Yay! The F1 season is underway!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

It’s about 3:45 AM here in Amsterdam, and in 15 minutes, I shall move to my living room to watch the Qualifying session of the 2003 Australian Grand Prix, live from Albert Park, Melbourne.

I’m so happy the long wait’s finally over!!

With the new rules, it ought to be interesting. Single lap qualifying, no refueling between qualifying and race (that could mean a TON of strategies right there!), no more techno gadgets and driver aids (although they’ll only be banned fully after a few races), and a few very interesting new drivers: Da Matta and Alonso seem to be the greatest promises.
The new points system means the first 8 spots get points instead of the first 6: ought to make things more interesting mid-field.

My man Jaqcues Villeneuve stunned everyone with his 3rd spot in free training despite engine problems: maybe BAR is finally on the right track, and we get to see Jaqcues duke it out with the big boys again this year? It would be great to see him in a fighting position again.

Williams has been disappointing in training, but maybe it’s all a smoke screen?

Jos Verstappen of the Netherlands is back in the paddock again, but as he’s driving for Minardi, I only expect him to do reasonably well in wet races, alas.

Mark Webber, the surprise of last season, is looking good as well, although I have my doubts about the Jaguar outfit - he was fast in training, though. Great driver.

Obviously, Shumacher has first dibs on the title again, what with Ferrari being so dominant. But damn, Kimi Raikkonen sure can drive. Kimi is going to declass Coulthard for sure this year, but can he beat Schuey in the long run?

AAAAAAAHHHH!! The wait is over. :smiley:

Any more F1 fans out there? Are you watching?

Let’s reconvene in this thread in 1.5 hours. :slight_smile:

2

Ack. Of course, Alonso isn’t new, he drove for Minardi in 2001. He’s a big talent, that’s all.

3

OK, off to the telly. Beer in hand. Woohoo. :smiley:

4

Wow, I didn’t know it was F1 season again! I’m not a big fan, but I sometimes watch the main race.

Few questions:

Single lap qualifying: Does that mean they have an outlap, then the next lap is the qualifying lap?

Does the new points system still award 10 points to the winner and 6 for second place?

Do you really think Shcumacher is beatable this season?

5

Damn it, he’s gone!

6

Yes.

It’s 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Possibly, but with a BAR and a Renault topping today’s practice session, who knows? Maybe parity has returned to F1. At least the new format will make things interesting.

Personally, I can’t watch it live. The only F1 coverage here in the US is on the Speed Channel, and I don’t get it. Also, the majority of the Champ Car races are on Speed also, so I may break down and get cable soon…

I can follow the live timing on F1-Live.com, though.

7

All Ferrari front row, by 7/10ths of a second.

Still, it should be a good race. There are lots of good drivers scattered through out the field.

8

Boy, interesting stuff!

Ferrari 1-2, with Montoya pulling off an impressive third. Frentzen in the Sauber obviously very light, little fuel on board, fourth spot! Panis in the Toyota and Villeneuve in the BAR complete an interesting top 6. Ralf S. and Raikkonen were disappointing, and Alonso made a huge mistake as well.

The Minardis found a loophole in the rules by not finishing their lap: they don’t have to park their cars in the Park Ferme, and can adjust them and fill them with fuel. As tomorrow may be a rainy race, it might prove to be somewhat of a decent move.

We’ll only really know after the race what it all means, these rules. I doubt Frentzen can maintain 4th. But Jaqcues is quick, quicker than the 6th spot he’s in now, as he made a little mistake in his qual lap.

AND WHERE ARE ALL THE OZ POSTERS?? :slight_smile:

9

Yawn. Another year of Michael Shumacher winning, and winning, and winning some more.

10

We’ll see Rick, we’ll see. :slight_smile:

11

If anything, qualifying will certainly be more interesting this year. Maybe more interesting than the race!

I like the one car system. I will especially like it when it rains halfway through the session.
Jenson Button reminds me of Austin Powers. Does anyone agree or am I just weird.

12

And no, Nigel Mansell does not live in the Isle of Man (anymore)

13

I stand corrected! Isn’t he a native, though?

14

He might be. I don’t know.

We also have Norman Wisdom. He does still live here.

15

Crap! Living in this F1 wasteland called America and I can’t watch! :mad:

Yeah, yeah I’ll take NASCAR, but I’ve always enjoyed NASCAR. However, F1 cannot be topped.

