General / Off-Topic Formula 1 - 2017 Season

[K-Rose]

So the great combination of two fantastic "Dad" things, we have Formula 1 & Elite Dangerous!

So personally I know in my gut that this season will probably be the Mercedes show again, but I'm still really excited! I hope with all my being that Red Bull can match them, and there's a good midfield battle with the other teams.

What say you?

Edits
Melbourne - It looked like the Ham show, Seb proved us wrong and gave us hope for a close season.
Better start for F1 than last year, remember the stupid qualifying format in 2016?!

China - A solid race, Ferrari made it a bit boring with their strategy call though. I actually really enjoyed it!

Bahrain - Another solid race in my opinion. Mercedes messed up their strategy, Bottas disappointed, Vettel did his thing, Max visited the wall and Stroll got T-Boned...

 

[who?]

Some shots of the Williams '17 model.

So far, I really like the more 'organic' body shape, less angular and more curvy. I like the swept back rear wing endplates too on the Sauber. Look really nice, after some of the abominations of recent years.

 

[K-Rose]

Some shots of the Williams '17 model.

So far, I really like the more 'organic' body shape, less angular and more curvy. I like the swept back rear wing endplates too on the Sauber. Look really nice, after some of the abominations of recent years.

My goodness I missed the Williams!

I love the back ends on these cars.

They look a little long but other than that I think they look great.

 

[Arry]

I am a massive fan and have watched since the 70s. However: Being a poor commoner I can't afford Sky, but will watch races as I can and hope the new management, open it up to more viewers some how. No German GP this year I hear, due to the 'freeview' issue.

 

[Patrick_68000]

In 2018, there will be the come back of Grand Prix of France on the circuit of Castellet

 

[K-Rose]

I am a massive fan and have watched since the 70s. However: Being a poor commoner I can't afford Sky, but will watch races as I can and hope the new management, open it up to more viewers some how. No German GP this year I hear, due to the 'freeview' issue.

Maybe I shouldn't advertise this here, but on the Reddit they put up stream links & instructions for every race.

https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/

Wait for the race weekend to start, look for the stickied comment and you'll see it.

 

[TheAntitheist Crusader]

I'm really looking forward to 2017 season, i have been a fan since 2009 (passive supporter of F1 before then, Jenson getting a winning car got me interested) now i never missed a race, allthough last season we got rid of sky (i miss Brundle) so had to catch highlights of half the races on channel 4, my hopes for this season are simple.....that Bottas beats Hamilton, i'm a proud Brit, usually support the UK drivers, but i can't stand Hamilton. Also i'm happy that F1 is still non canopy, i dread the dday that comes in, but this season should be enjoyable enough.

 

[K-Rose]

Personally I'm hoping for a close 4 way fight between Red Bull & Mercedes, with Ricciardo coming out on top with Hamilton in 2nd.

Ferrari, Williams, McLaren, Force India all 0.5 seconds off the pace but mixing it up with each other.

Haas & Renault will be behind this lot, grabbing the occasional point.

I think Torro Rosso & Sauber will be 2017's back markers.

 

[Stealthie]

So personally I know in my gut that this season will probably be the Mercedes show again, but I'm still really excited! I hope with all my being that Red Bull can match them, and there's a good midfield battle with the other teams.

It'd be a brave person who bets against Merc' but, historically, RBR have been better at getting a handle of aero' innovation quickly and making it work for them.
TBH, I don't think Merc' significantly improved their car at all between 2010 and 2013, back when aero' was the key to success.
They really just got lucky, in 2013, that McLaren and Ferrari tripped themselves up so it looked like Merc' were improving.

The first year after a significant change is always the most interesting. That's when we get to see who's got it right and who's going to have to have a hasty rethink.

 

[TheAntitheist Crusader]

Personally I'm hoping for a close 4 way fight between Red Bull & Mercedes, with Ricciardo coming out on top with Hamilton in 2nd.

