Sport The Formula 1 Thread

[mexos]

Nice photos. Totally agree about Becketts, great view except of the Red Arrows who were just taunting us.

I know! Must have been 90% behind the stand. Nice initial flyover tho.

[marsh]

I really think you have to be there now. It didn't really do it for me on tv yesterday. The away races so to speak are fine, I must take the family next time to the one 'home' event if you get me.

[reani_]

Lewis Hamilton is ready to commit himself to McLaren but has warned he is not prepared to suffer potential burn-out. "When I re-sign the contract with McLaren they are going to be shocked at how many days they are not going to be able to make me do. I will be doing a lot less (sponsorship) work," Hamilton said. Press Association

[wev]

To be honest, with how often his mouth's slipped this season they'll probably think "thank fuck for that!"

[McCoy]

In fairness, I've read before that the Mclaren guys have far more in terms of PR work than most other drivers have to do. I think both Button and Hamilton find it a bit too much a lot of the time.

[MrPogo]

Button said he did more PR work in his first fortnight with McLaren than he did in the entire season at Brawn.

[Sidewaysbob]

They're making up for all those years Kimi did fuck all for them

[RFT]

Silverstone really has upped it's game. The new Becketts grandstand is AMAZING. the view you get is better than anything else at Silverstone. Being able to rove around all the grandstands on Friday and Saturday is great too. And the campsite has hot showers! A proper pub! Proper shitters with paper and hot water!

Well impressed with the pits too. For P2 we were outside the Virgin pit - with binoculars you can see sooooooo much. Really good. Down the other end was disappointing - as the pit rises there, for the first half of it you can see everything - the cars coming in, hell the drivers sitting in the cars talking to the engineers.

Impressed/10

I was hugely impressed with the view from that grandstand when I was there for the Le Mans Series race last september, and spent most of saturday there. However it was closed on the sunday.

Button said he did more PR work in his first fortnight with McLaren than he did in the entire season at Brawn.

Well, brawn (and Honda before that) weren't exactly swimming in sponsors to do PR work for...

[reani_]

I know they are doing a lot of PR and the facepalm was purely directed on the "potential burn-out" bit.

Fair enough, they had to do a lot more PR before Silverstone, but it's their home GP and everyone what's to see their home drivers. Obviously I don't know what's on his calendar but there isn't so much PR for any other race for them, is there?

And using an argument of a potential burn-out to get more money for the next contract that's just a step too far.

[SharkyOB]

He broke 20m later down the outside but got the car under control and into the corner before Hamilton. Hamilton knew he was beaten so tried to brake later than he should have in order to stop Massa having the prerogative to turn in. Locked his brakes and caused contact with Massa.

Wow, this is amazing! It's like we've got our very own Mystic Meg bringing us the inside scoop from inside the drivers helmeted heads!

[rafaqat]

I don't think Vettel trusts Hamilton enough to try a pass given his driving over the last couple of months.

lol. Dream on. He just can't overtake if he's up against a similar performing car. Good driver but no serial overtaker.

[Plissken]

"I don't want to do as much PR". Yes, that will be why you signed with Simon Fuller then.

[MrPogo]

I know they are doing a lot of PR and the facepalm was purely directed on the "potential burn-out" bit.

Fair enough, they had to do a lot more PR before Silverstone, but it's their home GP and everyone what's to see their home drivers. Obviously I don't know what's on his calendar but there isn't so much PR for any other race for them, is there?

And using an argument of a potential burn-out to get more money for the next contract that's just a step too far.

It's not just talking to the media on race weekends. Based on twitter posts from the drivers and Mclaren themselves its not much of an exaggeration to say a typical week has them filming an advert for Vodaphone in Germany on Saturday, a photoshoot for Santander in London on Monday, driving go karts round the streets of Tokyo on Tuesday and attending the launch of a new phone in Paris on Friday morning before jetting off to Spain for P1.

I guess it is all five star hotels and first class flights with each engagement only taking a couple of hours, but it must take its toll when you only get to sleep in your own bed two nights a month for the duration of the season.

[Sidewaysbob]

Santander certainly do get their moneys worth out of Mclaren. There is almost a new advert with the two drivers in monthly. Vodaphone are always offering a "meet the drivers days" too. But then it's two Brit in a british car, so it's a big draw.

[morcs]

Well they aint going to keep that outfit going on MP4-12C sales. Maybe they should develop an energy drink.

[Danster]

Apologies is already posted, I haven't read the entire thread. but this week's Fighting Talk podcast (BBC FiveLive) is a F1 special and well worth a listen.

[Dudley]

Being a mere whippersnapper it's the 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 that I consider the proper old system

If they were using that Vettel would still be three and a bit victories in the lead, with the top five being:

84 - Vettell

51 - Webber

46 - Alonso

45 - Hamilton

44 - Button

9-6-4-3-2 with a point for fastest lap or GTFO

Button said he did more PR work in his first fortnight with McLaren than he did in the entire season at Brawn.

