F1 2015

"IN OTHER NEWS, SHARE PRICE OF CARBON FIBRE TO REMAIN STRONG, Pastor Maldonado is to stay at Lotus for 2016, the team have confirmed."

I LOL at this

In reply to wbjones: How does someone buy stock in CF?

trigun7469 wrote: In reply to wbjones: How does someone buy stock in CF?

Hexcel (NYSE:HXL)

trigun7469 wrote: In reply to wbjones: How does someone buy stock in CF?

find the companies that supply F1 … ???

So, after their stuff arrived late at Suzuka, Lotus F1 are locked out of their own hospitality center. They were begging food and tool up and down the paddock. Bernie (after paying £1.5m approx. $2.4m USD to pay 400 peoples salaries last month) then let the team personnel use the PAddock club (High end VIP and rich people play ground) to eat and drink.

The British courts gave Lotus and Renault a (second) one week extension to wrap up negotiations to sell the team which expires on Monday. After that, if Renault haven't bought it the team is being wound up by the British courts. Renault are holding out for more money from Bernie as an established team, Lotus are holding out for more money to sell to REnault, meanwhile 400+ families may or may not make their mortgage payments next month.

Dead Bull-E36 M3 may or may not be on the grid next year. They've public divorced Renault, Mercedes wont touch them after they way the team treated Renault in the press. Ferrari are umming and erring and I hope they tell them to pound sand for being dicks then let them have 2015 spec engines and there's no way Honda will supply engines to a company that shows such disrespect to it's partners, not that any one would want a Honda right now. I"d also say the chance of VW supplying engines has gone from 50:50 to 0% in light of $18B in fines already plus who knows how much in lawsuits and fines from other countries.

Who the hell needs soap operas? The plot of F1 makes the most ridiculous Soap seem dull and unimaginative.

Crazy stuff the way the teams run multi billion dollar businesses...

100% agree with Adrian. F1 has always been a bit of a soap opera, but lately, they'd be the best Kardashian on TV.

Rosberg on pole in Japan, Daniil Kyvat spins, rolls, and still winds up 10th. Kyvat dropped wheels on the run up to the hairpin. I finally have something in common with a F1 driver as I'm always dropping a wheel through there while playing Gran Turismo. http://www.racer.com/f1/item/121943-rosberg-takes-second-pole-of-2015

The Kyvat wreck was a testament to how safe the cars are and the strength of these drivers. All I could think of was not another bad one in Japan after last year's incident.

ncjay wrote: Rosberg on pole in Japan, Daniil Kyvat spins, rolls, and still winds up 10th. Kyvat dropped wheels on the run up to the hairpin. I finally have something in common with a F1 driver as I'm always dropping a wheel through there while playing Gran Turismo. http://www.racer.com/f1/item/121943-rosberg-takes-second-pole-of-2015

too bad I can't find any replays .. and the race itself seems to be on only at mid-night … another that I'm home for, and won't get to see

wbjones wrote:

ncjay wrote: Rosberg on pole in Japan, Daniil Kyvat spins, rolls, and still winds up 10th. Kyvat dropped wheels on the run up to the hairpin. I finally have something in common with a F1 driver as I'm always dropping a wheel through there while playing Gran Turismo. http://www.racer.com/f1/item/121943-rosberg-takes-second-pole-of-2015

too bad I can't find any replays .. and the race itself seems to be on only at mid-night … another that I'm home for, and won't get to see

https://streamable.com/u06m

Wow... Just pulled up the last page to see whether I could manage enough curiosity to watch an F1 race this year. Apparently I need to go back a few pages.

The whole situation is pretty ridiculous. F1 moves the races to pay tv, so less people are able to watch. Then they turn around and bitch about tv numbers being low. Sorry jerks, you can't have it both ways, but I'm sure Bernie and co. don't care that much as their bank accounts continue to grow. It would seem to make sense that F1 would stream their races through their website for a reasonable fee.

In reply to ncjay:

Yep, stupid.

Maybe I'm crazy, but I think this same thing basically killed interest in the WRC in the US. If you could tune in to some mainstream cable network and watch a bunch of crazy turbo hatchbacks flying over jumps and doing barrel rolls through vineyards... I mean, who wouldn't want to watch that?

Instead they want people to pay a big subscription fee to watch on a FIA website.

ncjay wrote: The whole situation is pretty ridiculous. F1 moves the races to pay tv, so less people are able to watch. Then they turn around and bitch about tv numbers being low. Sorry jerks, you can't have it both ways, but I'm sure Bernie and co. don't care that much as their bank accounts continue to grow. It would seem to make sense that F1 would stream their races through their website for a reasonable fee.

it's on "free" tv NBCSN but it comes on at 12:30a … I can't find any replays planned … therefore it's another I won't see this yr

JohnyHachi6 wrote: In reply to ncjay: Maybe I'm crazy, but I think this same thing basically killed interest in the WRC in the US. If you could tune in to some mainstream cable network and watch a bunch of crazy turbo hatchbacks flying over jumps and doing barrel rolls through vineyards... I mean, who wouldn't want to watch that?

Isn't WRC like a full weekend of racing though? That's a lot of hours to watch.

WRC is on MAV-TV (214)on direct, don't know if it's also on Dish. F1 is on at 12:30 am EDT because it's live from Japan.

