OT: Racing 2016 (Spoiler Alert)

[Rodster]

Alright Gents, time to make predictions for the season opener. I'll say it'll be:

1) Hamilton
2) Vettel
3) Bottas

Niki Lauda says there's a 2 tenths difference between Merc and Ferrari and based on the laptimes in testing, I won't disagree with him. That's down from 6 tenths last year. Lewis is still the man to beat, Finger boy won't have the car to win and Rosberg will suffer from lack of radio communications (new rules) this year.

Kimi will struggle in qualy like he usually does and Bottas wants his seat next year.

[DChaps]

NBCSN TV Schedule for tonight (EDT) and the kick off of the F1 season. I am also excited to see APEX: The Story of the Hypercar (trailer below).

8:30 PM - Haas F1: America's Return to the Grid
9:30 PM - Formula One Racing "Australia Grand Prix, Practice 1" LIVE
11:00 PM - APEX: The Story of the Hypercar
1:00 AM - Off the Grid "Melbourne"
1:30 AM - Formula One Racing "Australia Grand Prix, Practice 2" LIVE

http://www.apex-the-movie.com/

http://forzamotorsport.net/en-us/news/hma_3_17_16

[pk500]

12 Hours of Sebring from 10 a.m.-10 p.m. ET Saturday on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2. Check local listings!

[Rodster]

The pinnacle of motorsport is a joke. The new qualy system needs to be scrapped. Maybe Bernie had the better idea of artificial rain by turning on racetrack sprinklers.

As expected the Mercs are still the favorites for both championships while Ferrari is a bit closer.

The best form of motor racing hands down is MotoGP followed closely by the WEC. They obviously figured out you don't need stupid gimmicks to put on a great show.

The only thing that stood out was Pascal Wehrlein who's supposedly being groomed for a Mercedes seat finished dead last and was beat by his teammate who hit Romain Grosjean while leaving his pit stall. Not a good start to your career. Maybe that gave Nico a sigh of relief since his contract is up at the end of this year.

[F308GTB]

The pinnacle of motorsport is a joke. The new qualy system needs to be scrapped. Maybe Bernie had the better idea of artificial rain by turning on racetrack sprinklers.

The new format wasn't entirely terrible, and I think it needs a little revision. I thought it was a good option for Q1 and Q2 but not Q3. It reminded me of bicycle track racing on the velodrome and the "miss and out" races. It got the top teams out on track early compared to the previous format where they'd wait until mid-session or so, put a flyer in, and park it. Diffey, Hobbes, and Matchett were complaining about no drivers out on track at the end of Q2 and Q3, but guess what? In past years under the old system they complained about no drivers out on track at the beginning of each session - it was always a waiting game. So a flurry of activity at the beginning versus the end, what's the difference?

But for Q3 they should go back to the previous qualifying system.

If they really want excitement, make it a one lap qualifying session with one car on track at a time. That will really mix up the grid.

[Rodster]

The new format wasn't entirely terrible, and I think it needs a little revision.

According to 99% of journalists, media pundits, team principals, F1 drivers say it was an awful decision. You know it was a disaster when Toto Wolff who's cars line the front row said the new qualy format is rubbish. Christan Horner wants F1 to apologize to its fans.

The only two F1 people who saw it as a positive was Force India team principal who benefits from his cars being 9 and 10 and Crofty. But then again Crofty will try and sell anyone a boring race as exciting.

[F308GTB]

The new format wasn't entirely terrible, and I think it needs a little revision.

According to 99% of journalists, media pundits, team principals, F1 drivers say it was an awful decision. You know it was a disaster when Toto Wolff who's cars line the front row said the new qualy format is rubbish. Christan Horner wants F1 to apologize to its fans.

The only two F1 people who saw it as a positive was Force India team principal who benefits from his cars being 9 and 10 and Crofty. But then again Crofty will try and sell anyone a boring race as exciting.

99% of journalists, media pundits, team principals, and F1 drivers probably also scream at kids "Get off my lawn..."

I agree it's rubbish for Q3, but the format does provide a bit more of an element of surprise for Q1 in particular. Seems like Wolff was bitching about no cars on track at the end of Q3, but compare 2015 to 2016 and you'll find Mercedes only ran 3 more laps last year. Go back to the old format and you'd be hard pressed to find a full slate of 10 cars running at the start of Q3. Recall teams were given an extra set of tires starting last year or the year before to compel the teams to put more qualy laps in. It was boring for the fans then as well. Hell, even with the old format it was boring. I'd just zip the DVR to the last 5 minutes of each session as everything was so scripted.

[Rodster]

According to the Beeb, it was unanimously voted by all the team bosses and the old Qualy format will return for the next race which is Bahrain.

