New F1 Web Site is Stupid (and Australia 2015)

[Insomniac]

It took me five minutes to find practice results. Old site, right side, links to session results. New site, not on the front page anywhere. Under championship, the list of races has trending, but not Australia??? So see all races, pick Australia. No results there... Finally found it. Choose 2015 Race Results under Results under Championship. Then a couple more clicks and you're there!

Mercedes 1-2, Ferrari 3-4. 16 cars listed, they can't even list cars that didn't turn laps. The lead up to this season has really been pretty poor. I hope the racing isn't.

[cameraman]

Hope everyone is up on their math cuz the stupid F1 web site only shows the lap times not the gaps

so yeah Vittles was um .412 + errr 1-.797 is .203 ummm .615 behind Hamilton:irked:

[gjc2]

I sent them an e-mail to voice my displeasure.

They want you to sign up for their paid service.

[opinionated ow]

I sent them am e-mail to voice my displeasure.

They want you to sign up for their paid service.

F1 wants you to pay for everything now. Fastest way to kill your sport. Only 10 races on free to air in Australia this year. This in a country with a less than 25% take up rate of subscription television. We get to watch Australia, Bahrain, Monaco, Austria, Germany, Spa, Singapore, Sochi, Mexico City, Abu Dhabi. Given I've zero interest in Bahrain, Sochi and Singapore that leaves me 7 races.

[Insomniac]

I see why Mercedes does not want any engine changes. Looks like it will be the Mercedes show once again. Red Bull is already openly calling out Renault. McLaren-Honda, yikes. Does Hamilton show us all that Rosberg is Barichello to his Schumacher (I say yes)?

How much of an impact does an engine freeze have at this point? If they can only use 4 units the whole season, just let them develop it. They can't deploy new engines every race anymore.

[WickerBill]

Reports have the Honda intentionally detuned because of the heat and the fear of failure with a four engine limit. The trap speeds bear this out. Alonso was third fastest in the speed trap before he wrecked in testing, so I still have hope for McLaren. If the Honda comes reasonably good by mid season, I expect a mid pack team to be running them next year (Force India or Sauber) because Honda needs so much more input than they're getting from two cars.

I dislike Lewis more every year. The high fade and the chinstrap beard really bug me, but his whining is Alonso-level now. Go Nico.

Bottas has a back injury and may not race.

Manor (which is pronounced "Manna" by Diffey, Matchett, and Buxton) didn't turn a wheel because they were having issues with their safety systems. And now the FIA is mad at them. I say kudos for not putting drivers in danger, but what do I know? By the way, the same announcers say "Massa" as "Masser", which makes me think if the team name really was Manna, these guys would actually say "Manor".

I now have several teams where I love one driver and dislike the other (McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, Lotus). So, go Williams I guess!

[cameraman]

I dislike Lewis more every year. The high fade and the chinstrap beard really bug me, but his whining is Alonso-level now.

Whining? Every word out of his mouth has been effusive praise for everyone and everything associated with the team. I don't get where you are hearing whining.


"It's been a great start to the weekend and, honestly, it doesn't feel like such a long time since the last race! It's been a huge effort from all the guys and girls at the factories to have this kind of performance from our car and I feel very blessed to have the opportunity to drive it. I've worked hard with the engineers yesterday and today to find a good balance. Then, in the session, I just tried to push hard and put the pieces together. It's so much fun when it works right, because this is the competition that I live for. And I'm immensely grateful to everybody at Mercedes for the hard work that has gone into it so far. But there is still a lot to do tonight to study for the race tomorrow because it will be a huge challenge to try and fight for the win. We will be working as hard as we can to make sure we have a good race."

He gets any more upbeat he will start farting rainbows.

[Opposite Lock]

Manor (which is pronounced "Manna" by Diffey, Matchett, and Buxton) didn't turn a wheel because they were having issues with their safety systems. ... By the way, the same announcers say "Massa" as "Masser", which makes me think if the team name really was Manna, these guys would actually say "Manor".

