The 2024 Motorsports Thread

[RadioactiveWaste]

The only exciting part was Oli Bearman having enough pace over Lando and Lewis at the end.

Haas did well to sneak a point.

Albon had a nice couple of moves mugging Yuki and ocon.

Stroll driving into the wall kind of ended up killing the race in a lot of ways.

Danny Ric got so fed up being behind Logan Sargent all race he spun on his own.

p1 max, P2 Checo, P3 Leclerc, p4 piastri (good job), p5 Alonso (good job), P6 Russell, p7 Oli Bearman (good debut in difficult circumstances p8 Lando, p9 Lewis, p10 Hulkenberg (good job), p11 Albon (good job), p12 ocon, p13 Yuki, p14 Sargent, p15 K-mag (after penalty), p16 Danny Ric, p17 Bottas p18 Zhou.

Right MotoGP tomorrow to revive my faith in Motorsport.

[Gaspode]

31 minutes ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

The only exciting part was Oli Bearman having enough pace over Lando and Lewis at the end.

Haas did well to sneak a point.

Albon had a nice couple of moves mugging Yuki and ocon.

Stroll driving into the wall kind of ended up killing the race in a lot of ways.

Danny Ric got so fed up being behind Logan Sargent all race he spun on his own.

p1 max, P2 Checo, P3 Leclerc, p4 piastri (good job), p5 Alonso (good job), P6 Russell, p7 Oli Bearman (good debut in difficult circumstances p8 Lando, p9 Lewis, p10 Hulkenberg (good job), p11 Albon (good job), p12 ocon, p13 Yuki, p14 Sargent, p15 K-mag (after penalty), p16 Danny Ric, p17 Bottas p18 Zhou.

Right MotoGP tomorrow to revive my faith in Motorsport.

MotoGP has more excitement in one lap than the whole of the latest F1 borefest - today’s sprint race being a case in point - and great to see Marc Marquez on the Duke and being competitive after the horrible time he’s had on the Honda in recent seasons…..

[Alph]

It's really boring. More so than last season isn't it? 

Last season it seemed like every driver was unhappy. This year they're mostly celebrating slight improvements in their car but I'm not sure why. Nobody has really made a step forward from the mid/end of last season on their rivals? In fact, there seems to be quite a cushion between each team or each driver. 

Perez won't touch Verstappen. Hamilton is being held back by his bottom lip. McLaren, Mercedes and Aston don't look serious about challenging Ferrari. Russell seems to be comfortably clear of his teammate, Alonso just picking up the pieces and pouncing on opportunities but again, no threat to podiums. 

When the top 5 all drive around on their own and we're watching Piastri get stuck behind Hamilton for 8th or whatever it was. 

Last year it was the battle for second best. 

Now we're not even looking at podium battles. 

Thrilling stuff! Who will get their cars between Russell and Hamilton who are half a lap behind Leclerc who's not seen Perez since lap 4!!! Tune in next week to find out!!! Woooohoooo

Edited March 10 by Alph

[Comrade 86]

Didn't watch and won't be bothering today. Sadly, I think that's it for me and F1 in it's current guise. The sale to Liberty filled me with dread and it seems my fears are now being realised. On track, it's a s dull as any sport I think I've ever seen. Just a procession from lap one to the finish line, with probably the grimmest sporting outfit I can ever recall, lauding it over the rest of the paddock.

When compared to the highs and lows of supporting my beloved Rams and even more so, the sheer theatre that is test match rugby, it barely register's a ripple. It's unrecognisable from the sport I grew up watching and really not in a good way.

[RadioactiveWaste]

1 hour ago, Comrade 86 said:

Didn't watch and won't be bothering today. Sadly, I think that's it for me and F1 in it's current guise. The sale to Liberty filled me with dread and it seems my fears are now being realised. On track, it's a s dull as any sport I think I've ever seen. Just a procession from lap one to the finish line, with probably the grimmest sporting outfit I can ever recall, lauding it over the rest of the paddock.

When compared to the highs and lows of supporting my beloved Rams and even more so, the sheer theatre that is test match rugby, it barely register's a ripple. It's unrecognisable from the sport I grew up watching and really not in a good way.

I share a lot of your misgivings. My take is that in the longer view, F1 (or grand prix racing) has had it's pioneering age, and then it's heroic age, and i'm old eough to remember it's sporting age (whilst my dad remembers it's heroic age) but we've moved past it's coprporate age and are well into the "sport-tainment" age.

