Racing 2018

[Dave]

Also have to say this is the first time I've said thank god ESPNEWS is in HD on my cable package.

Here's the F1 on ESPN schedule for the year: http://www.racer.com/f1/item/148166-esp ... t-schedule

Does ESPN3 have pretty decent/quick event archiving? If not, then my Friday F1 viewing will drop significantly.

[DChaps]

Marco Andretti to run Mario-inspired livery at Phoenix

http://www.racer.com/indycar/item/14817 ... at-phoenix

Marco Andretti's No.98 Andretti Autosport Honda will feature a retro livery inspired by his grandfather's 1993 Phoenix paint scheme as part of ISM Raceway's 25th anniversary celebration of Mario Andretti's final career win. Marco's Oberto Beef Jerky Circle K/Curb Honda will don the colors of his grandfather's winning car from April 4, 1993. The third-generation driver had Oberto's colors on his IndyCar entry last season at Phoenix and Gateway.

Cool, one of my favorite Indycars of all time!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DYqsU1gXkAIgo0k.jpg

[Rodster]

So the 1st FP is over at the Australian GP and Mercedes dominates once again. Martin Brundle wrote an excellent piece and it’s worth a read as to why Formula 1 needs to change with the times because the entire racing series is unsustainable with 6-7 teams in financial trouble. And yet the two biggest players Ferrari and Merc want the status quo to continue.

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/ ... in-brundle
Martin Brundle said: "The media, sporting and motoring landscape is changing both dramatically and dramatically quickly and so Formula 1 2021 has to be absolutely right first time. If we walked a mile in the shoes of Sergio Marchionne at Ferrari and the powerbrokers at Mercedes-Benz, why would they want to change anything? They're in a totally dominant position, financially enhanced, they're winning and they're the likeliest to win again this year. It's like the turkey voting for Christmas.”

[Dave]

I have to say that ESPN's efforts the opening weekend of the F1 season sure did reflect a rights holder that paid $0 for it and outsourced the commentary. Going to take some time for me to get used to the Sky coverage, David Croft is currently "the guy who says some words after an F1 2017 session" in my head rather than a proper lead announcer.

As for the race itself, the result was interesting even though much of the action on track wasn't. Heard Crofty say a few times that early on there were more overtakes than last year but that certainly wasn't the case at the front. What a disaster for Haas, unbelievable.

[Rodster]

I have to say that ESPN's efforts the opening weekend of the F1 season sure did reflect a rights holder that paid $0 for it and outsourced the commentary. Going to take some time for me to get used to the Sky coverage, David Croft is currently "the guy who says some words after an F1 2017 session" in my head rather than a proper lead announcer.

As for the race itself, the result was interesting even though much of the action on track wasn't. Heard Crofty say a few times that early on there were more overtakes than last year but that certainly wasn't the case at the front. What a disaster for Haas, unbelievable.

I like Crofty calling the race although his presentation is better suited for radio vs television. The Haas incidents were what gave Ferrari the win. There was no way they were beating Mercedes.

Now why is it when I saw both Haas cars pull over and Ferrari stayed out in front I immediately had a flashback to Singapore 2008 with Piquet Jr crashing out and gifting Alonso the win?

[DChaps]

I miss David Hobbs and Steve Matchett more than ever! Along with Bob Varsha, they have been the voices of F1 for most of my adult life, or at least as long as F1 has been available to the US on a regular basis. While I hated to see Varsha go a few years ago, I enjoyed Leigh Diffey and Will Buxton as additions to that team and they had a good chemistry together. I looked forward to their pre-race and post race commentary as much as the race itself. Not to mention, Sam Posey's pre-race monologue always added an extra something prior to the start of each race.

Obviously Ferrari took advantage of a loop hole yesterday, but isn't the whole point of the VSC to keep everyone at their respective distances and not allow a yellow to eliminate the lead/gap a driver has put on their competitors? I was like Lewis yesterday, WTF?

[pk500]

That telecast was god-awful. The almost-skipped pre-race show, missed restarts and lack of updates after commercials prove there is absolutely no synchronization between the Sky commercial breaks and the ESPN commercial breaks.

Nobody on that Sky team is better than the NBCSN team than Brundle on color and Damon Hill in the pits. Diffey is just as good, if not better, than Croft. Matchett gives me far more technical insight than Paul Di Resta, and Will Buxton is far better than Ted Kravitz in the pits. I was really stoked to see Sky's coverage for the first time and was disappointed.

