Are you a closet F1 fan?

pburns

Are you a closet F1 fan?

By that I mean that since the demise of Jordan it is more and more a minority sport in this country, maybe even a bit nerdy. Soccer, rugby, GAA all have such strong social aspects - male/female, all ages. I have a large group of friends, acquantences, colleagues etc. and I know of nobody else with anything beyond a passing interest in the sport.

It's not exactly the coolest sport at the moment is it?

Biro

pburns wrote: »

Are you a closet F1 fan?

By that I mean that since the demise of Jordan it is more and more a minority sport in this country, maybe even a bit nerdy. Soccer, rugby, GAA all have such strong social aspects - male/female, all ages. I have a large group of friends, acquantences, colleagues etc. and I know of nobody else with anything beyond a passing interest in the sport.

It's not exactly the coolest sport at the moment is it?

Who cares about cool? I'm not the biggest rugby fan, but I was at matches in Thomond 10 years ago before the fashion concious brigade deemed Rugby to be "cool" to follow! Does that make me an early cool sports fan or does it make me a nerd cause I was an early adopter?
Motorsport is cool in it's own right!

Running Bing

Im a massive F1 fan and proud off it.


Having said that I also like Soccer (cool), GAA (cool), Boxing (draw), Athletics (uncool), American Football (coolish), Ice Hockey (uncool), Golf (dont know the fashion for golf seems to change by the month), Rugby (cool), Tennis (uncool), cycling (uncool).


I reckon on the whole my street cred is in balance, neither cool or uncool. Thinking of dropping the Tennis, Cycling and Athletics though and that will bring me right into cool territory.

Kevski

Its only nerdy if u look deeper into the sport. Personally, i love that side of it, even if it has been dumbed down a lot this year.

As much as i dislike him, Lewis Hamilton is doing a great job of raising the profile of the sport. You cant ask for much more from a sport than what formula 1 has given in the past four seasons - a new superstar, close racing and one of the most dramatic sporting moments in history in last years brazilian grand prix. Im my opinion, thats pretty cool!

Running Bing

Kevski wrote: »

Its only nerdy if u look deeper into the sport. Personally, i love that side of it, even if it has been dumbed down a lot this year.

As much as i dislike him, Lewis Hamilton is doing a great job of raising the profile of the sport. You cant ask for much more from a sport than what formula 1 has given in the past four seasons - a new superstar, close racing and one of the most dramatic sporting moments in history in last years brazilian grand prix. Im my opinion, thats pretty cool!

Men driving cars at 150mph+ inches away from each other is also insanely dangerous and therefore cool.:D

homer simpson

i used to love it but i think its getting too boring, nascar is more exciting and thats saying something, just my opinion though.

The tax man

Babybing wrote: »

Men driving cars at 150mph+ inches away from each other is also insanely dangerous and therefore cool.:D

That's nascar you're thinking of.:D

Machman

I'm one with an anorak devotion to F1, have done so since I was a kid. Most of my mates will know whats going on generally in F1, but wouldn't have a clue if you asked them to point out the new regulations or such. Some probably think Shuey is still driving!
It's like a big soap opera, the story keeps unfolding and you just have to keep watching,

SoupyNorman

I've watched F1 ever since Michael S drove for Jordan in his debut season, my interest has never dipped in all those years. One of my Gf's biggest hates is when I slap the GP on on a Sunday.

I love seeing what tyres teams go for.

I love seeings whos on a one stop/two stop strategy.

I love the possibility of rain.

I miss Murray Walker.

I'm glad it's going back to BCC.

I love the track walk before the race.

I miss the yellow of Jordan.

I love Alonso (He's like a little firecracker)



Roll on March 29th!

aidan_dunne

Machman wrote: »

I'm one with an anorak devotion to F1, have done so since I was a kid. Most of my mates will know whats going on generally in F1, but wouldn't have a clue if you asked them to point out the new regulations or such. Some probably think Shuey is still driving!
It's like a big soap opera, the story keeps unfolding and you just have to keep watching,

Yep, I'm the same, I'm a total anorak when it comes to F1. Well, motorsport as a whole, to been honest. I've been known to bore people to death when the subject of motorsport pops up!

