The motorsport thread. (car, bike and sim motorsport)

[DELTAprime]

So not sure if anyone else here likes motorsport.

Anyway this year I'm trying to expand my watching of motorsport beyond Formula 1, FIA Formula 2, GP3 and the occasional Supercars race.

Late last year I started watching FIA WEC and started watching Formula E at the start of the season in December. I plan to also watch the IMSA SportCar Championship which starts this weekend and features the new Daytona Prototype cars in addition to the Le Mans LMP2 cars.

For anyone that wants to watch this stuff...

Formula E streams free on their YouTube channel (you need a VPN to watch some of it) and puts up past broadcast there as well (no VPN required). https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-DuRqsBQOEk_5o1q4Ze-Fg

IMSA do free streaming outside the US, you can watch this weekends Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona there. https://imsatv.imsa.com/

FIA WEC stream on their web site but it's not free. http://www.fiawec.com/

F1, F2, GP3 and Supercars are all tied up with Foxtel with replays of F1 on Channel Ten.

[G1Optimal]

I try to watch the FIA World Rally Championship every now and again

[MEEEGGGAAATTTRRROOONNN!!!]

I'm into two wheels, though will watch four, even though I think four is two wheels too many. :p

[DELTAprime]

Do you guys watch Moto GP? My understanding is that you can either watch on Fox Sports or buy a season pass on the Moto GP website and watch the exact same coverage there.

[gamblor916]

MotoGP is great, last season particularly. Can't wait for this year to start racing.

[MEEEGGGAAATTTRRROOONNN!!!]

Do you guys watch Moto GP? My understanding is that you can either watch on Fox Sports or buy a season pass on the Moto GP website and watch the exact same coverage there.

One broadcasts the main race only, so you're stuffed if you want to watch Moto 2 or 3.


MotoGP is great, last season particularly. Can't wait for this year to start racing.

Absolutely fantastic season! Best one in a looonnnggg time!

[The_Black_Sheep]

I only watch Group B Rallying. Today's motorsport seems outright boring in comparison...

[Autocon]

Anyone watching the 24 7 race at bathurst on 7mate this feb?

[DELTAprime]

You mean the Bathurst 12 Hours? I think it's next weekend and yes I'll be watching.

[Autocon]

You mean the Bathurst 12 Hours? I think it's next weekend and yes I'll be watching.

Yeah thats what i meant :p

[Galvatran]

New owners of Formula 1 announces the dedicated, committed, hard working grid girls will no longer be part of the event.

[DELTAprime]

^ Yeah that's just stupid. Now all those women are out of a job.

Anyway I finished watching the Daytona 24 Hours last night. Good race to have on in the background while you're doing other stuff.

[Galvatran]

^ (I'm gonna regret asking but hey what the heck) Like, what other stuff?

[Lint]

Formula 1 for me, would like to get into MotoGP but I'm not sure I have the time

[DELTAprime]

^ (I'm gonna regret asking but hey what the heck) Like, what other stuff?

Playing a game, browsing the web, you know, stuff you might have a TV on in the background for.

[Galvatran]

Playing a game, browsing the web, you know, stuff you might have a TV on in the background for.
Shhhhh. Keep it on the down low. We don't want our better half to know we can multi-task. That'll just open up a whole can of worms.

[Autocon]

12 hour starts at 2.30am my time. Hope its a good race

[MEEEGGGAAATTTRRROOONNN!!!]

^ (I'm gonna regret asking but hey what the heck) Like, what other stuff?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYoj8_LBavQ

[DELTAprime]

Just found an archive of the Bathurst 12 Hour thanks to Nissan/Nismo

Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwLVSX1p_nM

Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq_dqPP1LZY

[philby]

yeah i follow F1 and V8 supercars but less on the V8 front these days. Generally watch every F1 race but not so much V8s.

[G1Optimal]

I only watch Group B Rallying. Today's motorsport seems outright boring in comparison...

Exhilarating as they were (i liked the audi quattro by the way) those cars were monsters that claimed lives.

