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2018 Formula One thread

Prepuce of Doom

By Prepuce of Doom
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Bill Brasky
Bill Brasky

I am okay with any result that causes Hamilton and Mercedes to lose.   Their act is old.   

RamjetFDO
RamjetFDO
wood
wood

That was just Gunther Steiner.

wood

wood 11763

Posted
Posted (edited)
32 minutes ago, Lobo said:

I thought there was no Fan Forum of any kind this year and that was known for months in advance.  What exactly was cancelled and where was it supposed to be held?  

Fan Fest wasn't held this year, but the Fan Forum has been on the schedule for a while at 4pm  Sunday at the 360 Amphitheater. Jonathan Greene also announced it immediately after the race on the PS, saying it would be Fernando Alonso and some other unnamed drivers. 

Edited by wood
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wood

wood 11763

Posted
Posted
Just now, Lobo said:

Got it.  That sucks it was cancelled so late.  More importantly, anybody have pics of Britney Spears?  

No good pics. We went for a few songs, but no, she did not do it again. It was not good. But, you know, it was Brittney Spears.

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wood

wood 11763

Posted
Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, relapse98 said:

Looks. Still has some pretty bad bumps on the back straigh. About midway on the inside, every car that went there got wobbly. 

Yep. And a lot of other places. Entry and exit of 5 (where apparently the worst cracks are) just seems to be getting worse, an check out the cars when they go up to 1 and come down the hill and around 2. I saw an onboard from Kimi that looked & sounded like he was gonna rattle his car to pieces. That camera view from 19 looking back up at 17-18 really showed the cars jumping around on the bumps as well.

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, relapse98 said:

Looks. Still has some pretty bad bumps on the back straigh. About midway on the inside, every car that went there got wobbly. 

You talking about Britney or?  

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wood

wood 11763

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Lobo said:

You talking about Britney or?  

LMAO! Yeah, I was pretty far back from the stage, just chillin in my chair, but even back there she seemed a little lumpy. Not bad for her age, for sure, but I'd been hearing from my wife (no pics) that Britney was really getting back in shape or something.

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wood

wood 11763

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 minutes ago, relapse98 said:

I could post my picture I did with the pom squad and cheerleaders at the Tito's tailgate, but it would go over like a ton of brick. ;)

Like a ton (you know, like maybe 6 or 7) of Vic's cholas?

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wood 11763

Posted
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BTW, my 15 yo told me about this yesterday ... he saw some personnel using a fire hydrant to refill one of those big blue Water Station containers out by T6. Given what I've seen come out of hydrants over the years, that seems 'less than optimal'. And then I wake up today to read about the 'boil water' notice from the City... 

 

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utee94

utee94 16079

Posted
Posted

Just got home from dropping the RV off in storage, what a great race and a fun weekend.  My hiking boots and blue jeans are caked in mud, but they'll all wash out.

That race was so fun, but just imagine how it would be even tighter if Seb hadn't spun out when tangled up with Ricciardo.  Ah well, great stuff anyway.

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utee94

utee94 16079

Posted
Posted

Coolest station wagon on the planet!

About halfway through the race on the DVR now, looks to me like Fred was largely at fault for that contact, but I've only seen maybe one replay and view of it. I was a little surprised they didn't show it a little more.  I guess there was just so much happening on lap1 they never got back around to it.

Anyway, ugh... like I said 6 or 7 races ago, at this point if I were Alonso or Ricciardo, I'm not sure I'd even show up.  What a rotten string of non-finishes.

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wood

wood 11763

Posted
Posted (edited)
29 minutes ago, utee94 said:

Coolest station wagon on the planet!

About halfway through the race on the DVR now, looks to me like Fred was largely at fault for that contact, but I've only seen maybe one replay and view of it. I was a little surprised they didn't show it a little more.  I guess there was just so much happening on lap1 they never got back around to it.

Anyway, ugh... like I said 6 or 7 races ago, at this point if I were Alonso or Ricciardo, I'm not sure I'd even show up.  What a rotten string of non-finishes.

Watch it from this first angle.

Stroll basically just blasted straight through and drove right into the side of Alonso. Alonso was just following the racing line and really couldn't have known Stroll was there, esp that late and in the esses. Stroll was on a very bad line there. He'd have had trouble even making the next apex on that line even if Alonso weren't there. Just when I was starting to think the kid was doing ok. That was turrible. 

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utee94

utee94 16079

Posted
Posted

Thanks, that view shows me a lot more, and aligns more to my expectations.  Just sucks for so many US fans like me that would have loved to see him at least finish his final USGP on F1.

Ah well, guess we'll just have to wait 'til March to see him racing in Austin again... ;)

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wood

wood 11763

Posted
Posted (edited)
6 minutes ago, utee94 said:

Thanks, that view shows me a lot more, and aligns more to my expectations.  Just sucks for so many US fans like me that would have loved to see him at least finish his final USGP on F1.

