Formula One - 2018

Advan046 said:

 

Hamilton keeps sending signals that he is ready for his midlife crisis a little early. Not sure if he is just bluffing for better contracts. But I get a feeling like he is more like Rosberg than he would like to admit. A little tired of the grind. 

 

It is not really like he has a whole lot left to prove.  I think as long as he has a competitive car, he will stay to try for the last few win records he doesn't already hold, but if Merc suddenly E36 M3s the bed, its Nighty-Night to the old career.  How far behind Michael is he in total wins? 

Ooh- 29 more to tie.  Seems like a lot, but based on his previous performance, that could happen at the end of 2020.  Hell it could happen halfway through next season.  Never is also a distinct possibility...

Keith Tanner said:

I want to see someone give them a challenge to watch them react, but I'd much rather it be Williams or McLaren than Red Bull or Ferrari. If it must be Red Bull, let it be Ricciardo

 

I agree with that, but Verstapen is the only driver I have seen that reminds me of Senna, especially a young Senna.  If they had equal cars, I would be very worried if I were Hamilton.  I think right now he is the fastest over a single lap, now if he could learn to calm down a bit and make better decisions.  And I'm not particularly a fan of his.  

The teams have started to arrive in Australia. Time to check the TV listing to see how I am going to record it. 

Yeah, I'm really curious about what my options are to view this race without a cable subscription. Is F1 doing a streaming  service or not?

Advan046 said:

The teams have started to arrive in Australia. Time to check the TV listing to see how I am going to record it. 

 

ESPN is carrying the full SKY broadcast, right? 

Out of the box, I'm a little disappointed by ESPN.  Got up a little early this morning to watch the first practice of 2018 and it wasn't on the DVR.  Looks like ESPN won't be airing it until late tonight.  Hopefully, the "tape" delay is because of March Madness and not indicative of how they'll be airing the races.

Hopefully, the F1 streaming service will be launched soon.

-Rob

I'm not so sure how well the TV broadcasts are going to fare.  It looks like the timeslots are all cut down to the minimum (2hrs for a GP, 30 minutes of pre-race, no post-race coverage), so we will probably miss a number of conclusions this year if there are any weather or SC-related delays (Heidi game, anyone?). 

I downloaded the WatchESPN app, skeptically, and signed in through my wifi connection at home (Verizon TV/internet).   The picture quality and ccommentary is quite good, I must say.  The sky sports commentators are entertaining and know the sport in and out.  

A significant number of quali sessions are broadcast this year on ESPNNews, which my cable package doesn't get....unfortunately, this means my WatchESPN app doesn't get it either.  I'm cautiously optimistic that they will make all the quali replays available as ESPN3 content, which I can watch on demand or after the live broadcast has finished.  Fingers crossed.  It is nice to be able to listen to P2 on my commute this morning via bluetooth over my car's speakers.  

Didn't think about the WatchESPN app.  I'll have to check it out until Liberty Media officially launches the F1 app.  Supposedly, they're using this race as a trial run to make sure everything is setup correctly.

-Rob

I downloaded the base ESPN app. I will try WATCHESPN as well. 

The first practice was streamed live at the proper time through the app. Looked fine just lots of UK accents. I Google Cast it onto my tv so no different than any other tv program. The commercials were weird in terms of how they edited them into the stream. 

Also the espn website says shows almost all practice sessions on ESPN3 which ESPN writes, is a no cost add to any account that already has ESPN. So I guess you can ask your provider to add it and see what they say. 

I can't believe the ridiculous penalty on Riccardio. Yeah I know he technically broke the rule, but this kind of crap is what turns off even hard core fans. 

Going to slowly under a red flag because of a car malfunction earns him a 3 spot grid penalty? 

I was starting to get excited to be able to watch F1 again. 

z31maniac said:

I can't believe the ridiculous penalty on Riccardio. Yeah I know he technically broke the rule, but this kind of crap is what turns off even hard core fans. 

Going to slowly under a red flag because of a car malfunction earns him a 3 spot grid penalty? 

I was starting to get excited to be able to watch F1 again. 

Confuse think I saying am about you wroten.

He was penalized for going to fast during a RED FLAG. RED FLAG I think means, "We are trying not to get anyone killed here so stop or SLOWLY return to the pits." Unlucky for all involved, the message on his dash was either wrong or he was confused by it and ended up going to fast. Still he and if the dash was screwed his team as well should have been penalized strongly. 

Ah I googled as see some article stating that he failed to stay above the minimum time. So to understand that answer this:

Which is faster?