Althoughi do not know much about these motorsports i just wath them, Hillclimb might be your thing they some go beyond 800hp

[DELTAprime]

Exhilarating as they were (i liked the audi quattro by the way) those cars were monsters that claimed lives.

The same could be said about many forms of motorsport. I've watched a number of documentaries on Formula 1 car safety over the years. It's sickening what the organisers deemed to be ok in the past.

[G1Optimal]

The same could be said about many forms of motorsport. I've watched a number of documentaries on Formula 1 car safety over the years. It's sickening what the organisers deemed to be ok in the past.

True

[CHILENO20]

The same could be said about many forms of motorsport. I've watched a number of documentaries on Formula 1 car safety over the years. It's sickening what the organisers deemed to be ok in the past.

Saw a doco called "Group B - The Killer Years" on BBC Knowledge about a year ago. It was about European rally championships during the 70's & early 80's. Man, the FIA did not give a flying rats arse about safety in those days, not about the drivers or the spectators. All they cared about was the ratings and lining their pockets. I will say though that the driving itself was epic. Those guys & girls were nucking futs :eek:

[DELTAprime]

^ I think you're confusing two documentaries.

The Group B documentary is called "Madness On Wheels - Rallying's Craziest Years" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2372307/

The Formula 1 documentary from the same people is called "Grand Prix - The Killer Years" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1954483/

Both are easy enough to find on various streaming places on the internet. (note there is footage in both but especially in the Formula 1 documentary that's not appropriate for everyone)

[CHILENO20]

^ I think you're confusing two documentaries.

The Group B documentary is called "Madness On Wheels - Rallying's Craziest Years" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2372307/

The Formula 1 documentary from the same people is called "Grand Prix - The Killer Years" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1954483/

Both are easy enough to find on various streaming places on the internet. (note there is footage in both but especially in the Formula 1 documentary that's not appropriate for everyone)

Nope, "Madness On Wheels - Rallying's Craziest Years" & "Rallying - The Killer Years" are the same just different title. I just got the title wrong. The Grand Prix version is from the same doco series.

[DELTAprime]

There's also a great documentary called "1" on Formula 1 safety, it focuses more on the positives. It's very hard to google thanks to the name being the arabic numeral 1. Here's a link to it in Google and iTunes.

https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/One?id=c0_mkUHFHtA

https://itunes.apple.com/au/movie/1/id734421786

[DELTAprime]

Just finished watching the Adelaide 500 using On Demand on Foxtel Now. Now I've got to catch up on the IMSA 12 Hours of Sebring and the IRL St Petersburg GP while not falling behind of the F1 Australian GP and round 2 of the Supercars. And the WEC doesn't even kick off till May.

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to try and watch more motorsport this year.

[gamblor916]

Well that was an interesting race.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/793/40438528335_a06f2d2571_o.jpg

[MEEEGGGAAATTTRRROOONNN!!!]

Yeah, that was an absolutely ridiculous decision by race direction!

[DELTAprime]

~snip~

Something looks wrong there but I can't quite put my finger on it...:p

This mornings race in Bahrain was really cool. Lots of drivers from the back of the grid last year ended up in the top 10.

And Kimi Raikkonen tried to kill his own pit crew. Well not intentionally but one poor dudes leg looked like a dog's breakfast.

[Autocon]

Well that was an interesting race.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/793/40438528335_a06f2d2571_o.jpg

What happened there???

[gamblor916]

Google Argentina MotoGP. (https://www.google.com.au/search?client=opera&q=argentina+motogp&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8)

[shockNwave]

I only watch Group B Rallying. Today's motorsport seems outright boring in comparison...

First found out about this sport through Colin McRae Rally 04 on PS2. There are four Group B cars to unlock:
1. Lancia 037
2. Peugeot 205
3. Ford RS200
4. Audi Quattro
The Audi can only be unlocked if you complete the hardest difficulty level and rightly so, these cars have F1-like engines and combined with their crap handling I can see the B in Group B stands for brutal.

