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French GP track is a joke and F1 drivers worse

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 12:57 pm
by rgh0
it appears that the use of the actual track is only advisory and if you think you can gain an advantage by cutting a corner or ramming some other driver they provide all this flat bitumen to do it on. What ever happened to curbs and grass and sand traps to keep people on the track and make going off a real penalty not something to be perhaps decided upon at a later time.

Plus they think they are driving go-carts I have never seen a more immature bunch of drivers in my life.

Maybe one day I will get to see real racers again in F1

Rohan

Re: French GP track is a joke and F1 drivers worse

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 1:17 pm
by john.p.clegg
Rohan
You can , just google 1960s F1 on yoootube.

John :wink:

Re: French GP track is a joke and F1 drivers worse

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 1:18 pm
by tonyr27
I agree entirely, I've lost interest in F1. I happened to to come across the qualifying while browsing and I actually thought I was viewing a simulator/gaming screen then realised it was real!

I'll stick to watching club racing as I enjoy Caterham and historic racing, but I have no desire to go and watch F1 in its current format.

TonyR

Re: French GP track is a joke and F1 drivers worse

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 2:26 pm
by Chancer
I broke the habit in 2004 when I went travelling, TBH as a Caterham racer even back then F1 had very little interest or relevance to me.

One time in the last couple of years while switching channels I saw a bit of an F1 race, my first thought was what is that weird noise the cars are making, it does not sound like any internal combustion engine I have ever known, then worse than the flat farting sound was the language of the commentators loads of acronyms like VRS or something or another that I had no clue what they were talking about, all I could gather was it was some form of artificial power boost that had been added to make the (non) racing more interesting which in the brief time that I could bear to watch the commercialised circus act it failed to do.

Re: French GP track is a joke and F1 drivers worse

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 5:55 pm
by Fred Talmadge
I still like F1. Maybe not overjoyed with their implementation of hybrid power. My main gripe is the price of the ticket (Austin TX) I can't get my friends to come. And since the races start at 5am in America, I sit alone on the sofa watching racing, with my morning coffee.

Re: French GP track is a joke and F1 drivers worse

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 8:07 pm
by webrest7
rgh0 wrote:it appears that the use of the actual track is only advisory and if you think you can gain an advantage by cutting a corner or ramming so other driver they provide all this flat bitumen to do it on. What ever happened to curbs and grass and sand traps to keep people on the track and make going off a real penalty not something to be perhaps decided upon at a later time.

Plus they think they are driving go-carts I have never a more immature bunch of drivers in my life.

Maybe one day I will get to see real racers again in F1

Rohan

And what about that red, blue and white striped paintwork.
It was doing my head in.
I thought I WAS back in the 60's.
Lucky I'm not epileptic.
It reminded me of on those machines to put people into an hypnotic trance.
Must be something to do with the new going forward thinking corporate management of F1 and their restructuring of the show.
Apparently Bernie had it wrong for all those years.
Afterall the US controllers have actually seen a couple of races now so they know what they are doing.
There is something about that clown with the moustache that reminds me of P.T. Barnham
Keep it up and it will crash and burn.

Dave

Re: French GP track is a joke and F1 drivers worse

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 8:57 pm
by JonB
webrest7 wrote:...the show.


I think that is the point right there. Not a sport any more, just some entertainment.

Re: French GP track is a joke and F1 drivers worse

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 9:21 pm
by mbell
Fred Talmadge wrote: My main gripe is the price of the ticket (Austin TX) I can't get my friends to come.


I think the general admission price is ok if you can go for all three days but with parking/refreshments it can almost double your cost. If you want to go just for race day and sit in a stand it is very expensive.

I live ~12 miles from the track and have been twice, once for first year when we went to all three days and second time when a friend got free race day GA tickets (I drove and paid for parking, he gave me a ticket). I'd like to go more often but attending for three days isn't an options these days and the race only price isn't worth it.

Re: French GP track is a joke and F1 drivers worse

PostPosted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 5:25 am
by Frogelan
Paul Ricard is laid out in what feels like a large car park and is essentially very flat, which is a shame as the surrounding roads (on the G?menos and Le Castellet sides) are highly entertaining and need to be approached with respect.

I raced there about 24 years ago in a Jaguar XK140 and discovered that much of the track is annoying to anyone in a front engined car other than the Signes corner. [I also discovered the principle of using the gearbox to brake, as the drums of the XK140 were astonishingly poor!]

The current layout seems very different and is mainly used as a test track. I concur with the "video game" feel to the TV coverage (very odd camera angles) which was very odd (here in France, F1 is only rarely shown on TV).

Re: French GP track is a joke and F1 drivers worse

PostPosted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 7:16 am
by pauljones
I prefer Formula E these days. As an F1 fan from the past its where the out of contract drivers seem to go. Up and coming series thats pushing the boundaries and limits of hybrid technology. In its infancy but you can visibly see improvements to cars and pace.

Oh. Have you seen the price of the full weekend at Silverstone?

Re: French GP track is a joke and F1 drivers worse

PostPosted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 11:06 am
by rgh0
john.p.clegg wrote:Rohan
You can , just google 1960s F1 on yoootube.

John :wink:


Yes
Clark and then Senna were supreme and racing was real racing unfortunately for both of them. The more current era top drivers such a Schumacher and Vettel are good but dominated due to dominant cars not the supreme skills of their predecessors IMHO

The current drivers are staying more and more in their go cart roots unfortunately and current F1 cars and tracks make it so safe that they can do that. The penalty used to be life or death for the behavior you see but now it is a drive through or 5 position grid penalty if you ram someone off the track and get actually penalised for it.

Unfortunately F1 needs the "drama" of crashes to attract audience these days. F1 needs to figure out a better way to provide real racing that is both safe and spectacular. The start is to make the cars less fragile so "door to door" racing is possible as it is in touring cars.

cheers
Rohan

Re: French GP track is a joke and F1 drivers worse

PostPosted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 9:59 pm
by JimE
When the highlights came on I flicked to another channel. Say's it all. Jim

Re: French GP track is a joke and F1 drivers worse

PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2018 5:23 am
by john.p.clegg
Same here,I used to record and watch the full race , but that became boring so started to record the highlights and when that became boring gave up....

John :wink:

Re: French GP track is a joke and F1 drivers worse

PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2018 5:19 pm
by The Veg
And my god, the cars are so hideously UGLY now- I almost can't stand to look at them!

Re: French GP track is a joke and F1 drivers worse

PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2018 7:30 pm
by john.p.clegg
I hate to sound sexist but who in there right mind would drive a pink car in a pink jumpsuit ???

John :wink: