Formula One on Sky

[Diamond Lights]

Must confess that I never really saw what was better about watching a GP live at the track as opposed to on TV.... Though I'm anything but a motor racing enthusiast I'll admit.

Years ago I went to Silverstone with a friend who was one of those weird people who are really into cars (I had posters of attractive women up on my walls as a teenager and he instead had pictures of cars on his).... Anyway, it pee'd down with rain all day as we sat there and watched cars speed past us, with some of the crowd cheering when it happened to be a red car with yellow bits on going past and a larger portion of the crowd cheering when it happened to be a British driver going past. We then queued for hours trying to get out after the race.

I guess it might've been more fun in the sunshine and while putting away copious amounts of booze instead of driving to and from the event but then again any even is made better by that!

Ha, it's funny as i do think it's a very different experience in Abu Dhabi vs say Silverstone!

It's baking hot, there's a good vibe, more 'fan zone' type activities. Then at the end it's a long old walk in the heat but Etihad Park then hosted some musicians, we saw Kendrick Lamar on the Sat night (Dave and Usher done the Thurs night for example). Included as part of the ticket. Getting home is a ballache you just have to basically run down the road and jump into an empty cab, queuing is for suckers, it's every man/woman for themselves basically.

I know what you mean about watching Live vs TV though. I love boxing, i have NO interest in ever attending a fight. Full of dingdongheads for the majority and a brick view when I can watch from my sofa. I know what I would prefer.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Ha, it's funny as i do think it's a very different experience in Abu Dhabi vs say Silverstone!

It's baking hot, there's a good vibe, more 'fan zone' type activities. Then at the end it's a long old walk in the heat but Etihad Park then hosted some musicians, we saw Kendrick Lamar on the Sat night (Dave and Usher done the Thurs night for example). Included as part of the ticket. Getting home is a ballache you just have to basically run down the road and jump into an empty cab, queuing is for suckers, it's every man/woman for themselves basically.

I know what you mean about watching Live vs TV though. I love boxing, i have NO interest in ever attending a fight. Full of dingdongheads for the majority and a brick view when I can watch from my sofa. I know what I would prefer.

I have been to Le Mans a few times and quite enjoyed it (I mean the experience overall here, being able to cycle the track after the race has finished, being in the Town itself, the atmosphere on the campsite, etc).

I happened to be in Singapore once when the GP was on. I also happened to be in one of the prime hotels for viewing the race. I felt a but guilty really as it was wasted on me and would've been much better enjoyed by a motor sports fan I'm sure.

I'm the same as you with boxing, I used to quite enjoy the atmosphere at a boxing match, though did find it almost impossible to judge who was the likely winner of the fight unless close to ringside. I give it a complete swerve now, primarily because too great a portion of the crowd is made up by coked up idiots who are looking for the slightest excuse to prove how tough they are. I would probably accept a corp invitation to our stadium for a boxing match (if anyone wants to invite me! hah) but that's about it.

 

[Kandi1977]

Must confess that I never really saw what was better about watching a GP live at the track as opposed to on TV.... Though I'm anything but a motor racing enthusiast I'll admit.

Years ago I went to Silverstone with a friend who was one of those weird people who are really into cars (I had posters of attractive women up on my walls as a teenager and he instead had pictures of cars on his).... Anyway, it pee'd down with rain all day as we sat there and watched cars speed past us, with some of the crowd cheering when it happened to be a red car with yellow bits on going past and a larger portion of the crowd cheering when it happened to be a British driver going past. We then queued for hours trying to get out after the race.

I guess it might've been more fun in the sunshine and while putting away copious amounts of booze instead of driving to and from the event but then again any even is made better by that!

You get a much better overview of everything on the track by watching it on TV, that's for sure. But it's the overall experience with everything around the event that makes it special to experience it live, but it was better before with the v10 engines. That sound was immense, and impossible to describe how loud they were. Even better if you have tickets with pit lane access, like I had in Istanbul years ago.

