c4countdown

Time for a new thread, methinks.

X

Yep. I think Vettel has to start as favourite. The Red Bull had a big advantage last year so they'd have to be favourite to have the best car again. And you'd have to say Vettel over Webber. But the other teams could still challenge them. Ferrari obviously, which would probably mean Alonso rather than Massa. And McLaren, where you'd favour Hamilton. Then there's Mercedes. That's an interesting one. They should have the budget and personel but they were quite bad last year. Having said that, I think they quit work on last year's car quite early to prepare for this year. And then there's the drivers. Rosberg was consistently quite good but Schumacher was often pretty bad. He was a bit better at the end so we'll have to see, but I still think Rosberg will start as favourite within the team. And Renault think they're going to be good as well. So Kubica.

And then there's the whole "Lotus" Renault/Team Lotus thing.

And the gimmicky adjustable wings to help you overtake.

Gavin Chipper wrote: And then there's the whole "Lotus" Renault/Team Lotus thing.

Officially;


LAST YEAR: Lotus Racing-Cosworth
THIS YEAR: Lotus Renault

LAST YEAR: Renault
THIS YEAR: Renault

Lotus is to Renault as vodafone is to McLaren.

Robert Kubica's been quite badly injured in a rally crash and could be out for the whole season. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89315

Gavin Chipper wrote:Robert Kubica's been quite badly injured in a rally crash and could be out for the whole season. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89315

Oh no!

Robert Kubica?

Gavin Chipper wrote:Robert Kubica's been quite badly injured in a rally crash and could be out for the whole season. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89315

Yeah I know.

Well, as Vettel says, Shit happens.

Rhys Benjamin wrote:Well, as Vettel says, Shit happens.

No, that was Forrest Gump.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsp ... 121943.stm

he said it after this happened.

So, here's wikipedia's breakdown of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The 2011 Bahrain Grand Prix (formally the 2011 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix) was scheduled to be the opening round for the 2011 Formula One season. Planned to be held on 13 March 2011 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, it was postponed on 21 February 2011 due to local civil unrest.

On 16 February 2011, civil unrest broke out in Bahrain as part of a series of protests across North Africa and the Middle East. As a result of the unrest, medical staff due to attend the practice session in the Bahrain GP2 Asia Series race were redeployed to hospitals in Manama, forcing the cancellation of the Thursday practice session. Later that day, it was announced that the whole weekend would be cancelled at the request of the local motoring federation.
Chief executive of the Bahrain Internation Circuit Prince Salman ibn Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa stated that everything possible would be done to ensure that the race went ahead. Bernie Ecclestone, CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration, stated that he hoped that talks with Al Khalifa would ease his fears that the event might be cancelled. Vice President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights Nabeel Rajab said that it would be hard to bring a quick end to the protests. Ecclestone stated that a decision on the race would be made by 23 February, saying that if the situation had not calmed down by then, the event would probably be cancelled. However, protesters were quoted stating that "the only reason" the Crown Prince was willing to talk with the protestors was for the sake of holding the race.
On 21 February 2011, it was announced that the race had been postponed due to the ongoing protests and the championships rescheduled to begin in Australia. The organisers were later given until 1 May to decide whether they want to proceed with the race at a later date.

Got up at 5:30 AM - and I feel better than yesterday!
Maybe I should get up at 5 tomorrow.......

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Grid is at

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=que ... 2377930528

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I feel bad for this thread. No one seems to contribute much apart from Rhys. I'd just like to say that Formula 1 sounds like some sort of baby food. Formula 1, new from Cow & Gate.

Official timings for tomorrow (BST):

0630 Pit lane open
0645 Pit lane closed
0645 Grid Formation
0646 Australian National Anthem
0650 10 Minutes warning signal
0655 5 Minute warning signal
0656 4 minute warning signal
0657 3 minute warning signal
0658 2 minute warming signal
0659 Grid Clearing
0659 1 minute warning signal
0700 Commencation of Formation Lap.
0900* 2 hour cutoff point

* - Subject to speed of Formation Lap. Clock will start when the light sequence is extinguished.

Pretty sweet race today!