I'll be watching motoGP this afternoon which is a lot more competetive than F1, even if the swarm of Ducatis seem to be too much, at least there is some "which Ducati" question and even then it's not unusual for KTM and Aprilia to sneak a win here and there, although the aero is gradually ruining motoGP in similar ways to F1, particuallly you can't get close to the bike in front without ruining your tyres....

Over the next few years (well, 10-15 at most) motorsports is going to have to change significantly, or become irrelevent, or just a memory. "who can drive the machine the fastest" I think will always be an appealing pretext for a sport and a show that people will want to watch but the machines and races are going to be different, not just the fuel source but i think the whole concept.

 

 

[Comrade 86]

Watched a really good documentary on Dan Wheldon last night: The Lionheart

Quite upsetting, but very honest telling of his time in IndyCar. Would definitely recommend it to my fellow motorsport fans in any case.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27543996/

[RadioactiveWaste]

If you like sports car racing, there's IMSA 12hrs of Sebring this saturday, free to watch on the website unless you're in 'murica.

Support races include MX5 cup, a carerra cup and Mitchelin pilot cup (GT3 i think)

hey, at least it's BoP'd and Sebring is a good track.

[RadioactiveWaste]

There is also Formula E from Brazil tomorrow.

It seems to be a lot harder to follow now it's gone to TNT they put out so much on their YT channel.

[Duracell]

13 hours ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

If you like sports car racing, there's IMSA 12hrs of Sebring this saturday, free to watch on the website unless you're in 'murica.

Support races include MX5 cup, a carerra cup and Mitchelin pilot cup (GT3 i think)

hey, at least it's BoP'd and Sebring is a good track.

IMSA and WEC are well worth a watch this season. Almost as many Hypercars in WEC as there are cars on the entire grid in F1. Season opener in Qatar was great, highlights on YouTube.

[RadioactiveWaste]

28 minutes ago, Duracell said:

IMSA and WEC are well worth a watch this season. Almost as many Hypercars in WEC as there are cars on the entire grid in F1. Season opener in Qatar was great, highlights on YouTube.

The HyperCar regs seem to have achieved what rally1 and the current F1 regs failed to, made the championship worth watching. The commonality with IMSA regs has ensured healthy competition in each series as well.

 

[RadioactiveWaste]

Gday Bruce, time to throw another Sheila on the Barbie and settle in for the Australian grand Prix from prince Albert park.

The main source of entertainment is likely still to be "what Christian did" rather than actual racing.

Fortunately, there's MotoGP from portamento as well, which is likely to be much more fun and on at a more humane time.

[Comrade 86]

11 hours ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

Gday Bruce, time to throw another Sheila on the Barbie and settle in for the Australian grand Prix from prince Albert park.

The main source of entertainment is likely still to be "what Christian did" rather than actual racing.

Fortunately, there's MotoGP from portamento as well, which is likely to be much more fun and on at a more humane time.

Weird innit? RBR have always been vile, but they did seem to be so in a pretty linear fashion, all pulling in the same direction. These days, they're a complete basket-case, but barring an act of god, they'll still win every race.

Likewise, I think we're seeing a glimpse of a future Saudi-owned sporting world; ethics trampled, zero oversight, shady AF and utterly sterile, much like the Joshua fight, which might as well have been fought in a library for all the atmosphere at the Jeddah venue.

Add to that the fact that having looked to have made some real progress, Merc's W15 now looks completely homicidal, as per earlier iterations and Hammy is already on the beach. There must be more to this than meets the eye, so I'm wondering now what it was that pissed Hamilton off so badly that he'd effectively down tools the way he has. Lovely to see Leclerc running fast though, but I think the broken floor probably exaggerated the gap back to Max and as we all know, Ferrari prefer to 'Ferrari' during the race itself. 

On a more positive note, at least the Ozzy GP is a proper one, with a proper crowd. They love their motorsport down under and it makes for a far more interesting weekend than those in empty stadia in reclaimed desert lands. Not sure I'll be watching live though, unless I'm still up!

 

[RadioactiveWaste]

7 minutes ago, Comrade 86 said:

Weird innit? RBR have always been vile, but they did seem to be so in a pretty linear fashion, all pulling in the same direction. These days, they're a complete basket-case, but barring an act of god, they'll still win every race.

