- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
2012 Australian Grand Prix
- Thread starter Akmuq
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- 5,379
- Yokohama
- F1fan1
Which is why a lot of races are on at unsociable times. I lived in Canada last year and I never missed a practice session. Fair enough, I was in Toronto so the time zones worked better, but the point still stands. There is not a single country in the world that can watch all Grand Prix at reasonable times. So it's just a matter of your own commitment.
That is the way F1 has been covered on here for years. That is the way it will stay.
Ooh the irony. Bruno Senna's one man fan club thinks Di Resta is overrated. I will agree that Di Resta made some crucial mistakes. There were a few occasions where he had worked himself into a good position, only to make contact and have to pit. He needs to work on this. As for Sutil, he has been wanting to leave Force India for years. At the end of every season, he has made it clear that he wanted to see if there was a better offer on the table. Maybe FI just got sick of it.
And as for Sutil, with the legal case hanging over him, no team was going to sign him up. It might have been a different story if the nightclub incident never happened, but Sutil did it and was subsequently found guilty. Can you really blame the teams in this situation?
I assume that by "tearing into" you mean "overhyping". This is definitely a factor. It's not something I agree with. As a matter of fact, it's something that downright disgusts me, but it's happened for years.
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
Sorry. I should watch my colloquialisms. When I say "tearing into", I mean they like attacking the British drivers. It's usually the tabloids who do this, because they know that sensationalised stories sell better than the actual story. There was a story in a Scottish tabloid a few weeks ago that all but ran with the headling PAUL DI RESTA IS AN ARROGANT GIT. Reading the actual interview with him, di Resta basically said he was confident he could succeed in a good car, and he wasn't intimidated by the World Champions on the grid because he couldn't afford to be. A more-suitable headline for the article would be PAUL DI RESTA IS THE HOPE OF SCOTLAND, but the tabloids know that sleaze sells, and so wrote the article in such a way that Paul di Resta came across as being full of himself because they knew that angle would sell more papers.
The tabloids did it with Lewis Hamilton, too. For whatever reason, he wasn't himself last year, and even he admits it. He was spotted with Christian Horner after the Canadian Grand Prix, and so the tabloids started rumours about Hamilton moving to Red Bull. Not because they're proud of Hamilton and would like to see him find some success, but because he'd had a scrappy Monaco Grand Prix and a scruffy race in Montreal. The tabloids were building him up in anticipation of another horrible race, at which point they could run a headline along the lines of YOU'RE NOT GOING TO RED BULL IF YOU KEEP DRIVING LIKE THAT, LEWIS!. They love smacking the British down as hard as they possibly can. Jenson Button is mostly immune to it now, but he's an older driver, so he knows not to take it personally (like all bullies, the tabloids left him alone when they couldn't get a rise out of him). He probably had to endure all kinds of ridicule early in his career, though.
And it's not just the drivers that the tabloids do it to. Just about any British sporting or cultural institution is fair game. Take, for example, the James Bond films; SKYFALL is filming at the moment. The shooting schedule called for all the scenes in London and at the studio in Pinewood to be filmed first, and then all the international scenes to be shot later. Six weeks into filming, they were still in and around Whitehall, so the tabloids started running stories about how the budget had been halved, and all international shooting had been cancelled, simply because the film had not yet gone overseas. And worst of all, the stories were picked up by serious publications.
In short, the British press seem to enjoy nothing more than humiliating their own. In Australia, we constantly get stories about how Mark Webber is positive about the next race, while Spain gets the tabloids actually trying to advance the career of Fernando Alonso (in 2009, they were lobbying Ferrari to take Alonso for 2010). In England, it's quite the opposite - the press go out of their way to make British drivers look bad. It's really quite disgusting when you think about it. It came as no surprise when the tabloids were caught hacking into the phones of celebrities and murder victims to chase a story.
- 996
- Vancouver
- jcm-16
F1 fan
Yeah, I'm just not able to stay up until 7:00am to watch an entire grand prix. I've tried three times and this is what happened (not in order of occurance, because I forget the order).
1. I fell asleep at 4:00am and missed the race.
2. I stayed up for the whole race, then couldn't go back to sleep until the next night. I then fell asleep in school on Monday, three times. I then fell asleep once on Tuesday (Social Studies).
3. Fell asleep during the middle of the race.
This is why recording the race and watching it later is a lot better for me.
Also, this might be why America has such a small audience in Formula 1. Most people don't like staying up/waking up at 5am on Sunday.
- 5,379
- Yokohama
- F1fan1
That what I think of when I hear "tearing into" however, the British Press seems to love their darlings Lewis, Jenson and Paul.
So why complain? Is it so hard to watch a recorded version? I'm just not understanding the reason for the complaint.
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
Oh, the televised press do. There have always been complaints about how the ITV and BBC commentators talked about the British drivers more than anyone else, and how the rest of the world had to put up with it.