 

[Baleforce]

There aren't many sports that are not better on TV.

Struggling to think of one.

Not to say its not good fun to go to certain things, but they are normally more about drinking.

A lot of live sports attendance is watching on screens anyway.

 

[Diamond Lights]

excited to get the season starting again and Drive to Survive starts today too!

Really hope Mercedes have fixed the issues they had but the gap to Red Bull was massive. cant read much into pre-season testing, but only two weeks til first race!

 

[Dicko]

excited to get the season starting again and Drive to Survive starts today too!

Really hope Mercedes have fixed the issues they had but the gap to Red Bull was massive. cant read much into pre-season testing, but only two weeks til first race!

It would be nice if some of the chasing teams could close the gap this season, But I think that every year and it rarely happens lol

 

[Bullet]

Have they changed the rules yet?
Or do they still have the silly safety car system wherein someone with a 50 second lead suddenly has a 1 second lead?

And if you choose to change your tyres at the right moment, just as the safety car happens, you get a massive advantage due to pure luck?

 

[Kandi1977]

Have they changed the rules yet?
Or do they still have the silly safety car system wherein someone with a 50 second lead suddenly has a 1 second lead?

And if you choose to change your tyres at the right moment, just as the safety car happens, you get a massive advantage due to pure luck?

There was talk of closing the pit lane during safety cars, but haven't seen any confirmation that the rules have changed.

 

[Baleforce]

There was talk of closing the pit lane during safety cars, but haven't seen any confirmation that the rules have changed.

I think that would be wrong, worn tires can be dangerous.

The rules are fine, the problem comes from temporarily changing them in the last two laps of the season so you can stick it to the driver who highlighted some uncomfortable truths.

 

[Kandi1977]

I think that would be wrong, worn tires can be dangerous.

The rules are fine, the problem comes from temporarily changing them in the last two laps of the season so you can stick it to the driver who highlighted some uncomfortable truths.

There's little to no danger in running a few laps behind the safety car on worn tyres. But there has to be exceptions for punctures and damage etc. In Many other types of racing, the pit lane is closed during safety cars.

Not saying that's how it should be, just a possibility to remove one element of 'no skill, pure luck.'

 

[SpurMeUp]

Pretty dull start to the season. Redbull so far ahead there isn't really a contest. Mercedes know they are defeated from race one, because they were in Redbull's position a few years back: a second quicker with spare speed and developments up their sleeve that they don't even need. F1 had to change the rules to break Mercedes' dominance. Hard to see anyone making much of a contest this season.

Maybe Mercedes will simply copy Aston, their sister team that uses most of their parts, to get a leg-up. F1 is all about different cars, but it does make it a bit of a foregone conclusion when you have a car so far ahead of the rest.

 

[Dicko]

Pretty dull start to the season. Redbull so far ahead there isn't really a contest. Mercedes know they are defeated from race one, because they were in Redbull's position a few years back: a second quicker with spare speed and developments up their sleeve that they don't even need. F1 had to change the rules to break Mercedes' dominance. Hard to see anyone making much of a contest this season.

Maybe Mercedes will simply copy Aston, their sister team that uses most of their parts, to get a leg-up. F1 is all about different cars, but it does make it a bit of a foregone conclusion when you have a car so far ahead of the rest.

I know it's annoying to have one team so far ahead but I am actually glad it's not Hamilton or Mercedes anymore. They had it far too easy for far too long. Lewis cruised to some of his championships. It was actually a decent race to watch behind Verstappen, Watching Alonso have a car to challenge Hamilton and roaring past him must have been quite satisfying after his recent years of sitting in a lesser car helplessly trying to keep pace

 

[Grays_1890]

I know it's annoying to have one team so far ahead but I am actually glad it's not Hamilton or Mercedes anymore. They had it far too easy for far too long. Lewis cruised to some of his championships. It was actually a decent race to watch behind Verstappen, Watching Alonso have a car to challenge Hamilton and roaring past him must have been quite satisfying after his recent years of sitting in a lesser car helplessly trying to keep pace

Not that I am the biggest F1 fan in the world, but it seems a really stale sport TBH, rarely do you get those front line battles anymore, not sure what the distance was of the winner this weekend but imagine it was some distance as from around 10 laps he looked like a dot on the distance from what I saw.

