Yeah, my thoughts exactly mate. I was so looking forward to the first race, but it turned out to be a bit of a non-event really. Bottas got his nose in front and was never under any threat, Hamilton comfortably trailed in second, apparently with a damaged floor pan, but again, was never threatened. Verstappen was always going to be 3rd at best on the day and the 2 Ferrari's were also rans IMO. Pretty boring for a first race really mate, although i'm sure now that they've all had a look at each other in race mode there'll be improvements made for the next race. Hope so anyway.
I live about 3 miles away from Yas F1 track in Abu Dhabi and pretty much every year i've been invited to practice sessions and had a couple of offers to the race itself...I've declined as sadly I just don't get this "sport" at all. To me its pretty much a contest between genius mechanics and to a much lesser extent the driver...If you drive a crap car regardless how good you are as a driver, you won't win. Or am I missing something here. By the way..assuming i'm still here and anyone wants to see the F1 in Abu Dhabi, let me know, I'm pretty sure I could get tickets if anyone wants to make the trip.
That would be the ultimate one for me mate, should I get the chance I’d deffo shout up. There’s right and wrong, the fastest car doesn’t always win, Ferrari had fastest car last year but Hamilton won as he’s a next level driver, there’s no chance of a lower ranked car winning realistically though, those days are gone. The competition is in tiers really. The genius of the mechanics etc, as you stated, is actually the brilliance of the sport though. They all start with the same size engine etc and have to create a car around it. I can understand if you ain’t into that stuff it will take some of the interest away but it fascinates me. The margins can be so tiny after hundreds of millions of investment and do you get that anywhere else? Nope.
Anytime Nads...just let me know. After the race i'll show you places in Abu Dhabi far more interesting than the race track
What a generous offer. Yawn marina is a good track and one I’d love to watch a race at. Same as Canada and Monza. Albeit they are high speed tracks and Abu Dhabi isn’t ha
Wish I’d spotted this thread a week ago, better late than never I guess . Absolutely love F1, have followed it earnestly since the year Mansells tyre popped in Adelaide (86 I think). Nowhere near as good as it was in the Prost/senna/Schumacher era, mainly down to rule changes and quieter cars but today’s offering is still fun to watch....at times. I’m a big Hamilton fan and what he’s done is pretty remarkable albeit he’s had the best car for most of his time, he’s just got that bit something extra that he can find like Senna and Schumacher had. Really looking forward to this season, I think the Red Bulls are gonna outshine the Ferrari’s somewhat and it’s gonna be hellish fun watching Max vs Seb and Gasly vs LeClerc. Never been to a race, although I have driven round parts of the Monaco circuit some years ago albeit in a ****ty little Peugeot 206, i think the girl on the desk at the car hire place was a little reluctant to give me anything with a bit more umf under the wah wah pedal when I told her where I was going! I will get there one day for a race weekend but Singapore and Abu Dhabi look like a lot of fun as well, I think you take your chance with Abu Dhabi tho and hope that there was still some racing to be done and that the title wasn’t already decided, it’s a shame it is where it is on the calendar but it’s that much of a spectacle it has to be first or last really. Gutting about poor old Charlie passing away, he’s been around as long as I’ve followed the sport, he’ll be very hard to replace...Ross Brawn I could possible see in that role perhaps but who knows. Looking forward to Bahrain in a weeks time, I’ll be sure to pop back in here heading into the weekend!
