[MariahMan]

You heard me! The Formula 1 World Championship begins with Australian Grand Prix, Sunday, March 16th at 3:30 local time. For me in Seattle, it begins Saturday at 9:30.

Who out there can't wait for the season to begin? I'm stoked because even the Seattle PI covered the race:

You gotta love those Australians!

[bakdraft]

Originally Posted by MariahMan

You heard me! The Formula 1 World Championship begins with Australian Grand Prix, Sunday, March 16th at 3:30 local time. For me in Seattle, it begins Saturday at 9:30.

Who out there can't wait for the season to begin? I'm stoked because even the Seattle PI covered the race:

You gotta love those Australians!

Wow! someone from the US who's looking forwards to F1

In case you can't get enough F1, here are the best F1 News websites

ITV F1

Autosport.com

The one below is brilliant as it links all F1 news websites into one website!

F1 news.com

In the UK F1 is fairly big... especially with Lewis Hamilton on the scene.

Lets hope for a great season..... by the way... 4:00am for us!

Dave

[MariahMan]

Well, if Bernie has his way you'll be getting Australia at around 2pm next year.

Autosport and gpupdate.net i like. I'll check out the other ones you've suggested as well.

I'm really excited for this season. It's going to be a good one, especially with the Singapore night race

Everyone on our race team are huge F1 fans, by the way. We're closing the shop on Saturday night to go over to one of the guys's house and watch the race!

[WetWilly]

OMG, Singapore???

Good thing it's at night cause during the day, average temp is in the 80s or around 28C and about a muggy 80 percent percent humidity although at night it's not much better!

Wonder if the in-laws could hook me up with a pit pass...

WetWilly

[bakdraft]

Originally Posted by WetWilly

OMG, Singapore???

Good thing it's at night cause during the day, average temp is in the 80s or around 28C and about a muggy 80 percent percent humidity although at night it's not much better!

Wonder if the in-laws could hook me up with a pit pass...

WetWilly

Some of the drivers think that being cooler etc... it will make it too easy!!! The physical effort needed in the day with the heat and humidity is the real challange!

I personally am not keen on night time races... but I am open to persuasion .

[WetWilly]

I agree, although the cars are "State of the ART" and IMHO, beautiful, it's the human factor I'm more interested in at the moment. How they will combat the humidity?

Heat can be controlled with technology like cool suits but humidity; it soaks in everywhere and affects man and machine! Ever drive with sweaty hands, well imagine the same thing for rest of you, including your feet...YUK!

I'm sure they've raced is conditions such as these before, but it will still be interesting to see what they do to deal with it!

Hey MariahMan, perhaps you could give us some in-site as to how the teams might deal with the heat and humidity over there.

WetWilly

[bakdraft]

Thought you might be interested in the following post....

ITV to stream F1 live on the web

This might get you some extra footage on Fridays etc..

Dave

[MariahMan]

Who saw Qualifying? That was amazing! I watched the live timing on F1's website since i don't have cable at my place. Kubica starting on the front row, vettel coming in 5th i think. Man, this is going to be a great season. No longer Ferrari/Mclaren or Ferrari/Renault as in 06.

Originally Posted by bakdraft

Some of the drivers think that being cooler etc... it will make it too easy!!! The physical effort needed in the day with the heat and humidity is the real challange!

I personally am not keen on night time races... but I am open to persuasion .

I'm excited to see Singapore because it's in downtown in the heart of the city. From what i hear it'll be tighter than Monaco, which is by far my favorite race. The lighting system at Singapore will apparently replicate day conditions on the track. I'm excited to see what it'll be like. Definetely going to be a very different atmosphere. First night race in F1 history Dave, how can you not be excited about that?

Originally Posted by WetWilly

I agree, although the cars are "State of the ART" and IMHO, beautiful, it's the human factor I'm more interested in at the moment. How they will combat the humidity?

Heat can be controlled with technology like cool suits but humidity; it soaks in everywhere and affects man and machine! Ever drive with sweaty hands, well imagine the same thing for rest of you, including your feet...YUK!

I'm sure they've raced is conditions such as these before, but it will still be interesting to see what they do to deal with it!

Hey MariahMan, perhaps you could give us some in-site as to how the teams might deal with the heat and humidity over there.

WetWilly

I've read a lot about F1 drivers, especially how their brains work. It's amazing. These guys are just as much machines as their cars are. The mental power they have is beyond phenomenal. Some of these drivers can sit in their hotel room with a stop watch, close their eyes and envision themselves going around on the track then take that time and go out the next day in the car and get within a tenth of a second of how they imagined it There's a reason why it's said that race driving is at least 75% mental.

Dealing with the heat, probably not the top list of their worries. Finishing and keeping the car in one piece and if all of that happens, finishing at the top is all they think about. I know they don't have any sort of cooling, but instead are insulated with their fire-retardant driving suits. I'm not sure how Singapore stacks up to Bahrain, the hottest race they have, where track temps are 130 degrees +. Humidity, Singapore definitely has it beat.

From my experience driving a race car, your mind is so focused, your heart beating so hard, adrenaline pumping, you're not thinking about how hot/cold it is. You don't notice anything around you except for what's immediately in front of you and it takes all your mind to process every corner coming at you and how best to get through it. Then do that 100x over. For these guys though, its second nature. I'm sure that's different with these guys that do this day in and day out and i'm sure they have their own personal ways of dealing with heat, humidity, etc.

Originally Posted by bakdraft

Thought you might be interested in the following post....

ITV to stream F1 live on the web

This might get you some extra footage on Fridays etc..

Dave

Unfortunately that stream isn't available to those of us outside the UK Dave. Thanks for trying though


22 hours until the GP of Australia!!!!!!!

[mikeyt]

I'm not a die hard F1 fan but i follow enough of it to understand what is going on. IMHO.....Ferrari will again win the manufacturers championship, Raikkonen is as good as there is out there. McLaren might be close if they come up with a fast car for Hamilton. If Alonso can live up to his boasts, Renault might make things interesting too but...i think Alonso is going to have his hands full with his own team-mate (Nelson Piquet Jr) who is a very quick driver. And i hear Toyota has to get faster this year or their program will go bye-bye. I think what is a more interesting match up though is with the #2 drivers (Massa, Piquet, Kovalainen, Vettel, Kubica and even Nakajima with Toyota). A couple of them could upset their #1's.
As for the tracks, I've seen Spa in Belgium and it was awesome. I know the F1 boys dont drive it anymore but i've driven on part of the Nurburgring in Germany and it was scary. Singapore promises to be a great venue and Monza is always a classic.

[Z 202]

Same here. I watch the races, but I'm not a die hard fan. I was a lot more interested back in the day when Jacques Villeneuve was driving for MacLaren. I stopped watching the races for a while when it was just the Michael Shumacher show every week. At least there has been a return of some competition in the races.

I'm a big race fan in general, just like my dad. I've been to the Indy 500 five times (the first time when I was just 13). Last year I took my son to the Toronto Cart race, which we both enjoyed. Unfortunatley with the Cart/IRL merger it looks like it's not going to happen this year. I guess our racing event of this season will be a night out at Sauble speedway to see some good ol' boys ripping up the 1/4 mile oval.