Formula 1 2016: General Discussion Thread

LEIN

Has Setanta lost the rights to F! in Ireland?

Myrddin

LEIN wrote: »

Has Setanta lost the rights to F! in Ireland?

Hope not, why do you ask?

LEIN

Not on the UPC EPG as of last night.

Myrddin

LEIN wrote: »

Not on the UPC EPG as of last night.

It's listed as being live via the website, must be a UPC issue

LEIN

Myrddin wrote: »

It's listed as being live via the website, must be a UPC issue

Yeah, just seen that.
Thanks for the info.

Jordan 199

Myrddin wrote: »

I reckon Nico has it this year, he destroyed Hamilton toward the end of last year & if he can keep that up he's laughing

I think if Rosberg starts the season the way he finished the last season, well then it should help him with the championship.

Myrddin

Who? - http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/tv-star-steve-jones-returns-7512984

ricimaki

https://twitter.com/C4F1/status/707141619078844416/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Twitter doesn't seem to be working. Here's the picture



Some details on the presenters

Cool_CM

Myrddin wrote: »

Who? - http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/tv-star-steve-jones-returns-7512984

Jaysus, somebody at the Coalition Talent Agency was so anxious to get that press release out that they haven't even bothered to update his profile on their site yet:

http://www.coalitiontalent.com/artist/view/362/steve-jones/

Never heard on him.

Mike Litoris

Apart from that dude, the rest of the team are intact....yes yes yes!!!

Its still not 100% clear if DC will commentate along side Edwards or did I miss something?!

mickdw

I'm liking the c4 crew. That Steve fella is likeable and I'm delighted to see ej and Lee mckenzie involved. She covered alot of other sports at BBC. Surprised she made the move.

HighLine

Fairly impressive lineup. I think it's silly to have the brother of one of the drivers on the panel though.... perhaps harsh but I always find his interviews cringe worthy.

recyclebin

HighLine wrote: »

Fairly impressive lineup. I think it's silly to have the brother of one of the drivers on the panel though.... perhaps harsh but I always find his interviews cringe worthy.

A lot of the line up could be biased if you think about it. DC is a big Red Bull supporter. Webber isnt Vettels biggest fan. Susie Wolff used to work for Williams and her husband runs Mercedes.

Hamilton is English and the world champion and Channel 4 is an English channel so I can see why they would have his brother on the show a few times a year. Its always nice to wind up the Hamilton haters too :P

frostie500

recyclebin wrote: »

A lot of the line up could be biased if you think about it. DC is a big Red Bull supporter. Webber isnt Vettels biggest fan. Susie Wolff used to work for Williams and her husband runs Mercedes.

Hamilton is English and the world champion and Channel 4 is an English channel so I can see why they would have his brother on the show a few times a year. Its always nice to wind up the Hamilton haters too :P

That's a fair point but at least with the rest of the hosts/panel they have bone fide journalistic or racing credentials. Other than being the brother of a champion Hamilton has neither

Mike Litoris

Just read on Autosport that it will be DC and Edwards in the commentary box.

Delighted with this line up. With Setanta still showing all races I wont have to touch SKY.

Didn't think much of Suzie Perry so no big loss there for me. Agree about Hamiltons brother. Not sure what he'll bring to the table.

frostie500

OSI wrote: »

Nicholas Hamilton has raced in the Clio Cup, ETCC and BTCC. Granted he's never won anything, but given he's got cerebral palsy I think that's achievement enough.

Yeah it's impressive that he raced but does making up the numbers quantify having the credentials required to take on this high profile role? Put it this way if he wasn't Lewis' brother do you think he'd be anywhere near the Channel 4 stage this year? Of course he wouldn't and given that he has no background in media it's difficult to see exactly what he brings to the table for me other than a likelihood that Hamilton will be more likely to give extra time to C4. Call me skeptical, and that would be a fair comment, but I struggle to see what he can offer compared to the other people hired

mickdw

frostie500 wrote: »

Yeah it's impressive that he raced but does making up the numbers quantify having the credentials required to take on this high profile role? Put it this way if he wasn't Lewis' brother do you think he'd be anywhere near the Channel 4 stage this year? Of course he wouldn't and given that he has no background in media it's difficult to see exactly what he brings to the table for me other than a likelihood that Hamilton will be more likely to give extra time to C4. Call me skeptical, and that would be a fair comment, but I struggle to see what he can offer compared to the other people hired

I guess paying hamiltons brother a retainer might gain them the odd extra couple of words from lewis here and there.
I see lee mckenzie staying at BBC also for other sports. Don't know how she managed that.

devildriver

mickdw wrote: »

I'm liking the c4 crew. That Steve fella is likeable and I'm delighted to see ej and Lee mckenzie involved. She covered alot of other sports at BBC. Surprised she made the move.

Not familiar with Jones but it's a good lineup. Always liked Chandhok and McKenzie.

Jordan 199

It's great to see Alain Prost part of the C4 team.

eviltimeban

Is that Bruno Senna too? He worked well on Sky, pity he won't be on it.

