Well here it is kids… the start of the Formula 1 season. And I’m sitting here in the dark at 2am in the morning watching the race on my laptop. LOL! Something I’m going to have to get used to I guess. (both timing and facility wise)
Hmmm…. I must say, I miss Peter Windsor and his walk about. (don’t know if he’s still doing it on Speed… I am “relegated” (*snickers at Pat*) to the BBC feed this evening… er… morning.
As if on cue, my internet stream has cacked at approximately the same time the cars rolled off the grid. Nice. Running to the kitchen to see if the signal is better…
Completely missed the start. Will have to try and catch the replay on Sunday. grrr
Those front wings are ridonkulous!!! It’s like a pack of bulldozers racing each other! Fugly fugly fugly.
They (BBC crew) are referring to the super soft tyre stint (must spell it that way when talking about F1) as the “misery phase” LOL!
There is certainly very little interest or support for Seabass from the Brit tv crew. They quite enjoy giving the little digs as a matter of fact. But there is a big love-in going on for Button. From zero to hero in 24hrs.
I always forget how many fricken crew members come running out of the garage for these pit stops.
oopsie Nakajima, who, according the BBC crew “is rather accident prone, has to be said” (LOL! they aren’t shy about the put downs) is into the wall. Track is messy. Festival of pitting will ensue. Zoinks! Barrichello and Buemi almost got together in the pits, but pulled it off without incident.
Button in and out cleanly. Circus clown action in Fisi’s pits as he has a small stroke and forgets how to pull into his pits, nearly bowling over half of his crew.
Safety car gets deployed finally…. (was he napping? doing crosswords? waiting for the leader to come in and pit?)
Taking awhile for the field to all drive past it and make their way around the track so he can catch the leader. This is looking very disorganized. Drivers, teams, series, broadcasters, all shaking the rust off this weekend. Very clunky.
Lots of chit chat about who has KERS and who doesn’t for the restart.
curious.. is Massa trying to destroy his tires? I guess with the extendo yellow the tires… tyres are cooling rapidly. Ah, Button confirms that very thing over the radio.
Green! Green! Kitty litter! oopsie. Piquet totally bobbles. Wow, that car just snapped out from under him. No saving that. No yellow though, so that’s good.
wow, the BBC guys really have a bug up their ass towards Seabass! His teammate has him “looking a bit of a monkey” . How do you really feel boys? (this has been a recurring theme the entire broadcast, just not as obvious as that slag)
It’s 3am… *yawn* I have my kitchen lit up like an interrogation room to stay awake. (I am also now painfully aware of how uncomfortable this chair is) (getting a proper internet connection is now at the top of my wish list for April)
Kubica is on a tear. He is like the gentle giant. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do this season.
interview and an incar radio stream at the same time… oops. More proof the BBC team have bugs of their own to work out…what I also find lacking from the BBC crew is the historic and technical quips that come so easily to the SPEED crew. I rather enjoy the dulcet tones of Bob Varsha with my racing experience…
Kubica in. Quick clean stop. nice.
I have to PEE!! but there are no commericals on the Brit feed! LOL! Good thing I have a laptop if it gets desperate… just sayin… (tmi?)
Are you fucking kidding me?! They just dropped the hammer on all of the F1 streams with 17 laps to go. Pricks. Oh well, pee break! LOL!
apparently, according to the chat which is still working, Kimi has hit the wall. Gah! this sucks. Off to twitter to follow the rest of the action.
OK… found a stream “elsewhere”, it’s in another language. (Hungarian I think) LOL! But hey, I can see what’s happening even if I have NO idea what they are talking about.
OH MY… that’s not how you get on the podium boys. Dang. Heartbreaking for both. Kubica and Vettel have a moment of oopsie, and destroy all their hard work in the blink of an eye. Messy.
LOL… the commentary is hilarious sounding. Again, no clue what’s going on! Damn that tire on Kubica’s car snapped off and right over his head. That’s not good. (don’t they have tethers?)
