pjazz

Race that kind of makes you scratch your head. Congrats to Ferrari. ESPN Coverage is just there. Cut to commercials with no updates to what happened once they cut back. I wish Buxton could take De Resta's place. It just seems to me F1 is about the least important sport they cover.

BKorsaire

I think that there are a lot of car racing formulas, specific to North America and that these channels think that F1 is not yet popular enough in the USA to invest more because the FOM (Formula One Management) ask exorbitant prices for broadcasting rights. It's simple : business as usual before all, before PASSION ! Here in Europa, and specially in France, F1 is very popular but less than footbal (soccer) ; F1 is considered as an elitist sport but the public is still very important, especially in France, Germany, UK, Italy, Belgia, the birth bases of F1 but you have many channels, TV, radio and webradio, "webzines" which from February to November broadcast F1 and discuss with the fans in live and others replays all year : because there is a passionate and more numerous public. When you will be more numerous, and with Hass, the COTA, and other circuits, we talk about a circuit in town in Florida, another in NY, you will see, in front of the public demand, the diffusion will become more serious and abundant. It's a matter of time and now that the rights owner is American, Liberty Media, you are more chance to see this evolution than under "Uncle Bernie" (Uncle Bernie). For me, F1 is above all in sport auto but it's just my opinion because I live F1 from January to December, so maybe I'm not objective, yes, I know, I'm very talkative...

sunsalem

sunsalem

BKorsaire

...and a lot of free vids on : https://twitter.com/F1

A mystery solved for the abandonment of Sirotkin: a plastic bag on the track that blocked the brake cooling system and caused the breakdown of the hydraulic system. Stroll 14th when all Renault engine F1 are in the top 10 ! I think Claire should call Massa back or give Kubi the keyfob a whole we !!! . Poor Williams

BKorsaire

Haas, from Gunther Steiner, : wheel not tightened securely
left back for Magnussen,
front left for Grosjean

10 K€ penalty for unsafe release

VetteDrmr

What a disaster for Haas! And kudos to Ferrari for being able to take advantage of the VSC. BTW, *why* was the safety car put out? That scenario was exactly what I thought the VSC was made for.

Also, how much was Hamilton's (or any other following driver's) attacks muted by the fact that each of the powertrains have to live for an average of 8 races?

Have a good one,
Mike

froggy47

So who decides when to split the screen & kill the audio for commercials? ESPN? Really would like to know.

Spoiled the race for me anyway.

Buxton on YT was very good, subscribed.

Since I missed a critical part of the race, someone please explain, did Vettel "pass" Hamilton under VSC or was he already ahead and I missed it?

Thanks all.

mattastick

The Sky broadcast has 0 commercials, from 1.5 hours before to 1.5 hours after the race. ESPN did the split screen (and on the online version, just completely commercial break, with no split screen).

Vettel had the lead, when Hamilton pitted to cover the undercut by Kimi. When the VSC came out, Vettel/Ferrari knew they'd lose less track position to Hamilton by pitting then than if they did under green, so they pitted, and came out just in front of him. There was no change of position, as Vettel had the lead the entire time from when Hamilton pitted until the end of the race.

BKorsaire

Yes, V4 do the overtaking under VSC in the pit, Ham stop before V4, after Kimi to cover the ''undercut''. When V4 exit out the pitlane, he was ahead Hamilton, a few but really ahead ! This night, in Stuutgart, I'm sure, the moustachio, Dieter Zetesche is very hungry ! During VSC, you run faster in pitlane than on the track !!! Here at seconds 42 Broadcasting : every network can do all he wants broadcasting the F1race, FOM is not responsible for advertising. Here, no advertising during the race

sunsalem

Kimi gets pissed (1:40 mark)

BKorsaire

Hamilton slowed considerably, losing, 1,7 seconds by lap to compensate for his "excessive" use during the pursuit of V4

Average one ICE for 7 race, and for all, except :
MGU K , battery and electronic box control only 2 for 21 races. Renault has said he will do a tactical moving engine because despite the penalty, you have an new engine with more power to push : Brazil 2017, Ham start in last grid podition and on the line he is 4th

froggy47

Love Kimi.

froggy47

OK Mattastick & BKorsaire

Can't be both. Need another vote to break the tie. Vettel take the lead thru the pits or already had it?

