Formula 1 thread

[MRandall25]

Oh wait I just saw Mika Hakkinen.

Also I guess I thought the red and black one near Raikkonen's was Schumacher.

Also may have misspoke on Alonso. Thought his was 2nd from right on bottom row. It definitely looks familiar but I can't place it.

[tifosi77]

Alonso is second from the left in row 6.

[CBear3]

Let's Do this

Spoiler:

List:

Spoiler:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9. Eddie Cheever
10
11
12
13
14 Mika Hakkinen
15
16
17. Damon Hill
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25. Senna
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36. Nigel Mansell
37
38
39
40
41. Heinz-Harold Frentzen
42
43
44
45. Michael Andretti
46
47. Sebastian Bourdais
48. Villenueve
49.
50. Mario Andretti
51
52.
53. Francois Cevert
54
55
56. Jackie Stewart
57
58
59. Felipe Massa
60
61
62
63

[dodint]

I don't pay attention to helmets for some reason. It's just not something I notice.

How many of them are NASCAR?

*ducks*

[MRandall25]

Alonso is second from the left in row 6.

He never drove for Red Bull...?

[tifosi77]

Alonso is second from the left in row 6.

He never drove for Red Bull...?

Derp, that's Sebastian Bourdais.

[tifosi77]

Let's Do this

Spoiler:

List:

Spoiler:

1.
2.
3.
4. Gilles Villeneuve
5.
6.
7.
8.
9. Eddie Cheever - CBear3 (I actually thought this was Anthony Davidson's lid when I first saw it, derh.)

10.
11. Jean Alesi
12.
13.
14. Mika Hakkinen
15. Ralf Schumacher
16. Derek Daly (I confess, I found this one by accident. I thought his was the one with the Irish colors, and I Googled for verification and found it was this one.)
17. Damon Hill - CBear3
18.

19.
20. Daniel Ricciardo
21.
22.
23.
24.
25. Senna - CBear3
26. Gerhard Berger
27.

28. Alain Prost
29.
30.
31.
32.
33. Kimi Raikkonen
34.
35.
36. Nigel Mansell - CBear3

37.
38.
39. Stefan Bellhof ?
40. Stefan Bellhof ?
41. Stefan Bellhof ?
42.
43.
44.
45. Michael Andretti - CBear3

46.
47. Sebastian Bourdais (Doh!)
48. Villenueve - CBear3
49.
50. Mario Andretti - CBear3
51.
52. Mark Webber
53. Francois Cevert - CBear3
54.

55.
56. Jackie Stewart - CBear3
57.
58.
59. Felipe Massa
60. Riccardo Patrese
61.
62.
63. Jacky Ickx

[dodint]

Alonso is second from the left in row 6.

He never drove for Red Bull...?

Derp, that's Sebastian Bourdais.

One of my favorite losers. Lost again at the R24. Teehee.

[tifosi77]

I actually worked with him (very briefly) during his rookie year at NHR. I was with the primary sponsor on Juquiera's car, but ended up being sort of a team gopher on the (two) race weekends I was in the paddock. He was very much not the stereotype of either a Frenchman, a racing driver, or a French racing driver. He was almost painfully shy. My friend who brought me into the whole sponsor gig with her company is still friends with him and his wife.

All of the foregoing amplifies the derpiness of my initial ID of his lid as Alonso's.

[dodint]

Cool.

Still going to root against him.

He is way more talented than me, but there are better drivers to get behind.

The only thing I have close to that is that I've known Bryan Heitkotter since before the turn of the century.

[MRandall25]

Ah. The 2nd from the right on the bottom row is Esteban Gutierrez.

[tifosi77]

Regarding Bourdais: I saw him race in person a half a dozen times or so. That includes all practice/qualifying sessions leading up to the race. I've seen other talented drivers like Juan Pablo Montoya, Alex Zanardi, Michael Andretti, Paul Tracy, etc. The only one who really called attention to themselves was Bourdais, and it was evident in his rookie year. The car not only looked different when he was driving, it sounded different. He went through the braking and early cornering phases flatter than anyone else; it was completely stable, and was something you could see and hear. I had no idea that he'd dominate Champ Car in its waning years, but it was pretty obvious that he was a different breed.