So, after all that, Rubens gets his original starting spot back! Nice job boys! And Trulli gets the third step after starting from pitlane! nice!
OK… must sleep. Or have breakfast… can’t decide if I’m more tired or more hungry at this point. I think tired is winning. More tomorrow.
In the light of day…
Ok… so I was so tired, I saved this as a draft instead of posting. bwhahaha!
By now y’all know what I know, that Trulli was docked 25 seconds after Lewis & team invoked the “he pass me under yellow” protest. Bottomline, you don’t pass a competitor whilst behind the safety car, no matter what excuse you have.
Oh and our young German phenom Vettel got docked 10 grid spots for his part in the final crash with Kubica. Apparently had he just kept his mouth shut, they would have shared the blame, but he got all truthful and remorseful and accepted blame. (good on ya Seb… shows strength of character) The team also got a $50,000 dollar slap upside the head for encouraging him to stay on track in his mangled and dangerous car.
So… on to Malaysia.
Will we see more KERS and more diffusers? I’m guessing yes. The usual top tier is probably hunkered down in their shops as we speak, still smarting from the smackdown they got this weekend. Although McLaren has said publicly that they expect to win in Spain. Spain?! that’s like 3 races from now. They best get competitive before that.
It will be interesting to see if the drivers start to use the KERS boosts defensively as well as offensively. (like P2P in Champ Car)
I never thought that I’d see the day when the Dallaras would look like a breath of fresh air following an F1 weekend. But damn, those cars…. blech.
Alright. Might try to catch the replay this afternoon and see what the SPEED boys had to say.
So... here's what I'm thinking... 
On the BBC: It their first race together, give ’em a break!
Back on ITV James and Martin gave out lots of info. Jonathan and Martin today seemed to give out more current info rather than past info.
My only complaint on the commentary was it was too ‘radio’-sounding and that’s because Jonathan used to do F1 and then footie commentary for BBC Radio. Martin is still trying to work out when to interrupt him. I reckon come the middle of the year they’ll be working very, very well together.
The “interview during team radio” thing was a common ITV error. Needs someone to fade down the radio, or record the interview for playback a little later. Sounds simple enough to me.
F1 has never got the hang of safety cars. It was messy, it was bad.
Bourdais is a very good driver but in the insular world of F1 if you don’t prove yourself in an F1 car, you’re nobody. See Allan McNish.
and Da Matta, Michael Andretti, etc..
Well, Michael… LOL… can’t really defend that stint at all…
Ayrton Senna defended Mikey… Said Ron Dennis pimped Andretti.
F1 seriously LIMITED testing.
Ron was promising Renault Power (not customer Fords).
Senna was in a contract dispute w/ McLaren & Dennis hired Mika Hakkinen to be MA’s team mate (Senna was off testing a Penske Indycar)
Once Senna returned with a race to race contract Mika did a majority of the testing.
Jacques Villenueve & his management team sat down with Andrettis before signing JV Williams deal (avoiding BS & whacked promises)
Thus contradicting every F1 journo’s record of events, but anyway..
Mika Hakkinen was hired to do Michael’s share of the donkey work in testing while he was swanning off back to America because he wasn’t committed enough to move to Europe to make it work.
Mika turned out to be faster.
Wrong. Don’t let the FACTS get in the way of your opinions. WTF do you think I got mine? Read Autosport & countless mags + books on the subject
(many written by journalists…)
Limited F1 Testing/ Tire test Limits: FACT
Mika under contract pre 1993: FACT
Senna, in INTERVIEWS said he thought Andretti was not “served well by McLaren”: this too… FACT!!!
I’ll take Senna’s words over fan OPINION.
I’m sure Mikey’s b*tch ex wife would have LOVED if he rented a Surrey castle near McLaren’s Woking England HQ… but Why bother when trsting is LIMITED & your boss already has a test driver under contract???
