Modern Vespa

Has anyone noticed that during the Intro of any F1 based broadcast they use the sound of pre Hybrid F1 engines ?

Yes. That's because the sound of Hybrid F1 engines suck.

This!

Is there anything good about car racing that motorcycle racing doesn't also have??? Now add the extra difficulty of balancing on somewhere between 0 to 2 wheels depending on where on the track you are.

The missus is just as into it as me. She gets mad when we can't watch the sprint races because I haven't watched qualifying yet, and lets me know what the boys are up to on instagram in between the races lol.

Guess who her favorite is?

PS: Enjoy the Aussie GP!


Fabio and "Friend Tom"

Kevin Schwantz ?

lol just pictured a young Schwantz with the braids.

There's talk of Albon going to Ferrari to replace Sainz who doesn't appear to be very happy.

They say that Red Bull got in touch about him rejoining the team but he declined as they treated him like shit the last time he drove for them.

What's interesting to me is the spectacular downfall of Roman Grosjean.

He promised so much but now Andretti no longer want him.

I just went back and re-watched the 2021 Abu Dhabi race that decided the 2021 world championship.

Such a shit-show.

On a side-note, I have an annual F1 subscription, and I've been trolling their archives, catching up on various consequential F1 races that have happened in the last (say) 30 years or so. If anyone has any suggestions -- races that were controversial, or pivotal, or otherwise noteworthy -- I'm all ears.

Well at least they sound. Formula E sounds like my mum vacuuming.

Lewis Hamilton's 5th place in Brazil in 2008.

Damon Hill winning in a Jordan Spa in 1998.

Olivier Panis winning Monaco in 1996.

Pastor Maldonado winning in Spain - 2012

Mansell winning at Hungry 1989

Senna crashing at Monaco.

I've often wondered what impact a higher rev limit would have on sound. The V6's rev out to 15k, the V8's rev'd to 18k, and I think the V10s around 20k.

Pat Symonds also reckons two strokes can now be heavily cleaned up and should have been considered as a viable option for 2026.

I like F1 racing, fan for many years – I remember having to wait a week for results on a race in AutoWeek.
Things have changed – could buy a grandstand ticket and be able to walk around the track – now I don't want to even pay for parking on a good seat, and not even able to walk around the track.
For me the biggest controversy is pricing for entertainment, like F1 racing.
I now have more expendable money than ever and don't want to spend it on tickets for a race much less a F1 race. So I buy a subscription for F1TV.
Still, I think the racing is great – the cars a so specialized only the best even have a chance to get in a cockpit much less race – sometimes it's follow the leader but that leader didn't just get there it was a whole team, a whole factory that allowed him there, and they are racing others with similar backing – I respect and appreciate that.
When Senna passed I was shocked and in disbelief – it dampened my enthusiasm, then Schumacher took the lead and so on and so on. When Clark passed, before I was a true fan, I am sure everyone felt as I did with Senna.

I'm with you. I can go to France to watch the Le Mans 24 hour race and get back home for the same cost as seeing a F1 race in the UK.

I get 4 races in one and I don't know the outcome until the last hour.

The sounds and the atmosphere are way better plus there's enough time to go looking for a better place to view.

It's not a hard choice.

Good race today, with lots of lead changes and drama at the end

I watched the race from my hotel room in Aix-en-Provence, France.

I watched with the sound turned off.

Great to see Carlos Sainz, Jr. in a Ferrari get the win.

Was certain that they had made a huge mistake not pitting for tires during the virtual safety car, with Mercedes changing for softer yellows.

But Lando saved the day, holding off George and Lewis, getting second for himself.

By the way, no real lead change in the race but nice racing behind Carlos.

Maybe there is hope for good racing at the top in a few more races this year.

Bill

Just finished watching the race. Granted, it was pretty sedate for the first 40 laps, but the end was worth it. My hat's off to Carlos for calling the strategy from the cockpit.

For the record, I called Sargent triggering a safety car. My wife will attest.

Also, it was really really nice to hear a different set of national anthems today, instead of the usual Christmas Dirge anthems we've heard all season. Plus, the Ferrari pit crew singing along to the Italian national anthem was just pure joy.

Italians needed the boost after yesterday's horrendous Tricolore crash.

I like to imagine what type of race we would have if we somehow managed to clone Max 19 times and put all 20 drivers in RBs designed by Newey. Dead heat? Track not wide enough.

Poor Russell sounded like he was going to cry after throwing away 3rd place.

Another stunning result by Lawson.

Don't you just love it when Ferrari win ?

I do, but I'll also be the first to curse them when they fuck up. And they give me plenty of opportunities to do so.

I just loved how almost everyone today was thinking "are they seriously throwing charles to the wolves just to protect a win???" when in hindsight they wanted to open a gap to double-stack in the pit lol. basically people think that "highly" of ferrari's strategists....

Without question Ferrari won't ever win a World Championship again because, well .....it's Ferrari.

