Anybody else stoked about the start of another F1 season?

[abbeyQ]

This races on the other side of the world are nice when you live on the west coast. Interesting as always to see how all of the teams shake out. Honda coming back into the fold (and really struggling). Vettle and Alonso switching teams at the top end of the field. Who are the mid pack teams that are going to challenge for wins and podiums? So many questions and a solid 8 months of racing to sort it all out.

[devlin]

Yes. No. I dont need enticements tp keep me up late on top of watching the road racong from europe.

[Jonathan]

More interested in MotoGP than F1

[ron l edmiston]

--- mecedes in dominance with over 90% of the wins for 2014..
ferrari.., the same seansons back..
drivers jump, sink, bob and swim to new ships..

relates to research, development and testing with the right set of balls to jockey the horsepower..
interesting reverting back to turbo 6's relative to 8's..

remember years ago when i let a dino 246gt daytona package slip through my fingers -- a v-6.., & i visioned a ferrari had to be a v-12 or maybe a v-8..
history relates that ferrari started racing v-6's prior to 8's & 12's..

& "what goes around comes around..," the teams with the deepest factory/sponsor pockets will always dominate..

ronnie

[hidayanra]

I stopped watching part way through, after a long day that race was so sloppy that I'll give them a few more weeks to iron out the details.

[72gmc]

Do the cars sound good again?

Seems I'll be better off rewatching Weekend of a Champion than a replay of this race.

[ron l edmiston]

-- turbo 6's will never sound like the ole days..
& mercedes starts off 1 and 2 with ferrari trying to hunt again with 3..

ronnie

[Tristan]

I'm stoked!! Especially with 'local' races as the timezones are much better.

Amazing to see Manor ship all their stuff to Australia but not be able to fire the cars up....shows how complex both the cars and the surrounding infrastructure are.

[Tristan]

& "what goes around comes around..," the teams with the deepest factory/sponsor pockets will always dominate..

ronnie

Interesting article on the BBC about Williams not putting all their eggs into the sponsorship basket and instead creating revenue elsewhere.
BBC News - Williams boss warns on F1 financing

[Corso]

Always loved F1, since I was a kid. I must admit, I’m not liking the look of the cars since the mid-nineties, but what do I know?

!7 year old kid racing this year…not sure how I feel about that.

[devlin]

Always loved F1, since I was a kid. I must admit, I’m not liking the look of the cars since the mid-nineties, but what do I know?

!7 year old kid racing this year…not sure how I feel about that.

I love the technology involved and mostly lose interest once the race starts. Having said that I believe the cars are overy complex but conversely overly regulated. Unregulated you could imagine the extra stuff they'd come up with. For an open wheel class that needs wheel to wheel racing to really appeal to the masses they need to find a balance of regs and tech freedom. They are supposed to end up with the same power to weight ratio to my understanding so it seems weird that there is such a big difference.

The kid will be the youngest and last ever to start so young. I heard the commentators say that from next year that drivers need to be minimum of 18 at the start of the season.

[Christian Fox]

I and my son are stoked the season is starting, and as Hamilton fans, happy with the outcome, but that was not an exciting race. It's Mercedes, about a mile, and then some scraps for the other teams to pick up. The scraps should be fun to watch. Sauber is fascinating and are a good mid-pack pick for some major points this year. Much like the Cowboys and the NFL, the sport is better when Ferrari is competitive. Between the factory team and customer teams (Sauber) they are looking fast. Red Bull is in major trouble with their garbage Renault engine; they are flat/down on Hp vs last year and that is a major disaster. From the karting world, I know Verstappen is an unbelievably nice kid, mature waaay beyond his years, and super talented, but I still think he's too young. He has a single season outside of karting in cars (he skipped Formula Renault and went straight to F3). I will be rooting for him, though.

[kentamcolin]

I was looking forward to the season's start and look forward to the rest of the races, but race 1 was pretty boring. Nasr was really impressive though, his 5th place was not due to attrition as all the attrition was behind him. Nice job for sure. It's good to see Ferrari back with a good car and Kimi best get his act together soon. Sure the tire change issue wasn't his fault but Vettel has been quicker anyway. Not sure how long it will take Honda to get up to speed with such limited testing and limited scope allowed for changes. Renault is said to be 100 BHP down and they'll never make that up. Not sure what those guys were doing all winter!

[devlin]

How can they be so far away in HP? Is it how they use the fuel systems or engine architecture?

[Will Neide]

Honda coming back into the fold (and really struggling).

I'm excited about this and OK with back of the pack results provided we see progress as the season continues.

[Christian Fox]

How can they be so far away in HP? Is it how they use the fuel systems or engine architecture?

The split turbo system. Mercedes made ~60 hp more than anyone last year because they very cleverly split their turbocharger in two; the exhaust turbine is in the back (with the exhaust) and the compressor is up in front of the engine and is driven by a shaft from the rear turbine. The result is that the compressed intake air is MUCH cooler because it is separated from the very hot turbine. Cool air is denser and makes more power. Also, the intercooler can be much smaller and the chassis around the engine can be more compact and optimized aero-wise. Ferrari has been much further along with their own split turbo than Renault. I believe Ferrari had a version of the split turbo already, it just wasn't as good as Merc's. Renault is just behind the curve on this.

[XR2]

While I'm still a fan the restrictive rules are taking the sport backwards. Drivers having to buy a seat is just ridiculous. Gimme big ass wings,8 foot wide cars shod with 3 foot wide sticky gumballs for tires and 1200 horsepower NA 12 cylinder powerplants racing on public streets. Think Isle of Man for cars. Screw this "green" facade,like it or not automobile racing will never be green.

[Christian Fox]

While I'm still a fan the restrictive rules are taking the sport backwards. Drivers having to buy a seat is just ridiculous. Gimme big ass wings,8 foot wide cars shod with 3 foot wide sticky gumballs for tires and 1200 horsepower NA 12 cylinder powerplants racing on public streets. Think Isle of Man for cars. Screw this "green" facade,like it or not automobile racing will never be green.

The "green" thing is a bit silly, but I think the idea behind it isn't to make the sport itself more green (laughable when it takes hundreds of tractor trailers shipped around the world to make the show happen), it's to push development of hybrid technology.

The pay-driver scenario just reflects the sport's dire finances. It's a myth that F1 drivers, collectively, are the best drivers in the world. Maybe three or four of them could claim that, but many of them have major sponsorship or family money behind them. There are thousands of super talented drivers that can't afford their way up through the "ladder". Motorsports doesn't have the well defined weeding out system that other sports do, and isn't really able to condense the absolute best. You can say with a high degree of certainty that the guys in the NBA or NFL are the best, they've been weeded out since 3rd grade.