Formula 1 racing

Anyone else follow the sport? Favorite Constructor's teams/ drivers over the years?

Been watching the sport since late 97. Back home we'd get the BBC commentary which's regarded as the best, even today. Since I moved here I watched races on Speed, but they weren't always aired Live. Nascar's more important, a sport (whose popularity) I don't get - fair enough. But that's when I noticed how much I missed listening to those Brits on the mic. I still look out for and get the BBC version and have been collecting races from prior years as well.

I used to be a big fan of M. Schumacher during his days with Ferrari and still am with his stint with Brawn's Mercedes. Kimi, Hamilton, Alonso are close favorites as well but I don't want to kill the topic with 1 big post.

Let's discuss!
 
I used to be a fan of F1 also, as a kid, until 2003 or so. For some reason I haven't been following the sport since then, I guess I kinda outgrew it. Michael Schumacher was my favorite too, a childhood hero probably :serpico:
Everytime his red bolid would appear, with a Marlborough sign on its tail, you could be sure that all other drivers were doomed. Ahh, it certainly brings back memories =)
 
I'm a huge fan of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing. (Hell, I even supported the Red Bull Racing Team, Red Bull's NASCAR team before they left the sport last December.) I'm a relatively new fan of the sport though. I started paying attention to it midway through the 2009 season before watching every race since the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. In November the U.S. Grand Prix is going to be in Austin, Texas. I can't wait. It's going to be great.
 
Fans! YES! Awesome.

Rodrigo said:
I used to be a fan of F1 also, as a kid, until 2003 or so. For some reason I haven't been following the sport since then, I guess I kinda outgrew it. Michael Schumacher was my favorite too, a childhood hero probably :serpico:
Everytime his red bolid would appear, with a Marlborough sign on its tail, you could be sure that all other drivers were doomed. Ahh, it certainly brings back memories =)
Did you watch the sport during the early 90's - cool Senna-Prost battles? 2003 was such a close season, Kimi just 2 points shy of the championship winner Michael.

With Schumi back, you should start watching it again I reckon. The only guy in the paddock above 40 years old, he picked up pole on a track like Monaco and came 3rd at Europe a few weeks ago - all this with a car that isn't as good as Red Bull, Lotus, Ferrari and McLaren if you consider their over-all strength this year. He's had a lot of ill luck, but with a little more than half the season left I'm optimistic. He can't win the championship considering his current position, but I would like to see him outrace his teammate Rosberg. F1 today is exciting because you'd see the first 10/15 positions on the grid who qualified within 1 second's worth of their lap-time. I wasn't a fan of KERS or DRS because it takes away from gaining on the opponent lap after lap and making a darn good move to get ahead of him. Now it's much easier to overtake according to me.

The Good Reverend Skeleton said:
I'm a huge fan of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing. (Hell, I even supported the Red Bull Racing Team, Red Bull's NASCAR team before they left the sport last December.) I'm a relatively new fan of the sport though. I started paying attention to it midway through the 2009 season before watching every race since the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. In November the U.S. Grand Prix is going to be in Austin, Texas. I can't wait. It's going to be great.
You going to Austin in November? I'm considering it. The track isn't exciting but my reasons to go are different. Unfortunately it may be Austin's first and last race if Bernie can finish the track in NJ, overlooking the Manhattan skyline (a dream he said). Vettel's pretty strong with that car no doubt. As a Red Bull fan, what do you think of some criticism over Vettel that he's been lucky to have a strong car to get breathing room whenever he's in the front but if under pressure, he usually falters. What do you think of Webber?

Red Bull this year aren't as significantly dominant as compared to 2010 or 2011 and I like that it's more competitive between teams this year.

What'd you think of the British GP?