Once the green flag dropped, JPM and Zanardi were clearly cut from a different cloth. But from the simple point of view of watching drivers pedal racing cars very fast, the one that stands out in my (limited) experience is Bourdais.

[dodint]

That's probably the difference. Because I didn't really take to racing seriously until 2005. I started by watching F1 and then trickled into sports cars from there, and now I'm probably a bigger fan of Tudor (despite its flaws) than F1. Anyway, I caught Bourdais during his Toro Rosso time when he had flashes of brilliance but was mostly ALWAYS whining about something. And he has that sniveling look to him so even when he's just sitting there he looks upset. He was always in the 'meh' category for me. And as I've tracked him since he always seems to have good runs and moments of awesomeness but you can always bet he'll find a way to lose.

You also have to understand that if I can find a reason to root against someone that's almost as much fun as rooting for someone, for me. This has become a particular problem in the Tudor P class since it's so small. I hate all of them. Which I guess is fitting because I don't like the class at all, wish it was just GTLM*. Probably why CTSCC is my favorite series to actually sit down and watch.

*I'm pretty furious that PC have been bumped up in HP so that instead of getting walked by GTLM cars, they're about even. It's over simplifying things but it cost the #25 the GTLM win at the R24 and it's only the first race. I dislike P a lot, but I loath PC. No place for them at all. DIAF.

[Sigwolf]

I never really liked Bourdais, but it grew to an intense dislike with his trash talking about Katherine Legge. He made claims of how horrible she tested at Fontana, and how that led to her being dropped by Dragon Racing. Unfortunately for him, she never even participated in that testing session. With Dragon Racing being run by an even bigger POS in Jay Penske, I don't care with anyone that was associated with that organization, and Bourdais was the ultimate yes-man for him.

dodint - are racing tastes are too darn similar... it's scaring me. I love the CTSCC, and love BMW racing. I was relieved to see Turner return to Tudor, but really bummed they left CTSCC for PWC this year. I can't believe how crappy television coverage has been since Fox bought SpeedTV. CTSCC races TV coverage being a week behind sucked, but it appears they are not televising them at all this year. I have high hopes for the Hindman/Freiberg pairing for Fall-Line this season.

[tifosi77]

Legge was a decent driver, but she will probably always be remembered for that shunt at Road America.

Cristiano da Matta had his run-in with the deer at the same track just about a month prior.

[dodint]

Damn, Sigwolf. That sucks hard. I thought that was just a Kansas thing last year. Do any of the streaming services have it? Speed2 (I think?) was pretty great. They had all kinds of obscure stuff, including sidecar racing.

[Sigwolf]

The only streaming of which I am aware is IMSA.com, but every time I've tried to watch a race from their site it has completely sucked. Non-stop stutters, and not-infrequent drops of signal altogether. FOX and NASCAR ownership has been a horrid combo for fans of US sports car racing.

[dodint]

Agreed. How you can fold Grand Am and ALMS together and manage to have less coverage is mind boggling.

[tifosi77]

So far the new cars look a million times better than 2014. I've also read that teams are looking to be running their power units more aggressively this year, and that lap times may drop as much as 2-3 seconds at some circuits. That will put them on par or faster than the V8s, and put some long standing lap records from the V10 ear in reach. A side benefit of running the power units (specifically the internal combustion engine, and it bothers me to no end that I have to clarify that) a bit harder is they may not sound as assy this year.

[MRandall25]

Did they add or take away replacement power units this year?

[tifosi77]

Took one away, down to four for the season.

[MRandall25]

Then I'm confused as to why they'd push them harder, unless they think they can last longer.

[dodint]

How can they run more aggressively with that absurd and arbitrary fuel flow regulator?

[tifosi77]

Renault in particular are thought to have made some big steps on the efficiencies of the engine internals. So they'll be able to rev higher without going over the flow rate limit.

[tifosi77]