Ferrari, Williams, McLaren, Force India all 0.5 seconds off the pace but mixing it up with each other.

Haas & Renault will be behind this lot, grabbing the occasional point.

I think Torro Rosso & Sauber will be 2017's back markers.

I'd love to see ricciardo as world champ as well. As for team running order, i think Haas might be back markers this season (and Sauber) i'm hoping Renault will be more competitive, and Torro Rosso are never terrible so i expect a fight.

 

[Arry]

I'm really looking forward to 2017 season, i have been a fan since 2009 (passive supporter of F1 before then, Jenson getting a winning car got me interested) now i never missed a race, allthough last season we got rid of sky (i miss Brundle) so had to catch highlights of half the races on channel 4, my hopes for this season are simple.....that Bottas beats Hamilton, i'm a proud Brit, usually support the UK drivers, but i can't stand Hamilton. Also i'm happy that F1 is still non canopy, i dread the dday that comes in, but this season should be enjoyable enough.

I love the way Jackie Stewart called him a prima donna. He also proved his arrogance by having a strop about not knowing 'which button to press', when the team refused to break the no coaching rules. I mean, he is paid to drive a car and didn't know what the buttons on the dash did. I would say that there are 4 drivers on the grid that could do as well, given the same car etc.. Yes of course, he can drive and drive very well, but I would not put him up as the best, not by a long chalk. Which a bit like Vetel, when he had the best car and a free hand etc. he was unstoppable, when leading the pack, but had issues mixing it with them. I would also like to see Ricciardo do very well this year, but Verstappen is going to be the one to watch.

I too miss Brundle, the best grid walker in the business and liked and respected by everyone there. Now I guess it is time to do my own research and make some predictions of my own. Now where is Adrain Newey this season?

 

[Stealthie]

I love the way Jackie Stewart called him a prima donna. He also proved his arrogance by having a strop about not knowing 'which button to press', when the team refused to break the no coaching rules. I mean, he is paid to drive a car and didn't know what the buttons on the dash did. I would say that there are 4 drivers on the grid that could do as well, given the same car etc.. Yes of course, he can drive and drive very well, but I would not put him up as the best, not by a long chalk. Which a bit like Vetel, when he had the best car and a free hand etc. he was unstoppable, when leading the pack, but had issues mixing it with them. I would also like to see Ricciardo do very well this year, but Verstappen is going to be the one to watch.

If you're talking about Monaco, it wasn't quite that simple.

Hamilton's car had been configured to start in the "faulty mode" so he didn't touch anything to cause the fault.
Rosberg's car was set up in a different mode so, after changing some of the settings, it was easy for the team to tell him "something you just did caused the problem" and he could put the settings back how they were before because he knew what he'd already changed.
Hamilton, by contrast, had no way of knowing which setting, or combination of settings, was causing the problem so he had no idea what to change.
And the daft radio rules meant the team couldn't tell him.

And Jackie Stewart's got a cheek suggesting anybody is a "prima donna".
He was the prima donna to end them all.

Agree with you about Vettel though.
I guess the ability to drive a car tidily and consistently is a skill worthy of praise but, in a sub-optimal car, he really embarrassed himself against Ricciardo in 2015 and there's no excuse for that.

 

[TheAntitheist Crusader]

I love the way Jackie Stewart called him a prima donna. He also proved his arrogance by having a strop about not knowing 'which button to press', when the team refused to break the no coaching rules. I mean, he is paid to drive a car and didn't know what the buttons on the dash did. I would say that there are 4 drivers on the grid that could do as well, given the same car etc.. Yes of course, he can drive and drive very well, but I would not put him up as the best, not by a long chalk. Which a bit like Vetel, when he had the best car and a free hand etc. he was unstoppable, when leading the pack, but had issues mixing it with them. I would also like to see Ricciardo do very well this year, but Verstappen is going to be the one to watch.

