2011 F1 Thread

[Beer Baron]

the only foreign substance they'll find with Vettel is a load of hot cum up his arshole

lol. harsh but true I'm sure.

[ctjet]

Finally got a penalty? Its seems impossible for him to go consecutive races without one!!

[Beer Baron]

so what was schui's reason for the DNF?

he avoided a crash... then parked it

yeah I wondered about that too. I was pissed. he was in my top 10...

[Beer Baron]

Finally got a penalty? Its seems impossible for him to go consecutive races without one!!

Yeah sorry what I meant was he constantly commits bullshit driving offences and doesn't get penalised. sure he cops penalties nearly every race but he should have copped even more.

[Ant97GTR]

Start of the rot???

Taken from the evening standard....

The BBC has decided to scale down its Formula One coverage from the start of next season in a bid to hold on to Wimbledon and the Open.

Sky has brokered a deal to broadcast every race, practice and qualifying session live from next year while the BBC will have coverage of just half the races until the end of 2018, meaning British viewers will not have free-to-air access to all F1 races for the first time in the sport's history.

There has been speculation for some time that the BBC was set to pull out of F1 altogether for financial reasons with the broadcaster needing to slash its budget by about 20 per cent following no raise in the licence fee.

But the new deal means it will stay in F1 although to a lesser degree in a bid to safeguard what it calls its sporting "crown jewels".

A spokesman for the BBC said: "The BBC remains committed to providing the best possible sports coverage and retaining the crown jewels. We have done this deal with Formula One so that we have more money to be able to spend on keeping other events.

"Formula One will remain on the BBC but splitting the coverage enables us to protect our other television packages. The Open is safely in our hands [with a contract until 2017] and we are as committed as ever to keeping Wimbledon [contracted to 2014] in its entirety."

F1 promoter Bernie Ecclestone described the agreement, which was finalised early this morning, as "the best of both worlds" but there was a furious reaction from fans of the sport who bombarded the corporation with complaints and from lead commentator Martin Brundle.

The BBC's coverage, fronted by Standard Sport columnist Jake Humphrey, has been so slick that it won a BAFTA this year for its presentation of the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Brundle, who took the hot seat from Jonathan Legard this season, greeted the decision with dismay after it was broken to them last night ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend.

Brundle tweeted: "BBC/Sky/F1 2012+. Found out last night, no idea how it will work yet I'm out of contract, will calmly work through options. Not impressed."

As a result of the new deal, the BBC will show a maximum of 10 races, which will include Monaco and the British Grand Prix as well as the final race of the season and highlights of the entire race calendar.

Veteran commentator Murray Walker, like Brundle, expressed his "extreme dismay". He added: "It is going to be the fans who suffer."

Derek Warwick, who next month is expected to succeed Damon Hill as president of the British Racing Drivers' Club which owns Silverstone, says the new deal could put the British Grand Prix in peril.

Warwick said: "If we lose viewers we're going to lose the excitement that we've got following our two great drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. That may mean we could end up having a lesser crowd, which will make the cost of running the grand prix impossible to pay for."

Followers of F1 were equally unimpressed. "I'm absolutely disgusted," said LolaF1 on f1fanatic.co.uk.

In Hungary, where Hamilton this morning set the fastest time in the opening practice session for Sunday's Grand Prix at the Hungaroring circuit near Budapest, shocked team chiefs said they would seek urgent clarification from Ecclestone amid fears that losing the huge audiences attracted by the BBC could hit the revenues they can demand from blue chip sponsors.

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh said: "What we need to understand is whether the large audience we currently enjoy in Formula One will be maintained."

Barbara Slater, director of BBC Sport, defended the move and said: "With this new deal not only have we delivered significant savings but we have also ensured that through our live and extended highlights coverage all the action continues to be available to licence-fee payers."

[ctjet]

Its only a matter of time people

Get your foxtel booklets out, and start picking packages

I'd like to say no i wont pay to see it. But who the fcuk am i kidding?

[dezz]

Doesn't sound good, we'll have to wait and see if one is true to their word that their coverage won't change...

Right now I wouldn't pay for Foxtel, as it's full of shit, and usually so far behind it's not funny, but I'd more than likely get it solely for F1

[wolverine]

you will love it mate and $1150 each is still very good price. flights during GP time are usually a bit exxy, hotels even more so and brabham tickets alone ate $600+ (guessing 4 corners maybe a bit cheaper) but yeah, you will have a great time. melb airport to city is pretty easy. cab or bus. about 40min or so.

just be aware the pit walk is usually 'pit straight' as in down the main straight on the track, not actually inside the pit lane (which is what it was years ago).

