f1 Formula 1 World Championship 2018 Season Discussion

[Skiver Veteran]

Not a fan of that Mclaren at all!

 

the lack of sponsors on that car is pretty scary too for what should be a top team. I think the likes of Sauber have more sponsors on their car.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Force India VJM11: 

 

[Skiver Veteran]

 

Quote

Martini and Williams to end sponsorship deal

 

Martini will not extend its title sponsorship of Williams when it expires at the end of the season as it exits Formula 1 after a five-year stint, Motorsport.com has learned.

 

Martini brought its famous white, blue and red colour scheme back to F1 in 2014 when it signed the Williams deal that resulted in a full rebranding of the car.

 

The colour scheme was last seen on the Brabham cars in 1975 and marked Martini's largest F1 programme since it backed Lotus in 1979.

 

Motorsport.com understands Martini discussed an extension with Williams as well as speaking to other teams about an alternative arrangement.

 

But it is believed the board of the Bacardi Group, of which Martini belongs, decided to stop diverting resources to F1 entirely as it no longer aligned with its strategic objectives.

 

Source

 

Sad times, I think the Williams Martini livery is one of the best on the grid. I hope Williams can find another title sponsor before the end of the year, not a team I want to see slip down the grid due to a lack of funding.

[CrashG]

Sights and sounds of the new cars:

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2018/2/The_2018_F1_grid__every_car_on_track.html

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Seeing the 2018 cars on video makes the halo look even worse than I imagined. 

[Skiver Veteran]

Times from yesterday...

 

[philcruicks]

Jeez, Ricciardo going for a bit of a marathon there wasn't he.

[Skiver Veteran]

Actually, if anything I'd say the other teams are probably far under their lap counts. It's good news for them as reliability wasn't exactly strong for them last year.

[Skiver Veteran]

The FW41 had its first laps at Aragon today as part of a team filming day. Here's Robert Kubica's view from the driving seat.

 

It could just be me, but I swear on any straight his head appears to be leaning to the left slightly, which I can only imagine is to get a better view. I wonder if all drivers end up doing this if it may mean they have to re-think their neck exercises. 

[Skiver Veteran]

Formula 1 to launch F1 TV, a live Grand Prix subscription service

 

 

Formula 1, the pinnacle of motor sport, is set to launch early in the 2018 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season F1 TV, an innovative way for fans to enhance and enjoy their experience of Grand Prix racing.

 

F1 TV is Formula 1’s over the top (OTT) platform and marks F1’s biggest investment in its digital transformation to date.

 

Formula 1 fans will get commercial-free live streams of each race with multi language commentary. In addition, the service will provide exclusive access to all 20 driver on-board cameras throughout every race session. F1 TV Pro will have unique feeds not available on any other platform with the capability of multi-level personalisation.

 

Subscribers will be able to choose the content they view and how and when they access it. All of practice, qualifying and races, will be offered live, along with press conferences and pre and post-race interviews. Subscribers will be able to watch live races of the main support series, the FIA Formula 2 Championship, GP3 Series and Porsche Supercup, among others.

 

During the season, F1 TV will be made available in four different languages (English, French, German and Spanish) and will appear in nearly two dozen markets at launch (including Germany, France, USA, Mexico, Belgium, Austria, Hungary and much of Latin America). Access will initially be available through desktop and web, with mobile apps and TV apps being phased in on Amazon, Apple and Android, enabling users to watch on a range of different devices at no additional cost. Pricing for F1 TV Pro will be offered on a monthly basis of USD$8-$12, and annual rates will be priced according to market.

 

Source

[MightyJordan]

Good start; hopefully they'll launch it in the UK, too. Little bit pricey, though, especially compared to the WEC's offering, where the entire season - including Le Mans - costs just ~£25, and that includes on-demand race replays, as well. If F1 delve into on-demand as well, put up race replays, even go as far as the WWE Network does and put up previous seasons in all their glory, they'll have a game-changer on their hands.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

3 minutes ago, MightyJordan said:

Good start; hopefully they'll launch it in the UK, too. Little bit pricey, though, especially compared to the WEC's offering, where the entire season - including Le Mans - costs just ~£25, and that includes on-demand race replays, as well. If F1 delve into on-demand as well, put up race replays, even go as far as the WWE Network does and put up previous seasons in all their glory, they'll have a game-changer on their hands.

Quote

During the season, F1 TV will be made available in four different languages (English, French, German and Spanish) and will appear in nearly two dozen markets at launch (including Germany, France, USA, Mexico, Belgium, Austria, Hungary and much of Latin America).

You're out of luck in the UK, thanks to the existing Sky deal. Which runs until 2024, I believe.