Amazing that a sport survives with such dominance for so much of it, I mean just seems like someone wins for 4 years in row, then another for 6, then another for 5 and by dramatic distances in the championship (until they fudged the points to make it seem like that was not the case)

 

[SpurMeUp]

Not that I am the biggest F1 fan in the world, but it seems a really stale sport TBH, rarely do you get those front line battles anymore, not sure what the distance was of the winner this weekend but imagine it was some distance as from around 10 laps he looked like a dot on the distance from what I saw.

Amazing that a sport survives with such dominance for so much of it, I mean just seems like someone wins for 4 years in row, then another for 6, then another for 5 and by dramatic distances in the championship (until they fudged the points to make it seem like that was not the case)

I often watch, but also often nod-off during races Sunday afternoon, after lunch...

I guess its like football in that nothing much happens most of the time, which makes the moments of action and excitement mean that much more. There have been great battles over the years. Just a shame that now the best drivers are not able to race each other on similar terms.

 

[Baleforce]

Can’t believe Mercedes have fudged it so badly again.

 

[Diamond Lights]

problem now is F1 getting massive and a huge fan base, is that newly formed fanbase gonna stick around if the same team and driver just hoovers up all qualifying and wins?

Will easily get stale and lose that fanbase. Obviously it's up to other cars to step up too, can't just blame this on Redbull, they're doing what they need to do (sometimes illegally with budget caps) but delivering.

However, the new regs were to allow for more overtaking, and that did happen last season, but last weekends race was pretty stale and quite big gaps in several areas of the field. Hope it improves.

 

[Jordinho]

problem now is F1 getting massive and a huge fan base, is that newly formed fanbase gonna stick around if the same team and driver just hoovers up all qualifying and wins?

Will easily get stale and lose that fanbase. Obviously it's up to other cars to step up too, can't just blame this on Redbull, they're doing what they need to do (sometimes illegally with budget caps) but delivering.

However, the new regs were to allow for more overtaking, and that did happen last season, but last weekends race was pretty stale and quite big gaps in several areas of the field. Hope it improves.

It's been like this since Schumacher and Ferrari killed my interest in the 90s. Either one team is dominating or it's almost impossible to overtake anyone (when pit stops decided the race). It's the thin line between boredom and things getting too dangerous.

 

[Grays_1890]

It's been like this since Schumacher and Ferrari killed my interest in the 90s. Either one team is dominating or it's almost impossible to overtake anyone (when pit stops decided the race). It's the thin line between boredom and things getting too dangerous.

And even if the Championship is close its not because of back and forth racing its pockets of domination

Also now its gone green its not even that good to watch live, its like hairdryer racing

 

[Dicko]

Yep, This is nothing like the Ferrari era. Also Mercedes won 7 in a row (Could've been 8 if you count the farce at the end of 2021). Red Bull have only had 1 season of dominance so far so it's gonna take quite some time before I get bored of seeing Lewis struggle any time soon.

 

[Jordinho]

And even if the Championship is close its not because of back and forth racing its pockets of domination

Also now its gone green its not even that good to watch live, its like hairdryer racing

When I started watching I think it was Williams, MacLaren and Ferrari as equals pretty much. Once Ferrari started dominating and Renault couldn't properly challenge them I gave up. Haven't really been paying attention since, but it feels like they keep changing the rules and it's either utterly boring or one team ahead of the curve on development. I'm not really into cars, but if it was more exciting I'd be watching.