Just a friendly notice.
A chance to get to hear some other F1 commentators. Ed

 

The BMW's are pretty damned fast, until they blow up...

 

McNish in the Toyota has topped out at 225mph. Not sure if he is the fastest top speed, thats just the one I've heard.

 

dont click on the F1 thread in the members corner if you dont want to see who won.

 

My local SF Bay Area ABC affiliate decided that a 2 wheeled bicycle race was more important than F1. I already flamed their email. next I'll send my opinion to their customer service voice mail.

 

The commentators are okay, but Danny Sullivan sucks the wind right out of the broadcast. I like the World Feed graphics too.

 

<yawn>
That finish reminded me of a 24hour race. Letting your teamate catch up for the photo op at the finish line.

Really, really boring.

Sorry guys. Just calling it like I saw it. The only reason I even watched it was because it was raining and nothing else was on.

PS - Do those guys actually have automatic transmissions now??? From one of the in-car videos Montoya's car was upshifting down the straight while he was reaching up to mess with his visor.
If this is true, I think I'm gonna be sick.

 

I think they have options on which paddles they want on either side of the steering wheel. Some drivers have both paddles on both sides of the wheel...but don't quote on me on that.

I spent half the race trying to get my girfriend to catch a glimpse of the old Monza oval circuit. Needless to say, she thought I was stupid.

 

fully automatic transmissions are allowed. Not everyone is using them (some on upshift only, etc).

You may proceed to 'be sick'.

 

Cool! All that practice on Gran Turismo selecting "Automatic" _IS_ helping me prepare for F-1 after all! I'll hop in the car and ask, "By the way, is this one set to 'Race' or 'Drift'?"



I wonder where F-1 will draw the line before it allows fully autonomous robotic cars to race... or maybe just telepresence.. Picture it-- Schumacher is sitting in a motion simulator chair in the pits as he drives his robo car around the course with a better weight distibution and 170 lbs (?) lighter for the lack of him..

 

Robots are still a bit heavy and clunky.
Now, it they didn't need to make it look like a 'bot!
hehe ... there'd be no cockpit!!!

Ahmmm, yeah.
They're getting a bit boring lately.

 

ECHC 0wnz F1 racing!

Jason-
who hasn't heard anyone complain of boredom when speaking of the ECHC

 

How about an ECHC support race for INDY F1?

 

Maybe the Honda teams can use Asimo (sp?) as their next driver

Brian

 

That was some terrible commentating, and the idea of Danny Sulivan looking for somebody with the "character" to be an F1 driver cracks me up. The guy is a walking advertisement for Valium!

I also loved some of the comments like "Well it appears that one of the Williams cars is coming in for a pit stop. It's probably Montoya.." Considering that Ralf blew his engine on lap 4, I would $@&#ing hope so dumbass! They also were screwing up the BAR teammates beyond belief. I can't even count how many times he was saying that Panis was Villeneuve. I also loved how he was talking about Coultard trying to get around Fisi for about a half a lap AFTER he already made the pass. How do these guys get these jobs?!?

All in all, it was good to see all 4 Hondas finish, despite Sato's best efforts to screw things up. It was definately a Michelin day though....

Matt

 

I just hope Button does as well for B.A.R. as he has performed for Renault.

Chris - who thinks watching the middle of the pack race in Formula 1 is similiar to watching H2 & H3 racing in E.C.H.C.

 

Man that is so true. The speedvision guys with the world feed give you more information than the guys that have the more in-depth bernievision. I love watching that race just because of the in car. The race itself was boring but IMO and F1 race can never truly be boring. It is true that the outcome is most often a forgone conclusion but watching the back of the field fight for position is awesome!! F1 Own3z all!

I am a supporter of the automatic tranny for 1 reason, F1 is a series designed to provide a championship where car manufactures compete to build the best car on the planet. A driver can never be as perfect as a computer, thus you have a faster car because of it. That is why most drivers have fully auto up shifts. That is also why I would be in total support of losing the driver all together.

 

You're getting pretty damned close to getting your wish.

Scott, who thinks Fangio is probably turing rapidly in his grave (without traction control).

 

Senna too for that matter. Don't get me wrong though I love some of the drivers and seeing how they have total disregard for there life but, at the end of the day it is about the cars, not the drivers.

 

..before we all get carried away, Senna drove in the era of active suspension, but I don't hear any demerits on that end, and Fangio drove in an era where people assaulted the Nurburgring in some ratty 'race car' in an undershirt and slacks; totally different era, you had to have total abandon to drive then, and consequently A LOT of drivers DIED. Do we really want that again, just to make it more exciting? F1 is about development and technology, its about a given manufacture pouring in insane resources to clinch what, in most of the world, is THE most prestigious league of motorsport in the world, [yes RALLY is also brilliant and popular, but which paddock would you want to be in, honestly?]. All in all, I'm begining to think that people have just given in to this mind set of "Ferrari wins everything, so F1 is boring.." True, they do win, but if your finding F1 boring, your NOT watching the race.




[Modified by bb6h22a, 9:09 AM 9/16/2002]

 

but did senna ever drive an active suspension car? not to my knoweldge.

i completely understand why F1 went back to TC and LC (unable to police its use) but i never heard any reason for introduction of auto shifting. does anyone know the reason why they allowed it?

 

I thought it was also fun watching the guys going through the chicanes with virtually no downforce--even the god Schumacher had a few "moments" through the first set before curva grande. He was almost completely off the track in the lesmos a number of times too. As much as F1 is a parade up front (I love how the commentators got excited when Rubinho came in for his second stop as if anything but what Ferrari wanted to happen would happen), I really enjoyed watching Monza--it's an awesome track, exciting w/ little downforce and the bernie-vision camera shots were great. One of the better races to watch lately. They should reopen the banked oval though

 

I believe the reasons that they gave was to level the playing field for one and to relieve some of the exsess stress from the engine.

Cars where blowing engines because of mis-shifts, that costs alot.
The other and more popular reason is becuase teams like Ferrari and Mclaren were using the extra time they had available to them because there shifts were so quick to aid in traction. Without allowing auto trans the top teams would still have a huge advantage to the smaller budget teams. Hey at least the took away the power sterring.

 

they're one in the same. What the FIA did was not introduce TC, LC, or auto-shift specifically, but lift all electronic restrictions on the drivetrain.

From that ruling the engineers were given new areas to work in, including the ones mentioned above.

Anyone who suggests anything less advanced than a electronically controlled semi-automatic transmission in F1 is talking nonsense.

Can you (or ANY driver) modulate the throttle to heel-and-toe or rev-match on an engine with an inertia so low and power so great that, when you floor the throttle, the engine will be on the rev limiter before your foot gets to 100%?

 

Those are all rumors and untrue.