F-1 2024 starts next weekend

[beecee]

24 races...almost two months extra worth of races vs. the 70's

Somewhat rational scheduling as far as venue to venue travel.

Hamilton is a lame duck heading to Ferrari next year for half a billion dollars.....and an ambassadorship until the Tifosi tear him apart.

Will Russell finally improve on his luck?

Will Alonso win a race?

Will snot faced Verstappen lose a race?

Can't wait......

Always root for the Finn to win but not gonna happen this year.

 

[mushroom]

Yes!

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

 

[adorshki]

Hamilton is a lame duck heading to Ferrari next year for half a billion dollars.....and an ambassadorship until the Tifosi tear him apart.

There's a lot to tear apart, there, too. It's a violation of the very laws of nature. Been hard enough remaining loyal to the Cavallino Rampante as it is over the last ten years.

I may be a masochist but ya gotta draw the line somewhere.....Ferrari don't need no stinkin' used Mercedes drivers....

 

[beecee]

I used to enjoy NASCAR and attended several races at the Superspeedways.

I think my gripe now is I'm old and still fondly remember the Allisons/Baker/Yarborough era and then the late 90's early 2000's.....huge Mark Martin fan as well as Ernie Irvan and Davey Allison. Don't know too many "household" names in NASCAR...or Indy for that matter these days.

But what is sad is the way it's marketed. It really hit home watching the Daytona 500 last week.

Coming out of a commercial break with less than 20 laps to go the graphic...here comes the big one....flashes on the screen.

How idiotic is that? The network feels the whole race was just a run up to an inevitable late race crash caused by what...."strategy" on the part of some driver "going for it" resulting in hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in damage?

F1 has it's faults...dirty drivers like Senna and Schumacher tainted the 80's and 90's....the Hamilton/Vettle...er Mercedes/Red Bull domination has been boring..(and anyone who feels it ain't the car just look at Bottas since going to Alfa Romeo or Russel at Benz) and the sanitized courses that have certainly saved lives but have spawned a generation or two of drivers who have no respect for their actions at such high speeds......very lucky no one has been killed by the over aggressive actions of the Seb's or Max's.

At least Alonso...who for once made a somewhat intelligent, in hindsight, career move...spiced things up last year and hopefully this as well...and some hoped for flashes of potential by Ferrari....of course only to be scuttled by pit wall idiocy.

Nice to see McLaren doing well again and some hope for Haas now that Gunther has been replaced by an engineer.

I'm excited!

 

[davismanLV]

As long as it isn't in Las Vegas, fine.

 

[twocorgis]

I used to be a pretty big F1 fan, but I find the combination of Christian Horner and Max Verstappen to be so annoying that it just kills any desire I have to watch, although Horner might be leaving Red Bull as soon as today.

That leaves World Rally Car, and some of the SCCA sedan classes for me. NASCAR? All they ever do is turn left.

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

NASCAR? All they ever do is turn left.

Well, except for the five Road Course races.

 

[twocorgis]

Well, except for the five Road Course races.

Didn't realize they were up to five as I pretty much tuned out years ago. I recall seeing one some time back, and my thought was that stock cars are too big for most traditional style road courses, which also probably explained the extreme number of crashes in that race.

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

Chicago Street Race

 

[adorshki]

As long as it isn't in Las Vegas, fine.

At least until they figure out how to keep their manhole covers glued down.

 

[adorshki]

F1 has it's faults...dirty drivers like Senna and Schumacher tainted the 80's and 90's....the Hamilton/Vettle...er Mercedes/Red Bull domination has been boring..(and anyone who feels it ain't the car just look at Bottas since going to Alfa Romeo or Russel at Benz)

Sort of agree about dominant cars, but few years back I realized it's really about getting a driver who CAN extract the maximum potential from a vehicle. Some drivers are better at it than others, and some simply work well with a given set of construction rules but don't transition well when major construction changes occur.

I think Vettel was a perfect example of a "one-trick" (or "one make"?) pony, although the fact that Ferrari's engineering has been sub-par for a decade didn't help him. Feel the same about Hamilton: think he's gonna go Vettel at Ferrari. Actually pray he winds up pulling out.

Alonso has gained my respect for maturing in recent years, there's a guy who adapts to different engineering challenges. He knows how to read cars and extract very close to if not all of, their potential. Loved watching what he did at Alpine, and Aston last year.

 

[Jeff_L]

Used to enjoy NASCAR, when it was STOCK car racing. Now it's all the same platform with different body panels. Loved Indy Car, but now it's all Dallara chassis' with either Chevy or Honda engines, and either Penske or Ganassi dominating. Danica Patrick said it best at one of the pre-race shows last year. She was talking about going to Japan for a race, and her passport listed her as an entertainer! An ENTERTAINER for Pete's sake. That's what big-time American racing has become - entertainment. The racing aspect is gone.

F1 is the purest form of big-time racing left in the world. They build their own cars, hire the best drivers, and go racing. Yes, Red Bull has dominated recently, but that's the nature of the sport. Remember back in the old days when Colin Chapman dominated with the Lotus's, or Jack Brabham with his own car, or Jackie Stewart, or Bruce MacLaren? And yes, even Ferrari dominated in their day. It's all about the builders and what they do to stay true to the formula but get a little more out of their car than the others.

So it's that and sprint cars for me.