It's only a pit straight walk but better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick.

[Beer Baron]

meh I'd love to see the F1 come onto foxtel. it would mean easy to record, rewind etc, HD coverage and most importantly LESS ADVERTISEMENTS!!! possibly even ad free. I don't know how anyone watches stuff like movies on free to air anymore with all the ads they put in. on fox stuff like that is ad free.

anyone who reckons foxtel is rubbish doesn't have foxtel! most people I know who've had it for any length of time can't live without it. (ok that's a bit sad but still...).

[Beer Baron]

It's only a pit straight walk but better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick.

yeah, still cool

[dezz]

meh I'd love to see the F1 come onto foxtel. it would mean easy to record, rewind etc, HD coverage and most importantly LESS ADVERTISEMENTS!!! possibly even ad free. I don't know how anyone watches stuff like movies on free to air anymore with all the ads they put in. on fox stuff like that is ad free.

anyone who reckons foxtel is rubbish doesn't have foxtel! most people I know who've had it for any length of time can't live without it. (ok that's a bit sad but still...).

It's a rare occasion that I disagree with the baron, but in this instance I must. I've had Foxtel for as long as I can remember, 10 years minimum. It used to be good, back in the day when it was real pay tv, no ads and decent content. These days ads are as long if not longer than normal tv, and advertising products, not just other Foxtel shows.

The movies they play are average and usually not exactly new releases. With internet speeds/download limits these days it's even more useless, considering I can and do download every movie/show I want, with no ads, to watch when I want and well before theyre screened on Foxtel

[Beer Baron]

well you speak from a position of experience so we'll agree to our differing views. though I do tend to agree quality of movies has dropped a little but I don't find it too bad since I have the full package so i've got so many movie channels to pick from.

[Galois]

so what was schui's reason for the DNF?

he avoided a crash... then parked it

Lol, yes because schumacher is known for being so timid in those situations! At what point will someone else get a seat with mercedes. Reckon Ricciardo could bring it to Rosberg?

agreed. I was surprised the commentators and others weren't as appaled as I was. it was a desperate dangerous move. I'm glad he finally got a penalty because he does shit like that all the time. no regard for others safety just desperate not to let his team mate pass him. like a spoilt child.

Hamilton doing that meant he got past button, chose to pit and lost the race. He also got a penalty, not his finest split second decision. Was bad for the rest of us too though because vettel finished ahead of him

[Galois]

I had foxtel for 3 years, and though I did enjoy having more shows to watch, there's an unimaginable amount of crap that's played too. I'd say the ratio of shit to good stuff is the same as tv, but with more overall channels foxtel gets more decent shows (when you find them).

I'd get it again for f1, and if the coverage was better wouldn't complain. I do like the current commentators. Two ex-gp drivers just have so much knowledge and info and stories to share.

[ctjet]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9tF7g3CwK8

[N1GTR]

lol, you missed a spot its still on fire.....

[Marlin]

Race director needs a reaming for not handling that situation better.

Ridiculous.

[Marlin]

Race director needs a reaming for not handling that situation better.

Ridiculous.

[R31Nismoid]

It's a rare occasion that I disagree with the baron, but in this instance I must. I've had Foxtel for as long as I can remember, 10 years minimum. It used to be good, back in the day when it was real pay tv, no ads and decent content. These days ads are as long if not longer than normal tv, and advertising products, not just other Foxtel shows.

The movies they play are average and usually not exactly new releases. With internet speeds/download limits these days it's even more useless, considering I can and do download every movie/show I want, with no ads, to watch when I want and well before theyre screened on Foxtel

+1. I had Foxtel IQ for 3 years during 2006-2009. Never again. Anything decent you had to pay EVEN more for, and the advertising made it pointless. I'm not paying to watch ads, im paying to watch programs!

Also the compression for the "HD" is terrible, so on a proper 1080p TV, you are getting less than 720p quality.

You can get better quality streaming over the internet, or simply downloading after the fact... So if you were going to record and watch later, you might as well do so in proper HD from a O/S source.

[ctjet]

dont know if anybody has mentioned it but Ricciardo did VERY well

two places infront of Liuzzi on merit