Be Excellent To Each Other

Go go Australia!

Go rain!

Well that was shit. At least I didn't do my normal of hiding away from it and watching the replay or a recording later

Well that was shit. I'm glad I did my normal of hiding away from it and watching the recording later.

Interesting result, but a pretty boring race.
Hamilton must be a tiny bit smug over his choice at the moment though.

Proper smug.

It was a bit of a procession, though.

I fell asleep. Didn't miss anything then?

Apparently it was a thriller, shows what we know.

http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/new ... -Australia

I know it's only the first race and things will settle down a little bit as the season progresses, but am I alone in finding the "resource management" aspect of having to cope with the sodding tyres and their degradation at the expense of the drivers just being able to go out there, and you know, race, does make for a deeply tedious spectacle.

I know tyre management has been a part of the sport for years now, but this is getting ridiculous. It was the same last year — the drivers rarely get to actually race, they spend most of the procession at 8/10ths nursing their fucking tyres evaluating percentages of what position they're going to finish in.

Managing the spectacle seems to have had the opposite effect, yes. I think it is silly, too.

There's been times where it's lead to some quite interesting scenarios I think. If there was nothing to prevent each car being able to complete the whole race at a constant pace then it really would be tedious.

F1 was always better in the past because nobody remembers that the exciting races were always outnumbered by the boring ones.

Goodness, there were some unhappy bunnies after that race.

Not bad, though. I especially liked Hamilton's "visit"

"Oh hai, McLaren! Remember when your car wasn't shit? LOL!"

The Red Bull team dynamic seems to have come to a head from reading the bbc's coverage. I shall enjoy the highlights later.

Yeah, Webber was not happy at all.

I've had a think about the Vettel/Webber incident and:

After the dust has settled, Vettel has an extra trophy and his name in the record books. The cost of this is an uncomfortable week or so, saying "sorry" a bit and doing a sackcloth and ashes routine. Webber feels he is merely a support act and is treated as such. I think that maybe he is. However, he doesn't seem to have that selfish streak to capitalise on anther's misfortune to get to be number one. I've always enjoyed his outspokenness, and he seems to be a genuinely nice guy, but nice guys do finish second. It is an interesting subplot, too.

Vettel is quicker too, though. Most of the time he wins in spite of the fact that he is a hateful turd, not because of it.

I thought he's often come across well in interviews. I'm not sure why people don't like him so much.

He's German and he wins all the time.

It's got fuck all to do with that. He just seems like a complete tosser whenever he's not trying really hard to sound nice. That and the godawful screeching sounds he makes over the radio when he does well, he's a really lousy winner. I don't know I just find him irritating in a way that, say, Schumacher never was even when he was ramming people off the track.

It's 20 years ago to the day since that famous race at Donnington:





You know, the one that Sega sponsored and also dressed the pit ladies up in shit Sonic costumes?


Disclaimer: Other stuff may have happened at that race as well.

It makes you wonder why Sega failed with their amazing approach to marketing.

Nearly all the pit ladies look embarrassed and bored. To be fair it was probably also freezing.

Most likely pissed off due to not being on show enough for them to try and bag someone with a bit of cash...

Was that the year Maiden did Donington?

Interesting race this weekend, kept me entertained while I was ill at least. I agree with the comments around that the DRS is too powerful these days though, the races are more interesting due to strategy rather than racing as such at the moment.

I've now moved over to Sky coverage completely. Suzi Perry is just awful, and the Sky dude is a lot better than he used to be. I'm as surprised as anyone how much a difference a good anchor makes, Jake is sorely missed in the BBC coverage.

People (myself included) who were saying that Hamilton had made a bad decision to leave McLaren for Mercedes are probably realising that he perhaps knew more about it than they did

We'll see. Hope not, but it's somewhat plausible the senior management is going to implode. (I have little faith in Lauda not cocking it up trying to assert himself)

Still haven't seen a race this year. Watching a group of cars go as slowly as they dare doesn't particularly enthrall.

The DRS annoys me when a driver will lose three places on a single turn, despite him not making a mistake. It's a sillly device.

True, but if he's running at the same pace as the other car(s) he should then be able to take the place(s) back on the next lap.

Man, that was a fucking boring race. Something needs to be done about the tyre management situation.

When you have the two top drivers in the championship, separated by 10 points, and they aren't bothering to race each other to try and keep in 3rd place halfway through the race, what is the point of even going through the farce of the race itself? Just allocate points based on the computer simulations of the race and be done with it.

I literally stopped watching and wandered off to do something else. Who won?

Alonso in the end.

I did the ironing while it was on, it was that boring.

There are some changes being made to the tyres from Silverstone but in all fairness it is not the most exciting track, always a boring race.

I was just laughing to Hamilton's radio feed "I have just been overtaken by a Williams" " I can't go any slower !!"

At least I get to wear my "Fernando is faster than you" T-shirt.

I quite enjoyed Monaco for once. Perez was entertaining and Raikkonen bitch-slapping him into the wall was fantastic.

So, remember when that cameraman was nailed by the loose tyre in the pits? The fallout of that is that all cameramen and reporters are banned from the pits while cars are on the track.

What the fuck is Ted going to do now?

Much bigger news for the actual racing is that the pitlane speed limit has been reduced to 80km/h (from 100).

Ah, Ted has said that he works in the garages, not the pit lane, so that's okay.

It's raining on Spa for qualifying!

Quali is brilliant!

Oh man,

Well, Monza was rubbish.

In other news, Kimi has gone back to Ferrari.
http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/new ... ndo-alonso

Massa doesn't have a drive yet, and has hinted that he won't be looking for one.

I was supposed to be doing a Mercedes F1 factory tour today, but I was to sodding busy to be out of the office for the day

I'd be very surprised if Massa does not get a seat at Sauber or Lotus.

If he wants one, though.
Lotus are interested in Hulkenburg, and a move to Lotus would be a massive pay cut for Massa. Hell, Lotus might not even be around next season - rumours are that they didn't have enough money to pay their staff last month.

Let's not forget that Massa was a fucking good driver though. The only reason he wasn't 2008 world champion is because Timo Glock had a problem on the last corner of the last race and let Hamilton go past. Alonso wasn't close to him that year.

But he hasn't been the same since he got smacked in the head with that suspension spring. Sad, but true.

"Fernando is faster than you" wouldn't have helped, either.

He has taken a big confidence hit with the Accident & playing 2nd fiddle to Alonso.If the Hulk goes to Lotus (assuming financial issues are sorted) then if Massa wants a drive he is going to have to take a pay cut & Sauber may be his only choice.