[justinnum1]

Originally Posted by inTgr8r

If anything they pitted too soon.
If they had left him out instead of right behind JB, he could have done the same thing as SV with the safety car & therefore stayed in front of SV.

Who knew the saftey car would come out after he pitted...thats hind sight...

[Echo M3]

Originally Posted by gary88

Great race! Glad to see Button win. Disappointing to see Mercedes have such a strong weekend then have both cars retire.

Webber still can't launch a car.

Also, Kimi questioning the blue flags was hilarious.

Agreed. Was hoping that Mercedes would be farther up the grid on race pace.

Also, Alonso drove a phenomenal race. That car didn't deserve to be anywhere near 5th place based on pace. Will ferrari EVER give him a remotely quick car?

[inTgr8r]

Originally Posted by justinnum1

Who knew the saftey car would come out after he pitted...thats hind sight...

yes, but the point was that their strategy wasn't wrong.

[UltimateBMW]

Good result for McLaren. Would have liked to see Hamilton get his start right though. I'm getting tired of seeing the strategy gut Hamilton's races, how hard can it be to keep a simple strategy and get it right.

I was surprised by Vettel's pace, with Webber along with him. And was pleasantly surprised to see Alonso up there as well.

I was not surprised however to see Massa down at the bottom getting in more incidents. At some point he will need to realize his time is up.

And too bad for Schumacher, he had a good run going until his failure.

[UltimateBMW]

Originally Posted by EINSER M

hamilton still a sore loser, he couldnt be happy for button on a fantastic win, vettel was more congratulator to button than hamilton was!

Sorry, but I don't understand this point of view and respectfully disagree. I'm not sure what post race interviews you watched, but the first thing out of Hamilton's mouth every time I saw him speak to someone was, "Congrats to Jensen, and Congrats to the team for their hard work." Every single time.

Are you really suggesting that he should be all chipper about having pole and not bringing it home? I think he did just fine considering the result and where it started from.

[007MCoupe]

How is anyone not talking abotu Sauber??/ They had a great race, Kobi looks fierce this year and Perez did a good job with what his 1-stop strategy.


SO glad McLaren got the win! So glad BUTTON got teh win!

[justinnum1]

Originally Posted by inTgr8r

yes, but the point was that their strategy wasn't wrong.

Yes it was, he stayed out to long on his first stint. he had a 9 second gap over vettel, by the time he pitted, it was a 5 second gap...he stayed out like 3 laps to long...not a huge mistake but enough to probably cost him 2nd place.

[EINSER M]

Originally Posted by UltimateBMW

Sorry, but I don't understand this point of view and respectfully disagree. I'm not sure what post race interviews you watched, but the first thing out of Hamilton's mouth every time I saw him speak to someone was, "Congrats to Jensen, and Congrats to the team for their hard work." Every single time.

Are you really suggesting that he should be all chipper about having pole and not bringing it home? I think he did just fine considering the result and where it started from.

no he said it, he said congrats to jensen and congrats to the team....
but did you look at his face everytime he said it? reporters even made note of it during post interviews! at the weigh station, in the interview room, im not a hamilton basher <yes ok im a vettel fan boi> but i think im right when im saying hamilton was a pissed off mofo for not winning last night and it showed. does he have every reason to be pissed off? sure. mclaren didnt help him out with the double pit stop but cheer up you got a podium finish and mclaren 1-3 scored 40 points!

[inTgr8r]

Originally Posted by justinnum1

Yes it was, he stayed out to long on his first stint. he had a 9 second gap over vettel, by the time he pitted, it was a 5 second gap...he stayed out like 3 laps to long...not a huge mistake but enough to probably cost him 2nd place.

They also have to factor # of stops.
Bring him in earlier and either his tires fall off the table at the end or he needs another stop.
Either way MW catches him.

The other question is why did he need to come in earlier?
..answer, he uses his tires a lot faster than JB.
That's on LH not the team.

[Impervious]

I've always thought Hamilton was a sore loser and bad sport. You can see his insincerity in every interview. I have alot of respect for his driving though.

The race was awesome overall. Very excited to have F1 back, it was a long winter.

[E90SLAM]

.

[justinnum1]

Originally Posted by Impervious

I've always thought Hamilton was a sore loser and bad sport. You can see his insincerity in every interview. I have alot of respect for his driving though.

The race was awesome overall. Very excited to have F1 back, it was a long winter.

He's definitely kind of a sort loser, i think a lot has to do with his team, many times they have screwed him over.

I have watched every race over the last 6 years and they have cost him at least 5 wins.

But he needs to get off to a better start especially when he's on poll.

[E90SLAM]

Some random pictures courtesy of Pirelli

[ptack]

On the topic of Hamilton - he does come across as a winey primadonna, but I thought that commercial with him sitting in a Nascar was hilarious - assuming he was in on the joke of needing a child car seat.

[UltimateBMW]

Originally Posted by ptack

On the topic of Hamilton - he does come across as a winey primadonna, but I thought that commercial with him sitting in a Nascar was hilarious - assuming he was in on the joke of needing a child car seat.

You saw the event at Watkins Glenn last year right?

[justinnum1]

Originally Posted by UltimateBMW

You saw the event at Watkins Glenn last year right?

That was funny

[UltimateBMW]

So, lets talk about the shake up in broadcasting. Sky vs. BBC, etc.

Anyone else here watch the new Sky broadcast?