Andretti & Senna did test & when the teams were allowed ALL 3 McLaren drivers were in town for scheduled tests.
Senna went to back to Brazil or escaped to some tropical island when the GPs were over. Cool for him but Mike is a d*ck? Andretti was a rookie & Senna a seasoned vet… but if a team isn’t having you drive how much bonding can a driver do with shop staffs @ McLaren??
Not sure I ever said I liked Senna. In fact I am sure I never. Never could stand the man. He was an asshole who got deified even before he was killed but that took it to another level, now nobody dares criticise him.
I agree that Andretti was a rookie and Senna a vet. So why was it okay for a rookie jet off? Senna had earned that right. Andretti had not. He ought to have put himself in the workshop in front of the mechanics noses, working with them, getting to know ’em. Earn some respect in the team.
As Bourdais has found, titles in other forms of racing mean shit when you get to F1, you need to start again. Which is what I said above.
I got my opinions from reading Roebuck and others.
If you want to be taken seriously in F1 you have to move to Europe – that’s a FACT too. Same is true of Indycar guys living in the US.
Mikey’s wife got all uppity when the team wouldn’t let her stand on the pitwall and do the timing like she did in Indycar.
He ought to have put himself in the workshop in front of the mechanics noses, working with them, getting to know ‘em. Earn some respect in the team. -PAT
That sounds a bit NASCAR… Yes have him help with the carbon fiber work! 🙂 🙂 Are you kidding me? I’m sure Schumacher & Prost hung around their respective shops on their days off!!!
Again, journos reported (& a host of other media) that ALL of the McLaren drivers were on sight at all available tests… except Senna due to his contract squabbles with McLaren Mika was the FULL-TIME test driver.
The rest is pure speculation. Was Mika better than Andretti… OBVIOUSLY & his 2 WDC titles support this. Senna was a 10 year vet & figured out what he described as a temperamental MP4/8. Seat time helped with this car & Mika had much more than Senna & Andretti.
I agree Europe is a better training ground, but Jacques Villenueve was the one CART champion that disproved this. Much better odds just starting there (if F1 is your goal…) we AGREE!
Not the actual building work 🙂
But Schumacher spent a lot of time back in Maranello working on car setups and so forth, and getting to know the guys working on the car.
Admittedly this was a long way after 1993 and he’d changed the game but it can’t have been completely unheard of at the time.
WTF??? Yeah Michael Andretti what a fucking LOSER… all those Indy 500 & CART records (including most wins…)
DaMatta? He sucks a$$ too right???… Solid drives in CART (when CART wasn’t nameless F1 rejects & ride buyers) Gave Toyota F1 their first LEADING RACE LAPS… Panasonic Toyota shit out a helluva lot of solid drivers! 😦 😦
Allan McNish… I’m sure he tosses & turns at night having dreams of capping Johnny Herbert or JJ Letho in the knee caps so he could have been ordered to finish BEHIND Schumacher”
The same McNish who has been a staple of the Audi P1 programs & like DaMatta tried to drive the 1st class POS cars Panasonic Toyoya fielded
As for Bourdais, he has to get a handle on his Toro Rosso or he might be out BEFORE the season is finished…. HOWEVER, does Sebastian become some tosser if F1 skills don’t shine bright??? Hell no… I won’t babble about 4 CART/ CCWS titles because MOST of those were won beating 2-3 drivers in joke fields. His F3000 drives + Peugeot adventures… Quality.
Are you completely stupid or are you having an off day?
Clearly I was referring to their stints in F1.
Sorry, but you seem to be taking a steamy SHIT onto their OVERALL driving careers as a result of less than perfect (I.E. no 1st place podiums…)
…less than perfect F1 records
Shouldn’t type mad… drop stuff out.
I was saying how it is, not how it should be.
In F1, your past record is erased. You are judged on your last few races. That’s it.
I never once said that’s how I personally viewed those drivers.