1. 10 second quarter mile
2. 11 second quarter mile

Stay above the minimum time stay above 10 seconds. Stay slower.

Someone's job (or some people's most likely) requires them to stare at a computer screen and keep fiddling with these design elements until they reach the desired numbers. Yeah, good luck with all that.

rob_lewis said:

Out of the box, I'm a little disappointed by ESPN.  Got up a little early this morning to watch the first practice of 2018 and it wasn't on the DVR.  Looks like ESPN won't be airing it until late tonight.  Hopefully, the "tape" delay is because of March Madness and not indicative of how they'll be airing the races.

Hopefully, the F1 streaming service will be launched soon.

-Rob

Qualifying airs at 2am, because that's when it starts. Australia time doesn't sync up very well with ours. 

lnlogauge said:

rob_lewis said:

Out of the box, I'm a little disappointed by ESPN.  Got up a little early this morning to watch the first practice of 2018 and it wasn't on the DVR.  Looks like ESPN won't be airing it until late tonight.  Hopefully, the "tape" delay is because of March Madness and not indicative of how they'll be airing the races.

Hopefully, the F1 streaming service will be launched soon.

-Rob

Qualifying airs at 2am, because that's when it starts. Australia time doesn't sync up very well with ours. 

Right, but it should have been available when I woke up.  In theory, DVR would have recorded it live at 2:00 a.m. I would be able to watch it at 6:00 a.m.  Instead, I have to wait until tonight.  (Although I'll check the ESPN3 option). 

Not a huge deal especially since the rest of the weekend will be aired live, but I had a pattern, darn it!  :) 

-Rob

18 minutes in, I stand corrected.  I was assuming that they would broadcast FP2 and then qualifying and the race like NBCSN did.  Turns out they only broadcast FP3.  So, my complaint from before was invalid since FP3 is a few hours before qualifying.

I'm sure it's just me, but the video quality seems MUCH better than before.

Looks like Sky has better access to the teams, just based on interviewing Christian Horner as practice is starting.

I still miss Will (although it looks like he still has an F1 show called Paddock Pass), but I'm liking this a lot more.

-Rob

I'm not a fan of the new on screen graphics.  I know that's world feed stuff, not ESPN or Sky, but I find the font hard to read.

Otherwise, qualifying on ESPN wasn't bad.  I was watching it via DVR and forgot to extend the record time - did they let it run it did they cut it off and go to something else?  I picked up the last few minutes from their Roku channel.

I think the graphics are designed for people with larger tv screens than mine.  They also have a tire use/availability chart that took me most of a season to decipher.  The overall Sky deal is excellent, I'd say after two years.

In reply to wae :

It's Liberty's "fault"- they are the ones who are updating everything, including the theme song....

So about qualifying...

I expected Mercedes to be faster, but not that much faster- last few days, most talking heads were figuring .4 ish secs, and they got .6.  That's pretty massive in the context of the racing.  And it's interesting to note that they were one of the only teams to have the exact same chassis from Spain- no major updates.  Which kind of spells trouble for the rest of the field.

So the rest- Nice to see Haas be the #4 team out there- they have stepped up their game rather well.  And Renault is right with them.  McLaren was very 6th, but apparently they have some big changes going to Bahrain- and Fernando sounded pretty satisfied with 11th based on that.

On the bottom- Sauber/Alfa was not last!  Which is good for them.  And very bad for Williams and Torro Rossso- who maybe we should bring back the Minardi name for- they have really lost a lot of pace.  In other words, Honda?

Good to see them get going.

Hamilton’s pole lap was a thing of beauty. Very impressive run and not really a surprise to anyone. Hopefully their race pace is a little slower so we can see some action. 

It was also also nice to see Mclaren make it through the whole weekend so far (jinx), as well as the Haas team’s pace. 

Perhaps it's just because they are different voices but the broadcast is leaving me a bit flat. I don't know why, everyone involved has top notch credentials. Croft's (I think it's Croft) excited voice sounds like an auctioneer to me. Again I'm sure it's purely a case of different but it may take a race or two.

Wonder if McLaren let Alonso qualify 11th to have tire options. He was running 5-7 range almost the entire time. 

markwemple said:

Wonder if McLaren let Alonso qualify 11th to have tire options. He was running 5-7 range almost the entire time. 

Alonso made a ton of first lap passes last year.

I guess the fact that both McLarens gor into Q2 and did not have any noticable issues is a big plus over last year.

In reply to Spoolpigeon :

Yes in one left right section he was getting the car to rotate so smoothly with just the slightest sliding to allow him to be back in the throttle through the second corner. 

Reminded me of how Trulli got pole in Monaco.