:laugh:


Oh, and yeah, looking for Qualies results, I had pretty much the same experience, and came to the same conclusion as Insomniac:

The New F1 Web Site is Stupid. :thumbdown:

[WickerBill]

Fine, fine... I'll give you that, but he OUGHT to be saying that.

An interview after qualifying (not the televised one, but one that James Allen added to his podcast), he says "this really hasn't been that great a year so far" and it just about made my head explode. Why did he say that? Because they didn't lead every session in off-season testing? Who knows. Of course, I'm guilty of reading into his comments and adding them to the whining he constantly does when Nico is superior (see Monaco 2014, "I'm faster! You didn't call me in on the right lap!" and when Nico started to pull away "I've got dirt in my eye!", then refusing to even make eye contact with Nico on the podium).

So after being 6/10ths faster than his only competition in qualifying, for him to say the year hasn't been that great... geez, he's starting early this year.

[dando]

McLaren go boom already. :saywhat:

[indyfan31]

Bottas is out with a back injury (http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/latest/headlines/2015/bottas-awaiting-fia-clearance-to-race-after-back-injury.html).

[opinionated ow]

Mark Webber knows his stuff but is boring to listen to. Alan Jones, Matt White and Daryl Beattie haven't got a clue. Honestly that was the worst coverage of our own Grand Prix since Melbourne got it.

Onto the race, impressed by Sauber. That was the smallest starting grid of an Australian Grand Prix since 1978 when 13 cars started. Red Bull are miles off the pace. Ferrari and Williams are reasonably good.

[cameraman]

Fine, fine... I'll give you that, but he OUGHT to be saying that.

An interview after qualifying (not the televised one, but one that James Allen added to his podcast), he says "this really hasn't been that great a year so far" and it just about made my head explode. Why did he say that? Because they didn't lead every session in off-season testing? Who knows. Of course, I'm guilty of reading into his comments and adding them to the whining he constantly does when Nico is superior (see Monaco 2014, "I'm faster! You didn't call me in on the right lap!" and when Nico started to pull away "I've got dirt in my eye!", then refusing to even make eye contact with Nico on the podium).

So after being 6/10ths faster than his only competition in qualifying, for him to say the year hasn't been that great... geez, he's starting early this year.

:rolleyes: He was referring to an earlier interview when they talked about his personal life & breaking up with his girlfriend. He wasn't talking about the testing. Sheesh.

[gjc2]

Manor (which is pronounced "Manna" by Diffey, Matchett, and Buxton) didn't turn a wheel because they were having issues with their safety systems. And now the FIA is mad at them. I say kudos for not putting drivers in danger, but what do I know? By the way, the same announcers say "Massa" as "Masser", which makes me think if the team name really was Manna, these guys would actually say "Manor".



His name is spelled "Nasr" according to Wikipedia & the F1 web site.

[opinionated ow]

He name is spelled "Nasr" according to Wikipedia & the F1 web site.

Felipe Massa and Felipe Nasr. Both said the same way (apart from the first letter of their surname) except by the idiotic Australian commentators.

Manor is pronounced Manna in English.

[cameraman]

Manor is pronounced Manna in Australian.

Fixxered

[Insomniac]

Ferrari made a horrible call on Kimi. Just as Ricciardo had fallen behind Nasr by 1s, they bring Kimi in for a stop. He would've had DRS and passed him. They blew 4th even before not putting a tire on right.

Nico has done a good job rehabilitating his image after getting booed mid-season last year. I realized today that he and Hamilton basically said the same thing on the podium and depending on what you already think of the guy is how you take what they said.

I think Hamilton just played with Rosberg the whole race. Ron Dennis was funny pre-race and Arnold did a good job on the Podium.

[mapguy]

That was the smallest starting grid of an Australian Grand Prix since 1978 when 13 cars started.

