I’m not sure if this belongs in General Questions, but I think my question is pretty factual.
I saw on youtube a video called “NASCAR vs F1” which was pretty hilarious. All the Nascar videos looked super boring, and the F1 segments were awesome. This caused me to get interested in F1. I am fairly into cars, except I am only familiar with production cars. F1 cars amaze me.
Anyway, I am not sure how to become knowlegable about the sport. I want to learn the basic rules, how the point system works, what the difference between F1 and Indy cars are, and much more. Is there a place to watch F1 online? Because I don’t own a television.
Is EVERY race a “GP” or only certain ones?
I am really looking for an absolute primer on the BASICS of F1. I saw that Team Ferrari won the race in Bahrain the other day, cool!
(Also I would really like to follow WRC but have the same issues, where can I watch online and is there an explanation of the basics?)
You’ve picked an interesting time to join - this season sees (IMHO) 4 great drivers, each with a competitive car (Hamiliton, Alonso, Vettel and Massa, who I personally rate in that order). In addition to the wow factor of the return of Schumacher, one of all time greats (perhaps the all time great).
Unfortunately a major rule change (no in-race refuelling) is spoiling the spectacle somewhat by limiting dramatic overtaking.
The official F1 site is a pretty good starting point:
And yes, all F1 races are referred to as ‘Grands Prix’.
It’s a bit more insider, but it has the best news and analysis. The best way to learn about F1 in general is simply to watch the races. Speedtv has great coverage, I don’t know if they have video online, other than torrents.
Also, Ferrari sucks. That should be the first thing you learn about F1.
Correct about the overtaking, if you want to see close racing with overtaking which is highy dependant on operator skill, then you be advised to keep clear of 4 wheels altogether.
You need to be looking at bike racing, at pretty much any level. The world championship top class is called MotoGP, however the feeder classes tend to be much closer, especially the 125cc - these are the lunatics.
You might also want to check out World Superbikes, but the closest racing is found in the World Supersports - these are 600cc machines and quite often you can’t seperate the winners and the first couple of places by eyesight alone, it needs photo finish cameras.
The onboard shots of bike racing, are spectacular, especially when someone in front of the camara bike stacks it badly.
I have seen a car pass another car when the first car was ordered by their team to slow down and let the 2nd car of their team pass. Did they get around to banning that?
Agreed about motorbikes. Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo at Catalunya last year was awesome. But you don’t watch F1 to see great passing, not that it never happens, you watch F1 for the strategy and also the shear awe of watching human beings maintain some kind of control over the fastest racing cars in the world.
If you’re in the US, try just watching the next Grand Prix (Australia, March 28th) on the Speed Channel.
I’ve found that they keep a nice balance between not boring the heck out of those of us in the know, but also explaining the basic rules and what’s happening in the race to any newbies. That’s especially true this year, with all of the rule changes that the experienced people might have missed hearing about, and Australia is only the second race of the season.
I don’t understand people who complain about the lack of passing in F1. The thrill is in watching the best in the world driving at the absolute limit, on a track that actually requires work instead of identical left turns. And when passing does happen, you know that the driver earned it.
That must have been awhile ago. Team orders have been banned since… well, I’m not sure when, but it was well before I started watching F1 in - 2005, I think?
That’s not to say that it doesn’t happen, but when it does, it needs to be done in such a way that the stewards can’t catch them at it.
I don’t know how much you’ll learn about today’s version of F1, but the 1966 film Grand Prixis worth watching. The story line may be straight out of a soap opera, but the cinematography is excellent and it won oscars for both editing and sound.
Without a TV it is hard to follow and even harder to fall in love with F1. You should really try to catch the next race on Speed TV. As was already said, they do a good job of going over the basics without being to grade-schoolish. Specially now at the beginning of the season.
You should see F1 as a season long event, rather than a collection of individual races. The excitement comes from seeing the evolution of the teams over the season more than the wheel-to-wheel action. Which is not to say that there is no action on track. There is. It just happens that most of it happens on the midfield and the TV directors don’t focus too much on it.
And when the shining moments come, boy do they come in glory. Watching a highlights reel doesn’t do it. You have to watch it happen to get the magic of it.
I am a regular at a F1 forum that has a good base of knowledgeable regulars that are very welcoming to newcomers and that can shed some light on most aspects of F1. You can check it out at: http://formula-1.updatesport.com/
I hope you like the sport. It really is the biggest show on Earth, I believe.
Watch qualifying! Qualifying for most racing is a bore but, IMO, F1 qualifying is nearly as exciting as the actual race. In most series only one car is on the track trying to set the fastest lap. In F1 ALL the cars are on the track, trying to set a fast lap. After 20 minutes the bottom 7 are frozen, and the top 20 do another round freezing positions 10-20. After that they go AGAIN to see how gets the pole position. This requires all sorts of strategy and jockeying. You don’t want to have to be trying to set a “hot lap” while some other guy is just warming up.
No, it’s not really a good series for hair raising passes and huge wrecks (though in my experience you’ve got about a 50/50 chance in the first turn). It’s a series about being on the cutting edge of racing technology and pushing the limit (see McLaren’s rear wing controversy).
I disagree with the motorcycle racing being the best for passing. I suggest Le Mans and ALMS, and the Rolex series. Prototypes down to almost normal sports cars, all on the same track.
A prototype speeding by a touring car is not an overtake. It is just a car negotiating a rolling chicane. Overtakes are fun between equals, when the outcome is not a given.
The US TV coverage of F1 is so low budget , the guys who do it are not even at the race - they are in a studio in Charlotte. They just sit in front of big monitors. NBC did a similar thing for some Olympic events in 2008 - they had some commentators sitting in NYC instead of Beijing.
Oh, I love ALMS and I regret not following it more regularly. They do have some great racing. DTM is also amazing to watch. GP2, if you must have open wheelers. The GP2 cars are not much slower than the minnow teams in F1 and the racers drive like they have something to prove.
I just don’t care so much for having too disparate categories sharing the track.
By a country mile. The Speed TV commentary is great. It was even better when we had Peter Windsor. This is my biggest beef with USF1. That it cost us the commentary of Windsor. The rest of the team is still great, though. I don’t think there is that much lost to not having the crew on location. Specially since they DO have someone on location doing interviews.