Motorsport Off Topic Thread

Associate
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Reverse grids for F1, I struggle to get my head around how this would work without shenanigans. I just think it would be a sad state of affairs.

Bring back races where the F1 drivers all compete in a one marque* race as part of the weekend, winner gets points which count towards the championship, that would drum up interest.

Failing that; manual boxes :D

* The best BTCC support race was when the Mini classic race happened during a weekend a couple of years ago. Ginetta Junior races are ace!
 
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Soldato
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It seems Imola has had it's Grade 1 classification renewed, so the possibility of going back there has been heightened. I prefer the idea of Mugello hosting a race, but so long as Imola, Hockenheim or Mugello means one less race in Russia (ideally two fewer races) in Russia, then all of them have my backing!

Bahrain has been muted as using two different layouts if they go there... with Ross Brawn touting a possible use of the ultra-fast outer circuit as one of the potential layouts. Basically turn one (or the faster alternative), turn 4, a few gradually tightening sweepers then the last 2.5 corners of the usual track. I have to say I really want to to see it happen! It would be so boring to do two races on identical circuits, and that would be about as different as two races could get. Go on F1, be brave for once.



* The best BTCC support race was when the Mini classic race happened during a weekend a couple of years ago. Ginetta Junior races are ace!
Ginetta Juniors are excellent, and a highlight of a BTCC weekend, but it's not because of the cars, it's because of the eagerness and inexperience of the drivers. Well, that and a slipstream makes a big and prolonged difference to cars with so little power.
 
Soldato
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Soldato
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Oops. How did no-one realise this sooner?

k0FSFwD.jpg

The fact is that people are in a feeding frenzy, so a normal sense of perspective has gone out the window. By reacting this way, Bubba Wallace has brought Nascar into disrepute, and people are only going to remember the story of the "noose", not the resolution that showed how everyone involved in Nascar is not actually a racist POS, and how Bubba overreacted in the rush to find something to be victimised by.

This sort of "crying wolf" does no favours to people who suffer genuine racism, and demeans the struggle of those who have had to deal with it and those who have fought to make their little part of the world a better place.
 
Soldato
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Remember Lewis Hamilton recently jumped the gun in making s statement criticising Helmet Marko over an article attributed to him which was fake. Not on the same scale, but easy to do.


By reacting this way, Bubba Wallace has brought Nascar into disrepute, and people are only going to remember the story of the "noose", not the resolution that showed how everyone involved in Nascar is not actually a racist POS, and how Bubba overreacted in the rush to find something to be victimised by.
Wallace himself never saw the noose in person and didn't say all that much on the matter either. NASCAR itself rushed to a conclusion and they were the leading voice of disgust (rightly, if only morally).

Frankly if it looked like a noose and those in other garages didn't, then I can understand the initial outcry, given the issues in America and elsewhere at the moment. If every garage's pull cord was the same then it's stupid to have ropes fashioned like nooses, but obviously NASCAR will look idiotic themselves too.

To be honest, it's not been a total catastrophe. It's further endorsement of NASCAR's (public at least) relatively fresh approach in opening up to minorities, much to the fury of some of their supposed hardcore fans. NASCAR is still a very, very southern sport and its local fans have a reputation for being notoriously closed in their acceptance of anyone who doesn't fall within their exact beliefs. It's good that NASCAR has again stood up against those voices so there is that.

Plenty will remember the Top Gear episode where they painted their cars with slogans designed to upset the southern locals - "Country and Western is Rubbish", "NASCAR sucks" and "I'm bi". Obviously Top Gear is hardly a worthy reference, but it did show just how deeply rooted the issues are in NASCAR's core demographic and it was good to see NASCAR, fellow teams and fans rally behind Wallace, albeit for something which turned out to be apparently innocent.
 
Man of Honour
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Whts gone wrong there? By the sounds of it the road car division has tanked the whole group? I guess the F1 team hasn’t exactly helped recently either.

I suspect they'll split the two divisions. I thought the group had crazy amounts of money coming in from the middle east, but I guess they got bored of losing money?
 
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