2012 Formula One

[gurutasker]

Does anyone know when they typically announce next years schedule? Looking to plan a trip for 2013 and include a round

[Mr Ree]

It typically doesnt get announced until after the end of the season which can make things a bit difficult to judge. But most Gps are at the same time ever year, give or take 1 week, so apart from any new additions to the season, you can guesstimate when you need to be in what country.

Where are you thinking about going if you dont mind me asking?

My dream is to go to Spa, then Monza as they always run concurrently on the calendar, and are my 2 favourite circuits, for so many reasons.

[gurutasker]

Based on the time I will be in close proximity.. aiming to get to Monaco

[Mr Ree]

Cool, imagine the sound of the V8s at 18,000rpm bouncing between the building, music to your ears

While I know it would be amazing to attend, Its not on my "must see" list, only because I imagine visibility of the track will be poor, and the costs to go coupled with accomodation costs in Monaco would be a deal breaker for my scottish wallet

[2jayzgte]

Good to Kimi did pretty well in the latest F-1 testing with the fastest recorded time of the day.I'm really interested to see how he goes this year.

[thornz]

Heres hoping he can competitive!

Can never really believe testing times though.
Cant beleive the season starts next weekend, man this off season has flown by.

[Mr Revhead]

Imagine if he got a podium. That'd be cool

[Mr Ree]

I have watched all 3 of the 4 day test sessions very closely, and even though you can never get a complete picture due to varying fuel loads, you can get a pretty clear picture of how much fuel people are carrying based on the length of the runs theyre doing, between refueling.

This year is looking to be closer than ever, with the front of the field massively compressed compared to the last few years. Obviously there will be teams who bring some large upgrades to Melbourne to try out in FP1, but apart from RBR who are slightly ahead of the pack, the fight for 2nd/3rd/4th/5th will be fierce.

The new parts the teams have been testing have been many and varied. McLaren have copied Mercedes front wing W-duct, a couple of the big teams have copied Saubers exhaust outlet orientation, the only thing Im certain of is no team has tried to copy anything on the Ferrari, as its tragically slow.

I would say that at this stage, based on putting together all the lap times from testing and taking into account the tyres those laps were made on, and fuel corrected, the pecking order is as follows, but it is FAR closer than last year and will only take a tiny slip up to fall down the list.

Red bull
Mclaren
Mercedes
Lotus
Ferrari
Sauber
Force India
STR
Caterham
Williams
HRT/Marussia

11 days and counting until FP1

[Scottie]

Kimi to be on top gear this weekend.

[Mr Ree]

I thought Kimi was on the last episode of the season? I.E 5 weeks away?

I was chatting with some guys in the UK during one of the last F1 tests and they were saying it was the final episode of the seasons??

Anyhow, I hope the track is the same condition as when Vettel did it, so we can get a good comparrison

[SkylineObsession]

Would be nice if they showed footage of F1 on free Tv again, haven't seen any F1 races since SKY got the rights all those years ago.

[Mr Ree]

In an ideal world, it would be nice, but when you think about the benefits of it being on sky, it makes it extremely good value for money.

On terrestrial tv, we would get no practice sessions, no quali sessions, no build up to the races, no live GP3 and GP2, and to top it off, ads thrown in at terrible moments like around the pit stops.

While I HATE sky/telstra with a passion, as an F1 addict, I dont mind having to pay for such a huge amount of footage, and consider it extremely good value for money. $20 extra a month on top of my phone/cable tv/internet bill is nothing when you think about all the things most people waste money on e.g takeaway coffees, fast food, bottles of soft drink etc

I know what I prefer to spend my money on

[Mr Revhead]

However its extremely poor value for money for those of us who watch stuff all tv.

[Mr Ree]

Ive always lived in areas where tv reception has been terrible, so I guess having cable has been a requirement anyway.

If you dont already have a cable/satellite tv, then yes, it wouldnt be as good value for money, but to me, still good value for money

I guess I just presumed that most people these days would have sky/telstra?

[Mr Revhead]

I have freeview and the internet. I watch most of my racing online as it's not shown on tv here. Or if it is its at stupid delayed times

[Mr Ree]

It might sound stupid but I only cottoned on to live streaming last year.

On the times when sky delayed a practice or quali session, I started searching for streams, and managed to find a few some were ok but most were a bit glitchy and low res, but still well recieved in comparrison to missing out.

One other benefit to it that I always enjoyed was being able to watch the raw bbc feed with Martin Brundles gridwalk before the race, something that I have never seen, ever, on the sky NZ feed. It was great and built up the atmosphere to the race alot better

[thornz]

Thats the one thing I wish they could do also, get teh pre and post race shows shown, would be fantastic!

Online streaming is okay as a last resort, but always a pain when you find a good one, only for it to get shutdown.

[Mr Revhead]

Yeah I've never streamed F1.
I watch V8s, Le Mans and other 24 hour races via live stream.

[Mr Ree]

And I expect that the recent bbc/sky split of the coverage this season is only going to compound the issue of poor quality f1 streams, as the load of them is going too increase tenfold with all the people in europe who have become accustomed to free F1.

[OllieS]

Flat I have moved into has sky so I am looking forward to live, unglitchy, HD F1!.

Also, I am hoping F1 appears on isky, which reminds me that I need to investigate isky. Watching some of the more obscene races before work in the morning, compared to 2/3 o'clock, certainly appeals.