Ah well, guess we'll just have to wait 'til March to see him racing in Austin again... ;)

Yep!

I just looked at the stewards' report and they penalized Stroll for leaving the track and rejoining unsafely. I didn't even notice that the first time so I went back to look. Yep. He was 4-off, but I realized watching it again that his line was even worse than I thought the first time. He was just straightlining 4 and 5. He was nowhere near the racing line & wouldn't have come close to making 5 even if Alonso magically disappeared himself.

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utee94

utee94 16079

Posted
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On 10/21/2018 at 10:15 PM, wood said:

 

 

What was the deal? Today shoulda been the best of all 3 days in the lots re: mud. It was certainly the best day at the track.

Yeah, not sure why Sunday would have been worse than Saturday, other than maybe just a lot more cars?  They were able to squeeze into the available non-destroyed spaces on Saturday, but got overwhelmed on Sunday, perhaps?  Just a thought.

I will give the COTA parking folks a little credit here-- my brother parked out in Lot F and they actually had someone directing traffic that had 4WD vehicles one direction, and non-4WD-vehicles in another.  He drives a pretty serious, lifted, offroad 4x4 Jeep, so had no problems anywhere. But I liked that they were at least trying to help folks out with that.

Also, I agree that COTA screws up a lot of stuff, but some of the complaints I saw from folks on social media, were really stupid.  And my personal experience with some of the fans at the track, confirm that people are, indeed, basically morons.  So you have to take a lot of their complaints with an enormous grain of salt.

One perfect example of this was Saturday night, headed over to the superstage for the Bruno Mars concert.  We had exited the venue after the last on-track events Saturday afternoon, to head back to the RV, grab some food and drinks, watch some college football, and then we re-entered at Turn 6, where they scanned out tickets back in.  So we're walking along that gravel path that runs between the Biergarten and turns 9/10, so we can hit the gap that lets you across the track and down to the grassy infield to watch the concert.  That gravel pathway is wide, probably wide enough for 10-15 people the whole way.  Yet there is a queue of people standing only 2-across, snaking all the way back to, basically, the biergarten.

So my wife and I are walking past them, and a this one 20-something girl gets in front of me and says, "Excuse me, this is the line."  I was surprised, and I replied, "there is no line, there's just this pathway and two open gates at the end, to get across the track and down to the infield."  But she insists once again, "No, this is the line." And I respond again, "There is no line.  You're already inside the venue, you've scanned your tickets, there's nothing left to do but walk to the stage and watch the concert."  And she's really furious now, and says "don't be a dick."  And I'm just incredulous, and my wife just grabs my arm and says "ignore her" and we keep on walking.  Past probably 300-400 people that are standing 2-across in a line that does not actually exist.  And sure enough, once you get up to that grandstand between Turns 9 and 10, you can go to either side of that grandstand, and cross the track, and get to the infield, quite easily, with absolutely no need to queue up 2-across for a half-mile.

But I guarantee you that this complete moron is telling her side of the story out there on social media, complaining about a-hole fans cutting the line, and how COTA did nothing to stop it.

 

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wood

wood 11763

Posted
Posted (edited)

So is it true that people who had prepaid for parking were turned away before the race on Sunday, given a bus pass in exchange for their parking pass, and told to go downtown and catch the shuttle? Holy fuck if true.

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Posted
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1 hour ago, Goofyboy said:

I’m not sure if people were turned away or not. I was in Lot T. There is no way they parked as many cars in there as last year, as we parked on the gravel, parallel, instead of Side by side in the grass.

Yeah after I posted that, I searched twitter for 'cota parking'. My eyes are still burning. Apparently a lot of people were turned away from the lot they'd bought tickets for and told to go to other lots (in that traffic) & 'see if they can get in'. They were often turned away at the other lots as well. Some said they missed the race or had to walk 2 miles in after paying for on-site parking. A lot of them were PSL holders. There were also a lot of complaints about lack of direction from the parking staff, pics of parking staff standing looking at cellphones, complete absence of Law Enforcement traffic control at critical entry and egress intersections (I saw that for myself & heard about it from friends going other routes). Not great. You'd think maybe an Austin news outlet might do a story about it, bu t yeah, it's Austin news, so ...

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39 minutes ago, utee94 said:

All of that, PLUS the COTA officials didn't stop those a-holes from cutting the line for the Bruno Mars concert.

The line that never existed. ;)

I hear what you're saying re: that line & some people's complaints, but I'm pretty sure these parking complaints are valid. It's a big deal to miss any session because you're told told you're SOL when you get to the parking lot you prepaid to use  ... but esp when it's Qualifying or the GP itself.