[MightyJordan]

34 minutes ago, Frank B. said:

You're out of luck in the UK, thanks to the existing Sky deal. Which runs until 2024, I believe.

Yep, and this year is Channel 4's last, so it'll be completely exclusive to Sky from 2019. That wouldn't necessarily stop F1 TV being available here, though, unless the contract Sky signed in 2011 or the extension agreed in 2016 specifically forbids it. I mentioned the WWE Network in my last post; all WWE programming has aired exclusively on Sky Sports over here since 2001, but they still launched the Network here in 2015 - a year after starting a new TV contract with Sky running to 2019 that's worth 3x as much as their previous one - and it's a direct competitor to Sky, since it shows their PPVs live, even though they're still sold on Sky Box Office, so we get two choices: either pay Sky £17.95 to watch a single PPV, or pay WWE £9.99 to watch the PPV, plus thousands of hours of other content and any other upcoming live shows for the next month.

 

 

EDIT: OK, Autosport say Sky's deal does forbid it, so no F1 TV here until 2025.

Edited February 27, 2018 by MightyJordan

[MarkusDarkus]

Three letters. VPN.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

 

Perfect weather for F1 tests in Barcelona today.

[Skiver Veteran]

16 hours ago, MightyJordan said:

Good start; hopefully they'll launch it in the UK, too. Little bit pricey, though, especially compared to the WEC's offering, where the entire season - including Le Mans - costs just ~£25, and that includes on-demand race replays, as well. If F1 delve into on-demand as well, put up race replays, even go as far as the WWE Network does and put up previous seasons in all their glory, they'll have a game-changer on their hands.

Apparently, they will offer quite a lot of features, some of the things I remember off the top of my head;

 

• You can watch for one specific driver/car cam for an entire race
• You can have two different car cams up for comparison - I guess for battles?
• You can watch an F1 Archive on demand - no word on how many seasons and if it's every race from all but it's decent
• Feature and support races - Formula 2, GP3, Porsche Supercup, "among others"

The only sticking point for me is commentary, will they get their own team or will they borrow from another source? I personally much prefer the sky team and loved having Sky F1 back last season but I've lost it again for this season. I have seen you can pickup 24 hour Now TV Sports passes on Ebay for £2-3 so I'll possibly look to do that for as much of the season as possible.

 

In other news... looks like testing is over

 

 

[Skiver Veteran]

oh, and yesterdays testing times...

 

[MightyJordan]

 

[sc302 Veteran]

If it is worth anything, the firestone Indy car team is looking for an engineer.  I am acquaintances with their chief engineer, she is a sweetheart.

 

http://fortune.com/2017/05/25/indy-500-female-chief-engineer/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanaglass/2016/05/28/meet-the-badass-women-behind-the-indianapolis-500/#1e77152d5045

[SnoopZ]

On 2/27/2018 at 3:39 PM, Skiver said:

The FW41 had its first laps at Aragon today as part of a team filming day. Here's Robert Kubica's view from the driving seat.

 

It could just be me, but I swear on any straight his head appears to be leaning to the left slightly, which I can only imagine is to get a better view. I wonder if all drivers end up doing this if it may mean they have to re-think their neck exercises. 

I don't like the Halo view at all it looks so obstructive, apparently the driver can't tell how hard it is raining now as the rain never hits their visor  so it is impossible to judge the track conditions.

[MightyJordan]

 

[Skiver Veteran]

Your post isn't showing for me @MightyJordan ?

 

In other news, Mclaren appear to be proving that Honda clearly wasn't their biggest problem. I've seen articles that they're having to cut holes in the bodywork around the Turbo area due to heating issues.

[SnoopZ]

Yes the post isn't showing anything here too.

 

[what]

2 hours ago, Skiver said:

In other news, Mclaren appear to be proving that Honda clearly wasn't their biggest problem. I've seen articles that they're having to cut holes in the bodywork around the Turbo area due to heating issues.

I can't believe they haven't killed off their 'size-zero' philosophy yet, it's clearly not fit for these power units.

 

Another oil leak today as well. As one of the most experienced teams, how can they not keep the oil properly?

 

Unfortunately for them there are no more excuses. Renault and RBR are doing relatively well.

 

I guess the only excuse they do have is that it's only testing and they'll have it sorted come Melbourne. But given it's hardly scorching in Barcelona, having cooling issues is a real concern.

[MightyJordan]

6 hours ago, Skiver said:

Your post isn't showing for me @MightyJordan ?

 

5 hours ago, SnoopZ said:

Yes the post isn't showing anything here too.

 

Huh, weird, it was supposed to be a tweet from the F1 account showing the times from yesterday's testing. It showed up fine on my phone at the time when I posted it. Maybe there's a new bug; let's see if these work now on the desktop...