start yer engines!

[fling93]

The new Formula One season has started off with the Australian Grand Prix. Way cool. Especially since the sport is finally rid of Michael Schumacher, who retired after falling short in his bid for an eighth World Driver's Championship and, in my mind, is a total assholeAnyway, it was a tumultuous off-season. Of course, my favorite driver, Juan

Comments

[erika613]

omg, that opening pass from Hamilton was a thing of beauty! Then, it was all downhill from there, excitement wise.

Oh, and Wurz had a regular drive in 2000, then did 6 years of test driving. So, he's not exactly a noob.

Massa looked good, but he did pass most folks in the pit. He had 3? 4? laps to go 'round Fisi at the end, but just couldn't pull it off. I think he'll be where he was last year (and Barichello was the years before that) -- a second tier driver whose car makes him look ridiculously good.

[fling93]

Hamilton r00lz! Yeah, F1 needs to do something to create more passing. Although I wouldn't hold my breath about a Push-to-pass button. You heard what they said about that little teeny-weeny white dot "marking" the soft tires? Bridgestone was originally going to use a band visible while the cars were on track, but once Bernie heard that Champ Car was using such a band, he wanted no part of any appearance of F1 taking a page from Champ Car. Jerk.

Ah, 2000 was before I started watching. Still, that was pretty quick reaction for him to get on the brakes to send Coulthard's car over his head instead of into it.

Massa only pitted once, so I think he passed most folks on the course. They just didn't show too many of 'em because he was so far back. Of course, they were also severely underpowered compared to him. But Massa seems to be the dark horse pick for WDC. Perhaps if only because folks were expecting Kimi to take some time to adjust to a new team. I imagine this race might've removed any doubt about that. :)

[erika613]

yeah, bernie thinks it's okay to steal drivers (DiMatta, JPM) and to basically use Champ Car as a F1 minor league. But, goddess forbid he steal something that's a good idea!

I think I'm still going to root for Kimi (although he and Schumi have the same coloring, so it kinda looked like Schumi was on the podium for a second). I do want to see him win a WDC. I just wish that he would have stayed at McLaren to do it.

[fling93]

Bernie Ecclestone == stupid-ass poopyhead.

Yeah, Kimi does deserve a WDC, so I wouldn't mind him winning. Just dunno if I'll root for him or not. Man, why couldn't he have gone to Renault? That would've been cool! :)

[shandrew]

I watched Montoya in his first NASCAR road course race last month. It was ridiculous--he totally outclassed everyone, and was able to pass pretty much whoever he wanted, on any turn. Even though he had to make an extra pitstop because his crew screwed up, he easily crushed the competition (well, i think it was busch series, so maybe some of the better drivers weren't there) and won.

F1 is awesome to watch in person. If you haven't been to an F1 race before, I highly recommend it.

Andrew

[fling93]

I heard that he also spun out his teammate near the end of the race! Shades of him and Ralf Schumacher. :)

Whoa, you've seen an F1 race? Which one? So jealous.

[shandrew]

Montoya spun out his teammate, but I think it was mostly his teammate's fault. And anyway, it's NASCAR, hitting other cars and overly aggressive driving is a requirement.

I went to the US Grand Prix in Indianapolis in 2004 with my now-fiancee's family. It was a lot of fun, even though I didn't know much about racing. The atmosphere was great; there were a ton of fun people there. We went to most of the race week events there, which included lots of non-F1 races and practice and qualifying. There are many good places around the track to watch the events from. The F1 cars are simply amazing to watch in person. They look unreal, like they follow video-game physics, when they are going around the track. And they sound like banshees.