:saywhat: Thought the first Australian GP was in 1985

[Hard Driver]

Felipe Massa and Felipe Nasr. Both said the same way (apart from the first letter of their surname) except by the idiotic Australian commentators.

Manor is pronounced Manna in English.

Or in Boston

[Hard Driver]

Ferrari made a horrible call on Kimi. Just as Ricciardo had fallen behind Nasr by 1s, they bring Kimi in for a stop. He would've had DRS and passed him. They blew 4th even before not putting a tire on right.

Nico has done a good job rehabilitating his image after getting booed mid-season last year. I realized today that he and Hamilton basically said the same thing on the podium and depending on what you already think of the guy is how you take what they said.

I think Hamilton just played with Rosberg the whole race. Ron Dennis was funny pre-race and Arnold did a good job on the Podium.

Pretty much agree, except for the Arnold bit. All he asked was "how does it feel"... to win, to come in second, to come in third.

Looks like it will be a repeat of last year for Mercedes, and probably Hamilton.

The more interesting part of the season may be a race between Ferrari and Williams for the third step of the podium. I bet Vettel is happy he is not with Red Bull/Renault this year.

[Insomniac]

Pretty much agree, except for the Arnold bit. All he asked was "how does it feel"... to win, to come in second, to come in third.

Looks like it will be a repeat of last year for Mercedes, and probably Hamilton.

The more interesting part of the season may be a race between Ferrari and Williams for the third step of the podium. I bet Vettel is happy he is not with Red Bull/Renault this year.

He did ask that, but he wasn't just a celeb who was there. He seemed to have actual knowledge, Vettel new to Ferrari, Rosberg/Hamilton. I liked it better than Eddie Jordan. I agree on Mercedes, I don't know how anyone makes up a 1s+ gap in a season. Mercedes has it all down. I don't even think a Red Bull with a Mercedes engine would beat them.

[mapguy]

I think that Nasr is pronounced "Nazeer"

[datachicane]

So what was Sir Jackie doing up there? I assumed he'd be doing the interviews, and it was WTFs all around my place when Ahnold walked out.
Maybe the booking folks were looking for local talent and, y'know, Austrian==Australian if you squint right.

[WickerBill]

Well, I was talking about Massa (not Nasr) and the British rhotic accent that adds an R to words that end in A. But I just found it funny that a word that genuinely ends in R, like Manor, the R gets dropped in the same accent so it sounds like "Manna".

And I've ticked off cameraman. Great.

[SteveH]

So what was Sir Jackie doing up there? I assumed he'd be doing the interviews, and it was WTFs all around my place when Ahnold walked out.

This. Why him? I'm sure there was a paddock full of interesting racing related personalities. But him? At least I chuckled when Lewis remarked on his height (or lack of).

[opinionated ow]

:saywhat: Thought the first Australian GP was in 1985

I had written a long post about the History of the AGP and the NZGP but my browser just crapped itself so I'll just copy wiki links, sorry!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Grand_Prix
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Grand_Prix

[NismoZ]

Ahhh, the season is ON! 11 cars finish, only 5 on the same lap, Red Bull threatens to quit, Bernie says they have good reason to do just that...SNAFU. Do we use this thread for the whole season...again? :\

[Insomniac]

Ahhh, the season is ON! 11 cars finish, only 5 on the same lap, Red Bull threatens to quit, Bernie says they have good reason to do just that...SNAFU. Do we use this thread for the whole season...again? :\

At least until the new F! site is not stupid, so yes, all season. ;)

[opinionated ow]

Anybody else annoyed by the gratuitous sparks? Apparently they mandated that the old jabrock planks be replaced with magnesium. :rolleyes:

[WickerBill]

Anyone know why Verstappen's abbreviation is VES and not VER? Vergne is gone...

[Insomniac]

Anybody else annoyed by the gratuitous sparks? Apparently they mandated that the old jabrock planks be replaced with magnesium. :rolleyes:

I noticed them, but didn't care after a while. Or really even see them. From a technical standpoint, I assume the advantage of running the car that low is out weighed by the drag of bottoming out? Are the sparks for TV or in-person?