By the way, rugby union says their sport is what is played in heaven. That's because Group B rally is way too violent for heaven.;)

[DELTAprime]

Anyone that hasn't seen the F1 Chinese GP from yesterday you need to watch it if you have the means. The first half of the race is so-so. The second half is amazing.

[Fungal Infection]

Anyone that hasn't seen the F1 Chinese GP from yesterday you need to watch it if you have the means. The first half of the race is so-so. The second half is amazing.

While I'm a Ferrari fan, I'm glad Ricciardo got the win - always good to see an Aussie on the podium not to mention him doing his trademark shoey!! :D

[DELTAprime]

Great day for Aussies in the two biggest open wheel races in the world. Danny Ric won the Monaco GP and Will Power won the Indy 500.

[Autocon]

Great day for Aussies in the two biggest open wheel races in the world. Danny Ric won the Monaco GP and Will Power won the Indy 500.

He won the Monaco GP?! Great news!!:eek::D

[DELTAprime]

Here's the full replay of the FIA WEC 6 Hours of Spa.

The WEC is fast becoming my favourite racing series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYhRIxoVvhM

[DELTAprime]

If anyone wants to watch this years 24 Hours of Le Mans for free it's now been put onto the Le Mans YouTube channel. Here's the link to the playlist of this years event including quali.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3YbDz_UmYw&list=PL4nVzON-waFEvRDr55jr2NQVYa3DB7H_C&index=4

[Autocon]

Bathurst this weekend. Hope its closer than the F1 of late.

Next year be all mustangs and cameros shoehorned into the roll cage.

[Galvatran]

Bathurst this weekend. Hope its closer than the F1 of late.
It tis. Bathurst is in NSW whereas F1 been overseas. :D:p

[DELTAprime]

Every year the Japanese GP conflicts with Bathurst. I watch Bathurst live and the Japanese GP later cause there's an extremely high likelihood Bathurst will be more exciting.

[Autocon]

Whos watching 12 hours at Bathurst?

[DELTAprime]

Whos watching 12 hours at Bathurst?

I'm still in the middle of watching the Daytona 24 Hours. After I watch that then I'll watch the Bathurst 12 Hours.

[philby]

i watched a bit of the 12 hour and the ending on youtube some time later. those cars sounded fantastic. pretty good battle near the end. bit of a brain fade from the nissan gt-r driver with that safety car weaving. never seen that rule before

[DELTAprime]

Formula 1 is in trouble in Australia thanks to Ferrari trying to get around the ban on tobacco advertising.

There are investigations going on from both the ACMA (the guys in charge of TV broadcast) and Victoria's Health Department as to if the Mission Winnow BS breaks the law.

If Ferrari gets F1 broadcast censored or banned I'm going to be pissed.

https://au.motorsport.com/f1/news/ferrari-mission-winnow-investigation-australia/4335008/

[DELTAprime]

I think I might not bother watching Supercars this season. The Mustang's of DJR/Penske look like the Supercars equivalent of the Ferrari F2004 that wrapped up the 2004 F1 championship halfway through the season.

[Sinnertwin]

Another Mercedes 1-2 care of Hamilton and Bottas at the F1000 Chinese Grand Prix.
Vettel finished 3rd almost 14 seconds behind.
Ricciardo managed to stay off the grass, his Renault didn't blow up and finished the race in 7th. The Mercedes double stack pit stop was a lesson in synchronicity.

[Lint]

Another Mercedes 1-2 care of Hamilton and Bottas at the F1000 Chinese Grand Prix.
Vettel finished 3rd almost 14 seconds behind.
Ricciardo managed to stay off the grass, his Renault didn't blow up and finished the race in 7th. The Mercedes double stack pit stop was a lesson in synchronicity.