And how many sponsors were on the Brawn.

Lewis should remember who pays his salary and grow the fuck up or go drive for HRT.

[Sidewaysbob]

What, Martin whitmarsh ?

[Guest]

Santander certainly do get their moneys worth out of Mclaren. There is almost a new advert with the two drivers in monthly. Vodaphone are always offering a "meet the drivers days" too. But then it's two Brit in a british car, so it's a big draw.

We (Santander) receive weekly newsletters in which one or both or them are normally in too.

[JohnC]

Hamilton is currently appearing in an pathetic ad, the likes of which you would expect to find on the cheap Sky channels, for insure.ie. Because they're part of Aon. He seems rather uncomfortable. I can understand him not wanting to do that shit.

[dayte]

Notice how McLaren haven't been in winning form ever since Santander started sponsoring them

Santander = Spanish, as is Alonso... conspiracy?

[thesnwmn]

Apologies is already posted, I haven't read the entire thread. but this week's Fighting Talk podcast (BBC FiveLive) is a F1 special and well worth a listen.

Agreed. And perfectly scheduled this weekend between the end of FP3 and Quali. Perfect 4 hours of F1

[morcs]

Notice how McLaren haven't been in winning form ever since Santander started sponsoring them

Santander = Spanish, as is Alonso... conspiracy?

Santander sponsored McLaren because of Alonso, and stayed after he left - then Hamilton won the WC.

[dan_tm]

Surprised it wasn't mentioned in here, but I watched the F1 Forum earlier and Ted's poker-face impression of Webber had me in almost tears of laughter. He seemed so hyper for that whole section while waiting outside for Horner, who just walked past and blanked him when he eventually appeared. "Where are you going?" he cried

[PeteJ]

Great time at Silverstone, probably the best year I've been. Great racing all weekend, the new pits complex is quite a stunning site and as I managed to get a covered grandstand for every event I didn't even get wet! The local campsites are improving too, better facilities and security which was nice. Only downer was the drive home which is a bloody nightmare, took us about three hours to get past Oxford.

I think I've now sat at every grandstand on the track and for my money the best place to see the action is from Club (last corner), especially now the pits have moved. From there we could see the last three corners really clearly, and even most of the pit straight. As a bonus our raceday seats were situated right in front of a large screen so we could track the action across the whole track!

The popularity of Jenson, and especially Lewis, is absolutely staggering. I cannot describe how responsive the crowed was to everything Lewis did, even a shot of him walking down the pit straight on the big screen set the crowed wild. It's mental. The last few corners with Massa and Hamilton was just the most incredible experience, everyone on their feet just going completely nuts and screaming away. When Massa overtook Hamtilon it was like the heart was ripped out of the place, which just made it even more of a pasionate response when they went wheel to wheel right up to the line. I'll never forget that.

Over the weekend I also witnessed my first highspeed crash when Kobayashi binned it coming onto the start\finish. You could see it was going to happen by the way he was pushing it so hard on the final corner lap after lap. When he finally lost it he flew right passed my seat (at this point I was on the front row in the new International Pit Straight) at 90 degrees to the track just as he clipped the grass and almost flipped it. As with Hamilton, the crowed response was amazing. They pulled the car off the track and stuck it right under where I was sitting too, which was cool. He has a map of the circuit in his cockpit. Fact.

After the race we made a run for it to try and get out as quick as possible. Just as we were walking opposite the podium they surprisingly opened the gate, so we were among the first to invade the track. Probably my highlight of the whole weekend, standing on the pole position at Silverstone. Fucking incredible.

Some random pics. They aren't all F1 cars but I was able to get better shots of the other classes (partly due to my ability getting fast things, partly due to it getting so busy whenever F1 is on).

[morcs]

Sounds awesome!

He has a map of the circuit in his cockpit. Fact.

They all do, to help them quickly name corners if they need to radio in.

[morcs]

God that's annoying.

The Canada one is the most ridiculous, you pick a longer gear to benefit qualifying at the cost of race pace due to the DRS rules. They've got it the wrong way round.

Not to mention that setup decision turned out to contribute to a win for Button.

[kiroquai]

You could argue too that the trick they tried with three stops in Turkey wasn't actually that bad: they did exactly the same in Barcelona afterward and Jenson, by dint of running in less traffic, actually gained massively out of it.

[Sidewaysbob]

Indeed, i think that may have been written by the work experiance boy who doesn't like cars because they are too dirty.

It's a bunch of bollocks.

Pre season, tried something that would have given them a massive advantage, realised it wasn't going to work and would take far too long to develope so made the brave call to can it at the eleventh hour and still came back with a winning solution.

[myoozikk]

F1 journalism by people that don't understand F1.