[Insomniac]

Anyone know why Verstappen's abbreviation is VES and not VER? Vergne is gone...

Same reason no one realized you can't read the red, green or purple text on the graphics? (I think they fixed the red/green from Qual to Race). Also, you'd think they would retain the checkered flag symbol when the driver completes their final lap in the qual session. I like to know who is left to put up a time.

[NismoZ]

Sparks, name abbreviations, pronunciations,...GADS! this is getting SERIOUS! F-1 may not survive all this! What ever happened to all those cost-saving mandates...you remember...to solve all those OTHER problems? Dump Germany! Dump Italy! TWENTY races...there's cost saving ideas, for ya! Getting worse, not better...

[cameraman]

They did dump Germany.

or Germany dumped itself, whatever.

[opinionated ow]

I noticed them, but didn't care after a while. Or really even see them. From a technical standpoint, I assume the advantage of running the car that low is out weighed by the drag of bottoming out? Are the sparks for TV or in-person?
Supposed to be for TV. I think Bernie had something to do with it

Anyone know why Verstappen's abbreviation is VES and not VER? Vergne is gone...

The same reason that Herr Schumacher was MSC on his comeback. I think they're trying to avoid reusing codes

[Insomniac]

Well, Matchett is sad today. Mercedes 1s faster than the rest. We'll see if, so far, Malaysia was the anomaly or Australia. Did they really think McLaren was going to just jump into Q2? What kind of updates did they expect? Will most of their improvement be from car development or Honda?

F1 web site is still stupid. Too much trouble to link results still.

[WickerBill]

McLaren is still 8mph slower at the end of the long China straight. So I think the Honda has to get better first.

[cameraman]

Gotta feel bad for Verstappen. Otherwise that was one of the more boring races.

[Insomniac]

Guess Malaysia was the anomaly. Hamilton just played with everyone. I liked the radio message that told him he needs to go faster or they'll pit Nic first. He must've been thinking, OK! Was the message to Raikkonen about what Mercedes were doing (and how fast they were) a violation of the rules? For so much of the race, it was just the teams running together. Good job by Raikkonen to get in front of the Williams on the first lap.

[Insomniac]

Race Recap: There was a race, and it was boring. On to Monaco!

[cameraman]

Race Recap: There was a race, and it was boring. On to Monaco!

That's what happens on a track where passing requires DRS plus a large gap in tire condition.

Hamilton missed the set up this weekend, that was obvious from qualifying. Now we go to Monaco where Rosberg shines while it is not one of Hamilton's better tracks.

[Insomniac]

That's what happens on a track where passing requires DRS plus a large gap in tire condition.

Hamilton missed the set up this weekend, that was obvious from qualifying. Now we go to Monaco where Rosberg shines while it is not one of Hamilton's better tracks.

Even DRS didn't help much. Hamilton had Monaco until Rosberg spun. :D

[opinionated ow]

For the first time in my life I've realised I don't care. Until this point I had watched F1 religiously my entire life but now that we've been reduced to 9 races and late night highlights packages 24 hours after the event, I don't care. Of course if I could afford to I could get subscription television but I live in a country that has a less than 30% take-up rate. Money hungry grubs have removed both V8 Supertaxi and Formula 1 from free to air tv and they wonder why the audience is dying down under...

[cameraman]

I think part of the problem is there is a pretty clear stepwise difference between the cars

Mercedes
Ferrari
Williams
Toro Rosso
Red Bull
Sauber
Lotus
Force India
McLaren
Marussia

Each team is slightly faster than the next. I've never seen so many two by two grids before. When the field is well and truly sorted during qualifications then not a whole lot will happen during a race outside of failures, driver error and weather.

[WickerBill]

All you have to do is bring back refueling. So many strategy options happen at that point, the field will get jumbled, teams will split their strategies, and fans will get talking again.

Oh, that and getting oow free-to-air F1 again.

