The fans don't like it but the track owners earn more income as it attracts the crowds. Stefano likes that it puts the teams on edge and makes the weekend less predictable. Looks like it is here to stay.
I liked the first sprint. The second not so much. The rewards to race like hell need to be there to make it worth it. Teams dont want to lose a wing etc so a what they have they hold kind of scenario does develop unless someone is out of position. Personally I see a low fuel, one set of tyres plus a standing start as something that's no bad thing to give us a bit of entertainment but put this at Monaco and tell me itd be exciting after 0.5 laps.
I get the feeling liberty are looking to sell up. Everything seems designed to give the sport a short term value boost.
I think Liberty always intended to shake up and popularise the sport, the amount paid required they do so to provide a return on the investment. It needed an injection of innovation, whether this is the right formula, many will argue not. Many of us have seen changes in our lifetime in other areas, they are not all changes for the good..
I'd love to see Herta in F1. He's quick, he's a brave overtaker, and I think he'd do well. However, there's an exceptional crop of young talent in Indycar atm, and I also don't want to see that diluted. If only we could clone him!
The race tactics are quite different between the series. There are some good young talents in F1 at the moment, a big improvement on past years. I am getting to appreciate both series, in part thanks to your discussions. I think neither series need to swap talent. I spent my normal working years working for IBM, then HP, clocking up 44 years between them. I spent signicant time in the US, mostly refusing to get sucked into the US culture, although the music I enjoyed. Frequented Buddy Guy's Legends in Chicago on many a night. Now I am less exposed to the culture I can accept it more. When working I always played the role of the Englishman. Somewhat naughtly I often would refer to my American colleagues as the Amerkins (said with an accent), they rarely got the joke. Drop the 'A' and you will see the joke if you haven't got it already. Said with warmth and humour, I always had good fun with them and they with me.
There's always some adaption time switching between Indy and F1 and vice versa (unless you're called Mansell), but Herta would get to grips with F1 pretty quickly imo. As for winding up American chums, I always find that mine love it when I refer to American Football as Hand Egg...
I can't find it now, but there's an interview with Grosjean where he said that he went out of the garage in his first test, and did his best F1 driver driving. Felt like he got the absolute best out of the car, nailing the lines, etc. Gets back to the pits feeling pretty smug, expecting the team to be super impressed...and he's 6 seconds off the pace. He said he had to unlearn a lot of the finesse that F1 machinery requires, and thrash the car more. My concern for Herta would be that it's perhaps easier to unlearn finesse, than it is to become smoother in your driving style. The amount of setup work you can do in an Indycar is also much higher than an F1 car, so Grosjean said he's regularly able to make big changes to how the car feels, to get it right for him. Whilst at Haas, Grosjean barely had a race in 4 years where he wasn't driving around car handling problems. We've seen how long it's taken Ricciardo to adapt to the peculiar handling characteristics of the McLaren this season. Has Herta got a driving style where he can extract the maximum from any car, like Alonso, Hamilton, Schumacher, etc - or is he more like Button, Vettel, Kimi and needs particular characteristics to be quick? How will he deal with having the "wrong" setup for his driving style? On the other hand, Grosjean has also said Indy is similar to F2, and many drivers have made that step up with ease, so Herta might be fine!
I will test that with James, my business colleague. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_"Little_Man"_Stewart
Interesting to hear Bottas say that he had no idea a Sauber takeover was a possibility when he signed for them.
I wonder if there might be a sense of out of the frying pan and in to the fire. Initially he'll likely have the upper hand on Herta. But I imagine if they do bring Herta to F1, he'll be their #1. But... I would imagine Herta may see this drive as a stepping stone.
He's got 32 points, and the FIA can waive the requirement for 40 points and issue a license to any driver with 30 points. Herta would have picked up an extra 8 points for 2018 Indy Lights, had the series had enough entrants for it to be allowed to award points. Seems a little harsh to penalise him so harshly for something out of his control. He can also pick up one point for every FP1 participated in. Were the takeover to go through soon, he could theoretically pick up an extra 5 this season, and have a license by early next year. I'm sure Giovinazzi would take racing for the first 3 races of next season over nothing.
Chadwick will get a practice session soon I think, don't think she truly deserves it, but F1 wants to be 'equal opportunity' and her and Powell are the class of the field and she's the photogenic one that sponsors like. She'll beat Mazepin, but the fact her team-mates in F3 are 1-2-3 in the championship and she's in 9th with less than a quarter of 3rd's points says she isn't up to it imo.
I was looking and the only F3 stuff I can find that she competed in is F3 Asian Championship and last year she was 4th? I was sceptical of the W series at the start and while I'm not sure that positive discrimination is the right way to go it might be the best way to eventually enable women to progress through motor racing from carts to F1 and compete on merit. I almost think that w series is mainly there to encourage women into motor racing and not necessarily to actually produce competitive F1 drivers this early on. It's almost like it's just to encourage the next generation of women. It would be great that everyone had equal opportunities in life no matter their sex, race, religion etc. Unfortunately this is not the case yet so maybe tipping the balance to get to equality is the way to go?