In reply to z31maniac :
PPIHC is a bunch of fun but don't expect to see much overall. It's more of a party day on the mountain.
There is a lot more going on than just the race in the weekend but I get the sediment. If I hadn't started marshaling, I probably wouldn't go either but it's hard to pass up the best "seat" in the house.
So how much of testing plan has carried over to this first practice?
Haas looked really good last week, and now they are the second slowest team. Alfa being the last- which was kind of expected given how testing went.
McLaren did well in Barcelona, but really struggled last week- which seems to have carried over a week.
As a team- Williams is the next slowest- since super sub Hulk is splitting their two cars.
The separation is teams that are all more than 1 1/4 sec back, and teams that are less than 1 sec back. Interesting to see such a sizable gap between fast and slow teams.
Then it's kind of a toss up between ("slow to fast") Alpine, Mercedes, Red Bull, Alpha Tauri- both fast and not so fast.
The team that has two consistent fast cars is Ferrari.
bmw88rider said:In reply to z31maniac :
PPIHC is a bunch of fun but don't expect to see much overall. It's more of a party day on the mountain.
There is a lot more going on than just the race in the weekend but I get the sediment. If I hadn't started marshaling, I probably wouldn't go either but it's hard to pass up the best "seat" in the house.
The lack of quality support races was my biggest complaint about attending a couple of F1 races in Austin. We got Spec Miata 911 bumper cars and that was it one year. The other was rainy so the historic "race" turned into a contractually obligated two laps under yellow. The track management also dropped the ball, telling everyone to go home because of rain and then holding quali at an empty track. Other than some random concert, there was nothing going on but the F1 track sessions. After that one, we haven't gone back. We did sit in different spots each day so we got to see a lot of different views of the track. Weirdly, I never got any urge to drive it.
If you watch from Devil's Playground, you can get a pretty good view of PPIHC. You get a good feel for the race course. Watching from lower down is a bit disappointing but at least you're close.
My wife and I went to the race in 2016 and had a good time. We had bleacher seats in the T3-T4 area.
Was fun to experience, kinda a bucket list thing to do once, but I would rather spend my money actually going to drive my own racecar.
After being there and after watching in-car footage from my class at COTA, I think it would be a hoot to drive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga1Ndvlrles (that said, the tow from DC to Texas means I wont be likely do ever do it)
In reply to Keith Tanner :
And ALL of the support races at palces like Spa and Monza make it much more worth the trip and cost.
Keith Tanner said:bmw88rider said:In reply to z31maniac :
PPIHC is a bunch of fun but don't expect to see much overall. It's more of a party day on the mountain.
There is a lot more going on than just the race in the weekend but I get the sediment. If I hadn't started marshaling, I probably wouldn't go either but it's hard to pass up the best "seat" in the house.
The lack of quality support races was my biggest complaint about attending a couple of F1 races in Austin. We got Spec Miata 911 bumper cars and that was it one year. The other was rainy so the historic "race" turned into a contractually obligated two laps under yellow. The track management also dropped the ball, telling everyone to go home because of rain and then holding quali at an empty track. Other than some random concert, there was nothing going on but the F1 track sessions. After that one, we haven't gone back. We did sit in different spots each day so we got to see a lot of different views of the track. Weirdly, I never got any urge to drive it.
If you watch from Devil's Playground, you can get a pretty good view of PPIHC. You get a good feel for the race course. Watching from lower down is a bit disappointing but at least you're close.
That was my complaint as well- no support races. Women's Formula, Formula Ford... that was about it. So much dead time during the day that could have had interesting racing. Then at the end of the day, concerts that nobody saw because it takes three hours to get back to your hotel from COTA.
Totally Agree. The lack of F2 and F3 on the calendar does make a big difference. They even dropped the F4 this year so I think it's only W series for both Miami and Austin as far as I can tell. F4 moved to SVRA weekend with Trans-am.
They have been making it more of another Austin "Festival" than a racing event. From a business prospective, it's working for them and is keeping F1 here in Texas so I doubt it'll change much going forward.
bmw88rider said:In reply to z31maniac :
PPIHC is a bunch of fun but don't expect to see much overall. It's more of a party day on the mountain.
There is a lot more going on than just the race in the weekend but I get the sediment. If I hadn't started marshaling, I probably wouldn't go either but it's hard to pass up the best "seat" in the house.
I've done F&C at COTA since 2017. I won't be going back. Last year the crowd was insane. The food was awful. They cut the size of our camping area in half so I was elbow to elbow with other marshals. The organization was a complete cluster. Add in the fact that F1 doesn't really want you to flag anything and I am done. I'll flag IMSA, INDY and regional SCCA events instead.
Good to see Haas doing well
F1 2022 is officially on now. Finally get to see a real order after this qualifying session.
A reminder that the Q2 tires are no longer the tires the top 10 starts on.
Looks like we'll have a race tomorrow. Hopefully Ferrari doesn't screw up the strategy
Ferrari is back! And it appears Mercedes power is not so dominant anymore. Haven't seen any trap speeds, but the Merc powered cars don't appear to have a straight line speed advantage.
I'll bet that takes a bit of the sting out of Valtteri's "demotion". He's lined up beside Lewis again :)
Leclerc vs Verstappen on the first corner will be interesting. I predict a psycho move by Max and a conservative line from Charles. If those two take each other out, we'll get to watch Checo vs Sainz which would be fun.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I was thinking the same thing, either Max hooks it up and leads or he take Charles out in T1 and Sainz goes on to the win. We will see.
Amazing qualifying - so great to see so many shake ups. Bottas enjoys glory over his replacement. K Mag shows the haters he can still roll.
I'm unreasonably happy that Max missed pole.
Valteri probably has a satisfied little smile.
Ferrari has an excellent power train.
Kmags certainly beat young Mick.
Merc surely has work to do, but I am sure not ready to write them off.
I have so much to be positive about from Quali. Lewis beat George, somebody beat Max, Ferrari looks to be back and my fantasy F1 team is looking very good. I have no doubt Max will try to force Charles off and I hope LeClerc stands up to him. Can't wait for tomorrow
One thing that has to be concerning for Merc is they have the only cars with Mercedes engines that made Q3. Maybe they are on their back feet with aero and power?
It was fun to see the cars back out and giving it full beans.
I wonder if the bouncing is holding back top speed, too. It was really bad on the Mercs for most of the weekend.
Great qualifying. Bottas has to be SO happy he outqualified George, and Haas into Q3? With a guy who hadn't driven the car a week ago? Amazing.
Great qualifying. I hope Ferrari has better strategists than the used to. I want Chico to win.
Pink panther Alpines are confusing me...
Off to the goggles to research BWT.
Look how happy the lead wanker is!
I think Max will bully his way to the front and lead to the finish, but we'll get some good racing for the next four places. It's going to be interesting for sure.
The Mercedes seems to have access to massive downforce, as evidenced by how early the porpoising comes on, and if they can figure out how to create a way to tame the bounce, they are going to be very quick. I thought I would be sad after quali but I'm pretty excited for the race
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