F1 2019 (spoilers obviously)

First though: expensive
Second thought: that’s an offer

It’s cheaper than a Sky subscription

Hmmm more talk about how to watch a race than todays race. Not sure as it’s only race 1. I like Bottas telling his engineer “I want 26 points” and smashing a fast lap. Good result good honda and maclaren on fire already!

I’m sticking with highlights for free. There are only so many hours in the day and apart from F1 I’ve had two bike races and two biathlons to watch today. I’m worn out.

I’ve only been able to watch a couple of races live since having kids—I always catch up on replay in the evening, so the C4 coverage is fine and dandy by me 🙂

EXCEPT THE BIT WHERE THEY DELIVER SOME UPCOMING COMMENTARY AUDIO JUST BEFORE THE AD BREAKS AARRRGH NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO STOP IT THIS IS THE WORST IDEA ANYONE HAS HAD IN SPORTS BROADCASTING EVER YOU ABSOLUTE MORONS MAKE IT GO AWAY

Anyway, good work from Bottas. Time will tell whether it’s just one of his good weekends or whether he’s done a Rosberg and figured out how to go toe-to-toe with Hamilton.

Good work from Honda, too. Inevitably, the Curse of Alonso has left the building.

Bit disappointing to see Ferrari keep Leclerc on a leash, even if he was never going to chase down Verstappen.

It’s rare you can predict much after Australia, but it has the makings of a good season.

First though: expensive
Second thought: that’s an offer?!

Not that expensive, only roughly £10 per race weekend and as i don’t have Sky and have no plans to switch to them its the only choice other than C4’s highlights, plus you get all the other sky sports channels (only sport i watch is F1)

Do they have a catch up service?

No catch up service, which is annoying, so you have to watch the race live or watch the repeat later on that day

Bez

EXCEPT THE BIT WHERE THEY DELIVER SOME UPCOMING COMMENTARY AUDIO JUST BEFORE THE AD BREAKS AARRRGH NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO STOP IT THIS IS THE WORST IDEA ANYONE HAS HAD IN SPORTS BROADCASTING EVER YOU ABSOLUTE MORONS MAKE IT GO AWAY

Yep!!

Anyway, good work from Bottas. Time will tell whether it’s just one of his good weekends or whether he’s done a Rosberg and figured out how to go toe-to-toe with Hamilton.

Hamilton had a broken floor from lap 4 so it will be interesting to see if Bottas is able to repeat it next race. Great drive from him.

Hamilton had a broken floor from lap 4

I’m not sure how seriously to take that, it kinda came across to me as Merc just wanting to distract from Hamilton having an average day.

What it looks like to me is that the cars are very sensitive to setup and Merc got it right, Ferrari didn’t. Very good chance things will go the other way at some races, so still anyone’s guess how the season will turn out. The Mercs for the last couple of years have been very sensitive to setup, especially getting the tyres into the correct temperature envelope. At some races, Hamilton looked unbeatable but Bottas just looked hopeless because of that problem. This time around, it was reversed. Bottas is clearly a better driver than last year’s results suggest, but my money is on Hamilton being better able to manage a difficult car. If the Merc actually turns out to be an easy car to set up, I’d expect things to be much more equal.

.

It was pretty clear (just as with the Ferraris) that the pace difference wasn’t really driver-related. There’s little to no chance of Hamilton looking like the inferior driver over a season, but if Bottas has come back a changed man then he knows from 2016 that nothing’s impossible. And although he drove a faultless race, he was completely unchallenged at any point, so we still don’t know how much he’s transformed in terms of going wheel to wheel. 26 points and a 20 second margin puts him mentally in a great place now, though…

From Mark Hughes:
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/reports/f1/2019-australian-grand-prix-report

So it wasn’t all Mercedes finding more. Ferrari had lost something since Barcelona. Just not enough to explain Mercedes’ dominance here.

