Official F1/Motorsport thread

[CMcK]

Well that was the first time I've attended a Grand Prix and I think it'll be the last. We had General Admission tickets which, bear in mind, cost over £100 for the Sunday only. We arrived at the track about 0730 and still struggled to get a half reasonable view. We were standing at the entrance to Becketts and found it to be a good spot for the Red Arrows.
I'm really dissapointed by the whole setup. Realistically a decent view with a supplied seat is going to be circa £250. Which is utterly dire value compared to going to something like T in the Park.
Is suppose the £10 million the circuit has to hand over to Ecclestone means ticket prices will always be on the high side. Let's see if the breakaway Formula can do something about this.

OT - The Eurofighter was fooking stunning! That thing maneuvers in the air like a F1 car does on the road. Respect is due to the peeps that made the inherently unstable design work. Geniuses.

[Senna]

Anyone who thinks Raikkonen is in any way a bad driver doesn't know what they're talking about.

When did I say he was a bad driver?

What I said was that he isn't worth ?30 million a year when you compare how much Massa and others earn.

Raikkonen is still a good driver, but something just doesn't seem to be there with him, and hasn't been since he won the championship in 2007. It's like he achieved his goal, and since then has lost the fire, the drive.

I could be speaking absolute bull**** and it could be completely down to Massa raising his game to incredible levels. My guess is it's a little bit of both.

P.S. Top Gear tonight with Michael Schumacher was interesting. That Ferrari was absolutely jaw-dropping around the test track.

[ChrisF]

Your photo is amazing Pete! WAY better than anything I got I got plenty of Jenson's dad waving to the crowd though hehe.

I couldn't believe how expensive everything was. Got a program and a baseball cap and I was suddenly ?35 down!

Sign me up for a cap + program combo too Fortunately I took a packed lunch. The prices were bonkers.

Be glad you could see the Red Arrows. Believe it or not, the bridge (at the start line) obscured my view of them.

[Paulos G]

P.S. Top Gear tonight with Michael Schumacher was interesting. That Ferrari was absolutely jaw-dropping around the test track.

Yeah. I really enjoyed the segment. The FXX looked HAMAZE!

[PeteJ]

The FXX was insane, I've never even heard of it. I thought it was a bit bizzare that you could take it home, but after seeing it go around I guess everybody would just kill themselves (is it even road legal?).

Thanks for comments on the photo, that was one of the better ones I got. I've put a few more in the photography thread and can't quite face going through the other 700 I took (the majority failed ).

I was pleasently supprised at how much support there was for Lewis, he was by far the most popular driver despite having a poor season. Jenson had massive support too, as did Brawn (yes, I sold out and got a Brawn cap like everyone else!) but nothing like for Lewis. Shame we did have a british driver winning, was looking forward to the place going mental

[ChrisF]

I thought it was damn decent of Lewis to say that he hoped Jenson would win!

[PeteJ]

I didn't know he said that, in fact I don't even know what the final results were!
Couldn't resist another photo

http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterjohns/

[Orgun]

Lewis doing a little dohnut for the fans at the end was pretty amusing

[Alastair]

I think I got the balance of cost and enjoyment right then by the sounds of it. Only went on Sat, got in at 8:30, no traffic, walked round to Becketts and got a good spot right at the fence. Enjoyed the practice, the quali, the gp2 race (which was great), the porsche quali and the formula BMW's.

Pete, we must have walked right by you as we were heading down hanger straight and under the grandstand when the historics were qualifying.

Was a bit of a cold day but good fun. Packed lunch for the cheapskates wins the day. I was exhausted though so don't know how you managed 3 days Pete.

Only one photo uploaded so far, all the rest are a bit samey as we didn't really move all day.



As for the race, I only watched the beginning 20 laps, it was looking a bit boring so I did some DIY instead, go me!

[merf]

I like the way the BBC trailers for F1 inadvertantly sum up what its become in more recent years, they describe it as the 'worlds most exciting car chase', note the subtle but important use of the word chase, and not race.

[cutmymilk]

3 days camping for me.

Had a great time and race came across as more exciting live than I imagine it was on tv. I thought it was an easy race to follow if you used a screen and paid attention to pit stops and standings.

If you don't pay to get by a screen you will be confused, but the pit straight have screens anyway. I was sat at Stowe so saw Alonso take Hamilton Had to use binoculars to read the screen though as they use the same tiny on screen graphics that you get at home.

EDIT: Oh, and I bough a Red Bull cap on the friday. Still kind of wanted Button to win but I like everything about the Red Bull team.

[Alastair]

I've got tickets through for the Friday of the Festival of Speed at Goodwood again this year, been quite a few times but didn't go last year, should be a great day, is anyone else going?

[Malc]

I've got tickets through for the Friday of the Festival of Speed at Goodwood again this year, been quite a few times but didn't go last year, should be a great day, is anyone else going?

Yep, but we're going on the sunday. Brawn GP confirmed to be there and Jensen will be going up the hill. Also Lewis Hamilton will be driving a privately owned Bruno Senna car, I think his Honda that he drove.

Hopefully it'll be just as much fun as all the previous years!

[Atticus]

I watched it this year on the Abbey chicane. Had a great time over the 3 days but I must admit I nearly nodded off during the main event ... bit of a Yawn Prix this year. Ho hum.

[Alastair]

Yep, but we're going on the sunday. Brawn GP confirmed to be there and Jensen will be going up the hill. Also Lewis Hamilton will be driving a privately owned Bruno Senna car, I think his Honda that he drove.

Hopefully it'll be just as much fun as all the previous years!

Do you mean Ayrton Senna car? I thought that's what it was.

The Sat and Sunday are just too busy for me now. I was at the second year it ran on the Sunday and it was amazing being able to go wherever you wanted and see everything. Even on the Fridays now it's really packed and you have to queue for everything, will be a shame to miss Jenson and Lewis though.

The plus side is my tickets are free