I MISSED it!

sunsalem

Practice (some observations):


Where do I start???

For those who set their DVRs up for the announced start time on Friday can't be happy.
I got lucky and switched to ESPN live 50 minutes into the supposed broadcast and caught it before I got screwed too.
Instead of FP2, for some fncking reason we got FP3...yay.
NOT impressed with the announcing team.
Only Paul di Resta was worth listening to (in spite of his sometimes heavy Scottish brogue).
The other guys (who sounded too much alike) were just yammering away, paying little attention to what was happening on-track.
Also, the silly-*** questions from the web they tried to answer was distracting and a waste of valuable time.
Alonso drove like a god.
ESPN's 720p format looked better than last year's 1080i from NBC.
It shouldn't, but it did to my eyes...motion much nicer.
Anyone know what the native rate is for the World Feed?

Anyway, what a horrible way to start the season (thanx Liberty).

BKorsaire

No, Hamilton was ahead since the start, he was in total control of the race before the VSC and so with the VSC and the pit, V4 take the head, a VSC wich became a SC to remove the Grosjean's car.

TrackAire

Maybe the F1 experts here (especially our Euro friends) may be able to answer this question for me....I kept hearing that each car gets 3 engines and 3 gear boxes for the season.

What happens if you get rear ended a couple of times and spin backwards into the wall completely destroying the gear box each time where it is not re-buildable? Does this mean the season is over for the car and driver if you destroy three gear boxes?

I can see where a gear box may be taken out by an accident that is no fault of the driver due to others crashing into them, etc.
I would think the way these cars are suppose to break apart to dissipate energy during a wreck leaves both the motor and gearbox open to major catastrophic damage.

I think ESPN's coverage will only get better with time (I really hope so)...but the commentary is very hard to understand due to accents, muffled annunciation and the sound of the cars in the background. Like I said previously, mouth full of marbles comes to mind.
I agree on picture quality, even on my TV the picture quality looks better than it did on last years network. I watched the qualifying on my computer yesterday from the ESPN link and it was much better than the old network even streaming.

The Haas team killed me....they were doing so well. There is probably an unemployed pit crew member looking for work tomorrow.

sunsalem

The Race (more thoughts):


After the clusterfnck of Friday, I was really jazzed up for the race on Saturday night.
Although the DVR was set again, I couldn't wait to see it on Sunday like I normally would and tuned in to the live feed.
Somehow, "they" managed to screw up the Pre-race show...
How is that even possible for fnck's sake?????

Anyway, once the race got underway, things became interesting as K.Mags shot up to 4th...Grosjean was also driving well.
Watching them going around the track, it appears the Ferrari power is working excellently for our little American team...they could power off the corners really well.
When disaster struck, I'm sure Gene Haas and Guenther Stein each aged 10 years in a minute.

The lack of passing opportunities at Albert Park was a bummer, but the guys tried as much as they could without going into a wall.
Max was so frustrated he was overdriving the car and it cost him.
It seems that finally...FINALLY, after these last few years of being behind, Ferrari is on par with MB.
We should be in for a helluva season in 2018.

As far as the muted commercials go (YAY times 2), this is the result of the World Feed being commercial-free.
Of course, ESPN isn't going to carry the race for free...so, they overlaid their own commercials over the feed, which meant a loss of audio (triple YAY).
In the 20+ years I have been watching F1 on the tube, I can't recall a race weekend broadcast more fudged up than this one (thanx Liberty).
And you know and I know ESPN is going to pre-empt F1 all year long with soccer, tennis, badminton, etc....(thanx Liberty).

sunsalem

No, they can get another transmission, but it will cost them grid penalties in the next race.
I felt gutted for the team.
They deserved better Karma.

VetteDrmr

1. You get three, regardless of why. If you go over the limit (which I see many, if not all, teams doing late in the season), then you get a x grid spot penalty. X is 5-10 points per device replaced, so it's quite likely you could have more spots in penalties than there are grid spots.

As far as coverage goes, the feed is from Sky Sports (the absolute cheapest way ESPN can provide coverage, AFAIK), so the coverage team is set. All we can hope for is basic 3rd-shift coverage team that will pay enough attention to push the button.

Have a good one,
Mike