OK, OK, I had Gold tickets to the last Adelaide Grand Prix - the greatest road track ever according to F1 drivers - before the stupid SA Government gave away the race to Melbourne.

It’s never been the same.

At least, I can maintain my hidden desire Schumacher gets his come-uppance. Sure, he’s good, but I cannot stand the arrogance.

Double Crap! ESPN isn’t even carrying the race, not even tape-delay. What the Hell is Speed Channel? I mean even when ESPN did carry F1, they used local commentators who know shit about F1, rather than carry the feed with the Voice of F1, Murray Walker. And with his sidekick Barry whats-his-name doing color commentary, watching Australian Grand Prix was a delight.

:mad: :mad:

I’ll miss it live anyway. I’ll be on a jet at the time. :frowning:

16

Murray has retired. Martin Brundle (former driver) and some other guy commentate now.

Most countries carry the feed, and add their own commentator’s voices. Do you mean carry the carried feed of the UK boradcast?

I am slightly amazed you can’t watch it in merika. Isn’t it on satelite, or cable, or digital at all?
I normally don’t like the arrogant best people at the sport but I follow schumacher. I frown a bit when he’s being interviewed. But I am a fan of him as a driver, and of his team. I hate the mclaren team (don’t know why)

17

Something called “Speed Channel” on cable carries the race. But I’d have to shell out bucks for all sorts of useless digital cable channels just to receive the couple worth watching.

I have to suffer through reality TV, Celebrity Reality TV, and other useless crap on the tube.

Yeah, I know Murry retired. And the other guy who did color commentary was Barry Sheen.

Crap!

18

Here’s the results:
P. No Driver Team - Engine Tyres Gaps/Laps Average Stops

  1. 5 COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes M 1h34’42"124 194.868 Km/h 2
  2. 3 MONTOYA Williams BMW M + 0’08"675 194.571 Km/h 2
  3. 6 RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes M + 0’09"192 194.554 Km/h 2
  4. 1 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari B + 0’09"482 194.544 Km/h 3
  5. 7 TRULLI Renault M + 0’38"801 193.547 Km/h 2
  6. 10 FRENTZEN Sauber Petronas B + 0’43"928 193.373 Km/h 2
  7. 8 ALONSO Renault M + 0’45"074 193.335 Km/h 2
  8. 4 R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW M + 0’45"745 193.312 Km/h 2
  9. 16 VILLENEUVE BAR Honda B + 1’05"536 192.646 Km/h 3
  10. 17 BUTTON BAR Honda B + 1’05"974 192.632 Km/h 3
  11. 19 VERSTAPPEN Minardi Cosworth B 1 lap(s) 1
  12. 11 FISICHELLA Jordan Ford B 6 lap(s) 3
  13. 15 PIZZONIA Jaguar Cosworth M 6 lap(s) 2
  14. 20 PANIS Toyota M 27 lap(s) 2
  15. 9 HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas B 38 lap(s) 1
  16. 18 WILSON Minardi Cosworth B 42 lap(s) 2
  17. 14 WEBBER Jaguar Cosworth M 43 lap(s) 0
  18. 21 DA MATTA Toyota M 51 lap(s) 0
  19. 12 FIRMAN Jordan Ford B 52 lap(s) 0
  20. 2 BARRICHELLO Ferrari B 53 lap(s) 0

Surprising, no? Too bad about BAR. I was really hoping they’d be competative this year.

Now if I could actually WATCH the race, that would be cool…

19

Did anyone else notice Ron Dennis’ mistake when he said (in a post-race interview for UK ITV) that neither David nor Mika were satisfied with their qualifying times? The man knows how to make Kimi feel welcome.

Ron Dennis runs the McLaren team

McLaren drivers this year are David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen

Retired McLaren driver Mika Hakkinen, replaced by Kimi

20

… and replaced by Kimi a whole friggin’ year ago! Dennis is an ass. What else is new. :slight_smile:

Surprising race, lots of fun to watch. Don’t know what the hell was wrong with my man Villeneuve, but he sure seems to like taunting the hell out of his teammates! I don’t buy for one second that his radio was really malfunctioning. Oh well, Jaqcues can be an ass, but he can also provide fantastic racing.

Can’t wait for the Malaysian GP! But since I’ll be in the US then, there’s a good chance I’ll miss the GP entirely. :frowning: