jsquared wrote:Streetwiseguy wrote: The champagne deal did kinda look like Monaco when the Prince is still on the podium, didn't it? Hadn't occurred to me it might be a Putin thing.How would *you* feel about spraying champagne on the suit of a former East Berlin KGB section chief?
I would LOVE the chance to try. Even if I was never allowed back in the country
Being allowed out of the country is what would concern me!
Did anyone notice Chilton standing by himself with a beaten posture after he parked the Marussia because of an odd feel in the front suspension?
I can't imagine what a nightmare it must be, working your ass off in a pile of E36 M3 that may have left your teammate as a shell. I can't blame the team for parking it & not even using the track time as a test session.
jsquared wrote: Being allowed *out* of the country is what would concern me!
Good point!
Adrian_Thompson wrote:jsquared wrote: Being allowed *out* of the country is what would concern me!Good point!
Yeah your private jet has an accident on the way out of Sochi.
If you watch when they enter the podium waiting room Bottas is frozen in one spot until Prince Nico starts shaking everyone's hands. Then he kind of wakes up. I couldn't tell if Hamilton even acknowledges any of them due to camera angles and when they cut in and back away.
On the other hand Putin tries to be cool. So he could just as likely smiled had a swig with you posed for photos before leaving the podium with an invite to hang out at his place after the race.
Today's "so crazy rumor, it might happen": Vettel to Ferrari with Alonso....
Wait for it
For LeMans! Yeah, really. Alonso and Ferrari were all over Le Sarthe this year and Marchionne is desperate to have one of his brands go there. The rumor slingers are starting to squawk that 2 Fi drivers are following Webber. (Most likely Alonso and Button)
Apparently some want to take 2015 off figuring Mercedes has the championships wrapped up again with the engine freeze and wanting to see where the Honda chips land. Don't forget Forza Haas in 2015, too...
I am seriously worried that the MercBoys will have another car failure and thus the championship will be determined by reliability and mechanic quality. Not driver's ability. I am falling into a sort of disinterest in the drivers championship and more reading about Williams versus Ferrari and McLaren versus Force India. Don't want to get hyped then let down by one of the MB guys parking it on lap 30 of the last race with a bad spring washer in the drink bottle assembly causing a sensor fault and shutting the car down.
Rosberg is likely to be toast otherwise.
Reliability has always been part of F1 racing - until just recently, anyhow. It needs to be a battle of the engineers as well as the drivers. And the ability of the driver to take care of the car used to be a factor. Heck, it was in Canada. Both Mercedes suffered the same failure, but Rosberg apparently doesn't work the rear brakes as hard as Hamilton so he came out better.
Keith Tanner wrote: Reliability has always been part of F1 racing - until just recently, anyhow. It needs to be a battle of the engineers as well as the drivers. And the ability of the driver to take care of the car used to be a factor. Heck, it was in Canada. Both Mercedes suffered the same failure, but Rosberg apparently doesn't work the rear brakes as hard as Hamilton so he came out better.
IIRC, Hamilton's car failed first, so the team got on the radio and warned Rosberg to alter his brake bias to work around the problem.
Of course, they probably wouldn't be allowed to do that now...
In reply to codrus:
Correct. They were both failing but LCHs failed first and gave the team the chance to give inf . lewis is known to be easy in equipment these days. Not so much back in 07/08.
Bernie is now talking of a race in Vegas on the strip as New Jersey has fallen through. Please FSM no no no not again.
Enough of contrived street races, give us proper road courses. COTA proved that we can make good circuits.
Adrian_Thompson wrote: Bernie is now talking of a race in Vegas on the strip as New Jersey has fallen through. Please FSM no no no not again. Enough of contrived street races, give us proper road courses. COTA proved that we can make good circuits.
Laguna Seca!
codrus wrote: Laguna Seca!
Road America ?
Go back to the Glen!
I 2nd Laguna,F1 cars through the corkscrew would be wicked.
Really, all you need is a giant parking lot. You can just paint a circuit on it, lots of runoff. That's the way F1 circuits seem to be going.
And then, to make it interesting, paint a different circuit every time. Then we'd be able to talk about the epic 2015 course, and how the 2016 and 2017 versions just didn't stack up.
