Abu Dhabi Prix 2015, Yas Marina - Race 19/19

Duke · 30 Nov 2015 at 12:56

KiNgPiN83 said:
I realised how much of a nightmare F1 is the other day when me and a another F1 fan friend were trying to explain F1 to another friend who doesn't watch it at all. Trying to explain such gems as:

* DRS
* Why the tyres wear out as they do
* Maldonado
* Why do Alonso and Button stay at McLaren if they are terrible
* Why are McLaren terrible
* Why are some engines better than others and why cant the others close the gap
* The new engines compared to the old ones
* Qualifying
* Why had Hamilton been cack since winning the title

Basically what we came to realise is that F1 isn't just a pick up and start watching kind of deal you have to clue yourself up first. Whereas most will probably lose interest before then...

If anything what most interested him was when some of the drivers wives/Carmen Jorda popped up on screen. Maybe F1 should just pad out the races with more video of them??

It's not a simple sport - lower formulas are easier to follow as they tend to have a standard car. Someone tried to explain cricket to me several times and I never understood it.. horses for courses and all that.

drunkenmaster · 30 Nov 2015 at 13:26

KiNgPiN83 said:
I realised how much of a nightmare F1 is the other day when me and a another F1 fan friend were trying to explain F1 to another friend who doesn't watch it at all. Trying to explain such gems as:

* DRS
* Why the tyres wear out as they do
* Maldonado
* Why do Alonso and Button stay at McLaren if they are terrible
* Why are McLaren terrible
* Why are some engines better than others and why cant the others close the gap
* The new engines compared to the old ones
* Qualifying
* Why had Hamilton been cack since winning the title

Basically what we came to realise is that F1 isn't just a pick up and start watching kind of deal you have to clue yourself up first. Whereas most will probably lose interest before then...

If anything what most interested him was when some of the drivers wives/Carmen Jorda popped up on screen. Maybe F1 should just pad out the races with more video of them??

* Offside rule
* Why do some players get so many injuries
* Sunderland
* Why didn't every player at the worst team in the league instantly leave straight away
* Why do Newcastle suck
* why are some teams better than others and why can't they close the gap
* The noise and atmospheres in Germany compared to England
* playoffs
* Why are Chelsea cack since winning the title

Sorry but this is BS, every sport requires explanation and none of that is hard to explain(your list or my list). There is literally nothing about any of the questions you listed that are difficult to explain.

Sky is out there telling everyone the sport is too difficult and somehow everyone believes it. It isn't, it's all pretty simple, it's as easy to explain as any other sport.

Sorry but if you can't explain DRS easily to your friend, he's an idiot or you weren't explaining it well. If you can't explain why two drivers under a contract to a team can't just leave magically to another team also with drivers under contract I honestly don't know. Are contracts and periods of time that hard to explain, really?

drunkenmaster · 30 Nov 2015 at 13:39

Entai said:
That is so very easy to answer, in fact you pretty much did answer it by saying

F1 should just be a level up from GP2.

All in the same chassis, with the same engines still hybrid if that's what they really want, (although give them way more power than GP2) build the chassis with minimal aero, (say wings quarter the physical size in every dimension, of what is there now), so its far more mechanical grip dominating over aero grip, and they can all run closer and overtake without issue, will make action much more entertaining, with cars sliding and drifting about more.

This of course will never happen, but is a very easy way to fix F1.

You do realise that GP2 runs an entirely different format to F1 and part of the very reason GP2 has more overtaking and more action is things like reverse grids, putting the fastest drivers back in the pack means more overtaking.

People constantly say "hey here is an easy fix" while ignoring the overall picture and focusing on one very small thing.

People are consistently against things like reverse grids and DRS calling them fake ways to induce overtaking, but then people say "it should be like GP2". GP2 that has reverse grids(not the whole grid). Shorter races in a different format and DRS.

