Formula 1 Discussion - And favourite driver?

[Pee Cola]

I don't like to talk up drivers too much. I really like Norris and hope he wins a lot with McLaren, but I don't like to go beyond "he did a great job" even if he does something extraordinary. Alonso is turning out to be the exception, I do like to point out his outstanding moments from the last 2 years. And this is coming from someone who very much hopes McLaren beats Alpine in the WCC.

I just hope Lando doesn't get as high on his own farts as Hambone has. Lewis was quite likable when he started out, but as he won more championships and people started blowing more smoke up his ass, he became insufferable. Here's hoping he only reaches Nigel Mansell levels of cuntishness; Bernie's Second Law of F1 states that there has to be at least one cunty English driver on the F1 grid at any given time. You can trace it back to the '70s and James Hunt (maybe even beforehand), but at least Hunt wore his cuntishness well. Probably due to the obvious rhyming slang opportunity this presented.

 

[Quiritium]

I just hope Lando doesn't get as high on his own farts as Hambone has. Lewis was quite likable when he started out, but as he won more championships and people started blowing more smoke up his ass, he became insufferable. Here's hoping he only reaches Nigel Mansell levels of cuntishness; Bernie's Second Law of F1 states that there has to be at least one cunty English driver on the F1 grid at any given time. You can trace it back to the '70s and James Hunt (maybe even beforehand), but at least Hunt wore his cuntishness well. Probably due to the obvious rhyming slang opportunity this presented.

I agree, hence why I don't like to talk up drivers too much. One of my absolute favorites is Hakkinen, don't think I ever saw him acting like a cunt. As for Bernie's Second Law, I'd say Russel is well on his way to filling that role lol, so hopefully it doesn't rub off on Lando. But you're absolutely right about Blowis. All you need to do is look at photos of him in his early McLaren days, he is all smiles and seems to be a happy sort. Now he wears this constant scowl on his face, he looks fucking miserable even when he's supposed to be "the bestest F1 driver ever". Sad, really.

 

[Becky McDonald]

Yeah, and that's what I mean about his record. Just briefly looking at it as any other it severely understates how good he is.

It's my dream to see Lewis go to any other racing series, be it Indy, GT racing, or even Dakar, and get royally exposed like the statpadding carbabby he is.
We've already seen him struggle in what's arguably the worst car of his career. Now I want to see him struggle even harder when the team isn't 110% behind him.

 

[Quiritium]

It's my dream to see Lewis go to any other racing series, be it Indy, GT racing, or even Dakar, and get royally exposed like the statpadding carbabby he is.
We've already seen him struggle in what's arguably the worst car of his career. Now I want to see him struggle even harder when the team isn't 110% behind him.

When Russel was announced at Merc I was hoping that he'd give Blowis a run for his money, and Merc would start to pivot to him. But considering his recent performance and attitude I'd say that's looking increasingly unlikely. Instead of him rubbing off on Merc, it's "Merc by Blowis" that's seeping into him.

 

[A.P. Hill]

When Russel was announced at Merc I was hoping that he'd give Blowis a run for his money, and Merc would start to pivot to him. But considering his recent performance and attitude I'd say that's looking increasingly unlikely. Instead of him rubbing off on Merc, it's "Merc by Blowis" that's seeping into him.

I swear it's something about Mercedes' culture that turns anyone who works for them into a temper tantrum-throwing, arrogant child. The company is owned by a narcissistic crybaby, it employs the biggest whiner of the past decade, and its new driver is quickly turning into a grade-A douche.

 

[Becky McDonald]

I swear it's something about Mercedes' culture that turns anyone who works for them into a temper tantrum-throwing, arrogant child. The company is owned by a narcissistic crybaby, it employs the biggest whiner of the past decade, and its new driver is quickly turning into a grade-A douche.

The team should have rid itself of Austrian influence at the earliest opportunity. Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda were the main culprits, as much as it pains me to say for the latter. Otherwise, Ross Brawn would have owned the team until he retired, Schumacher would have won at least a few more races once the V6s came along (I think he could've gone till at least the end of 2014 before age got the better of him), and Hamilton would have suffered at McLaren to the point Alonso would have either stayed at Ferrari, chosen another team entirely, or taken Schumi's seat once he did finally choose to retire.

 

[acme]

I will remind you again frens, a storm is coming. Kimi Antonelli is inevitable.