I too miss Brundle, the best grid walker in the business and liked and respected by everyone there. Now I guess it is time to do my own research and make some predictions of my own. Now where is Adrain Newey this season?

I actually think Hamilton is the best in F1 right now unfortunately, but i think Vettel, Alonso, Verstappen and Ricciardo could pull of a Rosbberg if they were in the same car as Lewis (Kimi also could do it). I personally think if the merc was perfect for both drivers all season, Hamilton would beat any of them on pure talent (allthough Alonso and Vettel and Ricciardo are very close behind), but hopefully Bottas will frustrate him like Rosberg did, you. never know.

 

[K-Rose]

Man is the Force India ugly or what...

 

[TheAntitheist Crusader]

I can't stand shark Fins in F1.

 

[Stealthie]

Be interesting to see if Merc' and Ferrari have a shark-fin on their cars.

Is it there for performance or to provide additional advertising space?

 

[K-Rose]

The Williams teaser had a reduced shark fin I think, so hopefully Merc & Ferrari have gone in that direction.

I imagine the "Shark Fin" has an aero effect though, stabilising the wind that goes over the rear wing.

 

[AndyJ]

I am a massive fan and have watched since the 70s. However: Being a poor commoner I can't afford Sky, but will watch races as I can and hope the new management, open it up to more viewers some how. No German GP this year I hear, due to the 'freeview' issue.

The previous owner of our house had Sky at some point, so when the BBC dropped the live coverage I went and bought a cheap (£40) freesat system from a well known DIY chain.
Swapped the rusty SKY dish for the new one and aligned it to the European Astra 1L satellite (19.2E) to pick up the German RTL channels. (I think I just pointed it a bit up, and bit left from where Sky was at with the 'aid' of some screechy sat finder thing. It wasn't exactly an expert install and took a couple of tries & station scans to find the right satellite but got there eventually ... fortunately our dish is on the garage wall, not high up on the house lol)

Ok, so no HD coverage on the free RTL stations but together with Radio 5 Live providing the commentary it's worked well enough to keep me watching live for a few more years now.
The audio can be a bit ahead sometimes, depending where the race is, but I source this via a digital TV box too that can be paused/started to tweak the timing and usually can get something that matches a little more closely when required. It's a bit of a mad-professor setup to combine the audio & video to the TV like this, but it's definitely more satisfying than lining Sky's pockets

I imagine the "Shark Fin" has an aero effect though, stabilising the wind that goes over the rear wing.

Yeah, they're meant to improve stability in highspeed corners and when braking ... but I bet they'll be fun to drive with in a strong cross-wind... :O

 

[Bomba Luigi]

I just hope Sauber won't end up on the last two places all the time, please get better again ^^

 

[Matt168]

Of the cars launched so far, the Renault is by far the best looking. I am not keen on the Sauber livery, but that is nothing compared to the humongous fin on the VJM10 and the 2012 throwback of a step in its nose.

They have all shared some themes, with unsightly bumps at the tips of the nose and everyone opting for a fin on the engine cover. At the moment I would not be at all surprised if every car sports a fin as it was quite widely predicted to make a reappearance before any cars were launched. When fins were first in vogue, though, I seem to remember some teams struggling to make them work - the difference between a wind tunnel and actually running a car on a track where the car does unusual things like trying to go around corners on a gusty day was apparently much greater than they expected.

Mercedes launch this afternoon, so that might be the car everyone wants to beat. Ferrari and McLaren tomorrow are usually interesting and it would be nice if they were properly on the pace. Realistically speaking, a rule change like this is going to spread the field out rather than create competition in the first year. At this point, I rather imagine that Red Bull could ultimately have the fastest car. If that is the case, and if they end up with an advantage like we've been used to seeing from Mercedes lately, I could really see Ricciardo and Verstappen having a relationship that makes Hamilton and Rosberg look like the model of harmony.