And why the fuck and you say fuck, but not ass? You’re weird, man.
hehehe… oh man… this is certainly entertaining to come home to!
Yeah… I’m FUCKING weird… deal with it dude.
I can’t decide if I should be proper or un-edited
So to make you happy… Fuck off, youSHIT eating COCK sucking , salad tosser. Get you facts straight you BITCH ASS punk!!!!!!!!
Happy Patty??? 🙂 🙂 🙂
Ok ladies… here’s the rules.
Swearing to make a point? Go for it. There’s a big ol’ disclaimer for the faint of heart now.
Swearing at each other? nu uh. I spent way to many fucking years moderating petulant children disguised as grown men in racing forums, I don’t want to put up with that shit here. Got it?
I love the heated, animated conversations. It gets the blood pumping and keeps it real.
But I won’t have y’all bashing each other. It takes all the fun out of it.
Don’t hate the playa, hate the game. Got it?
Now, carry on… 😉
Sorry man… My temper & it became a bit of a dick measuring contest ya know? 🙂 🙂
Boys will be boys…
LOL… ya, I know nothing about losing my temper…
If I had a dick, I’d be measuring it all the time I’m sure 😉
So are you a chick or are you sportin’ a Willie Nelson Japanese anima style image???
BTW how do I get rid of my Triangle Head icon? Is it auto-assigned???
I’m all boobs and brassiness my friend. 😉
(which leads to some pretty funny encounters at the track for those expecting a dude…)
Avatars are auto-assigned unless you have a wordpress account with your own avatar.
Sorry about that but that one-liner was designed to test the response. I’ve been around racing forums for a while, too..
It would help if either of us could type properly when we’re angry, I think we’ve both proven we can’t. 🙂
Anyway this has been fun but it’s gone midnight here so I’m done, I’m sure we’ll resume again soon!
See don’t you feel better now, Queen?
There was meant to be a smiley in that but I pressed send too soon 🙂
Give em a break?!?! Sorry, not my M.O. hehehe 😉
I just found the commentary boring and lacking a little substance. I’m sure they’ll get the hang of it soon enough.
Ya, the tape/replay of incar radio is standard practice on the US broadcast. Helps to fill in the boring on track bits too.
Ya, sloppy safety car moments for sure just ruin the flow of the race. (no matter what genre)
Ya, they were riding on Seabass last night like he’s been there for 10yrs and not done anything. LOL! Um, Button wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire the last two seasons… just sayin…
A guy with four years experience in Champ Car, winner in F3000, front running in sportscars just a week ago… he should not be being beaten convincingly by a guy who frankly most thought wasn’t ready to jump up from GP2 at the back end of last year. That’s why they are hard on SeaBass. I notice many have changed their tune about Buemi over the winter.
Its one fucking race… if its a trend then I’m with ya.
We’ll call Sato’s manager (he was the ’09 option?) & send Bourdais packing.
I look for Piquet Jr to go 1st though…
It’s been the trend for the last twelve months. Okay Vettel is a hot talent, but really a guy of Bourdais’ level should have matched him regularly.
Okay I’ll give him the car not suiting him but he did get that sorted later in the year. He needs to get his head around F1 cars.
For the record I wanted to see Bourdais and Sato in that team.
I agree there. He needs to learn to drive the wheels off the car he has, not wait for the car he wants to magically appear.
I think the Bourdais story would have been a lot different had he not landed at Newman Haas out of the gate. Just sayin…
I think the Bourdais story would have been a lot different had he not landed at Newman Haas out of the gate. Just sayin…
Oh in between my swearing… note my comments about Bourdais’ former playground (CART/ CCWS) being full of 3-4 drivers that could challenge him.
In his 4th championship one of those rivals left to race in circles. Newman Haas: Best team in a very light field.
Sebastian Bourdais would have NEVER won 4 championships in CART’s golden era. We seem to agree on this. Still F1 worthy though
& Vettel got PROMOTED to RedBull for his skills.