A pretty dull race day overall, hoping Baku can deliver some excitement in a couple of weeks

[Sinnertwin]

A pretty dull race day overall, hoping Baku can deliver some excitement in a couple of weeks

I like Baku. Let's hope Grosjean can keep his tyres warm enough to avoid walls :p

For those that like a bit of F1 insight, Netflix has a great little series on F1. 10 episodes, 36 or so minutes each, but it offers a great insight into what it takes to run 2 cars on the grid. May be old news to some, but I don't watch Netflix all that often 🤷*♂️

[DELTAprime]

If you haven't watched last night's Austrian F1 Grand Prix go and watch it. It was a great nailbiter race.

[DELTAprime]

A massive crash in the F2 feature race at Spa has claimed the life of Antione Hubert.

https://au.motorsport.com/fia-f2/news/hubert-spa-francorchamps-fatal-crash/4526127/

[Sinnertwin]

Juan Manuel is also in an induced coma :(

[Sinnertwin]

Great Bathurst 1000. First one I've sat down and fully watched in years. A few questionable moments, but it's all part of the game.

Mercedes winning 6 WCC's in a row & with 4 races to go it's a formality now for LH winning another WDC. I doubt Toto will unleash Bottas and have another Rosberg/Hamilton scenario on his hands.

[TaZZerath]

Great Bathurst 1000. First one I've sat down and fully watched in years. A few questionable moments, but it's all part of the game.

Mercedes winning 6 WCC's in a row & with 4 races to go it's a formality now for LH winning another WDC. I doubt Toto will unleash Bottas and have another Rosberg/Hamilton scenario on his hands.

I was interspersing watching Bathurst with a few jobs around the house. It was initially very textbook until the last 30 odd laps where a lot of action happened.

I'm not a Ford fan but Scotty McLaughlin is a great driver and an all round top bloke so I'm happy he won.

[Sinnertwin]

I must say, the one thing that frustrated me a little was the whole "he's got 18 laps to go with only 3 laps worth of fuel on board" speil. Ummm... you guys do this for a living... I could have told you that conserving fuel and tyres are up there with regards to finishing the race. Seems like they do this every year to build a bit of excitement for us at home? .. which usually ends up with a mad dash to the end anyways

[DELTAprime]

I've completely given up watching Supercars this season. The Mustangs winning all the time is even less interesting than seeing Hamilton and Rosberg win all the time in the early days of the Turbo-hybrid era.

[TaZZerath]

I must say, the one thing that frustrated me a little was the whole "he's got 18 laps to go with only 3 laps worth of fuel on board" speil. Ummm... you guys do this for a living... I could have told you that conserving fuel and tyres are up there with regards to finishing the race. Seems like they do this every year to build a bit of excitement for us at home? .. which usually ends up with a mad dash to the end anyways

Yeah I dare say so, gotta add to the drama! Drama! Drama!

[Autocon]

Do we think the punishments fit the crime for the hold up under safety car?

[Sinnertwin]

Do we think the punishments fit the crime for the hold up under safety car?

I'd have fined Ryan Story half a million for his poor acting during the in-garage interview :p

$250,000? Drop in the bucket for DJR. As for Fabian, do you follow team orders, play nice and protect your team mate & paycheck or take the moral high ground. It's a tough one. Personally, I'd have have pulled up the park brake, read a book and watched SVG froth even harder, because 2nd place to me is only the first loser. If I can't win, I'll take some solice in knowing my team mate did. The others? They're nothing, just obstacles.

A lot of if's and but's, but if SVG was the better driver he wouldn't have been behind Scott in the first place. Which team in any sport hasn't pulled a similar stunt like that to protect their lead? Anyways, enough rambling from me :p

[Soundwarp]

I’m a diehard V8 Supercar fan.
I used to play with and build up the X series (XE,XE,EF)
But my baby (Refreshed and newly built XE falcon was stolen.

But my current car is ok too:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/soundwarp/FAB1B512-AF27-4EC7-9880-4A37121E28E3_zpsq1cbxxl8.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/soundwarp/media/FAB1B512-AF27-4EC7-9880-4A37121E28E3_zpsq1cbxxl8.jpg.html)

[DELTAprime]

In case anyone missed it. Romain Grosjean had a massive crash on lap 1 of the Bahrain GP last night. The car speared through the barrier, was ripped in half and erupted in a fireball.