[RobVarak]

OMG, Alonso! Wow!

[Rodster]

Poor race strategy from Ferrari, either of the top 3 could have won. Ferrari definitely has the pace to challenge Mercedes this year. Maybe this will be a good season after all. Drive of the day has to go to Romain Grosjean who finished 6th for Hass with 1 pit stop.

[GB_Simo]

0 pit stops, strictly speaking. Grosjean hadn't been in before the red flag and had a free tyre change during the stoppage, which is how he came to be in a points-paying position at the restart. Having said that, it was obvious from qualifying that both Haas cars should have been much further up - Gutierrez finished a lap that would have put him comfortably into Q2 but finished it 25 seconds too late for it to count - and Romain wasn't under any particular pressure from Hulkenberg, Bottas and co in the closing laps, which is indicative of solid midfield pace. It's only one race and Melbourne is never too solid an indicator of form over a full season, but that wasn't a bad debut at all. On the subject of debuts, I was equally impressed with Pascal Wehrlein (mighty start, mighty first stint, didn't disgrace himself thereafter) and Jolyon Palmer, author of a clean, calm, completely unflustered drive in the Renault.

Up front, Ferrari should have won it, while Hamilton probably would have done had he only started the race at the same time as everyone else. (All that talk of reverse grids, mixing up the order and so on, when all anyone had to do was give control of the start back to the drivers and wait for them to louse it up.) The race winner took one of those victories that just kind of happens around a driver while he's minding his own business, to the extent that it's probably most accurate to say the Australian Grand Prix won Nico Rosberg, while the day's real success story might by now have unclenched his buttocks far enough post-accident that he can remove his overalls from between them.

Speaking of minding your own business...when Max Verstappen looks back upon this race, he might come to consider that calling yourself in for a pit stop without telling the team you're on your way, blaming them for not knowing you were coming, ranting merrily at them for the next 20 laps and then driving into the back of your team mate is not necessarily the stuff of champions. He doesn't strike me as the kind of lad who will, but he might.

[pk500]

Max is definitely Jos' son. Talented but with a very inflated opinion of himself, with no responsibility taken for any of his misdeeds on track.

Is Verstappen the Dutch translation of "Andretti?"

I'm really tired of hearing drivers beg to the pit wall for their teammates to move over. Take your balls out of your girlfriend's purse and make the pass, son. Yes, the overemphasis on aerodynamics in F1 make that tough. But it's supposed to be hard. And other drivers can do it.

Maybe Verstappen should watch the last 10 minutes of the Rolex 24 to see how the Corvette GTLM teammates battled each other hard, fair and square for the win, with no bleating to the team braintrust for a teammate to move aside.

Masterful ride by Lorenzo at Qatar. I loved Jorge's "zipped lip" gesture on the podium. While Marquez and Rossi continue to talk about their rivalry, Jorge keeps his mouth shut and rides away from them and the rest of the field. Very nice to see Dovi's Ducati up front, though. And I think Vinales' Suzuki would have been on the tail end of that four-bike fight late in the race if Maverick didn't have such a nightmarish start.

[Rodster]

I think the media more than anything stroked Verstappen's ego as last year they were spooging all over themselves how great he was. Stroke a 17 year old kid and treat him like a God and that's what you get because he now believes he's the next coming of Schumacher, Senna, Fangio, Clark, Stewart etc.

I agree, that drivers need to stop their calls to have their teammates move over. And Verstappen seems to forget that Sainz is an up and coming talent as well albeit with a quiet demeanor who outscored him last year in the points dept. And something tells me that Sainz had payback written all over him for what happened between the two of them last year.

[FifaInspected]

OMG, Alonso! Wow!

No Kidding. I still see images of the clump of car resting against the barrier and wonder how he walked away. So thankful he was ok.

[Rodster]

OMG, Alonso! Wow!

No Kidding. I still see images of the clump of car resting against the barrier and wonder how he walked away. So thankful he was ok.

There was another crash that looked as bad if not worse was the Robert Kubica crash at the Canadian GP where he crashed into a wall almost at full speed. The car disintegrated and stopped on it's side. Everyone watching feared he was dead as he wasn't moving. Thankfully he also survived.

[pk500]

OMG, Alonso! Wow!

No Kidding. I still see images of the clump of car resting against the barrier and wonder how he walked away. So thankful he was ok.

Not only did Captain Morgan walk away from the wreck, there's a very good chance he'll walk toward the WEC sooner than we think.

Alonso is driving his ass off in a crap car, mixing it up and risking his life against slugs like Gutierrez. Meanwhile, he could be well paid to drive a factory LMP1 car -- essentially an F1 car with fenders and a closed cockpit -- and compete for wins with far more safety than an F1 car. He also could race at Le Mans.

