vettel, though, so I can get why Ralf isn't a fan just because he's German.
To tell the truth I thought he was kind of full of himself when he won the 4 championships for Red Bull Renault from his rookie season, saying "Anybody can do that if the car's dominant enough."
Which it was.
He grew up a bit at Ferrari but started sliding again with whining about the team's goofs.
Which might have been true enough but something Schumacher never did which just made him a more appealing and classy character.
I have to say the most incredible piece of driving I ever saw was this, Schumacher at Spa in '98:

One needs to understand that just before this impact, Schumacher was coming up behind Coulthard at the apex of a turn in blinding rain, as one of he commenters on that video recounts:
"...if your were watching it he was incredibly fast (in the rain). Michael was about to overlap David witch was 2nd position in this race when he suddently slow down to let him pass (should't do that in the rain cuz visibility is way reduced) and you know the rest."
I still have this on video from the live feed (I used to record the season) and the overhead shot is even more astounding because you can see how suddenly Coulthard slows down and when Schumacher rides over his rear tire, the Ferrari does a little fishtail wiggle in the rain while Schumacher casually gathers it up and proceeds down the road as if nothing happened, 3/4 of the way around the track back to the pits.
And neither Raikonnen nor Lauda were ever accused of unethical shenanigans like this:
"Monaco GP 2006 - Michael Schumacher v Fernando Alonso
Whether it was deliberate or simply driver error, Schumacher's reputation was hardly enhanced during qualifying. With title rival Fernando Alonso on a flying lap and likely to claim pole position, the German 'parked' his car at the penultimate corner, bringing out the yellow flags, and guaranteeing him pole position. However, after qualifying the German was stripped of pole and forced to start the race at the back of the grid."

These days even when Vettel makes an honest mistake and hits Hamilton (as opposed to when he did it on purpose last year after thinking Hamilton brake-checked him), or gets hit by him, even in the dry he takes a spin.
I was able to forgive him in Abu Dhabi this year when Hamilton finally got by him because he really had no choice if he wanted to keep position, and that particular track is the worst in the calendar for traction, it's got sand blowing across it randomly, for C's sake.
But watching Leclerc lose his turbo when he was clearly set to win was just one more Ferrari let down of a driver.
Last year I quit watching whole races because of that kind of BS.

And Räikkönen - he must be passionate about racing after so many years. Hope he gets better car in future.
I kind of wish Ferrari'd kept him and let Vettel go although that wasn't until yesterday watching Leclerc perform (before that I would have said keep the Vettel/Raikonnen pairing).
To be fair Alfa's as close as you can get to Ferrari, being literally the factory "B" team, Ferrari engines in Alf chassis so there's tons of development potential there, and I think they offered Kimi a whole lot of undisclosed incentive to take that position.
Like maybe even a piece of the team.
And he's well known for being able to communicate well with engineers, if not necessarily his race coaches:
"On another occasion, he was racing for Lotus at the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The team had not won any races for a very long time and Raikkonen was leading the race. A nervous Lotus radioed Kimi some instructions but Raikkonen shut them down with a retort. He said, “Leave Me Alone, I Know What I’m Doing”.
He won that one.
More Kimi here:
Interviewer: “The most exciting moment during the race weekend?”
Kimi Raikkonen: “I think so it’s the race start, always.”
Interviewer: “The most boring?”
KR: “Now.”
Tell it, Kimi!
 
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Brucebubs

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What about the only F1 driver to ever win the championship in a car he built himself.

The late, great Sir Jack Brabham.

World Champion in 1959 and 1960 in a Cooper and again in 1966 in his own Repco Brabham.

o20gU0Nh.jpg


p.s. I also remember watching Shumacher driving on slicks in the wet and Damon Hill on wets couldn't get past him!
 
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beecee

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p.s. I also remember watching Shumacher driving on slicks in the wet and Damon Hill on wets couldn't get past him!

Probably worried that Schumi would run him off the road.

Him and Senna....great talent, no class.
 

adorshki

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What about the only F1 driver to ever win the championship in a car he built himself.

The late, great Sir Jack Brabham.

World Champion in 1959 and 1960 in a Cooper and again in 1966 in his own Repco Brabham.

o20gU0Nh.jpg

Regarding Sir Jack, he was before my time, but he's a perfect example of what F1 was all about in the beginning, and exactly what's wrong with it today.

Yes his company designed and built the cars and by definition was the builder but the F1 engines were based on the all-aluminum Buick/Olds V-8 blocks of the early '60's, obtained from Repco.
He became quite a heavy hitter, supplying Brabham chassis to many customers and eventually becoming Bernie Ecclestone's springboard to taking Formula One to the being THE most highly viewed sport on the planet before finally being forced out in the name of revenue a couple of years back (speaking mainly to the uninitiated here, you may well be aware of all that yourself).
Still the point is it was all about little guys being able to show up with what they brung (as long as they could qualify and the car conformed to the construction regs, which were periodically modified along with the engine "formula", and coming up with wild ideas that weren't specifically illegal; and which would remain legal for the season they were introduced in, at least.0

Now new owners Liberty Media are even talking about a "spec car" to "level the playing field" and make it "more about the driver".
Yeah we saw that in the International Race of Champions series with the spec IROC Z-28's.
You can only keep people interested in that kind of thing for so long.
 