However Vasseur is a refreshing change to Horner's monotone delivery.

I was thinking "They're sacrificing Charles for the win, but will his cockpit ego allow it?"

To be clear, I like Charles, and I think he's one of the most genuine drivers on the grid. But when he's in the thick of it, he's tends to be a bit irrational and impulsive.

Only caught the highlight reel today…and happily it wasn't a snoozefest.

Hammy fan that I am, I was thrilled to see Sainz finally bag one - Ferrari finally didn't get in his way here.

Russell: Damnit, he had me going till he bumped that wall with his rear tire and went sailing.

And: Probably the only race this season where the question "where's Max?" might've been answered by "Max who?"

Lando bumped it just nanoseconds before him. George just hit it harder and then blew the turn.

I'm convinced George fell victim to target fixation, following closely behind Lando.

Tee hee. (Yes this is clearly a mspaint meme just.....just enjoy it eh? )

F1 archives: There is a Monaco GP where N. Mansell spun a 180 in the rain and recovered, I remember watching it live on TV, but do not recall the year

F1 nostalgia: I took some pictures at Monaco 1982, when the wrenching paddock was open to the public, a young Lotus mechanic working on this tiny front brake assembly, and also spartan cockpit with little reminder stickers. I have the scans on another computer but can post.
I slept in my car in the Monaco outskirts for three days, much to the amazement of early dog walkers!

MotoGp nostalgia: Valentino Rossi early days, middle pack qualifier, but leading after 3-4 laps, a beautiful thing to watch!

Current favorite series MX5 Cup in the U.S. as found live on IMSA tv or YT a few hours later.

George's mishap from several angles. Scrub to 6:53 to see the sequence.

Singapore GP Race Highlights

Liam Lawson became the 6th New Zealander to score points in F1 - in his 3rd race. He's allowed to be happy. Highest scoring NZer, Bruce McLaren, you may recognise that name.

I suspect more people are thrilled that he knocked max out of Q3 lol.

Albon gets appendicitis.....Verstappen misses Q3.

What a sequence of events.

I'm guessing since this got no answers, the answer is, No, car racing has nothing on motorcycle racing...

So... if that's the case... why watch it and not MotoGP, where, like Bobo said... I don't get the appeal of watching F1 over MotoGP at all.

The only way that Motogp could be considered like F1 is that Honda built a bike around a rider, that only that only that rider could consistantly win on.

I have been watching both for years, but still prefer F1, probably because I have been following it since 1969.

Bill

Speaking for myself, I've tried repeatedly to like MotoGP. And to be fair, I don't dislike MotoGP -- it just never really held my attention for very long. Maybe that's because all the squids out on the road want to drag a knee on the interstate off-ramp, and the vague resemblance to sport bike just culture rubs me the wrong way.

Actually, I can probably come up with a better answer to why F1 has grabbed my attention where MotoGP has not. It's the same reason that many other Americans have started watching F1: Netflix's "Drive to Survive" series.

That was the bait. Now I'm in it full-time. "Drive to Survive" was designed specifically to bring the US audience into F1, and it has succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations.

Thinking some more about F1 vs MotoGP, one of the unexpected things that (IMHO) makes F1 interesting are the pit stops. Seems weird, right? But bear with me. Pit stops throw an element of randomness into a race, and has the potential to mix up the order. Even when a pit stop goes smoothly, exactly where an F1 driver rejoins the race after a pit stop is a huge factor in who ends up winning the race.

MotoGP mostly does not have pit stops (though I'm aware there are exceptions). Thus, the random element is lost.

Also, in F1, safety cars (and how well teams alter their strategy when a safety car event happens, specifically with respect to pitting) are a huge factor that can completely upend a race. And I definitely like this aspect of F1.

This is also one of the reasons why I dislike Formula-E so much, as they have no pit stops and go the whole race on one set of tires. And all the cars are the same. And the guy that crosses the line with no juice left in his battery is basically the winner. Boring.

He says "strategy" and the Ferrari garage is still trying to source the translation of that word into Italian.

(said the tifoso)

Agreed that "strategy" for Ferrari is pretty much indistinguishable from a Three Stooges gag.

Interestingly when Carlos was allowed to call some strategy it worked out swimmingly.

I am of course entirely ignoring the fact that Singapore has not been a RB track during the turbo-hybrid era.

I've seen him do that quite a few times. Not as much this season, but certainly last season. He's pushed back on Ferrari strategy and has an ability to formulate strategy while driving quite effectively. Charles, on the other hand, seems to just go with whatever steaming pile of dung Ferrari tells him is the plan, and then complains bitterly about it afterwards when it inevitably doesn't pan out.

I'm actually starting to like Carlos more, for this one single ability.

Weird. It had the opposite effect for us. Halfway through Episode 1 we were indifferent to it, by the end of it, well, we never watched the second episode.

I think being used to two wheel performance just made what they were doing in their well protected cages just seem, like watching someone play the video game on the easiest skill level.