Jon O'Neill wrote:Pretty sweet race today!

Yeah, best race of the year so far.

Agreed.

Lewis did well, as did Mark.

BUMP.

Turkey attendances have been so poor because all the fans in Turkey, students, are doing exams during the Grand Prix. Anyone fancy a trip to the Asian Side of Istanbul?

Are you there Rhys?

Bit of a kerfuffle on the BBC at the moment as (I think) Ferrari gave Alonso a message in Italian or something.. which begs the question, why are all the radio messages in English? Is that a rule?

Jon O'Neill wrote:Are you there Rhys?

Bit of a kerfuffle on the BBC at the moment as (I think) Ferrari gave Alonso a message in Italian or something.. which begs the question, why are all the radio messages in English? Is that a rule?

It's not a rule but most drivers/engineers speak English anyway.

Jon O'Neill wrote: begs the question

:@

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Jon O'Neill wrote:Are you there Rhys?

Bit of a kerfuffle on the BBC at the moment as (I think) Ferrari gave Alonso a message in Italian or something.. which begs the question, why are all the radio messages in English? Is that a rule?

It's not a rule but most drivers/engineers speak English anyway.

It's a gentleman's agreement.

Interesting.

Charlie Reams wrote:

Jon O'Neill wrote: begs the question

:@

The amount of things like this that people like myself get wrong (e.g. grammatical mistakes) is just intolerable. I should of just not posted.

Jon O'Neill wrote:should of

Quoted in case no-one got it.

Kai Laddiman wrote:

Jon O'Neill wrote:should of

Quoted in case no-one got it.

There is more examples to find. You're effort so far was laxadaisical.

I would not normally of commented, but I just finished reading a book which misused "beg the question" twice and "enormity" twice, so I'm hypervigilant. Also a dick.

Charlie Reams wrote:I would not normally of commented, but I just finished reading a book which misused "beg the question" twice and "enormity" twice, so I'm hypervigilant. Also a dick.

Anyone else spot the deliberate mistake?

I just finished reading a book

Good one, Charlie...

Jon O'Neill wrote:Are you there Rhys?

I'm on the other side of the Circle Line.

Rhys Benjamin wrote:

Jon O'Neill wrote:Are you there Rhys?

I'm on the other side of the Circle Line.

What, inside?

If you're east of it, then the other side of east is west!

Sergio Perez, my thoughts are with you.

WHAT A GRAND PRIX! STRAIGHT OUT OF THE 80'S!

Rhys Benjamin wrote:WHAT A GRAND PRIX! STRAIGHT OUT OF THE 80'S!

Just like with qualifying, a massive anti-climax.

I really enjoyed it until the red flag. Boo.

Rhys Benjamin wrote:WHAT A GRAND PRIX! STRAIGHT OUT OF THE 80'S!

Let me guess; somebody led the race from start to finish?

Still going on - amazing, so I'd recommend BBC2 right now.

The whole day has been crazy, not always in a positive way, but it has been pure entertainment since the re-start.

Wooooooooohoooooooo!

-_-

That was rather awesome. Alonso should get a penalty for the next race too btw, blatantly his fault that accident.

That's probably one of the most exciting races I've watched in ages, great stuff.

Massa overtaking Kobayashi on the finish line was cool too. Don't see that often.

Craig Beevers wrote:That was rather awesome. Alonso should get a penalty for the next race too btw, blatantly his fault that accident.

They give out way too many penalties generally. That was a racing incident. Best left alone.

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Craig Beevers wrote:That was rather awesome. Alonso should get a penalty for the next race too btw, blatantly his fault that accident.

They give out way too many penalties generally. That was a racing incident. Best left alone.

He was overtaken and then just decided to go through normally like Jenson wasn't there. It was a nothing manoeuvre always likely to end in a crash. the 'causing an avoidable accident' charge seems appropriate and you'd generally get a drive through for that at least. Plus he's a tosser anyway.

Craig Beevers wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Craig Beevers wrote:That was rather awesome. Alonso should get a penalty for the next race too btw, blatantly his fault that accident.

They give out way too many penalties generally. That was a racing incident. Best left alone.

