F1 2012 Championship Thread

[MacLeod]

What is it now, around 48hrs until FP begins down-under?

And only a few days until we see the real pace of the cars in a race.

So are Red Bull going to run away into the distance again? Or are we going to have a close season from the start?

And what's everyone elses opinion on the nose of most of the constructors this year?

[ElimParra]

I think it has, as my sister in law mentioned something about yesterday on facebook. It's currently Thursday here. I know coverage starting tomorrow and over the weekend, but not today.

[Geckothan]

FP1 starts in four hours or so afaik. The Sky coverage starts in three hours anyway.

[MacLeod]

Well the 2012 F1 Championship has started in earnest now, that qualfing is over.

And McLaren have locked out the front row with LH leading JB by 0.16 seconds.

But as they always say pole means nothing. But a few points from the session

Are the Red Bulls really that far of the pace?
What's wrong with the Ferrari?
Does the Lotus have that pace or did the condtions suit it?
What will happen to the protest that several teams have put in about the legality of the Merc?

[Lonemagpie]

Yep, Grosjean and Schumi squeezing in *before* the Red Bulls suggests it'll be be interesting, and Vettel won't be repeating his "get pole, then just drive off and leave everybody else to it" strategy.

Shame I can't fucking watch it all.

[MacLeod]

Though we'll have to see a few different types of tracks/conditions before we can tell if its the car or track/conditions

[Dick_Valentine]

Everyone on the internet thinks the Red Bull is slow in qualifying but up to 1 second a lap faster than anyone else in the race.

Which is nice, if they're going to run away and take it all again at least they'll have to pas some cars doing it!

For the moment though it is nice and gratifying to see the best looking cars quickest and the ugliest towards the back, I hope that gives the engineers something to think about when planning the 2013 cars!

No stepped noses please!

[MacLeod]

It is possible for a car to be slower in qulaifing than in the race, we say that a bit last year where the McLaren's struggled a lit bit in qualifing but where good in the race but it was no where near a second. It's much easier to control the race from the front than to fight youe way through traffic.

[Geckothan]

Red Bull wouldn't have been able to mix with McLaren without that safety car, in my opinion, and we've still yet to see the best of the new Mercedes. It's going to be an interesting year

[Lonemagpie]

I was vaguely hoping that, since BBC1 started the actual race on the highlights show less than 15 minutes into the show, that they might sneakily squeeze in the whole thing - but no, they've just jumped from lap 6 to lap 10 while showing the replay of Vettel briefly skipping off the track. Subtle way of cutting out three laps, but cutting it is. Fuck the BBC for giving up their exclusive free to air rights because they viewed channel 4 as more of a rival than Sky, (BBC: Which media outlet is always trying to do you down, fuck you up, and get the government to hamstring you to better them? Clue- it's not Channel fucking 4) and fuck Sky for wanting me to double what I pay them a month to see this live.

Oh. and the new commentary guy, Ben Edwards? He's rubbish. Incredibly false attempts at childish breathless excitement, that sounds nothing like...

ETA- I don't like the new Irish guy who's replaced the guy on the grid either

[Lonemagpie]

The only good thing about the "extended highlights" was that they could leave out the procession behind the safety car. But they still managed to sneakily disappear about 15 minutes worth of the race - it ran about 1:15 out of 1:30

[Geckothan]

If you're so bothered about giving money to "Darth Murdoch" or whatever the anti-Sky types call him these days, it's probably mentioning that BT and Virgin carry Sky's channel too, though I don't think they're any cheaper (though a lot of the naysayers seem more concerned with continuing their silly anti-corporate crusade and boycotting Sky on some hippie principles, than whether they can afford it or not), and they're probably only SD anyway...

...not that BBC One HD is much better than most SD channels, given that it's compressed into oblivion, particularly on satellite, presumably to free up some bandwidth on the transponder for all the needless variations of BBC One that differ only by their country-specific idents and twenty minutes per day of trivial regional news, or simulcasts of their countless ethnic quota-mandated minority radio stations that nobody even listens to on DAB or FM, let alone satellite.

I watched both the live Sky coverage this morning, and the BBC highlights this afternoon, and the latter just didn't do it for me. The commentary didn't work at all without MB, Jake/EJ/DC didn't seem like their usual entertaining selves, and the cuts to the race were just awful (though not as bad as the cuts on the qualifying show, which removed some of the most significant parts). Sky's show felt a bit unpolished and lacking in direction, but they've improved dramatically over the weekend, so I guess the producers and presenters just need more time to get used to the format (though the commentary was fine from the start, as to be expected with Ant/Croft and Croft/MB).

[Lonemagpie]

Geckothan wrote:

---

If you're so bothered about giving money to "Darth Murdoch" or whatever the anti-Sky types call him these days, it's probably mentioning that BT and Virgin carry Sky's channel too, though I don't think they're any cheaper (though a lot of the naysayers seem more concerned with continuing their silly anti-corporate crusade and boycotting Sky on some hippie principles, than whether they can afford it or not), and they're probably only SD anyway...

I have a Sky subscription, but I do object to the only ways to get F1 being ones that would double my payment every month for a single programme.

I also, of course, despise the BBC's duplicitous stupidity in making this deal, depriving many of us of half the races in 2012-2018, just to stop Channel 4 giving us it free to air in 2014...

[Mr Pointy Ears]

Round one was a good one,was hoping mercedes really did good.

[MacLeod]

Well Round 2 might be closer, though it looks like the McLaren of LH might have a slight advantage based on FP1 & 2. But then again we don;t know fuel levels etc..