So what was behind these swings? Well, for one the Ferrari was lacking in front-end grip. Although its straightline speeds were well down too, this was a just a function of how much slower it was onto the straights (GPS-derived power overlays suggested a negligible difference between Mercedes and Ferrari). No amount of set-up change was changing that and the suggestion was that the Ferrari’s front wing philosophy (with the elements cut away at the outboard ends ahead of the front tyre to help outwash the airflow around the tyre) under these new regulations can leave you with not enough range of downforce settings to compensate for a low-grip, slow corner-dominated track. That’s the working theory of a few aerodynamicists. Those cars performing notably better than at Barcelona – i.e. Mercedes and Haas – feature the opposite front wing approach to Ferrari’s, with full depth elements ahead of the tyres.

“We think it’s probably tyres,” said an unnamed Red Bull man. “They are so stiff that it can be difficult to get them working properly around this place. But if you get them in the window suddenly there’s lots of extra performance. Looks like Ferrari have got caught out by it, same as us.”

Maybe the front wing limitation was exacerbating the tyre situation. Because even if Mercedes had been sandbagging, as the popular reaction insists, that doesn’t explain why Ferrari’s Melbourne form Friday to Saturday was so volatile. And if Ferrari (and everyone except Mercedes) wasn’t getting the tyres working properly around the dusty, low grip track, then we probably aren’t seeing the picture we will around a more conventional track.

Further reading on the differences between Merc and Ferrari front wings

Re Honda….. they’re too good at making engines to be held back for long.

Re Honda….. they’re too good at making engines to be held back for long.

I said that for several years. Said the same about Renault too. Both are clearly much better than last year, but that’s not exactly a high bar.

All this chat and nobody’s addressed the big question from the weekend… What’s happened to The Chain?

Didn’t watch C4 coverage but I know Sky were using The Chain in their adverts for their F1 coverage.

Watched the C4 highlights. Was tempted by the NOW TV offer…

The extended DRS seemed to liven things up into T3, but that was about it. Happy for Bottas, hopefully he can be in the mix this year. Stand out performance, or lack of, was Gasly. Miles off Max.

New cars look good, that bigger rear wing seems to balance it out more.

thepurist

Subscriber
All this chat and nobody’s addressed the big question from the weekend… What’s happened to The Chain?

I noticed this & was pretty disappointed – there are certain music themes that you associate with certain sporting activities!
At the end of the start bumpf they did yesterday – the poetic, arty bit at the start – there was a pause. I assumed that would drop into The Chain, but then it just cut to the presenters.

I assume Sky have nabbed it & won’t let C4 use it?

I watched the C4 recycled Sky coverage yesterday. As was said up thread, 30 mins coverage padded to 1hr with fluff.

When they start doing the pre advert prequel and post advert review (a la CH5 ‘documentaries’), I’m ooot.

I’ll try Bahrain then follow future ones on Crash.net if it’s still shite.

^^^^ I just need to remember to set the freeview box to record the highlights and watch them an hour after the program starts; can then FF the junk stuff at will…..

looks like sky are caving in again to get more audience share / promote interest – maybe not a lot of people jumped at the chance to subscribe to F1 channel after / during Melbourne….

Bahrain live on SKY ONE!
Qualifying and Race (Sky One)

Saturday 30th March
14:00 Live Bahrain F1 GP: Quali Pre-Show
14:55 Live Bahrain F1 GP: Qualifying

Sunday 31st March
14:30 Live Bahrain F1 GP: Pit Lane
15:30 Live Bahrain F1 GP: On the Grid
16:05 Live Bahrain F1 Grand Prix
18:00 Live Bahrain F1 GP: Paddock

I logged in to 4OD last night to watch the race highlights. The opening ad for F1 was toe-curlingly awful, totally overblown and will be something that I will set an alarm to ensure that I miss from now on.

It was a good move to have Billy Monger as a pundit, however I grew rapidly bored of the punditry and wound forward half an hour to try to get to see the race. Sure enough, the pundits were still at it, so I gave up in the end.

I watched the C4 recycled Sky coverage yesterday. As was said up thread, 30 mins coverage padded to 1hr with fluff.

Because of the new broadcast deal with Sky only 50% of channel 4’s highlights package can contain race footage

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/amp/formula1/47542802

Basically F1 has sold about two thirds of its UK audience for £1.2 billion. I guess we’ll know by 2024 whether that was a smart move or not.