[pk500]

Kubica is the great lost F1 talent of this generation, for sure. He would have been Alonso's teammate at Ferrari if not for the rally accident in which his arm was nearly severed.

Captain Morgan and Bob are great friends, and the story goes that Alonso was pushing hard to get him into Ferrari.

[Rodster]

Kubica is the great lost F1 talent of this generation, for sure. He would have been Alonso's teammate at Ferrari if not for the rally accident in which his arm was nearly severed.

Captain Morgan and Bob are great friends, and the story goes that Alonso was pushing hard to get him into Ferrari.

All true as they player poker together. And if i'm not mistaken he won that same race the following year.

[XXXIV]

OMG, Alonso! Wow!

No Kidding. I still see images of the clump of car resting against the barrier and wonder how he walked away. So thankful he was ok.

I watched that with the gf. We watch most of the F1 race replays together.

Thats was so f***in scary.

We were freaking!

She is so into the F1 drama... She loved Rush... Also doesnt get the Vettel hate but at the same time she does hate Rosberg with passion. Her German to hate?

[Rodster]

I totally forgot about this crash which killed a safety marshall when Jacques Villeneuve's car went airborne after running up the back of Ralf Schumacher's car in Melbourne in 2001. Good grief those cars sounded so badass compared to the wet fart engine sounds of today.

[GB_Simo]

The expression, "This lot couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery," was made for these people:

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-fo ... gp-682069/

[Dave]

Motorsport's latest article on the outlook for the 2017 F1 cars is interesting:

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/analy ... rs-682998/

How is the racing supposed to be improved at all if the cars are going to have a lower top speed and insanely high cornering speeds? The already-short braking zones are going to be even shorter. I agree completely with Hamilton: "Give us five seconds' worth of lap time from aero and nothing will change - we'll just be driving faster."

Meanwhile Indycar heads to Phoenix this weekend with so much downforce that the delta between top straightaway trap speed and average lap speed was less than 4 mph during the test.

I disagree with so much that NASCAR does, but they definitely went the right way with their aero package this year. The reduced downforce has really improved the racing.

[Rodster]

Formula 1 is a victim of it's own regulations because in order to really improve the show it would take removing all of the BS aero components on the cars as well as 80% of the electronics. Just forcing the drivers to deal with a manual shifter and clutch would do wonders to spread out the field. That won't happen obviously because that's not viewed as progress.

IIRC, Lewis had quipped that he wish he were racing in a 50's grand prix car. I can already hear his radio calls: "HEY MAN DON'T TALK TO ME WHILE I'M TAKING CORNERS".

[GB_Simo]

The difficulty, Rod, is partly that you can't unlearn what you've learnt and partly that F1 is now reliant upon the manufacturers, to the extent that if you disincentivise their continued participation (for example, with engines that aren't hybrids, gearboxes that aren't seamless shift or whatever), there isn't a raft of privateers that can come in and put a show on in their stead. You could regulate your way out of that, of course, as long as you didn't have those same manufacturers directly involved in creating and ratifying regulations, give one of those manufacturers the contractual right to veto anything that's against their competitive interests or anything daft like that.

Oh. Oh, right.

I agree completely with Hamilton: "Give us five seconds' worth of lap time from aero and nothing will change - we'll just be driving faster."

Something happened to Lewis Hamilton a little while back - I can't pinpoint exactly what and when, but it was sometime in the last 12 months - that led him to suddenly start talking an awful lot of sense. I'm in total agreement with him here.

I'm in agreement with the GPDA letter from last week regarding the sport's governance too, which surprises me less. Alex Wurz is a very, very smart cookie who'll end up heading an organisation bigger than the GPDA and probably won't have to wait all that long to do so.

Meanwhile Indycar heads to Phoenix this weekend with so much downforce that the delta between top straightaway trap speed and average lap speed was less than 4 mph during the test.

[pk500]

F1 could still have manufacturer involvement with far better racing if it reduced downforce and aero bits. Car companies use racing as test beds for engine, braking and transmission technology FAR more than for aero development.

As for IndyCar, Bobby Unser has been right all along: No Indy car configuration should have enough downforce to allow drivers to go flat around an oval. IndyCar drivers don't lift at Iowa -- a tiny, eight-tenths of a mile oval -- unless they're in traffic. That's flat out stupid and dangerous as hell when something breaks or a tire is cut in a corner.

Notice I didn't say if a tire blows in a corner. Firestone makes fantastic racing tires and works with the teams to ensure they're used properly, which is the exact opposite of the garbage rubber and service Goodyear provides in NASCAR. You could give me a set of Goodyear street tires, and I'd give them back or donate them to charity immediately and buy Firestone, Bridgestone, Cooper, Yokohama, Continental or Michelin.