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adorshki

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p.s. I also remember watching Shumacher driving on slicks in the wet and Damon Hill on wets couldn't get past him!

Probably worried that Schumi would run him off the road.

Him and Senna....great talent, no class.
Kimi knew when to just back off and get the car home.
More consecutive finishes in the points than any other driver, IIRC.
It's why he was always #3 in the points standings season after season and sometimes even running ahead of Vettel even though folks barely paid attention.
Ah well.
 

Brucebubs

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Did any of you catch the post yesterday by Nico Rosberg announcing his return to Mercedes F1?

Apparently it was his April Fool joke but I'm thinking Lewis needed to change his underwear.
 

beecee

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I remember watching Jim Clark with my uncle on TV as a pre teen, saying he was the greatest.

Chapman, Duckworth, Brabham, Gurney, (yup he run what he brung), just amazing what they accomplished.

And my all time favorite fun team? Hesketh with James!!!

Did any of you catch the post yesterday by Nico Rosberg announcing his return to Mercedes F1?

Apparently it was his April Fool joke but I'm thinking Lewis needed to change his underwear.




Did not see that! Good job.

Not a huge fan of Lewis but I was very impressed with his post race chat w/Leclerc.
 

adorshki

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Speaking of Hesketh and Hunt,, think this one got mentioned a few months back, but only saw it myself last year when it finally hit rotation on DirecTV:
Ron Howard's Rush.
Loved it, about the rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda, and pretty accurate historically, minimal dramatization.
A couple of scenes actually made me cry, like when Hunt set up a dirt-digging journalist for a BIG surprise.
If you haven't seen it, I won't spoil it for you.
:friendly_wink:
 
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beecee

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Saw it the day it came out.

Did you ever see Senna? The opening scenes of him qualifying in Monaco in the Honda...you can hear the suspension nearing total fatigue.
 

kakerlak

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Saw it the day it came out.

Did you ever see Senna? The opening scenes of him qualifying in Monaco in the Honda...you can hear the suspension nearing total fatigue.

Senna is a remarkable piece of film-making. It's really a masterpiece when you consider how compelling and coherent it is despite almost exclusively relying on source footage w/o narration. Also, Senna and Raikkonen have to be up there in terms of best interviews.
 

adorshki

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Saw it the day it came out.
Did you ever see Senna? The opening scenes of him qualifying in Monaco in the Honda...you can hear the suspension nearing total fatigue.
Don't remember if it was a scene in the movie, never saw Senna in action.
Only really got hip to F1 in '80 when the Long Beach Grand Prix got televised:
"In 1980 there was a number of incidents, including a messy pile-up at the Le Gasomet hairpin. Alfa Romeo driver Bruno Giacomelli spun entering that corner and came to a dead stop, with his Alfa's nose mere feet away from the apex of the corner. In a rather impatient attempt to get out of this precarious situation he had put himself in, Giacomelli had put his Alfa in reverse, and as a result, a number of oncoming cars, all attempting to avoid Giacomelli, who had reversed onto the racing line, had to come to a dead stop in order to avoid hitting Giacomelli. This created an accordion-effect accident, which led to 4 other cars also crashing, including Jarier, who had crashed a lot heavier than any of the other drivers by hitting Italian Elio de Angelis's Lotus with some force. But the worst accident was yet to come- Clay Regazzoni in an Ensign crashed appallingly when his brakes failed at 180 mph at the end of Shoreline Drive. While going off the course, the Swiss driver hit Ricardo Zunino's crashed and stationary Brabham at full speed. He then hit the wall next to the track and went straight-on past Queen's Hairpin and crashed into retaining tire barriers head-on, still moving extremely quickly. This devastating accident did not seem to be survivable. Regazzoni did survive, but with severe spinal injuries, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down; he never raced in F1 again but did race again in other forms of motorsports, albeit with hand controls rather than pedals. Brazilian Nelson Piquet dominated that race weekend, it was the first of his twenty-three F1 victories, with his countryman Emerson Fittipaldi taking 3rd."
Not that I was thrilled by the destruction, but it hit me just how much these guys were putting on the line in the cars.
But only saw a couple of the races on TV and read write-ups in Road & Track for the most part until Fox (I think it was) started televising the whole season and had magnificent camera angles from around '95.
Just in time for the Schumacher-Ferrari era.
Since then of course, safety has been improved dramatically:

Just incredible at about 20 seconds in, watching Alonso crawl out from that pile that looks like it'd asphyxiate a cat.
I was no great lover of Alonso but I still felt for him after that one, even gained a new respect for him.
So I don't watch F1 for the crashes, rather, as much as I want Ferrari to demonstrate utter dominance over healthy competition, I spend every race praying both Mercedes will break.
(And before them the Red Bulls)
It's been tough these last few years.
:glee:
 
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beecee

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I used to have to wait WEEKS for the F1 results, yup R&T. Really no other source for me at the time.

I remember I was working as a bartender when news came that Ronnie Peterson had been killed.

It really bugged me. Baseball fans typically don't mourn the death of their heros during the prime of their careers. I still get shivers when I see a picture of Francois Cevert

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