EDIT: To add to my point on why you should come back to the sport Rodrigo -

1. The first 7 races has 7 different winners! That was a first for F1.
2. Qualifying is much different than what you were used to seeing back in 2003. It's broken into 3 phases lasting 20 mins (Q1 - allows 15 top times), 15 mins (Q2 - allows 10 top times) and 10 mins (Q3 - they fight it out for the first 10 grid spots).
3. From what we're seeing so far in this season, there's about 1 second/ 1.5 seconds that separates the qualifying times for P1 and P10/P15.
4. There are at least 5/6 Constructor's that are fighting a leveled battle versus the conventional McLaren vs Ferrari vs Williams from the early 2000s.
5. Since 2007, the rules incorporate all teams to use the same Tyre manufacturer which means there is no special preference to different teams by different manufacturers based on budget or other biased preference.
6. With Kimi coming back this year, it makes 6 former World Driver's Champions battling it out this season, another first for F1. Kimi was out of F1 for 2 years, his own choice to join Rally~ing. And, he's back now to give us his best interviews ... the nice SUPER SHORT ones haha! Getting him to smile is a feat.

There's a lot to add but I have to leave the office in a bit.
 
I used to follow F1 when I the races were shown on a TV channel I have access to; now that they have been moved to a paid channel I haven't been paying as much attention as before. I still read the results on the paper the day after the race, but it's not the same.

I think the first driver that I was a fan of was Prost and then I liked Schumacher. Nowadays I'm more of a fan of Ferrari rather than a specific driver.
 

NightCrawler

Aeons gone, vast, mad and deathless
F1 has died some years ago, this thread has no point, unless you just want to discuss the past?!
 
Well, yes and no! I recognize the sport's past it's glory years but it's also past some really boring seasons too. Right now it's not too shabby, overall. Like I said, you have a good bunch of drivers this year + the top 10 spots are pretty competitive. I don't like the use of DRS or KERS for overtaking. I preferred the time it was left to driver skill and it's hard to get back the position lost because of the momentum the car that just overtook you has on the next corner UNLESS the latter isn't as quick on traction or straight-line speed after that corner. F1 being F1, it depends on a lot of factors and no race is the same, THIS season at least. Everyone isn't playing catch-up to just 1 Constructor, like Red Bull (2 prior years).
 
I always rooted for the Ford/Cosworth/Jaguar team and Eddie Irvine. Now that there is no proper American or UK constructor, and no American driver after Scott Speed flamed out, it's hard for me to have a rooting interest. NASCAR is absolutely awful as well, I'm not an American homer, but I mainly watch MotoGP and ALMS now.
 
TelegramSam said:
I always rooted for the Ford/Cosworth/Jaguar team and Eddie Irvine. Now that there is no proper American or UK constructor, and no American driver after Scott Speed flamed out, it's hard for me to have a rooting interest. NASCAR is absolutely awful as well, I'm not an American homer, but I mainly watch MotoGP and ALMS now.

Speaking of UK Constructor's you've got - Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, Lotus and Williams in this current season - very competitive in their own right. Maldanado won in Spain for Williams, Hamilton won in Canada for VMM, Button won in Australia for VMM and Lotus isn't far behind this season in terms of Drivers or Contructor's points. I remember Speed's unimpressive races back then!

Fair enough Nightcrawler. Which rule doesn't bode well with you? I actually liked how every team had different fuel levels versus what it is now - every car starts with a full tank and there is no re-fueling allowed. I liked how it was before where teams would load the car with less fuel to get ahead in qualifying but some cars might be fueled heavy at qualifying so they go longer before their first pit-stop. We'd kinda guess how much fuel went into re-fueling and then estimate how many laps that took the car and when they needed to time the next stop. Different cars get ahead based on that data and what not, pretty entertaining strategies ehh! Now, everyone starts with the same fuel, same set of tyres offered for the weekend - in a way, it's leveled as far as those 2 variables. But still there are a lot of factors at influence here - aero of the car or set up for that specific track kinda influences how fast they eat their tyres and such. Kimi was 2nd back in China and lost 10 some positions in the last few laps because his tyres ran out. With the new rule, you're given 2 tyre compounds per race and you have to use both. So, there's still a lot of things that could go wrong or right on any weekend! That's what makes F1 exciting haha *huggle ... slips in tickets for the next GP in his pocket*
 
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