 

[Becky McDonald]

I will remind you again frens, a storm is coming. Kimi Antonelli is inevitable.
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>Prema
Basically a free championship in whichever series you race with them.

 

[The Grognard]

Good record for F4, but it's F3 where he'll get his sink-or-swim moment. If he keeps that pace, he's on track to F1.

 

[Coccxys]

As long as the checks dont bounce the FIA wont do anything. The drivers tho idk maybe
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I more meant from actual problems trying to run it. Many major roads, ports, and airports are blockaded so teams are going to have logistical nightmares. It's a large international event in the center of a sithole area so prime for protestor disruption (drivers and engineers have been mugged in the past so not a safe area). There could well be actual issues not just commentators declaring "isn't it bad, oh well" then they get on with it.

The team should have rid itself of Austrian influence at the earliest opportunity. Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda were the main culprits, as much as it pains me to say for the latter. Otherwise, Ross Brawn would have owned the team until he retired, Schumacher would have won at least a few more races once the V6s came along (I think he could've gone till at least the end of 2014 before age got the better of him), and Hamilton would have suffered at McLaren to the point Alonso would have either stayed at Ferrari, chosen another team entirely, or taken Schumi's seat once he did finally choose to retire.

Don't forget Toto ownes 1/3 of the team (equal partner with Ineos and Daimler), itnwould take quite a bit to oust him and his influence from the team.

A kinda related question, how good is F1TV at detecting VPNs? I don’t want to keep paying Sky as much as I do just for F1 and stable pirate streams are just a pain to find.

 

[Becky McDonald]

Don't forget Toto ownes 1/3 of the team (equal partner with Ineos and Daimler), itnwould take quite a bit to oust him and his influence from the team.

I'll always ask myself what if Honda had not been faggots and just stayed that one goddamn year...
Apparently the engine was even more powerful (and designed for the RA109/BGP's body) than the Merc unit was. The last 13 seasons would be completely unrecognisable, for a start.

 

[Lerias]

A kinda related question, how good is F1TV at detecting VPNs? I don’t want to keep paying Sky as much as I do just for F1 and stable pirate streams are just a pain to find.

You need to set up an instance on Lightsail or Oracle and tunnel it through WireGuard or something to make a personal VPN - F1TV will detect most conventional VPNs like TunnelBear, NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Hotspot Shield, and whatnot. You then need to access the tunnel via your phone so you can subscribe to F1TV Pro. Atleast that's how it went IIRC.

I'm personally using the Lightsail option, it often hitches up on PC though so I only watch via phone.

My country (South Korea) recently had an OTT gain F1 broadcasting rights though, so I'm pretty sure I'll drop the F1TV + Lightsail combo soon to save moolah. It all went wrong here (and many other Asian countries) the moment Star Sports went down for Disney+ bullshittery.

 

[Coccxys]

You need to set up an instance on Lightsail or Oracle and tunnel it through WireGuard or something to make a personal VPN - F1TV will detect most conventional VPNs like TunnelBear, NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Hotspot Shield, and whatnot. You then need to access the tunnel via your phone so you can subscribe to F1TV Pro. Atleast that's how it went IIRC.

I'm personally using the Lightsail option, it often hitches up on PC though so I only watch via phone.

My country (South Korea) recently had an OTT gain F1 broadcasting rights though, so I'm pretty sure I'll drop the F1TV + Lightsail combo soon to save moolah. It all went wrong here (and many other Asian countries) the moment Star Sports went down for Disney+ bullshittery.

Great thanks. Luckily I have family in a country where F1TV is avaliable for the GPs so I can use their address and card in that country to do it which will help. But yeah I did intend to use expressVPN but have had issues with other services catching on so didn't want to put all my eggs in that basket without doing some research.

 

[Mikoyan]

You need to set up an instance on Lightsail or Oracle and tunnel it through WireGuard or something to make a personal VPN - F1TV will detect most conventional VPNs like TunnelBear, NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Hotspot Shield, and whatnot. You then need to access the tunnel via your phone so you can subscribe to F1TV Pro. Atleast that's how it went IIRC.

I'm personally using the Lightsail option, it often hitches up on PC though so I only watch via phone.

My country (South Korea) recently had an OTT gain F1 broadcasting rights though, so I'm pretty sure I'll drop the F1TV + Lightsail combo soon to save moolah. It all went wrong here (and many other Asian countries) the moment Star Sports went down for Disney+ bullshittery.