That was one of the worst racing telecasts I've seen, with all the glitches. ESPN already is mailing it in. Thank God NBC is broadcasting IndyCar exclusively starting in 2019.

[Zeppo]

That telecast was god-awful. The almost-skipped pre-race show, missed restarts and lack of updates after commercials prove there is absolutely no synchronization between the Sky commercial breaks and the ESPN commercial breaks.

Nobody on that Sky team is better than the NBCSN team than Brundle on color and Damon Hill in the pits. Diffey is just as good, if not better, than Croft. Matchett gives me far more technical insight than Paul Di Resta, and Will Buxton is far better than Ted Kravitz in the pits. I was really stoked to see Sky's coverage for the first time and was disappointed.

That was one of the worst racing telecasts I've seen, with all the glitches. ESPN already is mailing it in. Thank God NBC is broadcasting IndyCar exclusively starting in 2019.

There are no commercial breaks during a race in the UK! (As far as I know - there definitely aren’t any in the German broadcasts.) And my recordings for FP3 and Qualifying were not started at the right time - don’t know if maybe that was my TiVo guide messing up or what.

But yeah, that whole experience was a disaster - I don’t know if I can stand to watch another race!

I find it pretty hilarious yet appropriate that now that F1 is owned by a US company, the decisions they’ve made for online content have made it so that the US TV experience of the product is beyond embarrassingly horrific.

[pk500]

But yeah, that whole experience was a disaster - I don’t know if I can stand to watch another race!

I find it pretty hilarious yet appropriate that now that F1 is owned by a US company, the decisions they’ve made for online content have made it so that the US TV experience of the product is beyond embarrassingly horrific.

I turned off the race as soon as it became clear Hamilton wouldn't catch Vettel, as the horrible coverage distracted me too much.

There was a conspiracy theory floating around the Interwebs yesterday that Liberty wanted ESPN's coverage to be lousy to increase subscriptions to its upcoming over-the-top service. If ESPN's shows continue to be this bad, I still won't subscribe to the OTT service. I just won't watch F1 and instead focus on IndyCar, WRC and MotoGP. Far better racing in those series, anyways.

[fletcher21]

Another year, same old s***. I don't have a team or even a driver, but I was really pulling for haas yesterday. I can understand having one issue, but losing both cars in quick succession like that? Pretty embarrassing.

It's pretty much going to come down to Ferrari and Mercedes, just like it's been for the last few years. Very little drama or reason to watch. I don't particularly care for either team. Would be nice to see someone like verstappen on equal footing, but amg and Ferrari are in a league of their own.

Sportscar, moto gp, wrc, IndyCar and even neckcar provide more drama and excitement. When a pit stop is the most exciting part of a race besides the first few corners, that's bad. Albert park is my favorite track, and I still felt myself tuning out.

[GB_Simo]

That telecast was god-awful. The almost-skipped pre-race show, missed restarts and lack of updates after commercials prove there is absolutely no synchronization between the Sky commercial breaks and the ESPN commercial breaks.

Nobody on that Sky team is better than the NBCSN team than Brundle on color and Damon Hill in the pits. Diffey is just as good, if not better, than Croft. Matchett gives me far more technical insight than Paul Di Resta, and Will Buxton is far better than Ted Kravitz in the pits. I was really stoked to see Sky's coverage for the first time and was disappointed.

That was one of the worst racing telecasts I've seen, with all the glitches. ESPN already is mailing it in. Thank God NBC is broadcasting IndyCar exclusively starting in 2019.

There are no commercial breaks during a race in the UK! (As far as I know - there definitely aren’t any in the German broadcasts.) And my recordings for FP3 and Qualifying were not started at the right time - don’t know if maybe that was my TiVo guide messing up or what.

But yeah, that whole experience was a disaster - I don’t know if I can stand to watch another race!

I find it pretty hilarious yet appropriate that now that F1 is owned by a US company, the decisions they’ve made for online content have made it so that the US TV experience of the product is beyond embarrassingly horrific.

I have a suspicion that we're past peak Brundle by this stage but he's still terrific. Damon is intelligent, erudite, full of thoughtful, considered opinions yet still able to veer off into comparing tyres with cheese ("If I was a tyre in this heat, I'd be running all over the place like...like a good Brie") without ever appearing to be anyone other than himself. Ted became a parody of himself a while ago, Crofty is nothing like as good as he was even 3 or 4 years back and if you think, quite rightly, that Paul Di Resta isn't offering an awful lot, just wait until you see Johnny Herbert.