If this crash happened before 2018 and the introduction of the Halo safety device RoGro would have been killed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdyKr1WzmEg

[nalops]

In case anyone missed it. Romain Grosjean had a massive crash on lap 1 of the Bahrain GP last night. The car speared through the barrier, was ripped in half and erupted in a fireball.

If this crash happened before 2018 and the introduction of the Halo safety device RoGro would have been killed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdyKr1WzmEg

I watched it live on my phone. Pretty scary stuff especially since it happened so quickly.

[DELTAprime]

The sim racing hardware market is in a bit of a strange state at the moment.

Fanatec has just released and sold out of, the CSL DD. A direct drive wheelbase for only $350 USD, as opposed to the other direct drive wheels in the market that can cost thousands of dollars.

Basically, Fanatec has just made everything except the cheapest products on the market like the Logitech G29 obsolete.

Boosted Media's deep dive review (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml69TLbCExU)

Chris Haye's much shorter review (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUEJUdssUk0)

Gamer Muscele's review (also short) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko5wY0pMtCU)

[DELTAprime]

And the Australian GP is about to be cancelled, again...

https://au.motorsport.com/f1/news/australian-grand-prix-cancellation-imminent/6626364/

[DELTAprime]

Terrible news from Brands Hatch in England. In a vintage touring car race, a car was nudged on its right rear bumper. It left the track and rolled through the air into a marshal's post. A marshal was killed and the driver had to cut free from the car. The driver escaped with only a broken leg.

https://au.motorsport.com/national/news/marshal-dies-crash-brands-hatch/6640125/

[DELTAprime]

So the F1 season is finally over and we have a first time World Drivers Champion in Max Verstappen. Yay!

Unfortunately tho, Mercedes are preparing to protest the championship in the civil courts. I can't wait for people that know nothing about motorsport to decide who is champion. /sarc

[Sinnertwin]

And so they should.
Max and Christian are absolute Grade A grubs & Michael Masi needs to give his head a really good wobble. He's been making terrible decisions all year and this is no different.

And before anyone pipes in with the wah wah Crymilton bull, I would have preferred anyone but Max to win. Even Mazepin.

[Autocon]

They allowed the lapped cars through. Did they do this at any other race this year?

[Lint]

Bit of a joke of a race. Made Formula One look like WWE. If I were Max I wouldn't be fully satisfied with that victory

In my headcanon it balances out. Many race decisions didn't go Max's way throughout the season so this levels it out.

In practical terms Perez or Tsunoda should have got Driver of the Day.


Even Mazepin.

You need help lol

[Autocon]

Ah so they let lapped cars through but this time only the cars between 1st and 2nd

[DELTAprime]

From the analysis I've read and heard by people that actually read the F1 rule book (that thing must induce sleep in most of its readers), Masi did everything within the rules. Especially since there's actually a rule that pretty much lets him do whatever he feels is appropriate and override other rules as long as it's safe. Also, the teams agreed earlier this year Masi should do everything possible to not let a race end under a safety car or VSC. It sounds like Lewis was a victim of an agreement between the teams and the very nuts F1 rulebook.

Merc doesn't seem to really have a leg to stand on with that rule being in the book that lets Masi make things up as it goes. They would be better off using those barristers they brought with them to Abu Dhabi to lobby for rule changes to future seasons than trying to overturn Max as champion.

[Sinnertwin]

Like Delta alluded to, when you can bend the rules, investigate yourself, admit that you got it wrong (as the stewards did), then absolve yourself because you made the rules, it's not going to end well for Merc.

[DELTAprime]

I've been doing oval racing in the last couple of weeks, including the iRacing Daytona 500. (All 4 hours of it).

It's pretty tense having a train of cars drafting centimetres from each other at 300kph around the Daytona Superspeedway. It's been a really cool experience.

[DELTAprime]

I just realised when I went to check in on the Supercars today that the Gen 3 cars are delayed to next year. :(