Also a fundamental part of F1 since it was made was development. Probably lets say 50% of the staff and a large amount of the budget is in and around designing, building and testing new pieces to push the car forwards. Making F1 an effectively stock car series would both mean hundreds of job losses through every team on the grid and would fundamentally change what F1 is.

It's not likely most teams will agree to rules that put most of their work force out of jobs, like most industries or sports.

This is one of the biggest problems, every single person has their own 'easy' idea that will entirely fix the sport, can't comprehend how the FIA won't implement this easy fix, but go a little deeper and the idea isn't good.

Without a reverse grid GP2 would be much closer to F1 anyway. GP2 often has a thoroughly dominant champion like Vandoorne this year. In GP2 the winner has 90% more points than 2nd place. In F1 the winner has 20% more than second place and 40% more than 3rd place.... but lets go GP2 because currently there is no competition in F1.

Gp2 in a two hour race, the leader would get through the pack in 15 laps as they do currently and then go on and be 20 seconds + clear by the end of 2 hours.

GP2 engineers it's action yet fans are dead set against F1 engineering action.... but F1 should totally learn from and copy GP2.

Skeeter · 30 Nov 2015 at 13:54

MissChief said:
Yeah it's a high nose but you have a lot more frontal area that will likely hit anything at the same time, distributing the load. On an F1 car the nose if the first strong component to make contact with anything.

Thats true of WEC, but what about FE or GP2?

leaskovski · 30 Nov 2015 at 16:37

MooMoo444 said:
Highlight from the podium was Kimi doing his robot wave, but other than that, not much.

Greboth said:
I had to go out as soon as the race finished so was about to ask what happened on the podium that deserves a gif.

Wet t-shirt comp.

teh_captain · 30 Nov 2015 at 16:49

http://planetf1.com/news/smedley-bottas-saw-button-too-late/

Rob Smedley has blamed Bottas for hitting Button's wheel immediately after his pit stop.

Forgive if i'm wrong, but surely it's the responsibility of the guy at the front to give the green light when there's a safe gap to let the car out? With the mirrors the way they made surely Bottas probably wouldn't have seen Jensen coming down the pit lane, let alone stop in time?

I find it all a bit odd, tbh. The driver reacts to the light; if it's green - go.

Skeeter · 30 Nov 2015 at 16:54

The FIA penalized the team for an unsafe release, and not Bottas for causing a collision. Smedley has said some stupid things recently, usually against Bottas come to think of it....

Glaucus · 30 Nov 2015 at 16:54

What an idiot, how can they say that with a straight face. It is not the drivers issue on anyway shape of form.

KiNgPiN83 · 30 Nov 2015 at 16:55

drunkenmaster said:
* Offside rule
* Why do some players get so many injuries
* Sunderland
* Why didn't every player at the worst team in the league instantly leave straight away
* Why do Newcastle suck
* why are some teams better than others and why can't they close the gap
* The noise and atmospheres in Germany compared to England
* playoffs
* Why are Chelsea cack since winning the title

Sorry but this is BS, every sport requires explanation and none of that is hard to explain(your list or my list). There is literally nothing about any of the questions you listed that are difficult to explain.

Sky is out there telling everyone the sport is too difficult and somehow everyone believes it. It isn't, it's all pretty simple, it's as easy to explain as any other sport.

Sorry but if you can't explain DRS easily to your friend, he's an idiot or you weren't explaining it well. If you can't explain why two drivers under a contract to a team can't just leave magically to another team also with drivers under contract I honestly don't know. Are contracts and periods of time that hard to explain, really?

Well there we go then, its obviously not that complicated after all!

alx · 30 Nov 2015 at 16:55

teh_captain said:
http://planetf1.com/news/smedley-bottas-saw-button-too-late/

Rob Smedley has blamed Bottas for hitting Button's wheel immediately after his pit stop.

Forgive if i'm wrong, but surely it's the responsibility of the guy at the front to give the green light when there's a safe gap to let the car out? With the mirrors the way they made surely Bottas probably wouldn't have seen Jensen coming down the pit lane, let alone stop in time?