But I'm talking about print media. The Daily Mail, The Sun and the (now-extinct) News of the World are all guilty of it. They won't hesitate to attack and criticise the British drivers. If ever they post something positive about them - like rumours of Hamilton going to Red Bull - it's because they're preparing another salvo, and they want the driver to fall harder and further than they normally would when the tabloid publishes it. It's how they think: scandal equals sensationalism, and sensationalism equals sales. The more negative they can make it, the more readers they will get.
- 4,579
- Houston, TX
- astrosdude91
You could just go to bed early. 7am isn't that early. I'm sure you get up that early for school.
Besides, if you are a true F1 fan, you'll make the effort to watch the race. I always do.
I just noticed you're in Vancouver. So I guess that's 5am for most races. But still. It's not that hard to wake up at 5am. Go to bed at 9 or 10 the night before, and that's still 7-8 hours of sleep. And if you want, you could still get a few hours of sleep after the race ends.
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
I know I do - I'm in the habit of getting up at 6:30am, mostly so I can be at the ready if a school out of town calls me in. It's good; I find I have more hours in the day, and I feel better than when I sleep in.
If I can do it, anyone should be able to.
- 23,800
- Philippines
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- 996
- Vancouver
- jcm-16
astrosdude91
Yeah, but I have trouble getting to sleep. I haven't fallen asleep before midnight in a loooong time. I usually fall asleep around 2am, and 3 hours of sleep just isn't quite enough for me. Anyway, we should stop talking about time zones, since there's been way to many posts about them already.
- 4,579
- Houston, TX
- astrosdude91
- 4,887
- Los Angeles, Cali
- JoeTruckV8
I heard someone bring up Nick heidfeld, now that seat change I believe has more than what meets the eye. I thought he did pretty well while he was driving for Renault, but now maybe the seat change to Senna was endorsement money motivated. He still did better than he's team-mates with half of a season not even racing.
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
High-res pictures of Heikki's new lid.
- 3,679
- Warwick Uni
- lbsf1 GTP_lbsf1
- obsmu (my brothers acount)
Yep, it does seem that the british media is kinda alone on doing this though. Remember back to britains attempt for the world cup, any other countries press would have kept their mouth shut to help the campaign however us british have to go around digging up dirt on our own world cup bid. :facepalm:
Anyway back to the grand prix. I'm hoping that lotus might do well here, they do seem to have improved alot over last season.
- 13,735
- Adelaide
- Neomone
Why have they put the DRS zones back to back through what could be called a chicane (a rather fast one) like that?
I seem to recall Abu Dhabi last year having a similar setup, and it rather defeated itself most of the time. Overtakes in the first were re-overtakes in the second, simply because there was no time for the overtaking car to stretch a gap and hold the position. Might as well only have a single DRS zone, it would accomplish it's purpose better.
I seem to recall Abu Dhabi last year having a similar setup, and it rather defeated itself most of the time. Overtakes in the first were re-overtakes in the second, simply because there was no time for the overtaking car to stretch a gap and hold the position. Might as well only have a single DRS zone, it would accomplish it's purpose better.
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
There is only one activation point in Melbourne, similar to the system used in Valencia and Montreal last year. The idea is that if an attacking driver gets past in the first zone, he can use DRS in the second to pull away a little bit. If he doesn't get past in the first zone, he gets a second chance at it. However, last year the FIA was talking about introducing a system that would register a pass in the first zone, and deactivate DRS in the second.
Tired Tyres
Premium
- 12,258
- West Yorkshire
- Tired_Tyres
- Tired Tyres
You can have any opinion you like mate, but saying effectively the same thing in post after post gets old fast.
Di Resta was in his first season, Sutil his 5th...
Additionally, I take that you noticed the ridiculous strategies the team gave di Resta?
I have no idea how good or otherwise di Resta is going to be but I not going to prejudge him based on a personal dislike of the way certain types in the media treat him.
- 996
- Vancouver
- jcm-16
Tired Tyres
I try not to be biased in favour of drivers. Being a rookie is not an excuse for finishing lower in the standings. Saying that you haven't reached your full potential, and that you just need more time to develop is an excuse.
He preformed worse then Sutil in qualifying, and in the races. Being a rookie is not an excuse for this. Not reaching your full potential is a perfectly good excuse. Paul may develop into a world champion driver, but he's not there yet. I wish him the best, and I hope that he develops into a champion driver, but isn't quick enough yet.
- 5,717
- Sheffield
- Tom_97_COD
I agree, it is an excuse and a valid one at that. He's been driving touring cars for years, you can't just shove him into a single seater and immediately expect him to set the world on fire, regardless of talent. I think after a season of settling into Formula One he'll have an even better year in 2012.
- 10,828
- Belgium
- bramturismo
- 996
- Vancouver
- jcm-16
Bram Turismo
Lewis Hamilton beat Alonso in his rookie season. No, I don't expect a rookie to beat a former world champion teammate, I'm just saying that it's possible, Lewis proved it. Yeah, "Seriously".
gorsad
Yeah they're related, but being a rookie isn't an excuse. Having not fully developed is a good excuse, because you're saying that you're able to improve.
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