[SteveH]

All you have to do is bring back refueling. So many strategy options happen at that point, the field will get jumbled, teams will split their strategies, and fans will get talking again.

Oh, that and getting oow free-to-air F1 again.

Yes, bring it back. Will also create a better performing and shorter chassis.

[Tifosi24]

All you have to do is bring back refueling. So many strategy options happen at that point, the field will get jumbled, teams will split their strategies, and fans will get talking again.

Oh, that and getting oow free-to-air F1 again.

No refueling works can work, but they should have more than two tire compounds, but that's never going to happen. Speaking of never going to happen, free-to-air F1. The era of sporting events on broadcast television is sadly ending. When the major bowls, the NCAA basketball semi-finals, and most of the baseball LCS games (just to name a few) are on cable you know the end of sports on broadcast television is happening. Broadcast television isn't the key here, it is trying to make the sport viewable outside of the standard television scheme. Niche sports are pretty much the only reason I have cable, the wife has her reasons, but if there was a way that I could stream the events I am interested in, I would strongly consider that. Unfortunately, Bernie is a dinosaur and he must have decided he can't make as much money with that route.

Oh, and I forgot, stop letting Hermann Tilke design racetracks. Most of his tracks are yawners even though he claims he designs them to improve overtaking.

[NismoZ]

What? Nobody wants to talk about all those empty seats? Looked pretty NASCAR-like to me. A symptom of much greater $$$ problems, I'd say. I don't see how a new chassis, engine, or refueling will be a help in that direction. F-1 must RAISE costs to make things better? Good luck with that plan.

[Insomniac]

How does refueling help? Would it change the # of stops? I can see they'd all be able to run faster, but it would still remain relative. They said Mercedes thinks Ferrari has found 40 HP. That is crazy in my view if true. What's the running order if they all had the same power? They probably need to keep working to remove all the aero pieces. They still can't get close to each other.

[cameraman]

If Ferrari found 40 hp then Mercedes found 60 because Seb was ~40 seconds back at the end and Rosberg had it on cruise control for the last 10 laps.

[WickerBill]

Refueling helps because you take your remaining fuel from qualification into the race. So you can be on empty and have to pit on lap 1 (adding a stop to your race but getting near the front in qualifying), or you can have 15 laps' worth, qualify back a bit, but eliminate a stop. Safety cars become complete game-changers w/r/t fuel strategy. So many things are different when you don't have a full race worth of fuel onboard.

[Insomniac]

Refueling helps because you take your remaining fuel from qualification into the race. So you can be on empty and have to pit on lap 1 (adding a stop to your race but getting near the front in qualifying), or you can have 15 laps' worth, qualify back a bit, but eliminate a stop. Safety cars become complete game-changers w/r/t fuel strategy. So many things are different when you don't have a full race worth of fuel onboard.

OK, I was thinking CART style. Full tank, refill on empty or under a full course yellow if the window is open.

[Insomniac]

I thought Ferrari blew it by not running on the softs a little longer and matching Mercedes (Rosberg) with the hard tires because the it seemed the last thing they wanted was to be o the hard tires while the Mercedes was on soft to end the race. Mercedes helped by putting on a second set of hard tires after the VSC.

It was a pretty active race, but felt like so much of it went uncovered. Ferrari's taking the lead (Kimi had an even better start than Vettel). Hamilton losing it and blaming Nico (he put the wheel off). Losing it again on the restart. Then Rosberg slid/drifted right into Ricciardo's wing and gifted Hamilton 12-15 points after Ricciardo went all in for a pass. Poor Kimi at the end. McClaren managed to do well even.

Now another long break. I wish F1 wrapped up sooner instead of these long breaks.

[cameraman]

Well the long break before Hungary wasn't supposed to have happened.

[Insomniac]

At least the FIA knows what the ideal gas law is. ;)

[Hard Driver]

At least the FIA knows what the ideal gas law is. ;)

Nice... Brady thinks so too.