2018 Formula One Thread

TomcatMF

TomcatMF

Vetteless
OGG beat me to it the last two years, so I will start it this time.
Liberty Media announced that the start of the races will be one hour later to better accommodate American audiences. It will also start 10 minutes after the hour to accommodate commercials on American TV too.

Also this will be the first year with that hideous Halo safety device.

Testing starts February 22.
 
I'm not feeling very invested anymore. Something simply has to change to make it actually competitive again and to put more than 18-20 cars on the grid. When the race winner is regularly close to a full minute ahead of the next car at the checkered flag, there's not much to be excited about. This has been the norm since the start of the Red Bull/Vettel reign of tyrrany began many seasons ago.

It just seems like every GP begins with one car rocketing out in front of the pack after turn one and extending that lead further as the laps wind down. Only bad luck can change the outcome after that first 30 seconds.

I'm kinda over it.
 
TomcatMF said:
one hour later to better accommodate American audiences
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I assume they mean East Coast U.S. audiences since it was easier to just stay up late on the West Coast to watch.

OGG said:
Something simply has to change to make it actually competitive again and to put more than 18-20 cars on the grid.
Click to expand...

I agree, but not sure how they can pull it off. What used to make Ferrari, Mclaren, Williams, etc. all competitive was deep pockets to make huge changes (or expensive small changes) and test them in-season, cars could make leaps and bounds during the EU months . In- season testing is gone both in the name of parity and because those deep pockets are all gone (even Ferrari will have shareholders to answer to now), so if a car sucks in Melbourne, it is season over.

My big fear is how dry the commentary might be. The word on the street is that ESPN is planning on just playing the English-language satellite feed without an ESPN broadcast team (note: none have been announced). ESPN was given F1 by Liberty without Viacom, NBC or Fox being asked to make competing offers.
 
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Wyatt said:
I assume they mean East Coast U.S. audiences since it was easier to just stay up late on the West Coast to watch.



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The European rounds started at 5:embarrassed:0 AM PDT up through last year. Now they will start at 6:10 AM PDT. I always just record the races and watch them later in the afternoon anyway. That way I can fast forward through the commercials.
 
I'm going to a bunch of the races in Europe this year, as many are pretty local to me.
 
OGG said:
I'm not feeling very invested anymore. Something simply has to change to make it actually competitive again and to put more than 18-20 cars on the grid. When the race winner is regularly close to a full minute ahead of the next car at the checkered flag, there's not much to be excited about. This has been the norm since the start of the Red Bull/Vettel reign of tyrrany began many seasons ago.

It just seems like every GP begins with one car rocketing out in front of the pack after turn one and extending that lead further as the laps wind down. Only bad luck can change the outcome after that first 30 seconds.

I'm kinda over it.
Click to expand...
This has been my lament for quite some time. I have no issues with a good team doing well for a long time, as that takes skill, but it seems that in F1 the winners are pre-ordained for years ahead of time.

Who really thinks anyone but Merc will eventually win this year? Sure, Ferrari will do some damage but not enough.

I, personally, am also tired of the tracks which seem to cater to single-file racing with very little passing. I know, I know, F1 has always had its winners and perennial losers as field fillers but they do not even try to disguise it any more. At least back when dinosaurs roamed the earth smaller budget teams such as Lotus, McLaren, Williams (back in the 70's), or even Hesketh, had a chance to win a few.

At least the older track layouts had character and allowed you to think that there may be more than one pass at the front.

Now it is just a parade of Red, Silver and sometimes Red Bull, at the front while everyone else is stuck sucking hind tit because of the ban on testing.

Gotta go out and play with my dinosaur while yelling at clouds on my lawn...
 
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Does Liberty know we have DVRs? I'm really going to miss Hobbs and Matchett. Those guys made boring races worth watching.

At this point, I'm not sure how to rescue F1. Heavy reliance on aerodynamics makes close following impossible, which in turn makes passing almost impossible. Maybe they should follow Indy's lead and use more undercar downforce and less wing downforce. Undercar downforce seems to be much less reliant on clean air.

Cost cutting doesn't work and some of the things they've done in the name of cost cutting have had the opposite effect, like the 3-engine limit.

I'd love to see someone start a series where the cars are like 60s F1 cars, but safe and with a tiny bit of downforce to make the cars stable at speed. Put skinny tires on them and 500-600 hp engines and let the drivers have at it. It wouldn't be the fastest series, but it would be fun for the drivers, they'd be able to pass, and watching the cars slide through turns would be great for the fans.
 
I'm definitely going to check out more IndyCar races this year. I really want to see what effect this aero package has on wheel to wheel racing, particularly on the road courses. It seems that F1 could take a lot of cues from IndyCar, even their cockpit protection (windscreen) is more elegant than that POS halo that F1 has to use.
 
I think I watched more IndyCar (road races) than F1 last year because of the competitiveness. They don't have as much of the delta between teams in terms of performance (I'm not sure of all the rules but it seems there are only a couple of engine suppliers and bodies). So there was more overtaking and more chances for a given (good, there are still some not so good) driver to win the race. Like 2112 says, most races you could pretty much pencil in Merc, especially the faster tracks. for the win.
 
I usually watch all the IndyCar road/street races, but I don't watch most of the ovals except for the 500. Those cars are just too fast for small ovals.
 
So Haas is first out of the gate unveiling their 2018 challenger.
Haas-VF-18-F1-Auto-2018-articleDetail-87a890-1146874.jpg
 
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I like it. I too hope it's faster and more reliable than last year's car. I would really love to see that team become contender.
 
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