Vroom

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

So I gave up Nascar, finally. They gimmicked up the season so much, with playoffs, and stages, and now have cars that when they crash don't even dent. Gone are the days when a guy's hood could fly off in wreck and decapitate fans, and he could continue racing with no hood and maybe win. Plus, 70% of the cars don't stand a chance in every race.

But I watched DRIVE TO SURVIVE on Netflix and totally got into Formula 1. It's really an interesting show.... so today dvred the Monaco Grand Prix and watched an f1 race for the 1st time... not the greatest race but I feel like I know all the drivers and team leaders by now and it's fun.

Blasphemy with Nascar at Charlotte on prime time tonight and the Indy 500 tomorrow.

Anyone watch f1 or the Netflix show?

[Methead]

YES

My brother got me into F1 a few years ago. I was hanging at his place one time and he made me sit and watch qualifying with him. I was like "why would you care about watching that" but I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. We now have a fantasy league with a few of our cousins and it's super fun.

Speaking of qualifying, that's usually the best part of Monaco. Over the years the cars have gotten so much bigger that it's impossible to overtake on a narrow track like that. Generally turns the actual race into a parade. It's a challenge to drive though, and the onboard camera views are batshit crazy.

Up next though is Baku, a relatively new track which has become one of my favorites along with the classics like Suzuka and Spa. It's another street circuit but has three distinctly different sectors - a fairly simple section of short straights and 90 degree turns, then a narrow twisty section through the old part of the city, then a very long and wide straight back the the line, flat out for like 2km. Usually makes for a great race.

[Edgy MD]

F1 Racing is plowed into my consciousness because of the failed 2001 Stallone vehicle Driven, one of those odd films that caught up with me in a hotel room during a work conference. Where other guys might lower their moral bar in such circumstances, I lower my cinematic bar, and stumble into films I'd never watch under any other circumstances.

Clearly, NASCAR was eating IndyCar's lunch at this time. You'd figure that the former circuit's popularity would raise all racing ships, but the IndyCar's popularity overseas couldn't make a dent in the US market, so they decided to back this movie. Despite the jingoism that has a sexy, misunderstood young American driver whose commitment can't match his aptitude, until he's mentored by Stallone, his European rivals can't be painted as villains, because the European stars are so huge in the sport. So we get an Italian driver who is goofy, but not a complete idiot. And we get a German driver who is icy and detached, but not a sadistic Nazi.

It was, like, jingoism lite. Burt Reynolds also had a role, which probably burned NASCAR's butt.

Anyhow, I'm totally down with an F1 fantasy league. I'll take Yuki Tsunoda, Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, and Pierre Gasly, because his name is "Gasly."

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Tsunoda is hilarious....Iike the character in Better Off Dead who learned English from watching Howard Cosell, this guy learned words from pissed off daredevil open wheel drivers so has a total foul mouth and seemingly no clue as to how it comes off

[Frayed Knot]

The Ron Howard movie from a few years back, RUSH, provided a decent window into 1970s era F1

Not that a plot where two polar opposites -- playboy/party boy Englishman James Hunt vs cold, methodical Austrian Nikki Lauda -- compete for the same prize and journey from mutual loathing to eventual respect if not quite friendship, is a totally original concept, but at least it's a reasonably well done version of that concept.
And it's got some cool camera work.

[MFS62]

F1 racing, as in the Monaco Grand Prix, also played a part in the movie "A Man and a Woman".(1966 ?)
I got talked into seeing it by a girl I was dating.
It was long (it seemed to go on forever) and scenes of the race, with the (in)famous theme in the background turned me off to F-1 racing.

Later

[Fman99]

I tried briefly to care about all of these sports but came up dry.

[Methead]

Qualifying for Baku is on Saturday at 10am. I highly suggest watching it, or at least setting the DVR. It's more than simply sending cars out one by one and seeing who can set the fastest time, there's some competition and drama involved with the way they have it organized. Plus it helps get you acquainted with the idea that performing well in the race involves a massive sustained team effort, and it's not all about the GLORY BOY drivers on Sundays.