Commercials were only ever part of live UK F1 broadcasts during the ITV era, 1997-2008. Sky Sports F1 and Channel 4, the other UK rights holder, are both commercial channels but only break for advertising during free practice, never in qualifying or race sessions. After years of F1 on the BBC, which has no commercial breaks in any of its programming, this is how we've come to expect it. The way to deal with those commercials on the ESPN side is to do as the Australians did, and may still do: have an anchor and an expert analyst in a studio somewhere, let them play you back in with a little recap of anything that happened during the break, then revert back to the main feed from there. This would, of course, involve paid talent.

I did read a suggestion somewhere that ESPN screwed up their Saturday broadcasting through not knowing that our clocks didn't go forward until 1am on Sunday morning. How true this is, I know not, but it'd explain why TiVo timings were out of whack.



As for the race, we know by now what we're going to get from Melbourne and we know that it's not necessarily an accurate reflection of what the rest of the year will bring. I found it encouraging that Ferrari and Red Bull were thereabouts on Sunday, though had Mercedes gone as quickly as they could rather than as slowly as they thought they could get away with, this might not have been so. The midfield battle looks pretty congested, Haas looking the pick of the bunch at a venue they've always enjoyed, while it looks an awful lot like Williams have chosen to keep Sauber company at the back.

Of the rookies, I would imagine Leclerc was content to be right on Ericsson's pace first time out, and would hope that Sirotkin was less excited about qualifying 5 tenths off the back of Lance Stroll. The FW41 is clearly not a good car at present, but thinking back to last year, where would you have expected Felipe Massa to be in a session that had Stroll in 14th? Without a more experienced benchmark, it's bloody difficult for the layman to assess how much of the pace deficit is car and how much is driver.

I didn't feel, as Lewis did, that cars were following each other more closely this year than last. Nor did I think, as many do, that they were further away from each other. Not, at least, until everyone had to cool their shiny new engines. Melbourne is not cold in the early part of an Australian autumn, but nor is it as warm as somewhere like Abu Dhabi, where the prospect of a 7th race on a tired final engine might encourage some of the fancied runners to get out and push for a couple of laps instead.

[Rodster]

Wow lots of hate for the Sky Sports team.

I still like their presentation and coverage during race weekend and while being subjective I much prefer them to anything the NBCS coverage team did. I think Brundle is still elite and I never get tired of hearing him and his analysis. He has a special way of making the complex sound understandable and the same goes for Ted Kravitz.

My biggest complaint if you can call it that is the way Crofty loves to manufacture excitement when there isn't any, because the racing series is living in the past and has become predictable and boring, knowing it's either Merc or Ferrari and that there's a 90% Mercedes will beat Ferrari every race weekend.

I am in agreement regarding Johnny Herbert, he offers nothing of value other than putting his foot in his mouth with some of his comments. The biggest highlight was when he accused Fernando Alonso might want to consider retirement and Alonso in classic form drilled him on live TV and made him squeak like a mouse.

There are some good ones though like Rachel Brooks and some may not like Damon Hill but for me he shined when he said that the Sport and Racing series would be better off if both Ferrari and Mercedes made good on their threats and left the Sport. Then apparently they must have had a word with Sky Sports mgmt because Damon had to back down from those comments which is a shame because it was all true.

[pk500]

There were two beauties of the NBCSN team that made it superior to Sky's: Knowledge and simplicity.

Every member of the NBCSN team -- Diffey, Hobbs, Matchett and Buxton -- knew their stuff cold. There were no bimbo lightweights or cheeky chappies dropping mindless vapor on us every other Sunday.

Plus the team had four members. Just four. There was no huge competition for air time. Everyone fit seamlessly. Sky has so many on-air talent for F1 that you get the sense they're shoe-horning them onto the air.

[Rodster]

The Matchett dude was a big turn off. He always came across to me as an arrogant prick. Lee Diffy was decent though I prefer Crofty. I remember Diffy when he did the Champ Car series.

[pk500]

The Matchett dude was a big turn off. He always came across to me as an arrogant prick. Lee Diffy was decent though I prefer Crofty. I remember Diffy when he did the Champ Car series.

Really on Matchett? Man, I never got that vibe. I would LOVE to have a beer with him and Hobbo and talk racing for hours.

Matchett was authoritative because he knows his stuff from being a front-line mechanic in F1 for years. I also know for a fact he's exhaustive in his preparation, contacting teams, etc.