Likewise, I think we're seeing a glimpse of a future Saudi-owned sporting world; ethics trampled, zero oversight, shady AF and utterly sterile, much like the Joshua fight, which might as well have been fought in a library for all the atmosphere at the Jeddah venue.

Add to that the fact that having looked to have made some real progress, Merc's W15 now looks completely homicidal, as per earlier iterations and Hammy is already on the beach. There must be more to this than meets the eye, so I'm wondering now what it was that pissed Hamilton off so badly that he'd effectively down tools the way he has. Lovely to see Leclerc running fast though, but I think the broken floor probably exaggerated the gap back to Max and as we all know, Ferrari prefer to 'Ferrari' during the race itself. 

On a more positive note, at least the Ozzy GP is a proper one, with a proper crowd. They love their motorsport down under and it makes for a far more interesting weekend than those in empty stadia in reclaimed desert lands. Not sure I'll be watching live though, unless I'm still up!

 

5am qualifying and 4am race...I think I'll live with highlights this year.

The red bull power struggle was always going to be on the cards after dieter passed away. My favourite latest hit was that the "max can leave if helmet leaves" contract clause wasn't in the original contract but was added by Max/Jos/Marko late last year, without telling Horny Horner (helmet could sign it off as he's a director) - that's an interesting little underhanded move....

[Comrade 86]

10 minutes ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

The red bull power struggle was always going to be on the cards after dieter passed away. My favourite latest hit was that the "max can leave if helmet leaves" contract clause wasn't in the original contract but was added by Max/Jos/Marko late last year, without telling Horny Horner (helmet could sign it off as he's a director) - that's an interesting little underhanded move....

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy lol. I mean, honestly, I hate them all. Real bunch of creeps. I find their Machiavellian machinations repulsive and fascinating in equal measures, though I suspect if I were a nicer person, I probably wouldn't.

11 minutes ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

5am qualifying and 4am race...I think I'll live with highlights this year.

To be honest, there's a strong chance I'll make the race, despite my whining, but quali can take a hike 😂

[RadioactiveWaste]

In other F1 news, Williams are taking Logan's not wrecked car and giving it to Alex Albon to replace Alex's car that he very much wrecked.

I think that's all but confirmation that keeping sergeant is pretty much a waste of petrol.

[Alph]

2 hours ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

In other F1 news, Williams are taking Logan's not wrecked car and giving it to Alex Albon to replace Alex's car that he very much wrecked.

I think that's all but confirmation that keeping sergeant is pretty much a waste of petrol.

Humiliation for Sargeant 

[RadioactiveWaste]

16 minutes ago, Alph said:

Humiliation for Sargeant 

Yeah, it's the sort of thing very few ever come back from.

[Comrade 86]

1 hour ago, Alph said:

Humiliation for Sargeant 

1 hour ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

Yeah, it's the sort of thing very few ever come back from.

It's brutal and you've gotta feel for the lad, but that's F1 for all drivers, save for those whose dads own, or finance teams. There's no hiding place when you're at the wrong end of the grid and as soon as it's established that you're not quick enough, you instantly become disposable. That said, I saw Albon interviewed earlier and you could se him wince when asked about it, as clearly he doesn't want to be taking the American's car as a result of his own mistake, but if you consider who of the two is the fastest driver, it's the very definition of a no-brainer.

[RadioactiveWaste]

Another bad day for anyone not named Verstappen, although particually bad for Danny washardo (track limits deletion). Norris getting ahead of Leclerc is probably the standout alongside Sainz continuing his job search in impressive fasion. Another bad day for "working his notice period" Hamilton. Another impressive day for Yuki Tsunoda, although i expect the RB to fall back in the race. After being given his team mates car, Alex Albon at least didn't write it off into a wall.

[Alph]

I can't believe people still talk about Ricciardo like there's still a potential world championship challenger there. I hate keep moaning about him for obvious reasons but they really need to stop pretending now. Him having that seat is perhaps the limit of his charisma and smile. 

It's like going on about Leeds United being a huge club. Let it go. No matter how many times deny it, time passes on potential. You're winning nothing. IF he got a seat alongside Verstappen next year it would be awful. 

Hamilton and Merc in general are really grating on me too. Stop saying it's fine margins. Put something together ffs. You're going backwards. Why are we so pleasantly chilled about it? 

Thank you Ferrari/ Sainz, Alonso and McLaren for making it watchable. Perez is actually turning up too which is nice. 

But 2024 is the year of BS'ing. Suddenly three tenths per lap slower is now "closer than ever" racing