And is that Murray Walker???

Well, I'm glad I have Sky F1 for the simple reason I won't have to listen to Eddie Jordan (unless he's doing a podium interview).

flazio

Setanta did say they will be showing every race live in response to a twitter enquiry so that's good news, the question is however, where are they going to get their commentary from? Particularly the Friday sessions where Channel 4 don't have live rights? Presumably BBC have to keep providing radio commentary for the F1 app so Setanta can keep drawing from them, but will Channel 4 allow Setanta use of Ben and DC at all on Saturday and Sunday or will they have to use radio commentary throughout?

Charlie-Bravo

The world feed during the race has to be at least proper race commentary rather than describing every detail like 5live does. If DC was smart enough, he'll have tied up that element into some contract negotiations. Here's hoping Setanta do get the feed from C4F1.

Spudman_20000

Suzie Perry is no loss. It will be a relief not to have to watch her bungle and giggle her way through the show. I have no idea how she got the BBC F1 presenting gig in the first place.

Eddie Jordan wouldn't have been a loss either. He does seems to get insider gossip, have good connections to a lot of the teams and break the odd story, but my God is he annoying. He seems to only open his mouth in order to contradict himself every couple of minutes.

No sign of Alan McNish either, thank Christ. F1 can be boring enough at times without him droning on.

ricimaki

Tire choices for Australia have been released. Mercedes, Haas and Sauber are the only ones to have different sets between each team-mate.

TheDoctor

How is the tyre thing working this year?

Use your sets how you want throughout the weekend?

AMKC

A really interesting line-up by Channel 4 for the formula 1. Hope it all works out good. Great to see Murrey Walker back again.

Jordan 199

LIGHTNING wrote: »

I am a big fan of Chandhok, he seems like a genuine bloke and he analysis on the BBC practice sessions was excellent. Webber is a straight talker who doesnt mind saying when things are crap. Pretty great line-up apart from one or two duds.

Name them

mickdw

LIGHTNING wrote: »

I am a big fan of Chandhok, he seems like a genuine bloke and he analysis on the BBC practice sessions was excellent. Webber is a straight talker who doesnt mind saying when things are crap. Pretty great line-up apart from one or two duds.

Yep seems like a decent Fella Chandhok. Easy to listen to.
Only dud I see is hamilton.
Ej has his place and worked excellently with dc and jake humphrey. Might get something similar with the new presenter.
You are not a fan of susie. I've no objection as long as she is not taking up an f1 test seat.

I believe coultard and humphreys own the production company so I guess they will be pulling out all the stops to make a big success of this. I think they all knew the game was up at BBC, the coverage was on a downward spiral for years

Wanderer78

eviltimeban wrote: »

Well, I'm glad I have Sky F1....

jasus, yea wouldnt pay for it though!

Harika

TheDoctor wrote: »

How is the tyre thing working this year?

Use your sets how you want throughout the weekend?

Pilots can pick out of the three tyre options that Pirelli offers them (Medium, Soft and Supersoft for Australia). Pirelli picks three sets and then the driver chooses 10 sets. Of the the three sets that Pirelli picks, one must be used for Q3, two are for the race, where one of the two needs to be used. The other 10 sets can be picked by the drivers as they like.
We could even see all three tyre options used in one race by one driver.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/122220

frostie500

frostie500 wrote: »

Yeah it's impressive that he raced but does making up the numbers quantify having the credentials required to take on this high profile role? Put it this way if he wasn't Lewis' brother do you think he'd be anywhere near the Channel 4 stage this year? Of course he wouldn't and given that he has no background in media it's difficult to see exactly what he brings to the table for me other than a likelihood that Hamilton will be more likely to give extra time to C4. Call me skeptical, and that would be a fair comment, but I struggle to see what he can offer compared to the other people hired

I'm not trying to be funny but it's Channel 4. Finding a disabled competitor is the exact kind of thing they'd do.

mickdw

Wanderer78 wrote: »

jasus, yea wouldnt pay for it though!

I pay 90 quid extra a year for f1 in hd on sky.
Bargain as far as I'm concerned

Wanderer78

mickdw wrote: »

I pay 90 quid extra a year for f1 in hd on sky.
Bargain as far as I'm concerned

thats fair enough i guess. very good coverage alright during the season, dreadful otherwise. id rather not pay for it at all

flazio

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I'm not trying to be funny but it's Channel 4. Finding a disabled competitor is the exact kind of thing they'd do.

