Awww crap.... Not good if true. While F1 is dicking about with qualifying, another team is collapaing. As usual they're totally missing the big picture.
....but I wasn't having a dig, and certainly not at anyone in particular - it was just a tongue in cheek comment. I was just making a reference that last year when Nico found himself out of position, that he was slated for being out of position and only recovering to finishing 2nd behind Lewis. This was often referenced to the car he drove.
Both have done similar... had howlers and recovered. There's no two ways about that. What I don't like is that you were implying I wasn't being fair and suggesting I'd said Hamilton did something special and played down Rosberg. If you look back, I suggested Rosberg might now on top with 5 in a row and it might be time to take him and his title challenge seriously.
Sadly the powers that be just don't care one little bit. They don't care about the people that won't get paid or that there's less of a spectacle or that a long established team is going to the wall, because no matter what, they're still filthy rich and living it large. Nothing will change while Bernie and the current FIA are running the show. Todt is none existent and Bernie is a complete mad man,
Am I right in saying that one year they did the track in reverse, which didn't help the racing at all? (I wasn't following in detail back then so il stand corrected!)
It was held in daylight for a while... nighttime has since masked it's lack of attendance. Was it run backwards?
I've been saying for years that Bahrain is one of the best circuits for racing on the calendar. Only the 2010 race on the endurance layout was bad, and then the controversy over the 2011 race being cancelled and 2012 being marred by violent demonstrations. Then of course F1 fans' hatred of anything new, anything designed by Tilke and pretty much anything outside Europe. I'm one of Tilke's biggest critics but Sakhir and Instanbul are cracking circuits.
Grojean's post radio chatter http://www.f1videos.tv/f1-movies/f1-2016-bahrain-romain-grosjean-team-radio-after-5th-place/ "Great passing Roman....." "I've got brakes this year, that helps!"
My take... Ferrari are shooting themselves in the foot with their reliability issues! Bottas (and Kimi's poor start) robbed us of a possible 2014 re-run. The damage on Hamilton's car was huge, Wing, Bargeboards and Floor, that's gonna have cost him quite a bit of time, so to recover to 3rd was a decent effort. Williams were no where in the race, didn't expect that. Could they not switch their tyres on in the colder temps? Redbull had decent race pace but considerably slower than the Mercs and Ferrari's Haas, bloody fantastic to see, looks a very tidy package and with this years Ferrari engine have some poke on the straights! FI, Suaber need to sort themselves out, very poor. Very impressed with Van the man! Out qualified Jenson and picked up a point on his debut. Would Ferrari been able to take on and beat the Mercs? Maybe but from what I could see, it looked like Rosberg was going as fast as he needed and could have unleashed a bit more pace should he need it.. Hoping no issues occur to either Ferrari and Hamilton gets a decent get away at China, I want to see a 4 way battle for the race win!
TV viewing figures: -C4 down 39% vs the BBC Bahrain coverage last season -Sky down 15% to last years race
At Bahrain,Sky averaged 546k, peaking at 966k at the start. In Australia, average was 271k, peaking at 558k. The unsocial hour doesn't help. Combined figures were 2.47m watching the Australian GP, the lowest figure for that race since before 2005 (when there are poorer records). It was the lowest audience since the 2013 US Grand Prix.
I don't know how Sky think they'll make any profit from 2019 onwards. Their figures are pitiful right now. Currently Sky pay £45m and C4 £24m, so £70m combined. Sky must be paying significantly more than that from 2019 for exclusive rights. At a time when F1 is becoming less popular and high speed internet is making pay TV less and less desirable. This will be disastrous for F1 and Sky. I can't help but be a little bit pleased about that.