They don't block cloud services? Rookie mistake, hah.

Back in the olden days at one of my jobs, we put a router in a London data center we were in with a hardware VPN card so we could tunnel up on 'clean IPs' for just this purpose.

 

[Lerias]

They don't block cloud services? Rookie mistake, hah.

Presumably they don't because it's really "hacker-y" stuff, and the average F1 fan probably knows nothing about VPNs beside surface-level knowledge from YouTube sponsor shills or something. The Korean F1 community are dedicated though, a single autist on DCinside made a FULL tutorial on setting up AWS Lightsail instance + WireGuard tunnelling. All that shit just to watch F1 lol.

 

[Quiritium]

I'll always ask myself what if Honda had not been faggots and just stayed that one goddamn year...
Apparently the engine was even more powerful (and designed for the RA109/BGP's body) than the Merc unit was. The last 13 seasons would be completely unrecognisable, for a start.

Honda is perhaps the most frustrating engine provider I've seen. They keep getting in and pulling out, especially when they're starting to get the hang of it. They were very successful with McLaren in the late 80s/early 90s and what do they do? They pull out. They get back into F1 in the late 90s, run a couple of years, get nowhere and pull out. They get back with McLaren for a couple of years and are shit, and the deal ends when it should start to bear fruit. They get with RB, win a championship, and pull out.

JFC, just shit or get off the pot.

 

[Becky McDonald]

Honda is perhaps the most frustrating engine provider I've seen. They keep getting in and pulling out, especially when they're starting to get the hang of it. They were very successful with McLaren in the late 80s/early 90s and what do they do? They pull out. They get back into F1 in the late 90s, run a couple of years, get nowhere and pull out. They get back with McLaren for a couple of years and are shit, and the deal ends when it should start to bear fruit. They get with RB, win a championship, and pull out.

JFC, just shit or get off the pot.

That's a bit of an abridging too far.

Honda came back to F1 in 2000 because of the success its Mugen tuner brand had had. They'd originally wanted to enter a works effort with Jos Verstappen as the lead driver, but in the end they bought a chunk of BAR and supported the Jordan team until 2002, giving them access to the "Suzuka Special" engines that gave them a few extra horsepower at their home circuit.

Over the course of about 5 - 6 years, Mugen turned Honda's V10 engine from a neglected, underpowered piece of shit into a real work of art. I'm even willing to argue that in 1997 the Mugen-Honda engine was the best one on the grid, because of how fast the Jordans and Prosts were that year. Unfortunately, it was just really unreliable. Ralf Schumacher (I believe) said he could have won a couple races in the 197 it was that good. Jarno Trulli comfortably led the first half of the 1997 Austrian Grand Prix with it. By 1999, it was capable of threatening for the title with HHF at the wheel (and Hill being completely useless in the second seat).

Eventually, Honda stopped supporting Jordan (because they wanted 100% of the team and his name off of it because they felt it was too infamous) and they focused their efforts on BAR. Their 2004 car was really fast, capable of winning, and in 2005 they almost won the San Marino GP if it wasn't for a certain pair having one of the most legendary battles in all of F1. Finally, in 2006 Button won the Hungarian GP after climbing through the field, and British American Tobacco disassociated itself due to the tobacco ban.

 

[Balr0g]

You forgot the years after 2006 when they had a shit car and came nowhere near the 2006 performance. Then they build a good car for 2009 but pulled out only to have Brawn and Mercedes step in to win in a now remarkable comeback story.

 

[Becky McDonald]

You forgot the years after 2006 when they had a shit car and came nowhere near the 2006 performance. Then they build a good car for 2009 but pulled out only to have Brawn and Mercedes step in to win in a now remarkable comeback story.

They had a shit car in 2008 mainly because they knew the then-current regs were coming to an end and focused on 2009 instead. Constructors sometimes do this so they don't waste money on a car that they can't carry any of the tech from. The main reason as to why the 1988 McLaren MP4/4 was so dominant was because every other team knew turbo cars were out for '89, so just re-ran modified versions of their 1987 entrants.

 

[Coccxys]

I must admit I would prefer this over another desert shithole.




The (leaked) proposed track layout looks pretty interesting too. Though they're going street track again.




Not a fan of them wanting to "branch out" from "Europe-centric" though, that implies losing too many of the great tracks we currently have.