I find it all a bit odd, tbh. The driver reacts to the light; if it's green - go.

Yeah seems a bit odd, when the team releases a driver from the pit box he shouldn't have to be doing mirror-signal-maneuver before he pulls out!
In my mind they let him out at the wrong point and obviously miscalculated where Button would be (or didn't notice him at all).

Skeeter · 30 Nov 2015 at 17:01

alx said:
Yeah seems a bit odd, when the team releases a driver from the pit box he shouldn't have to be doing mirror-signal-maneuver before he pulls out!
In my mind they let him out at the wrong point and obviously miscalculated where Button would be (or didn't notice him at all).

They don't have to calculate anything. The teams are given a 'zone' of the pitlane ahead of their pitbox (something like 20m back perhaps?) which if there is a car in it they are not allowed to release their driver. I think it might even be painted on the wall.

the team screwed up, Smedly is being a bit of a nob.

MooMoo444 · 30 Nov 2015 at 17:32

Blaming the driver is ludicrous. He's relying on the guy with the lolly to watch behind him.

this_is_gav · 30 Nov 2015 at 18:06

Skeeter said:
They don't have to calculate anything. The teams are given a 'zone' of the pitlane ahead of their pitbox (something like 20m back perhaps?) which if there is a car in it they are not allowed to release their driver. I think it might even be painted on the wall.

Without reading up, I think Williams stuck to that, but with McLaren being two boxes ahead of Williams Button had to start braking just as Bottas would be aiming to slot in behind him.

It's definitely Williams's fault though.

Glaucus · 30 Nov 2015 at 18:26

this_is_gav said:
Without reading up, I think Williams stuck to that, but with McLaren being two boxes ahead of Williams Button had to start braking just as Bottas would be aiming to slot in behind him.

It's definitely Williams's fault though.

Can't remember who, but they said they messed up and missed it, they saw someone else come in and was plenty of space and just totally missed button.

Vertigo · 30 Nov 2015 at 19:55

Skeeter said:
The FIA penalized the team for an unsafe release, and not Bottas for causing a collision. Smedley has said some stupid things recently, usually against Bottas come to think of it....

Smedley has a habit of talking crap and sometimes just barefaced lying. Really don't like him at all.

Skeeter · 30 Nov 2015 at 20:18

Vertigo1 said:
Smedley has a habit of talking crap and sometimes just barefaced lying. Really don't like him at all.

He was a guy I used to really like. But he's turned into a corporate puppet and all his likeability has vanished.

smr · 1 Dec 2015 at 12:45

2015 AUTOSPORT TEAM PRINCIPALS' TOP 10

1 Lewis Hamilton (229pts)
2 Sebastian Vettel (180)
3 Nico Rosberg (113)
4 Max Verstappen (77)
5 Daniil Kvyat (69)
6 Fernando Alonso (57)
7 Valtteri Bottas (52)
8 Sergio Perez (48)
9 Daniel Ricciardo (47)
10 Kimi Raikkonen (37)

Just LOL.

Skeeter · 1 Dec 2015 at 12:56

smr said:
Just LOL.

Why? Because you disagree with the choice, or simply because Button isn't in there?

KiNgPiN83 · 1 Dec 2015 at 13:31

I guess you have to kind of compare it to the actual top 10 points wise to see who they do and don't think highly of. I.E. KR finished 10th there but 4th in the actual table.. Lol

Although Button still wouldn't feature...

smr · 1 Dec 2015 at 14:21

KiNgPiN83 said:
I guess you have to kind of compare it to the actual top 10 points wise to see who they do and don't think highly of. I.E. KR finished 10th there but 4th in the actual table.. Lol

Although Button still wouldn't feature...

Kimi Raikonnen in there is what's laughable. He's been absolute dog**** this season. Has all the personality and charisma of a wet sponge to go with it. Inexplicable how he's apparantly the most popular fan's driver in F1.

And Alonso rated higher than Perez. Ok.