Who else watches Formula 1?

Well wouldn't you know it, 2nd to last race in the 2012 F1 season and its in Austin at the Circuit of the Americas track this weekend. The points spread between Vettel and Alonso is only 10 points. Free Practice 1 starts tomorrow at nearly this exact time. Free practice 1&2 are tomorrow, Practice 3 and Qualifying are Saturday with the race Sunday.

Alonso has to either win or finish ahead of Vettel to stay mathematically in the chase to win the WDC!

I know the race at Homestead will be a good one, but this will be epic as well. All new track will throe some curve balls at the best circuit racers in the world.

I'll definitely try to catch some of it this weekend. Sounds awesome Smus!

While I am interested in the race, I will be watching NASCAR. Hopefully they will replay the F1 race...

It may be another boring follow the leader F1 race (which I love), but it'll be an AMERICAN boring follow the leader F1 race at a true F1 circuit. GO AMERICA FOR HAVING A TRACK, BUT NOT A DRIVER OR TEAM TO BE THERE. MERICA. YEAH.

Josh on ze bass wrote:It may be another boring follow the leader F1 race (which I love), but it'll be an AMERICAN boring follow the leader F1 race at a true F1 circuit. GO AMERICA FOR HAVING A TRACK, BUT NOT A DRIVER OR TEAM TO BE THERE. MERICA. YEAH.

Well Josh, I hope you do tune in...its been an extremely exciting season...7 different winners in the first 7 races, and theres a lot more passing than the boring follow-the-leader racing from years past.


Oh, and there is a possible US driver that's working his way up, hopefully driving soon!

Josh on ze bass wrote: MERICA. YEAH.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhnUgAaea4M

Looks like turn 19 will be the deal breaker for the car/driver. Seems like the only one that's got it down are the people who qualified P1 and P2, but ya never know what'll happen with cold tires, full tank, and 22 cars behind you.

Track looks awesome. I would love to run some GT2 cars there! So cool how its fast but super technical with the multi apex and flowing rhythm sections. Cars look insane flying around this track. Heard a bunch of drivers saying how much they love the Circuit of the Americas track and it will only get better as the surface wears in.

The race was pretty good. Don't know how many of you were able to watch but it was solid all in all.

Anyone else get a chance to watch?

Yeah, I caught most of it. Fantastic start for Alonso. And, as always, a great pass for the win by Lewis. I think the track is growing on me. It was great for our country and for F1 that such a large enthusiastic crowd was on hand. I hope they're here to stay.

Agreed. I think Grand Am and V8 supercars will also be there next year along with F1. I'm hoping against hope that the next version of Forza will have more tracks including CotA.

While I may not be a huge F1 fan, I also reflect the sentiments that we have F1 return visit in future years. The fact Bernie E's daughter lives in Beverly Hills may mean he finds reason to come to the U.S. more frequently himself; hopefully meaning he's open to bring F1 to more U.S. tracks. Who wouldn't love seeing F1 cars crest Laguna Seca's corkscrew or blast through the kink at Road America?

About Circuit of the Americas:
I love its layout. Everything from the off-camber corners to the esses to the straight (where F1 cars were touching 190 M.P.H.) and the greater than 90° corners. Smus- Amen man! Circuit of the Americas to the next Forza Motorsport.

Next year the American Le Mans Series is also visiting CotA.

The Pirelli World Challenge series makes a stop at COTA May 17th-19th with the Aussie V8 Supercars, get your tickets now!

I have family close to that area... I think a trip to the track may be in order. Wonder when they will have track days there???

Did you guys know the Speed channel will no longer be airing F1 anymore? They dropped the rights for them, and NBC Sports is picking it up. NBC Sports will likely be showing taped delays of races and this seems to be a slow transition for Speed Channel to turn into FOX SPORTS CHANNEL.

I had heard NBCS had outbid speed...hmm...if tape delayed that will be horrible. I'd much rather DVR the event than have to wait. I had thought I had heard that NBC would show everything...every practice and quali and the race. Ive watched some of he SCCA coverage and while not bad its not great either.

Hopefully its decent.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2014/03/red-bull-f1-new-rules/

That race was freakin amazing!!!  There was action all over like a Nascar event and with all the nannies like TCS and the like taken away and extra power from the turbo motors with more powerful Kers systems made it a total drivers race at Melbourne.   Watching Vetel and Hamilton retire early and new guys like Vetels teammate Ricardo get second by a slim margin over Jan Magnussens kid Kevin Magnussen was great.   So many guys power sliding out of corners learning how to deal with the mountain of torque.   And Valtteri Bottas gave Williams more points in this race by finishing 5th then the whole team earned last year was wild because he had a tire go down early and dropped to the back of the pack forcing him to drive it through the field.   

Um, do the noses on some of the 2014 bodies look a bit phallic? In my mind I can't help but hear the drivers saying something like, "Um, excuse me! Hard-on coming through!" Or, "Yes! There's just enough room for me to stick my cock-for-a-nose right between you two fellas."

And to add more sexuality to the mix, there are a couple cars out there with a bit of a yonic appearance in the nose. Granted the yonic cars look like they have the "mud flap" condition where the inner lips protrude.

It's as if [and I hope this never happens] a phallic car and a yonic car were to collide head-on, the nose of the phallic would slide right into the nose of the yonic. Oh what a suggestive video that would be: have two cars nose to nose and have them slowly diverge and converge. Especially if one was just washed and it was still dripping wet.

After you've finished cleaning the beverage you've spattered over your monitor, write your thoughts.

Honestly, and I suppose rather ironically considering the type of humor and intelligence I have/lack, I actually still dont see the new noses all that phallic!   I just saw the look of an ant eater and this guy:

Squidward Tentacles

Ex US Squid wrote:Honestly, and I suppose rather ironically considering the type of humor and intelligence I have/lack, I actually still dont see the new noses all that phallic!   I just saw the look of an ant eater and this guy:

Squidwards and vacuum cleaners.

Can't wait for all racing to go electric (even less noise)!  I'll be able to have a normal conversation at the race then.

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20140318/F1/140319793
http://msn.foxsports.com/speed/formula-1/ecclestone-to-push-for-louder-f1-engines/
Um Bernie, turbochargers quiet engines, especially these big ol' honkin' things:
[Images resized for forum. Copy image location and paste into new for larger]

Sorta05 wrote:

Can't wait for all racing to go electric (even less noise)!  I'll be able to have a normal conversation at the race then.

The sound of internal combustion engines is one of the things that draw me to motorsports.  Having said that, I do appreciate awesome power with little noise.

Honestly I didnt feel the sound was any less enjoyable than the 20k rpm screamers.   Just give it a few races.   Too much freakin knee jerk reaction these days.