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wood

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by wood

  1. Yeah, only a few years ago, F1 was much more affordable. Now it's insanely expensive, esp in the US. The Australian GP is the other end of the spectrum compared to COTA in terms of bang for your buck. This year iirc COTA 3-day GA tickets were $429 + taxes & fees. That's with one support series & 2 support races. At this year's Australian GP, you could sit in the most expensive grandstand for less than what that Austin GA pass costs. And that's for 4 days, with F1, F2, F3, V8 Supercars, & Porsche Carrera Cup. 5 support series for a total of 11 support races. Plus music, daily air shows, and more, and they have 3 or 4 support races just on Sunday alone. Most GP weekends fall somewhere between Oz & COTA. Honestly, predictability is a problem most years in F1, but in the past, there was less reliability, more variability, and the cars, the engines, etc were so entertaining in and of themselves, that the predictabilty was something most people could overlook. The drivers were loud and brash, and the cars were louder and brasher. The whole F1 circus was louder & brasher, & not so polished. The drivers poured themselves out of the cars at the ends of races, looking like they'd just finished an Ironman Triathlon. The extreme nature of the racing, with far more pushing than they do now, the cars being twitchier and physically harder to handle, etc pushed the drivers extremely hard.
  2. ... and further down, the battle between RB & AM for P6 is very close, with AM trailing RB by just 3 points. Sauber is only 10 behind AM. Not prestigious positions, but very important in terms of money.
  3. That would help, at least from the viewer's end. Predictability and utter lack of variability is the biggest thing wrong in today's F1 viewing experience imho. After an initial transitional period in 2013 when nthe new regs took place, engine reliability went way up from what it used to be with the V8s and V10s. That's largely because of the draconian engine limits. The idea was to save money, but engine limits don't actually do that. They spend even more on engines now, because there's no limit on how many engines the manufacturers can destroy on the testbed. Because of the penalties their teams would get for replacing components, cost and reliability went way up, as they ran through hundreds or thousands of engines getting the best possible reliability, power output, and efficiency. Other problems off the top of my head: - The cars are fucking huge and heavy. They're so big because they're so heavy, and they're so heavy because of the heavy batteries & hybrid PUs. - Cars unable to follow closely because of dirty air. That's not just a symptom of being deep into these regs. They had made great strides but threw it all away because of crying from a few teams, Mercedes in particular. - Lack of variability in tire strategy - Too much telemetry data flowing to the pitwall & too much advice/coaching coming from it. - Over simulation. Everything is simulated to death thousands of times before the race starts. Very little is left to chance. - Far too much tire conservation, fuel conservation, battery management, systems management, etc, and far too little of drivers just pushing the hell out of the cars. If the drivers need constant guidance on tire temp, tire wear, brake temp, fuel status, which of thousands of possible mode scenarios to be in, etc, etc, etc, then maybe the cars are too complex and there's something wrong with the formula. It's motorsport, not fucking NASA.
  4. Yep. Let's go back in time to about 2012 & show them the future.
  5. Yeah there's really not too much to say about that race ... as evidenced by the thread today. A real snoozer. Woof.
  6. I won't be at the race today, but my kid is at COTA on a personal driving gig for a friend of ours in the Paddock. He dropped them off this morning and has to wait around in the Paddock parking lot near the Paddock entrance. He's having a blast meeting and getting selfies with several drivers and other F1 personalities. So far, Fernando, Kimi, Bortoleto, Hulk, and more. I can't keep up. He keeps calling me, all excited. Good times.
  7. So, 6-9 degrees cooler today, wind now out of the north 20+ MPH. Should be interesting to see how this pretty significant change affects the cars and the drivers today. The wind shift should help along the east side of the track (2-11). Might cause some mistakes from 12-19. Could creat some unplanned action.
  8. It's amazing how often they completely fuck up such basic race info comms.
  9. Uh ... was that really a hold?
  10. I shot this today at Auditorium Shores ...
  11. nsiap ...
  12. Yeah ...and the city council put it in writing before the place was built that they had to plant something like 2 or 3000 trees. They just said "OK", then never did it, in true Bobby Epstein style. Where is Pop's? I'm always looking for good parking alternatives on the off chance that I might actually wanna go out there again someday. Yeah the hottest place in Austin in the summer and coldest in the winter used to be the Disch. Now it's COTA. The hottest sporting event I ever attended was WEC a few years ago, even though it was only like 95. The problem is that you're out there for hours with nowhere to take a break from the sun. It's brutal. Ant Davidson drove in the race, and said it was by far the hottest experience he's ever had in a race car. He's also driven in Singapore, Bahrain, etc ... And fuck yeah ... with the monitors being so far away across the track as they are, they're way too small to use to actually try to follow what's happening. Can't read the graphics.
