All-purpose open-wheel (F1, IRL) racing thread

To fix this? Do y’all realize how long that was going to take?

Minimum of an hour of work for 3 minutes of racing. The bolts and springs that hold those tires are just gone.

 

TIL that a guy named Patricio O'Ward is Mexican, not Irish or Italian.

I did not see any of the race, only listened to the radio broadcast. Paul Page sounds old (well, he is). The ads for the not-really-cable-but-claiming-to-be-cable service seemed really sketchy, but what do I know.

 

Page and the recorded history inserts for Donald Davidson make me think neither may make it to the 105th running.

 

You think so? The Mercedes livery this season is, to me, absolutely gorgeous. Ferrari, as shitty of a car as it is this year, is classically beautiful. I rather like Renault and Haas, while my son loves McLaren and my daughter loves Racing Point.

As I've noted upthread, I'm new to following the sport since I used to pay attention during the early aughts, so I'm curious what you don't like about the current design.

 

I assume @Driftwood is talking about design and not livery. I don't think they're bad now but they've certainly been better. They've improved greatly over a few years ago.

A few years ago the FIA wanted to clean up the dirty air the cars create. They mandated changes that included a larger, lower front wing and a much smaller rear wing. The result was kind of butt-ugly, and for a season several of the cars had what appeared to be dicks hanging off the nose to meet the height requirement.

The FIA backed off and the cars look better. It's not a golden era for design aesthetics but I'm generally OK with it.

Livery is always a mixed bag. Ferrari usually looks very good. The high-water mark of the last couple of decades is the old Mild Seven-era Renault. (The design, too. Just a beautiful car.)

 

Yes, I was talking about the physical design, not the livery.
I hate the halo. I understand it. If it ever keeps one person from being seriously injured, then it's worth it. It just looks like shit. Somehow, Indy cars pull off the same thing but it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.

 

I actually like the halo more than the windscreen, which I didn't expect. They're both ugly but the driver just disappears in the IndyCar version.

 

If you're gonna have a halo, and you're gonna have a windshield, why the hell not just have an enclosed cockpit and be done with it?
I hadn't watched a minute of IndyCar in quite a while so I was a bit surprised to see they've latched on to the put-all-the-checkers-behind-the-plexiglass trend!

 

James Davison actually addressed that, because I was thinking the same thing. (Trivia: In an era where it's almost impossible to have an engine failure, Davison has DNFed five times in seven Indy starts. That's .... not good, even though this one was definitely not his fault.)

 

With the sale of Williams F1 finished, Frank and Claire Williams will step down from the team after this weekend’s race in Italy.

Frank and Claire Williams will leave family's F1 team after 43 years — NBC Sports