July 11, 2012

2012 British GP: Not bad for the #2 driver, again.


Maybe, like me, you suffered through another awful tape delayed Grand Prix broadcast on Fox.   Watching their intro,  which turned drivers into cartoon characters (El Lobo vs the Iceman Cometh vs the Mystery), you wonder why a network would insist on believing the F1 audience is made up entirely of morons.     You would not know it by what you saw occasionally between all the commercials but there was an interesting race happening at Silverstone.

I so wish there was a complete, multichannel digital package one could purchase so one would be free of inanities one is forced to hear from the now very long in the tooth commentary team.... or perhaps Fox should strap Varscha, Hobbs and Matchett to biplanes like BBC did with Eddie Jordan, Coulthard and Humphreys.




Interesting race,  the big surprise of course was that it was dry.   In the end it came down to Ferrari not being able to work the option tires as well as Red Bull.   Webber, drove a great race,  keeping cool until it was his moment to pounce two laps from the end.

The F2012 is almost as good as the RB8 now,  an amazing effort for a team who's car was seen as a dog at the beginning of the season.     There is a bit of a mystery as to why Massa's option tires on full tanks lasted longer than Alonso's options on empty ones.   Driving style or just inconsistency?  Nobody is criticizing Pirelli but I've heard some grumbling.

I wonder how the bosses at Red Bull are taking Webber being ahead of Vettel? His contract was renewed for a year,  which perhaps is how 35 year old drivers get treated these days even is they are multiple winners...

Revelation, Lotus.  Now if they can only get Grosjean and Raikkonen not to throw away their races...  but their win is coming, just like Romain's awesome pass on Rosberg.  That kid's got some talent,  someone find him a brain and he's the real deal.

Speaking of brains....  Maldonado.  There is no doubt in my mind he did NOT slip on cold tires but widened his line, defending what was already gone.  Money may buy you speed but not necessarily smarts.

Massa had his best race in ages and I think went a long way towards the possibility of a contract extension with Ferrari.

Maybe the biggest disappointment again were the Mclarens.   Super fast in a straight line (some 10km/h faster than Ferrari and Red Bull) but with no traction and with an apparent inability to get heat into the tires,  like last year's Ferrari.  The eagle eyed among you may have noticed Hamilton after qualifying touching first his, then Alonso's tires.
Hamilton has called into question the whole design philosophy of the MP4-27, the only car without stepped nose (along with  Marussia).   It seems Mclaren is a bit lost right now, what with its drivers doing cartoon testing and aero improvements not improving the car. Interesting that an ex Mclaren man is at Ferrari and an ex Williams man is at Mclaren.   Next thing you know Lewis will try to steal Kimi's seat!

7 comments:

  1. It was a interesting race. Massa best race in long time and for the tires maybe on Alonso's with the car lighter they were not able to put the right temperature as they did with Massa.

    For me was a disappointment again the Silver Arrows.... they start looking as the Ducatis in MotoGP.

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  2. No doubt Fox must think we are all idiots. Additional thoughts which also sadly carry over to Speed:

    The graphic showing the grid over the formation lap is obnoxious. Can it get any larger? It grows larger and larger every year.

    A F1 race is not a football game. We don't need a "Keys to the game" segment. I realize this is a marketing tool sold to a sponsor but it would be nice to hear the drivers making their final burn outs as they approach the grid. I offer that there maybe nothing more dramatic in all of sport.

    Delayed broadcast or pre-emption in favor of NASCAR is understandable given the US but sad just the same.

    At least Speed finally wised up and preserved some sort of Pre and Post race coverage bookending the awful Fox broadcasts this year, and I have to hand it to them for ramping DeBrief up a notch, but it sure would be great if we could get the SkySport or BBC coverage here.

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  3. The spoon feeding is annoying. I don't understand soccer, tennis, or hockey and don't expect the announcers to explain it to me. If I really want to know something about those sports and cant figure it out I can ask a friend. Or Google. That said, I do appreciate Matchett's contribution to the Speed/Fox team. He seems to keep up with the teams and often has some interesting tidbits that I don't get elsewhere.

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  4. It really REALLY annoys me how they all talk over each other. I have NEVER seen the SKY (2 in the booth) or BBC (also 2) talk over each other to the point where afterwards you're left asking, "what was just said?". It isn't like these guys have been working with each other for a year or two, they should have some chemistry between them to not all scream into the mic at the same time. I know you're excited about stuff going on in the race but c'mon, it's unbearable.

    A good addition to a F1onFox drinking game would be how many times they explain what DRS is and does.

    I don't think I'll watch another Fox Broadcast for F1, I'd rather wake up at odd hours and find F1 streams online.

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  5. yes i agree fox commentary is crap .... they are bunch of jokers .... one Varscha is so annoying ... i kid you not in Valencia race he was saying "100+ degrees track temperature, you might think it is Fahrenheit, but its Celsius, its so hot".... seriously man ?hes that dumb ?? and hes commentating ??

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  6. Put Hamilton and Alonso on the same team. For all the times you have a go at Lewis when he compares himself to senna, we all know who left mclaren in 2007. A very Prost reaction If you ask anyone.

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  7. Commentaries over here in Hong Kong look on par with what you have to go through. At one point I switched to chinese so I didn't have to process all the nonsense. The light came with the BBC and their iPlayer platform. I subscribed to a VPN service (which allowed me to pass as a British user) and got access to all their good work including live race stream. Combined with great races it was perfect. This is much better than streams like vipbox.tv and justin.tv . There is also a new one on this scene which works great and best of all is free : www.tulnr.net , best quality ever and very stable... if only bbc was broadcasting all the gp it would be heaven...

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