If you get nbcsn with your cable package, you should be able to access the NBC live extra app from which you can replay the broadcast whenever you want.

Jim Pettengill wrote: WRC is on MAV-TV (214)on direct, don't know if it's also on Dish. F1 is on at 12:30 am EDT because it's live from Japan.

understand … because live .. but last week was the same thing … but there was a re-broadcast at a more humane time later in the day … can't seem to find any listing for this one … nothing but Premier League and NASCAR

Hamiltons lead grows

Young racers shine in Japan

Verstappen kicks ass.

My f1 haiku for this week.

Huge bag of kudos to Team Red Bull for building a car overnight and Kyvat beating his teammate to the checkered flag after starting from the pitlane. Can't begin to imagine how much work it takes to build an F1 car in less than a day, then completing a race.

Kyvat's quali crash was nasty nasty, I bet 15 years ago that would have been, if not terminal, at least season if not carreer ending. That he can just walk away and race the next day just blows my mind, they were talking about 20g peak load on his body, these guys are stupid fit.

Not much action at the front, but as ususual some great battles down the field. I"m really glad the TV guys are learning no to just stay with the front runners no matter what, but to show what's going on in the pack. Nico is sounding like a beaten man isn't he. I think he has to worry more about keeping 2nd in the WDC than thinking about any show of winning.

So, Alonso saying the Honda lump is like a GP2 engine and Button saying it's embarrassing. Alonso's comments don't surprise me, he's always been a bit of a petulant brat, but for JB to say anything that's a little more of a surprise. Also Ron claims that both drivers will be with them next year. On the BBC 5Live wrap up he even admitted to a small mistake in that he didn't tell JB that the team weren’t exercising their option to drop him at the end of the year (i.e. they are keeping him) until Thursday, after he was dropping broad hints at retirement. The interesting thing is that last year when the re-signed him the scuttle butt was that if they kept him for the 2nd year (2016) then his pay check went up considerably from 2015. My guess is that Honda really want to keep Button as he's so popular in Japan. Will Alonso talk his way out of another drive like he did with McLaren then Ferrari?

Also on 5 Live Helmet Marko said they'd only been offered a tier 2 engine (I guess this year’s Ferrari for next year) and that if they didn't get a first tier engine then they would leave. I'm not sure they can as I think they are contracted to appear and they'd have to pay Bernie and FoM a E36 M3 load to leave before their contracted time is up unless they sold lock stock and barrel.

The off track antics have far more excitement than the podium positions in the race right now, but the mid field battles are excellent.

Renault have signed a letter of intent to buy Lotus. Something had to happen today to stop the British courts closing the doors on the team for debt and unpaid taxes.

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/13760876/renault-signs-letter-intent-purchase-lotus-f1-team

During the F1 coverage that mentioned that Redbull teams might get a Honda. After Alonso's comment that the Honda was as slow as a GP2 engine, I can only imagine how quickly that relationship would go south. Although Honda really could use some other teams to help develop the engine.

Apparently Mercedes (or Lauda) wasn't too keen on the lack of coverage. Not sure if Lauda speaks for Mercedes or if they let him air out grievances without "officially" saying it. I kinda understand where's he's coming from, they have sponsors and winning should guarantee TV coverage at a premium. BUT, F1 is trying to increase TV coverage and nobody want's to see a guy running up front by themselves......

Although Mercedes are confused by their lack of TV time in Japan, Brackley bosses have quashed suggestions that it is linked to their failure to supply engines to Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton bounced back from Mercedes' wretched Singapore Grand Prix to claim an emphatic win at Suzuka on Sunday afternoon, taking the chequered flag ahead of his team-mate Nico Rosberg. The World Champion took the lead through the first two corners and never looked back. He also never put a wheel wrong, not that viewers could tell as the Brit and his Mercedes team were barely shown. And Niki Lauda wants to know why. "I was watching TV all day long, and funny enough I saw Saubers and a lot of Honda cars, but I don't know why," the Mercedes non-executive chairman told reporters. "Somebody must do the filming here. I have to ask what's wrong with him. I want to see Bernie next week and ask him what is the reason. "At the moment I can't say much but it was funny that even the pitstop of Lewis – the leader – you only saw him driving out. You didn't even see if he changed his wheels. So it was interesting." Pressed as to whether this was perhaps Bernie Ecclestone's way of voicing his displeasure at Mercedes for not being willing to supply Red Bull with engines, Lauda said: "I don't think you can go in that direction. "I spoke to Bernie on a couple of occasions about this engine deal and it was very clear [Dietrich] Mateschitz [Red Bull owner] never really approached us. "Then Ferrari came and offered an engine and it is now being negotiated whatever engine [Red Bull] will get. "So Bernie is not upset with us about the engine, that's for sure." The Austrian was not the only Mercedes member confused by the lack of TV time. "I wasn't sure where we were during the race. I had to look on the timing screens. You couldn't see the cars on track," said motorsport boss Toto Wolff. But like Lauda he does not believe it was a response to the engine saga. "No, I don't think this linked," Wolff said. "Obviously TV pictures are important and there was some good fighting with midfield. But I cannot imagine this is done with some sort of strategy, because that would be clearly misrepresenting everything happening on track."

-Rob