COTA said a couple of years ago that they had the wet parking situation under control after the 2015 fiasco, saying that they had added 2000+ paved parking spaces that nobody's been able to find. Really, I can't see that they changed much at all in the on-site lots, except paving a strip of access way in the middle of Lot F. They also added the shuttle lot at the Expo Center, which does fine in the rain and was very convenient for a lot of people, & then they abandoned that for this year. They also reduced paved parking significantly by building the karting track that takes up about a quarter of Lot A.

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utee94

utee94 16079

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Posted (edited)

Yes, I also thought they'd have a better recovery system in place after 2015.  Having driven through most of the lots this past weekend, as well as many 2015, I can assure you the lots themselves were in worse condition in 2015.

What I think  might have happened is that in 2015, because the weather was so unbelievably miserable on both Friday and Saturday, attendance was down on Sunday, too.  So although the lots were worse, they also didn't have nearly as many cars to park.

This past weekend, every single session was more crowded than I can remember it being in a VERY long time, like maybe 5 or 6 years.  Even Friday with the poor weather through much of the day, and certainly Saturday-- trying to walk around the Grand Plaza and T15 grandstands before and after Saturday's qualifying-- was a shoulder-to-shoulder logjam shitshow the likes of which I can't EVER recall on a Saturday of the USGP weekend, except for maybe the very first race in 2012.

Sunday's crowd was very large, too, although it seemed to be a little more spread out.  Maybe due to parking difficulties?  Or maybe the GA folks just high-tail it to their favorite spots and don't wander around like they do on other days?

Anyway, the crowds were really large, and the parking was certainly diminished.  But I know a couple dozen people that all drove in and parked for the race on Sunday, and although they said that inbound traffic was slow and congested, not one of them actually missed the race or was told to park elsewhere.

I'm not saying problems didn't occur, but I can say with great certainty that at least 75% of "news" or "statements" on twitter are complete bullshit.  Consequently I don't believe one single thing I read on that travismahockery of a joke of a social media platform.  

If anyone I knew in person were complaining, I'd be the first to pass it along here.  But that hasn't happened, at all.  

Just my experiences, YMMV. :)

Edited by utee94
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wood

wood 11763

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Posted

My bad re: the 2000 newly-paved parking spots. During the early 2016 Taylor Swift announcement Epstein said they were going to pave 12,000 spots. LOL. I guess he never got around to it.

I know there's a lot of bs on twitter, but it's not just twitter that's that way. It's any social media, and just because there's a lot of bs on twitter, imho that doesn't mean you can extrapolate that to everything you see there. When numerous people take to twitter to make a very specific but similar complaints about incidents at a venue, for example, it comes across as very believable to me. Corroboration by friends and acquaintances at the circuit makes it even more believable to me.

Re: the crowd, it was a good-looking crowd given what remains of the grandstands, but nothing like the first or second year on any of the 3 days. Probably around 70-75K on Sunday but probably only 50-60K combined the first two days. They've cut their reserved seating capacity by almost half since 2012 to match demand, which will make the place look a lot more full.

And yeah, parking was diminished, but that's on COTA. Epstein's promised 12,000 new paved spots never got paved, and since 2016 they've cut about a quarter of the Lot A parking and dropped the very popular Expo Center and Burger Center shuttles. That's a lot of capacity that's not being made up.

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utee94

utee94 16079

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Posted

I still won't ever believe even 25% of the horseshit I hear about from twitter-- or any other social media outlet.  Or on surlyhorns for that matter. ;)

#FakeNews

12,000 new paved spots since 2016 certainly would have helped though, I'll readily agree with that.

And I'm not talking about visual crowding in the grandstands (or even in the GA areas), I'm talking about general shoulder-to-shoulder crowding in the concourses.  It was WAY more crowded for Qualy especially this year, compared to the past 3-5 years.  

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utee94

utee94 16079

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Posted

Red Bull always puts together some fun stuff.  If I didn't dislike Max so thoroughly, I could probably enjoy it.  But with Ricciardo moving on, and them putting all their chips down on Max, I can once again say... Eff RBR.  I hope they fall off a cliff in the sport, and Renault replaces them in the top 3. Or Sauber, because Kimi is awesome.

 

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Lidig8r

Lidig8r 1906

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Anton Chigurh said:

https://www.haasf1team.com/news/news-rich-energy-announced-haas-f1-team-title-partner

So, with the change in livery, Hass cars will be black with old gold accent?  Will they look like the old John Player Special Lotus cars? Or the one that Mario Andretti drove to the World Championship...

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utee94

utee94 16079

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Posted
4 hours ago, Lidig8r said:

So, with the change in livery, Hass cars will be black with old gold accent?  Will they look like the old John Player Special Lotus cars? Or the one that Mario Andretti drove to the World Championship...

Or something like THIS? (which slightly predated the JPS livery at Lotus)

 

f1-peor-coche-fittipaldi-lotus-56b.jpeg

 

 

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