I've been watching F1 since 1985 but it was something I used to keep to myself for a long time because nobody I knew was into it. I knew a few people who were into rallying a small bit (not surprising in this country, really! ) but nobody seemed to be into F1 at all. Everybody else I knew were more into football or Gaelic so I used to keep my mouth shut regarding my love of F1 and motor racing for fear of being slagged off. "Motor racing? Sure, jaysus, that's only cars going round and round in circles. You'd get more entertainment watching two flies crawling up a wall!", was something I've heard many, many times over the years! :rolleyes:

I think when Jordan came into F1, and particularly when they started doing well, more and more people started following it in this country and it was something that wasn't to be "ashamed" of, for want of a better word, admitting watching anymore.

I suppose I "came out", so to speak, as an F1 and motorsport fan in the early 90's, probably around 1994. It's a terrible thing to say but I think Senna's death was something that facilitated a lot of people like myself admitting they followed F1 because it brought it to the general public's conciousness all of a sudden. Even though I had to put up with a lot of insensitive ba$tards in school making jokes about Senna dying for a while afterwards. :mad: If those fellas had been watching themselves and witnessed someone dying on live television, I don't think they would have been so tough and they wouldn't have been making fun!

lovinit

Yeah i used to watch it years ago when Schuey and Hakkinen where competing with each other, always used to feel sorry for Ralf Schumacher, David Coulthard and Eddie Irvine because they were always going to be No.2. Then I got fed up because schuey had no competition when Mikka retired, so I defected to wrc but since RTE did not get the coverage rights to show it this year I may defect back again. Since they are showing it on the BBC now they wont be cutting to a break when its getting good, and I dont like Lewis Hamilton either. As a woman I dont know any other women who actually watch it.

Biro

aidan_dunne wrote: »

Everybody else I knew were more into football or Gaelic so I used to keep my mouth shut regarding my love of F1 and motor racing for fear of being slagged off. "Motor racing? Sure, jaysus, that's only cars going round and round in circles. You'd get more entertainment watching two flies crawling up a wall!", was something I've heard many, many times over the years! :rolleyes:

That used annoy me too. I'd just reply "football? sure that's just a bunch of idiots running around a pitch like field mice after a bag of wind", which may or may not shut them up for a while.

Mike Litoris

It would still be a minority sport even if Jordan were still around. Most people still see it as cars going round and round for 70 odd laps unfortunately.

I've been watching F1 for the last 20 years. I stopped watching during the Schumi domination era when the FIA seemed to do everything to help Ferrari. I started watching again when Alonso and Renault started to take it to them. Last year was the best season for a long time with what was one of the most exciting title deciders ever. This year has all the ingredients to be even better.

That said, I've been with the same company for the last ten years and it's still just me and two others who talk F1 while everyone else talks football.

ODD-JOB

pburns wrote: »

B it is more and more a minority sport in this country, maybe even a bit nerdy.

It's a highly intellectual sport .

martyeds

I used to watch Formula 1 years ago, but i lost interest in it after i saw drivers had to carry out team orders. It ruined it from a betting point of view.

martyeds

LIGHTNING wrote: »

When did you stop watching? Team orders has been around since the 50`s.

Not really sure but i remember there was one very blatant incident where the driver in the lead slowed down to allow his team mate to overtake him yards away from the line.:mad:

EvilMonkey

martyeds wrote: »

Not really sure but i remember there was one very blatant incident where the driver in the lead slowed down to allow his team mate to overtake him yards away from the line.:mad:

How much money did you have on it? :pac:

aidan_dunne

martyeds wrote: »

Not really sure but i remember there was one very blatant incident where the driver in the lead slowed down to allow his team mate to overtake him yards away from the line.:mad:

Sounds like Austria 2002 you're talking about there, when Barrichello was told by the team over the radio to slow down and let Schumacher past for the win. Rubens decided to make a point about how angry he was about this (and rightly so. It was still early in the season and Schumacher was comfortably leading the championship at that stage so there was no need for such team orders to be brought in at that point in the season) that he decided to slow down only coming out of the final corner so it would be obvious for the whole world to see that this was something he was being forced to do by the team. Afterwards on the podium, Schumacher made way for Rubens to stand on the top step as some sort of gesture but he was booed by the crowd and Ferrari was pulverised in the press (and by most of the fans, too) for their tactics.

I have to admit, I was very pissed off with Ferrari that day too and I almost felt, like you did, that it was time for me to stop watching F1. But, as LIGHTNING says, team orders have been around right from the start (even pre-dating modern F1 and going back to the pre-war Grand Prix days) so I guess it's something you just have to accept when it comes to Formula 1. Plus my sheer love of the sport keeps me watching anyway, even though we've seen even worse days in F1 since Austria 2002 (Indy '05 for example! :rolleyes:).