Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen came together in the first lap of the British Grand Prix, and despite a penalty, the reigning World Champion won his home race. Charles Leclerc finished a close second as Bottas came home in third.
I’m an American and have been watching F1 since a teen in 1986. I still miss Bob Varsha.
I hate the sprint quality idea and hope they don’t implement it.
I don’t care when they have practice quali or races because the events are always in the middle of the night or too early in the morning to watch in American time zones anyway. That’s just the way it has always been and will always be, so I accepted this long ago. It’s fine once you get used to it. Furthermore, technology has developed this amazing thing called a DVR which makes commercials and event start times and lengths totally irrelevant. I never miss anything, ever.
I think the further they drift from the traditional format of F1 the more they will alienate the fan base since F1 typically takes a number of years before it can be fully appreciated by new watchers of the sport. Like the NFL , MLB, Soccer, or any sports league, it takes a while to learn about the teams, the history, the main protagonists, and the ever-developing sport storyline. If they keep changing the format trying to get every viewer possible, consistency will be unavailable and the entire F1 circus integrity will be compromised and in turn becomes farcical. Farcical storylines and controlled randomness attracts and fosters a WWF-like, fickle fan base that is not wanted by veteran fans, and won’t stay if the sport enters a few years of single team domination. To develop and foster a long-term fan base, they need to improve the drivability and mechanical grip of the cars so the racing improves, not torquing and changing the tv format, or event packaging.
Until the idiots in charge of F1 stop trying to fix something that relatively is not broken, they will continue to attract zombie-like “entertain me dammit!” fans while digging veteran fan’s gravesites.
Is it worth having weight penalty (more fuel) and push flat out? Rather than havin less weight with less fuel?
The teams will want to run as little fuel as possible because weight is lost lap time. Being able to push longer is attractive to the fans but that eats in to the PU's "reliability allowance" so increases the risk of a premature failure and associated DNF in a race later in the PU's life cycle. It will be interesting to see whether a mid-low order team risks it. Perhaps Marko has AT run Gasly in Q3 mode for the sprint race in order to be in front of Mercedes in the real race. That could be interesting.
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.
Weather is looking pretty settled now. Going to warm and dry all weekend. Temperatures in the high 20s, maybe 30deg C. Track temp will be plenty as it'll be heating up all day with little if any cloud cover. Little wind - nothing more than a gentle breeze most likely. The breeze could turn gusty as the temperature builds during the day, but I doubt it'll be enough to worry the teams. Always the possibility of a late afternoon thunderstorm, of course, but I wouldn't put any bets on it happening.
If anyone here is going to the circuit this weekend, take a decent factor sunscreen and a hat etc. Consider a long sleeve top and trousers. There is no protection from the sun at Silverstone other than some parts of some covered grandstands. Everywhere else you're in the sun all day long and will be cooked. Take plenty of water too. Ask me how I know...
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.
If they really want to do it exciting and engage drivers to risk something on the sprint race, the have it have the reverse position from last race final result as starting order for the sprint race and the final result of the sprint race as order for the starting of the main race
As it is now, little chance anyone will risk not going to the main race due to a crash on the sprint one
I’m curious how it will play out. In the last several things which looked like to be boring gave pretty much the best races. The fact that they have only 1 practice session before Q is gonna spice it up also I think
I’m also of the opinion that a race with lots of unexpected events make the best races. Think of Monza last year and Baku this year but also 3 out of 5? Races. I like that more than races like Monaco where from the start the end position is pretty much clear already
Weather is looking pretty settled now. Going to warm and dry all weekend. Temperatures in the high 20s, maybe 30deg C. Track temp will be plenty as it'll be heating up all day with little if any cloud cover. Little wind - nothing more than a gentle breeze most likely. The breeze could turn gusty as the temperature builds during the day, but I doubt it'll be enough to worry the teams. Always the possibility of a late afternoon thunderstorm, of course, but I wouldn't put any bets on it happening.
If anyone here is going to the circuit this weekend, take a decent factor sunscreen and a hat etc. Consider a long sleeve top and trousers. There is no protection from the sun at Silverstone other than some parts of some covered grandstands. Everywhere else you're in the sun all day long and will be cooked. Take plenty of water too. Ask me how I know...
This high temperatures will be nightmire for Ferrari. I guess they will consider seriously to focus its set-up totally on the race.
I hasn´t been in Silverstone, but I was in Barcelona and my friends were "stupid" enough to go without sun protection. Luckly for them, I had plenty of it.
I have no issue with the sprint race. It’s Friday - spice it up. I’ll enjoy watching quali tonight with a glass of wine vs glancing up from my phone every now and then to see an occasional quali sim in FP2. Then Saturday? I’m keeping an open mind. Only time will tell if it’s more or less fun than normal knock out quali before the race.
I’m more concerned about the cars next year. It looks rancid front-on, and I really hope the rules aren’t now so restrictive that all the cars look the same next year. We’ve only seen the F1 demo rig so I’m sure it’s just paranoia, but if/when that day arrives my love of F1 and lust for F1 cars will officially be dead
Same feeling here, I try to be open-minded here, let`s see what it offers. But at least we have a super exciting weekend plenty of great moments from the very first day and I think this is a good thing.
Sorry buy why do they move the sessions to be 3 hours later than previously? FP2, now the qualifying, is at 6pm. Is that a night race or what? I'm sure it has a whole lot to do with the new format, but for what exact purpose?
Sorry buy why do they move the sessions to be 3 hours later than previously? FP2, now the qualifying, is at 6pm. Is that a night race or what? I'm sure it has a whole lot to do with the new format, but for what exact purpose?
I mean that's pretty obvious... they want to maximise viewership both in Europe and the Americas.
Nobody would watch qualifying at 2pm on a Friday; but if it's at 6pm (UK), then people will be off work and/or at home watching (in Europe), and you get people on their lunch break in North America.