  13. It's very wide on entry. About 120 feet. But it's only about half that wide on exit. Before the track was built, Tavo told me he designed it that way intentionally, as an 'error generator'. He wanted the wide entry to entice people to try different things - potentially unwise moves - and boy has it worked. T1 is truly a masterpiece full of challenges for the drivers. Shorter braking zone because it's uphill. Big bumps (not part of the 'art', of course) unsettle the car just as you begin to brake. Gets significantly less steep just after you begin braking, making the car suddenly lighter in the middle of braking (see Stroll's lockup ... usually they work that out in FP, but there was only one this weekend). Blind apex, so you have to turn in before you can see it. Gets much narrower on exit and falls away to the right. It's a handful.
  14. LOL, yep. He's a joke in wheel to wheel combat.
  15. IIRC they didn't the first time either. They got it for free. Maybe not in their view, but from F1's perspective, they still did better on ESPN than they've ever done in America. I don't see any way they'll get near those numbers on Apple TV with it's smaller sub base. But I guess they do have TV revenue sharing in F1 now, so that makes it make more sense.
  16. I'd imagine the upcharge will come in the form of the next price increase for all subscribers. I gotta wonder how the teams and sponsors feel about this move. I guess I get it from FOM's end, as they'll just get a lot more money, viewership be damned. But I would think viewership is a huge deal to the teams, who rely on getting as much money as possible from their sponsors. F1 will now reach significantly fewer eyeballs. Seems like that's gonna put a damper on sponsorship revenue for the teams.
  17. Yeah afaik there are no steers in that pic. I dunno wtf he's looking at.
  18. FYI, looks like you can still walk around T20 from th Main GS to the Grand Plaza.
  19. Yeah mine has been turrible lately as well. Even worse than normal, because I bought a new laptop with a slightly different scale keyboard. Everything's a mess. Have to proofread everything.
  20. Either tunnel will get you to the Paddock Club, but you have to go through a guard shack, so have your creds ready. Also, iirc some (or most?) Paddock Clubbers have to park in Lot A. I don't think there's room behind the pit building for all of them.
  21. That'll work. In other news, the crazy clusterfuck F1 fan police escorts are back. Second time I've seen this shit - idiot off duty cops escort rich folks to the track, but super-aggressively. Bullying people to run red lights to get out of the way (big no-no), weaving around all over the place, approaching cars at high speed differentials, tailgating, confusing people and causing general chaos, etc. They don't coordinate well and don't seem to be clear on their own route plan, then they get seperated from the cars they're escorting, leaving them trying to maneuver to reconnect with the more maneuverable police bikes & cars ... but it's all happening very fast at high speeds. Saw 3 or 4 near collisions in a matter of about a minute. The way these guys operate violates multiple code 3 response rules. They're gonna get someone killed. Fuck these assholes. If you see these assholes coming, don't do anything rash to get out of their way. Esp don't run a red light. Even they are only supposed to do that after stopping, then clear the intersection slowly. And they have the benefit of lights and sirens. We do not. It's much more dangerous for us, but they're pushing pressure on people to do it very quickly and with no protection. If you need to move over, don't let them bully you into doing something unsafe, esp on the highway.
  22. My buddy sent me a photo he took with Valtteri this morning at a free MyCanyon bike event he had on S. 1st. I couldn't go because of a dental appt, and my boys wanted to go but had work and classes. Looked like it was aight. Apparently VB was giving people mullet haircuts after the ride, so they got that goin' for 'em. There's also an AM/Glenfiddich event sometime Saturday. You have to register and then you might get lucky and be sent an invite. https://www.astonmartinf1.com/en-GB/Glenfiddich-Paddock-After-Dark
  23. Yep. Pretty sure there have always been at least 2, and most years 3. The guys on Autosport say this is the only race this year with only one support series. And maybe Vegas too. Every other race this year has at least 2 support series and 4 support races. Most have 3 or more support series & 6 or more support races. Australia had 4 or 5 support series with at least 11 support races this year (including multiple V8SC races, F2, & F3), and cost much less.
  24. There are some tents, but there are only going to be enough to shade a small portion of attendees. I just looked it up on their website, and they've added some shade on the T4 and T19 grandstands. The only other shade will be in the Main grandstand and in hospitality/VIP areas.
  25. Yeah the lack of support races is pretty shitty. Weakest weekend schedule yet for the USGP ... but the line dance lessons, low level Lucha Libre, and loads of bands we've never heard of make it all good. : /
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