Some resources that have taught me a lot about strategy, terminology, tech, etc over the last few seasons of F1:

https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/
https://www.reddit.com/r/F1Technical/

https://twitter.com/ScarbsTech

https://www.youtube.com/c/chainbearf1

And plenty of other youtube content out there that they will happily serve you more and more as you start seeking it out.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Thanx for the reminder! Did you read the Bloomberg Business cover story on F1? Fascinating

[Methead]

Yeah, interesting. I guess I forgot the part about the huge investment of American dollars into the sport, but I should have assumed.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

So I watched Baku.... and my takeaway is it was better and more satisfying than a Nascar race that has, like baseball but for different reasons-- a pace of play and lenghthiness problem. Race zipped right along and never got boring, was surprised almost at how compact it was.

Kinda weird that Russel was acting like it was a huge victory to have finished 3rd when he believed 5th was best he could do, when 2 cars you could assume would have finished in front of him had mechanical issues.

Also, I wasn't sure why McLaren told Norris not to race Riccardo at the end. How much is preserving Riccardo's confidence and how much was what if they both wreck?. I was with Norris on that question and think that was a drawback.

Overall though. Fun.

[Methead]

Yeah, it's funny. The actual race is sometimes almost a footnote to the practice sessions, qualifying, and all of the teamwork that makes up the entire race weekend. But the race is where the points get scored. After both Ferraris dropped out, most of the drama was gone since they're the only other team right now that can realistically hang with Red Bull.

Mercedes is having lots of trouble with the car this year after being the most dominant team over most of the last decade, so I think Russell was just glad to get on the podium and bank more points than expected for the team. And he's been outperforming Hamilton all season too, so that's gotta feel pretty good.

And yeah, I think McLaren just decided not to risk anything, having both drivers in the points. They were supposed to be better this year than they've shown so far too.

[Edgy MD]

I tried briefly to care about all of these sports but came up dry.

That's why I totally would be interested in joining an F1 fantasy league. I otherwise have no actual emotional investment in who wins or loses.

[kcmets]

Every time I see this thread title bumped I think of my friend (who is a
car collector and mechanic) who posts pictures on facebook of brooms and
boasts that he found his wife a new ride every other week or so.

[Methead]

As if there isn't enough going on, don't forget about Canada this weekend. My brother and I have talked about getting up there to see a grand prix weekend in person. One of these years.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Just set the dvr. ABC at 2 pm, right? Qualifying 355 sat on ESPN 2?

[Methead]

That is correct.

It looks like several drivers will end up taking grid place penalties (including Leclerc) so it should be fun watching him try to work his way up through the field. The rest of the year this track is a public road surrounding a park, so there aren't a lot of large runoff areas or gravel traps... basically just the lawn coming right up to the edge of the track in most places.

[Methead]

Rainy conditions always tend to mix things up and today's qualifying held to form. The race tomorrow should be fun to watch, we've got frontrunners at the back who will need to fight their way through the grid, and midfield guys starting up front who will be trying to defend those spots.

[Frayed Knot]

F1 Grand Prix sites was a category in today's JEOPARDY episode. Hope you gear heads cleaned up.

[Methead]

F1 Grand Prix sites was a category in today's JEOPARDY episode. Hope you gear heads cleaned up.

Was Silverstone mentioned? That's the site of the British Grand Prix this weekend.

The circuit began life during World War II as an airfield for the Royal Air Force before being repurposed as a race course. And it's a pretty fun track too.

[Methead]

Some real ass-clenching racing toward the end of this one

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Wow. That was exhilarating. Almost enough to make you forget the Wide World of Sports style agony of defeat kinda Lap 1 highlight. Hope zho is okay.

[Edgy MD]

That was tip-top!

[Methead]

So this weekend in Austria is a bit different... an experimental new wrinkle introduced last year moves qualifying to Friday for a sprint race on Saturday. The results of that sprint race determine the starting grid for the race on Sunday. I'm still getting used to the format, but I think it's an attempt by F1 to increase interest in all three days of the event, as well as reduce the number of practice (data-gathering) sessions for the teams.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

For some reason, I can't find an actual injury report on Zhou, but I assume, he'll be racing? One story described him worried he wouldn't be able to get out of the car in the position it was in and he detected leaking "and couldn't tell if was my body, or the car."