Apparently, they will be featuring Alex Zanardi in their coverage as well.

mickdw

Wanderer78 wrote: »

thats fair enough i guess. very good coverage alright during the season, dreadful otherwise. id rather not pay for it at all

I think it is quite generous of them to offer f1 via hd pack and not require sky sports at all.
To be honest I would not pay for sky sports as I don't watch soccer or any other sports on there.
I guess sky can see that alot of motorsport fan are not into football etc and they may catch more people with a reasonably priced offering

Wanderer78

mickdw wrote: »

I think it is quite generous of them to offer f1 via hd pack and not require sky sports at all.
To be honest I would not pay for sky sports as I don't watch soccer or any other sports on there.
I guess sky can see that alot of motorsport fan are not into football etc and they may catch more people with a reasonably priced offering

thats a good point alright. i didnt realise you could get sky f1 alone but its not available from my provider. not sure id still pay for it though but they are doing an impressive job.

flazio

I don't subscribe to Sky Sports F1 but a lot of their coverage, such as Paddock Uncut, The F1 Show and race highlights tend to be put up on Catch up for free anyway. So what I tended to do was watch the coverage live on Setanta /BBC (we have an Eir package so one of our side tvs has Eir TV with Setanta) and then watch the highlights on Sky Catch up to see if the former missed anything. Obviously this year I'll be replacing BBC with Channel 4 although I'm still subscribed to the Chequered Flag podcast.
In a way this is similar to how I watched F1 over 10 years ago. Watched the race live on RTÉ then watched the ITV highlights package later that evening.

eviltimeban

Wanderer78 wrote: »

thats fair enough i guess. very good coverage alright during the season, dreadful otherwise. id rather not pay for it at all

I paid for it and got a HD box which was great as well, was part of the package. Didn't need to get any other Sky Sports channels as another poster pointed out, which again was fine.

You're right to a point, coverage is great over the season, in fact the pre-shows are often more interesting than the races! Off season though, isn't too bad. You get a lot of repeats of races, from the previous season as well as "classic" races, if you're jonesing for some F1 action over the winter. The F1 Show is good the odd time, Legends of F1 have been pretty good (the Hakkinen one is great) and the testing shows are really good, including Ted's Notebook (even though Ted himself is a little annoying, he's a bit hyper, though I like him).

In fairness there's not much else they can show over the off season.

The presenters are the best thing though, anywhere Brundle goes is the channel you need to watch. David Croft is good, and Johnny Herbert and Damon Hill are usually quite insightful.

Jimoslimos

Andrew76 wrote: »

Hopefully there'll be no more "Lewis is the champ" type remarks out of him either - automatically seeing yourself as inferior that is.

I never believed that Rosberg actually thought he was inferior to Hamilton. It seemed to me to be more of a case of mind games - taking the pressure of him and putting it on Lewis.

He'd have more success if he tried the following approach;
"Hey Lewis, really loved you at Paris Fashion Week and your new album....WOW! You should do more of this sort of stuff....instead of driving faster than me"

I think this is Rosberg's best chance of a championship. He seems to have the edge on a distracted Hamilton but Ferrari are closing the gap quickly. I have a sneaking suspicion that Vettel will pip him by virtue of having a less competitive teammate in Räikkönen.

Mitch Connor

people ave banged on about a distracted Hamilton for the last two seasons, and Hamilton has won the title both times. People said his relationship would distract him and cost him, it didn't. When the relationship ended people said it would distract him and cost him, it didn't. When they had the summer break and Hamilton was off at fashion shows and stuff, people said he was distracted and Rosbergs focus would give him the edge: Hamilton won the title.

Hamilton relaxes and focuses himself differently, and has beaten Rosberg when it matters consistently.

bnt

AP is reporting that the US Grand Prix is now likely to go ahead as scheduled on October 23, with the organisers coming to some sort of financing deal with the State's Major Events Trust Fund.

edit: confirmed, with a twist: they're going to get Taylor Swift to play a concert there too. I didn't know she was a motorhead ...

Cool_CM

AMKC wrote: »

Great to see Murrey Walker back again.

As much as I love Murray Walker, I wonder how much of a role he is really going to play. He is 92 at this stage.

mickdw

Cool_CM wrote: »

As much as I love Murray Walker, I wonder how much of a role he is really going to play. He is 92 at this stage.

I'd say they will sit down with him, record a few bits that can be played of over the season and maybe drag him in for the British gp also.

Harika

mickdw wrote: »

I'd say they will sit down with him, record a few bits that can be played of over the season and maybe drag him in for the British gp also.

In Austria they had a comparable case, where they put the commentator on an alternative audio stream, so you could enjoy the nostalgia.

lolie

Just looking at the c4 line up when did chandok become an f1 technical expert? Pity they didn't get Gary Anderson, Ross brawn or Craig scarborough for that role.

Also 20 years today since brundle has his wee accident in Australia.
https://twitter.com/1990sF1/status/707831323612807168

Mike Litoris

Dayum

Frank Bullitt

Its like a Formula Ford on steroids.

Cookie_Monster

you can't not have a front wing though, right?

Ghost Train

lolie wrote: »

Just looking at the c4 line up when did chandok become an f1 technical expert? Pity they didn't get Gary Anderson, Ross brawn or Craig scarborough for that role.

Gary Anderson would have been good
Would he fit their image maybe not


and
full line up
http://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/styles/article_large/public/thumbnails/image/2016/03/08/12/Channel-4-presenting-team_0.jpg

Mike Litoris

25 years ago today the real 191 made its debut in Phoenix.