I love F1, thread like this well overdue. Sadly I have never been to a race, I really wanted to go to Silverstone this years but non of my mates are fans at all. Anyway, Australia has always been a tricky one. Bahrain and China will see a lot more pace. Let’s see how it goes from there. Would love Lewis to get another title, but possibly this could be his most difficult year. On a separate note, I do miss Ted Kravitz and the notebook. I understand there was a falling out with sky but he is back for the next GP
And so the circus moves on to the desert Not a massive fan of the Sakhir track if I'm honest but its a nice high speed circuit so should give us our first opportunity really to see whether or not the reg changes have made any difference for the racing. Bottas was in fairly formidable form 2 weeks ago on race day so he'll be keen to put his marker down again and take the fight to his team mate again along with the big red cars. I'm still fuming about the new ferrari boss telling LeClerc to hold station behind Vettel when he was clearly faster, he had a real opportunity there to stamp his authority on the team and show them that he's there to challenge for the title and not just play 2nd fiddle to Seb. He was never gonna disobey orders in his first outing for the team but for me it spoke volumes the fact that he just fell in line. That's one of the reasons I'm a big fan of Max (and Lewis). It'll be interesting to see what happens if the situations are reversed this weekend that's for sure. 4:10pm lights out on Sunday peeps, think you might all be a bit pre-occupied with a certain footie match which should be just about finished by the time the guys are lighting up their rear tyres on the grid
Did not realise you were such a big fan mate. I currently work for FIA Formula E as a consultant, one of my team has just moved back to F1 so I can probably sort you out tickets to just about any race that's not Silverstone (the demand is massive for that). I might be going to work for F1 myself in the future, they keep asking me to move over, but FE is 12 races a year F1 is 21 so it's a lot more travelling and time away. If that happens I will be able to get you tickets and probably a tour of the paddock. Personally I love F1, but it's been a bit flat for me for the last few years. I don't know if that has something to do with working for FE and it becoming a job or if it's just it became a bit of a precession. Formula E has been very exciting this year, every race has had a different winner from a different team. There have been loads of close races, Mexico the best where DeGrassi won the race with a last corner overtake. I love F1 when its exciting racing but when its a procession for 2 hours it drives me mad. Have you watched the Netflix documentary, it's really good. I hope F1 is going to be better this year, my mates working on it are off to China next week for the Shanghi race, I am going to try and go to either Japan or Austin this year for the race, I just know if I go they are going to persuade me to go and work for them.
Your job sounds truly awful there fella, and here's me sat in the pub with me work laptop (i am actually working) in the sunshine thinking how fun this is. If I ever won the jackpot following the F1 circus around the world for a year is the first thing I'd do like, without fail !! I'd love to see some of the behind the scenes stuff that goes on in terms of getting all the kit packed and shipped etc etc just to see how much is involved in the logistics of it all, fascinates me that it all comes together with such short turn around times between race weekends at times. Ican imagine Formula E to be fairly similar in that respect.
We're smaller than F1 but our event is actually more difficult to put on. The reason is most of our races are in the middle of city centres on street temporary street circuits. F1 is mostly at existing circuits so you turn up and they have infrastructure. Power, internet, toilets, water, offices etc... We build everything, we tour 3 jumbo jets which carry the essentials: so cars, garage equipment and most importantly our TV compound which is a big TV studio. We then have sets of containers which piggyback each other around the world and contain other structures and branding. The concrete block and fence to build the track are stored in strategic locations around the world close to the event sites. It is a circus and it's getting bigger and bigger. It's actually a very tough job. I work 14-18 hours a day race week, most of it is outside managing local teams of contractors we use to build the technical infrastructure. I walk between 15-30k a day just because of the size of the site. We're in Rome in 2 weeks, I will try and post up a load of pics of the pitlane cars and garages to give you a bit of a backstage view. I got the job by chance right back when it all started. I got an award from the CEO in Hong Kong because I am 1 of only 6 people that's worked on every race. We're back in London next year, if you come to the race drop me line and I will see if I can take you around the pitlane on Friday. (If ive not gone to F1 by then).
It’s amazing how you can just “fall” into a job like, and when it’s one that you love and have some passion and interest in all the better. I haven’t actually watched any of the Formula E races but there are a few familiar faces in there from F1 (Massa, Wehrlein, Vandoorme etc) so it might be a bit eventful I may well make a point of coming down to that there London to watch the race so I’ll will definitely give you a shout to see if you can pull some strings like, thank you for the offer! Have fun in Rome...been there with the lads for a weekend a while back, cracking place. Off to Amsterdam in 6 weeks for another one with the boys
Most of the grid are ex F1 but actually I think the best driver is a British guy called Sam Bird who has never driven in F1, he could win the championship this year. I sorted of got headhunted for the job, it was someone who knew me that made the introduction, originally it was only to do 1 race, but I fixed so many technical issues at that first race that they offered me a 12 month contract and the rest is history. Have fun in Amsterdam, I really enjoy that city, me and the lads went for my 40th a few months ago. It's a very fun city. If you come to London I will try and sort you out a short backstage tour.
E is ahead of the game mate, it’s the future of it in truth and whether we like or lump (I’m aware we both drive polar bear killing car, you more so than me even!) it’s where it’s gonna go. I’ll defjnitely take you up on that offer at some point mate.
I remember you telling me a while back on here you worked in formula e. I so so so much want to go to Silverstone but not of my mates are really fans so won’t cough of £300 notes. Get working for them mate, don’t be thinking years down the line what if