PJM1974
however I grew rapidly bored of the punditry and wound forward half an hour to try to get to see the race. Sure enough, the pundits were still at it, so I gave up in the end.

…which is exctly what Sky wanted to happen. Likewise losing The Chain intro music. Tosspots.

Anyway I thought Billy and Steffano were pretty good for a first effort.

hols2

I’m not sure how seriously to take that, it kinda came across to me as Merc just wanting to distract from Hamilton having an average day.

That’s one of the things I hate about these regs, damage to a tiny turning vane or winglet you can barely notice can knock half a second a lap off or make the tyres cook.

At least I have the ability to watch RTL and listen to Radio5Live at least for the time being.

Just need to mute R5L and have RTL audio for the first lap or so, cos there’s a huge delay, so you know who’s crashed in the first corner just as the 5 red start lights are coming on if you listen to R5L.

Plus it’s funny having a presenter who’s about 6ft5 tall and Timo Glock as the expert, who’s most certainly not 6ft+ tall.

RTL has way too many adverts, although at least I can make breakfast during these early morning away races, and still have radio on and miss nothing. Just they scrap a few later season races from their schedule when it conflicts with Germany’s Got Talent and those other major prime time shows that have much higher priority.

Sky can do one if that’s the only way I can view.  Will check out online viewing and VPN if necessary.

must be awful for full sky sports subscribers and the extra cost for the F1 channel to then see it on SKY ONE for every sky subscriber…..

wound forward half an hour to try to get to see the race. Sure enough, the pundits were still at it, so I gave up

Yeah, the second swipe is a killer 🤔

This seems like a good idea:

https://www.motorsportweek.com/joesaward/id/00477

must be awful for full sky sports subscribers and the extra cost for the F1 channel to then see it on SKY ONE for every sky subscriber…..

Not really, F1 is included in the sports package and I watch lots of sport so no real loss that non sports subscribers get it on sky one

This seems like a good idea:

Yes, it does. What do you think the odds of it being accepted are? And if it is accepted, will Williams survive long enough to benfit?

Not really, F1 is included in the sports package and I watch lots of sport so no real loss that non sports subscribers get it on sky one

You do, but plenty of people will have paid just for Sky F1, only to now have at least 2 races shown on Sky One anyway. Used to be you got Sky F1 by default with either the Sports package or the HD package. assume that’s no longer the case?

hols2

Yes, it does. What do you think the odds of it being accepted are? And if it is accepted, will Williams survive long enough to benfit?

No idea, I would have assumed not due to Ferrari but then again, Joe Saward is usually pretty reliable and he reckons it’s a go-er.

So will it be available to Virgin users who get Sky One or only actual Sky customers?

Is it my imagination or has James Allen stopped doing the race analysis that would normally be published the following Tuesday? Shame if so; I found those quite insightful in parts.

Oh great.  I signed up for £10 just yesterday on the basis I’m not always indoors to watch it live.

Seems F1 getting a bit of stick from Human Rights campaigners this weekend (see Guardian / Daily mail reports)

Also no word yet on the teams reactions to the new 2021 regulations – they have until June or July to ratify them or throw them out.
I wonder if Liberty will give up if this does not go through and just put it up for sale? they have certainly tried a lot of things , most of them blocked or ignored, and its ended up being a few new graphics on the TV, an online streaming service for countries without a current TV contract …. oh yeah and that new front wing that made racing so much better in the season opener (!)

Why can’t Alonso just go away and play with Indycars!…

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/alonso-mclaren-test-pirelli-bahrain/4360022/

I’m filing this under ‘chinny reckon’ for now, but hoping to be proved wrong…

Perez: Stroll quicker than Ocon

https://www.pitpass.com/64203/Perez-Stroll-quicker-than-Ocon

hoping to be proved wrong

You’re only as good as your last race. Problem for Ocon is he doesn’t have a last race whereas Bottas and Stroll had pretty decent ones. Still, if McLaren’s history is any guide, their car will turn out to be a turd and they’ll sack a driver to fix the problem, so Ocon might end up there.

Perez sucking up to the bosses son shocker! He knows which side his bread is buttered – Racing India Force Point is the biggest team he’ll ever drive for now so he’d like to keep his job for a couple more years.