2008: Bourdais learning some tracks… & being the 2nd driver ( a French guy vs. a fellow Austrian on an AUSTRIAN owned team… WTF?) Drivers have different styles. Bourdais had slicks & a spec car in CCWS, I expect adjustment periods.
2009: Twitchy cars & its the 1st FUCKING race. As I said if he blows ass in Malaysia & upcoming races then he’s got problems.
Takuma Sato was Bourdais’ STR competition & Red Bull wanted to expand into Japan… They still chose Bourdais, so he must have shown something….
… THIS or SB woulda been dumped like Speed, Klien, & the other shit-canned STR driver. eh?
Vettel is German, but I agree he’s very much a Red Bull favourite.
Bourdais only JUST took it. I’m still not sure how but then the driver decisions at STR have never made any sense to me.
Austrian, German, what’s the difference?
just KIDDING!!! 🙂 🙂
Mixed him up with Christian Klien & figured Gerhard was happy to dump an American & an Italian for a Austrian…. Yes GERMAN indeed!!!
I need the “oops” face icon…
Since I just pi$$ed the vinegar… I want to drop some “Happy-Happy” as well.
Brawn GP with top two steps of the podium… WOW!!! Jenson drove his a$$ off & Rubens showed why they kept Bruno Senna away
RedBull RB5 looked great & when Newey drops a Brawn style defuser… look out bitches!!! 🙂 🙂
Nico Rosberg learned that the SOFT Bridgestones are for the beginning of the race… I was bummed to see him fall back & outta the points. $hit… I though Bourdais would pass him
Gear change.. 🙂
I agree with all of this.
Peace is good too! 🙂
Back to the VENOM!!!
Kubica is inviting stereotypical Polish jokes with his dumb-a$$ pass attempt of Vettel’s RedBull with 3 to go
WTF!!! 😦 😦 He had 3 LAPS for Christ sake & he blows his wad in the red mist! He expected Vettel to “baja jump” the corner??? DUMB
Brawn got their story book 1-2, but Vettel drove a damn good race & ends up with a goose egg. Gotta love that he drove that RB5 until the wheels fell off LITERALLY!!!!!!!
🙂 🙂 🙂
Wow. Dean, you need to SMOKE one and CALM the FUCK DOWN!!!
I wish I would have heard the BBC feed – sorry, but Seabass disappointed big time. He should be the seasoned veteran. We were all ready to give him a pass on having his young teammate smoke him last year but it can’t happen again. And it’s happening. If this becomes the norm he’ll never make it through the year.
Also interesting to note that Vettel looks good against Webber too. I’ve thought that Webber is one of the strongest on the grid, equipment corrected.
I don’t SMOKE the shit…
but I agree with you that RedBull & the RB5 look solid.
Fair enough : )
Holy Cat Fight. What did I wander into. Sweet notes as usual, Meesh. Given what you go through to watch, F1 should sponsor your broadband connection. The SPEED guys are the best in the biz. They were on their game this time. I’m geeked to have someone new up front and looking forward to the season.
LOL! A little spring/cat-scratch fever going on in here! It’s all good baby! Entertaining, educational, and most of all BRASSY! I’m glad everyone is comfortable enough hang out here and let loose.
It’s race season kids… BRING IT!!
bwhahaha on the broadband sponsor. That would be nice.
I start my new job tomorrow morning at 9am. Two weeks from now, cheque one will arrive. Moments later, some sort of cable connection will be sought me thinks 🙂
I’m coming to your site next!!! I’ll be nicer (& I know I can’t cuss there either) 🙂 🙂
I see Pat W and Dean had fun without me. Such a shame. 😦
There’s still a bit left open up there, but I’ve run out of memory of what I’ve read of all this, so can’t do any more. 🙂
So is Tags a go for St. Pete???
Well hello stranger! Welcome back! You bet he’s a go. (with the possibility of a few more if everyone signs on the dotted line!)