[Rodster]

That's always the vibe I got from Matchett, maybe I misjudged him but I do prefer the Sky F1 coverage. I think before Sky took over there was a dude IIRC, James Allen calling the races who came across to me as a bit of an arrogant prick as well.

[pk500]

That's always the vibe I got from Matchett, maybe I misjudged him but I do prefer the Sky F1 coverage. I think before Sky took over there was a dude IIRC, James Allen calling the races who came across to me as a bit of an arrogant prick as well.

A parody site of James Allen during his tenure as the lead PBP voice was called "STOP THE COCK."

Telling.

[Dave]

There were two beauties of the NBCSN team that made it superior to Sky's: Knowledge and simplicity.

Every member of the NBCSN team -- Diffey, Hobbs, Matchett and Buxton -- knew their stuff cold. There were no bimbo lightweights or cheeky chappies dropping mindless vapor on us every other Sunday.

Plus the team had four members. Just four. There was no huge competition for air time. Everyone fit seamlessly. Sky has so many on-air talent for F1 that you get the sense they're shoe-horning them onto the air.

Everyone fit seamlessly and you could imagine most of the exchanges being the same whether on-air or sitting at a bar watching the race.

I'll surely get used to the Sky crew, they are still miles ahead of ABC's IndyCar team and any broadcast with a Waltrip.

As much as I like Buxton these days, he annoyed the hell out of me initially since his style was such a departure from Peter Windsor's.

[pk500]

As much as I like Buxton these days, he annoyed the hell out of me initially since his style was such a departure from Peter Windsor's.

Same. I thought he was a groupie wannabe pretty boy poseur. But I learned to appreciate and admire his knowledge and passion. Plus my comrades on the IndyCar side have worked with Will when he worked as a pit reporter for a few IndyCar races in 2016, and everyone said he is a GREAT guy.

[Rodster]

Supposedly, tomorrow we find out the direction Liberty Media wants to take Formula One after 2020. The details should be spelled out regarding financial payouts, budget caps, engines, aerodynamics etc. And of course we should get quit threats from both Ferrari and Mercedes.

[fletcher21]

.

[Dave]

Great set of headlines to really drum up interest for this weekend's F1 race on Motorsport.com right now:

Alonso "sad" Formula 1 races are so predictable

FIA calls urgent meeting to discuss overtaking

Ferrari "three, four tenths" behind Mercedes - Vettel

It is good to read that the FIA could make a move to simplify the front wings as early as next year, at least a tiny step in the right direction.

[fletcher21]

Another predictable race weekend. I like Kiki and Bottas, but I can’t stand Lewis or vettel. Is it just me, or did Kimi just go straight to the garage, seemingly without caring about his badly hurt pit member? I’m sure he was gutted as they say, but that was a very serious incident.

I was glad to see Honda power up there at the end. Just a real shame that formula one is basically a 2 team championship. Also hard when both #1 drivers really irk me. I long for the days of a champion with some personality and flair, such as Alonso or Jacques villeneuve. I think Alonso could make a championship run if he was in place of Bottas or Kimi. Shame he’s stuck at mcclaren.

[pk500]

Another predictable race weekend. I like Kiki and Bottas, but I can’t stand Lewis or vettel. Is it just me, or did Kimi just go straight to the garage, seemingly without caring about his badly hurt pit member? I’m sure he was gutted as they say, but that was a very serious incident.

I was glad to see Honda power up there at the end. Just a real shame that formula one is basically a 2 team championship. Also hard when both #1 drivers really irk me. I long for the days of a champion with some personality and flair, such as Alonso or Jacques villeneuve. I think Alonso could make a championship run if he was in place of Bottas or Kimi. Shame he’s stuck at mcclaren.

Quick word of advice: Start watching IndyCar, dude.

[Zeppo]

This morning I sped through qualifying, and am just now watching the actual race, and WOW what a difference for ESPN! I guess someone high up got involved and made a decision.

How fantastically nice it is to experience the piece as it is intended: as one unbroken piece, with no ridiculous, abrupt jump-outs to commercials. The Sky coverage suddenly seems much more polished and full-fledged and classy. It’s sooooooo much better, and in fact is even better to me than Speed channel or NBCSN, because of no breaks. (There was an article on Ars a while back about how much of a typical F1 race the NBCSN coverage would miss due to all the breaks, and it was pretty damning.)

Now the next puzzle for me is to figure out when to start and end the recordings in order to catch as much pre-race and post-race as I can. For example, the race coverage for me today started with the formation lap, so no grid walk or anything.