Heck, just outline the circuit in cones, then it would be really obvious when someone went beyond the track boundaries. You could give them a penalty every time they hit one of these cones.
Oh, wait...
2015 will see two new F1 events in Mexico and Azerbaijan. New Jersey GP may not happen ever. F1 went back to the A-1 Ring for the first time in several years in 2014. Some current events are under threat of not being renewed, and there's quite a few former F1 circuits sitting idle and unused. The 2015 F1 schedule will have 21 races. Many people feel that this is too much, so adding more events will not be received well. I point this out just to suggest another F1 race in the U.S. is pretty unlikely. New York City is the one place Bernie really wants to have an event in, and that's gone nowhere.
The LV idea is likely to try to attract the SoCal/LA population. Bernie wants a West Coast and East Coast (NY/New England) event to complement Austin, since the US is large enough to support that many races.
jsquared wrote: The LV idea is likely to try to attract the SoCal/LA population. Bernie wants a West Coast and East Coast (NY/New England) event to complement Austin, since the US is large enough to support that many races.
He's still going to run into people that are not willing to pay him the money he really wants.
The F1 races at Indy easily proves it's not about attendance- they were the top attended F1 races by a pretty wide margin, and that didn't last.
Seems like he's hoping that someone will convince some policians to put some million$ in his pocket. That doesn't seem like its going to happen.
West coast is easy- Long Beach. Near LA, has history with F1, is in a much better position than the last time Bernie was there.
21 races... What is this, NASCAR?
I guess that is a more accurate way of looking at it... "large high-end market" translates to "more local people willing to pay out the ass for the licensing fees"
I hate Bernie 
alfadriver wrote: The F1 races at Indy easily proves it's not about attendance- they were the top attended F1 races by a pretty wide margin, and that didn't last.
Indy was also far and away the cheapest race to attend. IIRC, US GP @ Indy tickets were < $200, whereas I've been told COTA tickets are $500+.
codrus wrote:alfadriver wrote: The F1 races at Indy easily proves it's not about attendance- they were the top attended F1 races by a pretty wide margin, and that didn't last.Indy was also far and away the cheapest race to attend. IIRC, US GP @ Indy tickets were < $200, whereas I've been told COTA tickets are $500+.
I've been to both, and while COTA was more expensive, it was nothing like that much more. Last year I got full weekend general admission tickets (Fri-Sat-Sun) for around $175 out the door, if I recall right.
I can understand the allure of the big city street race. The ALMS race in Washington DC was quite an event.
Note I said event not race. The locals came out with sport bikes and serious supercars. (You know, rich lobbyist and all) The party off track was fun and the racing was good.
Similarly at The 24 hours at Spa there were probably a few hundred people there ONLY for the 24hr tent RAVE.
That is how racing events unfortunately have to make money. Side business, like concessions at the movie theater.
A race in NY would be best served with two concert series that preceded the races. Plus live performances of some major acts just before or after the race.
Montreal does it well with downtown events.
I would love to see F1 at VIR or Road America if they could figure out a good bypass of the front staight hill crest.
Also if the State of Michigan really wanted to they could turn Belle Isle into a similar awesome temporary track like Ile Notre Dame for the Canadian GP. They only use a small corner of the island now but if they used the entire island the track could be great!
The Shnoz's are getting rhinoplasty for 2015 to fix the ugly tree decendants we have now.
Advan046 wrote: I can understand the allure of the big city street race. The ALMS race in Washington DC was quite an event. Note I said event not race. The locals came out with sport bikes and serious supercars. (You know, rich lobbyist and all) The party off track was fun and the racing was good...
I was there for that! Around 2002, right? I have the t-shirt somewhere. Panoz beat the Audis due to better torque exiting slow corners, Caddy LMP had overheating issues. Heck, I had overheating issues! Temps were in the 90s, cloud cover and massive asphalt surface essentially turned the venue into a giant EZ-Bake oven. I didn't get to do all the peripheral party stuff but it was a fun event. I found out about it on Sat, (then)-GF said she would be down for it, went to sleep early and left Raleigh at ~2am Sun and arrived in DC at ~ 6am
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