If you want to get into the WRC, I can point you towards a good site. Watch last year’s rally Poland, it’s the best I’ve ever seen.
But take a look at this stage from the Spanish Rally. It’s Leob being absolutely surgical on a stage. I hate that camera angle though; they have that cross bar on the roll cage right there, why can’t they mount it on that? Youtube
Wait, don’t watch that one, it’s not the one I was thinking of. I could have sworn there was a really good run of Leob at Spain, but that isn’t it. Here is another one of my favorite Leob’s: Youtube
In this one they go away from that stupid camera to a better one about 20s in.
By lightyears. My DVR screwed up recording a race last year, so I torrented it. The only version I could find was from the BBC, and the commentary was shockingly dreadful. I almost turned off the sound halfway through.
Since this is about a sport, it’s better suited for the Game Room than GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
First off I second Blondbear.
Watch Grand Prix. You can rent it on Itunes. A brilliant movie for any F1 fan.
This is when Grand Prix meant Grand Prix. The drivers now are well protected.
Another good source to learn about F1 is James Allen F1. Love him or hate him
He puts out some really insightful information on his website.
If you would like to see a race go to Nascar race. I’ve been to 5, F1 races and one Nascar
you get more for your money at a Nascar race. And Rally is great on T. V. Oh and Martin Brundle has some great stuff on YouTube. He goes indept on car setups.
They did after the 2003 Austrian Grand Prix when Ferrari ordered Reubens Barrichello to slow down on the last lap and let teammate Michael Schumacher win. Schumacher then caused a big fuss by insisting Barrichello stand in the winner’s spot on the podium.Team orders probably still exist but they are more subtle…such as coming into the pits early for a tire change.
As for F1 vs Indy cars I’m too lazy to find the exact differences. But earlier in the decade when F1 and CART both raced at Montreal, F1 cars were 6 seconds a lap faster. About what you expect when an F1 team might spend $300 million a year and Indy car $8 million. Someone once said that NASCAR Tony Stewart was not jealous of Jeff Gordon winning three championships or the Daytona 500. Smoke was jealous that Wonder Boy once got to test drive a Williams F1 car and he hasn’t.
In a lot of ways the action off the track is far more interesting than on it. The behind the scenes wrangling of owners, drivers, car companies, etc is great to follow on sites such as Plant-F1 and F1 Sidepodcast. Thrill to the machinations of the evil posion troll 79 year old Bernie Eclestone. Unfortunately Max Moseley is gone…his father Sir Oswald was head of the British Fascist Union in the 1930s and had Adolf Hitler and Josef Goebbels as witnesses for his wedding. The recent scandals of McLaren stealing information from Ferrari and Renault ordering drving Nelson Piquet Jr to crash in Singapore so Fernando Alonso can pit early on low fuel and win the race despite qualifying poorly are skullduggery at its very best.
Nitpick, that was the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix. The 2002 USGP also had Schumacher leading at the end (with the drivers championship already decided), only to slow right before the finish line…he claimed he was trying to set up a dead heat, Barrichello “won” by .011 seconds.
This past year, the Brawn team (now MercedesGP) had a suspicious strategy at the Spanish Grand Prix that appeared to manage a win for Jenson Button over his teammate Rubens Barrichello. Whatever it was, it was nothing as blatant as what Ferrari and McLaren have done in the past (and which is now outlawed).
What is now outlawed is being so shamelessly open about it as Ferrari did for Austriagate (which was, indeed in 2002). Team orders have been a part of F1 since forever going as far as having drivers swap cars after driver #1 wrecked his. Since the Austria 2002, team orders were banned but only if you are stupid about it. After the ban on team orders, Ferrari has been notorious for shuffling their cars on the pit stops and all teams hand out fuel strategies to suit their desired results. Quite frankly, Formula One is a team sport and team orders should be legal. It was just that the Austria incident (which was not, by the way, the first time. 2001 was a dress rehearsal for 2002) was so ridiculous that it caused some serious outrage among the public (by which I mean bookies). After that, well, Renault in Singapore 2008. Total disaster.
Since this thread popped back up, I’ll drop in a reminder that the Australian Grand Prix is showing in the US on the Speed Channel at 1:30am EST this Saturday night/Sunday morning. (I don’t see an afternoon replay this week? 
)
Qualifying is showing at 2:00am tonight.
To get interested in racing, go to a race. It doesn’t matter what kind, just go to a track. You’ll appreciate all kinds of racing more if you do that. I watch 3 NASCAR series, ARCA, Indycar, ALMS, F1, MotoGP, and just about any racing that comes on tv. I’ve been to 21 NASCAR races and went to my first Indycar race last summer at Texas Motor Speedway.
The idiots are showing malaysia 3 times but they are not repeating this week’s
Yep it’s a lousy time to watch F1 this weekend, but the Indycar race is on ABC
TV tomorrow afternoon. Coverage starts at 3:30pm EDT. You can also follow it on Indycar.com, which will stream it live, for free. You have to register, but it doesn’t cost you anything.
Some say F1 has become a parade, and at Bahrain there was what, 1 pass for the lead, and that because the leader’s car malfunctioned. Two weeks ago in their race in Brazil, the Indycars had 95 passes in all, and 4 or 5 for the lead. I’ve been to the Indycar races in Milwaukee and Chicago, and they’re really a gas.
F1 was all different kinds of amazing last night. I was on the edge of my seat and I wasn’t even watching it but just following the timing on f1.com. It goes to show what a lottery live entertainment can be.
On an oval track is a F1 car faster than an Indy car? Hard to say since F1 never races on an oval. I believe the record for an Indy type car on an oval is around 240 mph for a lap - this was not qualifying but in a race.
The consensus is that F1 cars would certainly be faster than any of the current oval racing series but I don’t think speed is the key here. Nor is the amount of overtaking (up to a point…Bahrain was just tedious)
I like each overtaking move to be memorable so I’m happy to put up with less so that they mean more. (perhaps analogous to the typical “low scoring soccer” complaint)
There are some boring races but overall the mix of tracks, weather, drivers and cars ensures that somewhere in the season we have immense drama.
Australia today certainly was a decent example…and the last two Brazilian Grand Prix have been as compelling as any sporting contest has a right to be.
Anyhoo…These are the best drivers and the best cars in the world. Even with some concern over rule changes there are a crop of drivers ready to go at it hammer and tongs This season may well shape up to be a cracker.