He was overtaken and then just decided to go through normally like Jenson wasn't there. It was a nothing manoeuvre always likely to end in a crash. the 'causing an avoidable accident' charge seems appropriate and you'd generally get a drive through for that at least. Plus he's a tosser anyway.

Just watched it again and it probably was more his fault than Button's, but I don't agree with carrying over a penalty into the next race. He retired anyway. It seems a bit of a "double punishment" if the penalty carries over when you retire, and seems illogical to me. I'm not sure they do generally do that any more. (Button and Hamilton were both under investigation for that speeding thing under the safety car and Button got a drive-through - let's see if Hamilton's is carried over)

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Craig Beevers wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote: They give out way too many penalties generally. That was a racing incident. Best left alone.

He was overtaken and then just decided to go through normally like Jenson wasn't there. It was a nothing manoeuvre always likely to end in a crash. the 'causing an avoidable accident' charge seems appropriate and you'd generally get a drive through for that at least. Plus he's a tosser anyway.

Just watched it again and it probably was more his fault than Button's, but I don't agree with carrying over a penalty into the next race. He retired anyway. It seems a bit of a "double punishment" if the penalty carries over when you retire, and seems illogical to me. I'm not sure they do generally do that any more. (Button and Hamilton were both under investigation for that speeding thing under the safety car and Button got a drive-through - let's see if Hamilton's is carried over)

I think Alonso will probably escape punishment because he went out and most importantly Button actually won despite what happened.

Actually, I've just watched it again. Alonso gave Button room at the apex, but Button understeered. He was fully alongside Alonso at one point but had to brake much earlier because he was on the wet part of the track but he still went wide.

Di Resta shouldn't have been penalised.

dullllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

Yep was a mind-numbing race. Pretty much all I remember was the start and Button overtaking someone shortly after. Don't really need a second race of the calendar in Spain.

Craig Beevers wrote:Yep was a mind-numbing race. Pretty much all I remember was the start and Button overtaking someone shortly after. Don't really need a second race of the calendar in Spain.

Agreed. Valencia and Barcelona are both must-go. If we want to put in Bahrain and USA next year, the former 2 can go.

Rhys Benjamin wrote:

Craig Beevers wrote:Yep was a mind-numbing race. Pretty much all I remember was the start and Button overtaking someone shortly after. Don't really need a second race of the calendar in Spain.

Agreed. Valencia and Barcelona are both must-go. If we want to put in Bahrain and USA next year, the former 2 can go.

With Bernie, it's more about how much money he can get than getting good races.

So BBC cutting back on the coverage and in their wisdom decide one of the 9 races they're going to show is Monaco. Fucking bravo.

20 races for next year and still the calendar retains two Spanish borefests. Must make a lot of money or give a lot of backhanders.

I think Monaco's great. Granted, there isn't much room on the track for overtaking, but it's a great spectacle with the drivers constantly shaving the barriers to improve their lap times. Valencia is pretty dire, though.

Craig Beevers wrote:So BBC cutting back on the coverage and in their wisdom decide one of the 9 races they're going to show is Monaco. Fucking bravo.

20 races for next year and still the calendar retains two Spanish borefests. Must make a lot of money or give a lot of backhanders.

To use one of your own quotes:

Craig Beevers wrote:I hardly use smileys but erm,

Having been a hardcore fan since 2006, missing only 2 qualifying sessions and no races, I can't believe that I have to shell out hundreds of thousands of pounds to watch our favourite sport. The BBC only get 45% of races, and the BBC's highlights packages have been awful so far. I will have to shell out some thousands of pounds to watch one of the only things left to me in life - no joke.

Adam Gillard wrote:I think Monaco's great. Granted, there isn't much room on the track for overtaking, but it's a great spectacle with the drivers constantly shaving the barriers to improve their lap times. Valencia is pretty dire, though.

It's mind-numbingly shite. If you want all the fluff and bullshit watch Royal Ascot (horse racing is the single worst TV sport on the planet, I'd rather watch gaelic football, kabaddi, aussie rules, curling, only synchronised swimming comes close to being as bad) or something else that has bugger all sporting content. I want a contest not a one lane Scalextric set for the best part of two hours.