My thoughts:
I don't like Simon, he just doesn't feel like he fits. Also, it doesn't really feel like he is into it. To me at least, I have no idea what his background is but I'll say it again, Simon is no Jake Humphrey. I enjoyed Brundle and Crofty, though Crofty made a few too many mistakes but it was his first race. So I can forgive that. Brundle was on his usual form and was good. However, the cut to Georgie Thompson and David Anthony was bad. The entire segment should be David Anthony alone, as Georgie Thompson served absolutely no purpose and had nothing to contribute, ever. (I didn't even find her all that attractive, if that was suppose to be her role.) The pre-qualy and pre- race shows had no continuity and just jumped all over the place. They would show a 30second segment intro when the segment itself was only 20 seconds long. This is like broadcasting 101, the intro can't be longer than the content. In the end, I felt myself nearly bored until Brundle's grid-walk. Hopefully they get better, but it's no BBC coverage.

I'm going to watch the BBC highlight clip when I get a chance, hopefully they did it right.

[UltimateBMW]

Here is the new BBC intro complete with "The Chain".

[Echo M3]

Originally Posted by UltimateBMW

So, lets talk about the shake up in broadcasting. Sky vs. BBC, etc.

Anyone else here watch the new Sky broadcast?

My thoughts:
I don't like Simon, he just doesn't feel like he fits. Also, it doesn't really feel like he is into it. To me at least, I have no idea what his background is but I'll say it again, Simon is no Jake Humphrey. I enjoyed Brundle and Crofty, though Crofty made a few too many mistakes but it was his first race. So I can forgive that. Brundle was on his usual form and was good. However, the cut to Georgie Thompson and David Anthony was bad. The entire segment should be David Anthony alone, as Georgie Thompson served absolutely no purpose and had nothing to contribute, ever. (I didn't even find her all that attractive, if that was suppose to be her role.) The pre-qualy and pre- race shows had no continuity and just jumped all over the place. They would show a 30second segment intro when the segment itself was only 20 seconds long. This is like broadcasting 101, the intro can't be longer than the content. In the end, I felt myself nearly bored until Brundle's grid-walk. Hopefully they get better, but it's no BBC coverage.

I'm going to watch the BBC highlight clip when I get a chance, hopefully they did it right.

I think you mean Anthony Davidson he used to test for Toyota, and raced for Super Aguri. I thought he was good, but she was completely useless.

I caught the Sky broadcast this weekend as I was in the UK , and I agree with you for the most part. Simon sucks, he has no enthusiasm and his questions are awkward at times. The main post-race interviewer of all the drivers (Natalie something?) is AWFUL as well. Her questions were horrendously awkward - she kept repeating herself; you could sense the drivers were laughing at her, not with her, at times. They should have hired the old BBC interviewer (leigh mckenzie) who was terrific - the post-race interview of Hamilton at Monaco last year stands out to me as to how you do an interview well. I'm not too fond of Damon Hill, either - I don't feel he adds anything over Martin Brundle, and he tends to go off on tangents that are neither funny nor interesting.

As far as race commentary goes, I hated Croft. I actually felt it would have been better to have silence at times. He gets too riled up and excited, as if he is trying to imitate Murray Walker, but has none of the charisma or charm of the latter. It is very difficult to pull off the Murray Walker persona, and in this way, Croft reminded me of a poor version of James Allen, rather than Murray.

I may be in the minority, but I prefer precise, insightful comments over talking for the purpose of talking, which I felt Croft did at many occasions. For that reason, I really liked the Coulthard-Brundle combo; there were a few moments of radio silence last year, but their commentary was usually spot on and extremely insightful.

Brundle, as always, was great. It's too bad the team around him is a bit poor.

As far as the actual production...there's simply no comparison. The BBC pre-race shows were head over heels better than Sky - although we have to cut them some slack for producing their first ever F1 Grand Prix.

Other thoughts?

[E90SLAM]

I watched steaming from Sky and Speed HD at the same time just to get Martin Brundle commentating. I felt SkyF1 has the tools and will to make it good. They've done much better than iTV couple years ago.

But their hosts needs to brush up some interview skills. Natalie needs to ask better questions and interact better with the paddock and drivers. Damon Hill is useless on the show and he doesn't have as good connection and good sport as Eddie Jordan. Sometimes Eddie babbles nonsense, but he has better relationship with many team boss and officials than Damon Hill as I saw compare BBC and Sky.

Ted Kravis has been given a better role on explaining technology and pitlane walk during the race. The Sky-deck (or watever its called), Georgie is complete useless, but Davidson surprised me as he comment on the pole lap from Vettel 2011 and this year. Future he might be a good commentator pair with Martin Brundle.

Simon will need sometime to improve his hosting skill and interact with Hill and Brundle. I don't see a lot in-depth questions and concerns to the other hosts. He sounded like a news anchor to me rather than hosting a sport event. Guess they have not build their chemistry yet.

We've seen good chemistry between Jake, DC, and EJ, (and Brundle on Forum) in the past. And I've thoroughly enjoyed their chemistry and love when EJ had no shame and just walk into anyone's garage and interview anyone he liked. Also shutting off RedBull garage's "big bad wolf"...

From what I felt, BBC makes you feel F1 is everyone's sport and very personal, its more about people. and Sky is very glamour and very technical. But they have the potential to bring in great coverage in the future!

[UltimateBMW]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one. And yes, Anthony Davidson. Sorry about that.

I agree with your point about Croft. Also, I didn't particularly care for all the new graphics they lopped on top. I think I'm going to watch the BBC highlights for the interviews and show, and sky only for the race. Also, while I never was that fond of Eddie Jordan it feels empty without him. He is definitely a great character even if he is wrong or awkward. Sometimes he was just plain funny, and that was worth it.

How much longer is on the BBC contract? Only a year?

[escobar929]

good race overall, Jensen did a great job through out, Vettel was very fortunate w/ MSC having a failure and the timing of the safety car but i thought he had a great race overall

people need to stop criticizing LH for everything he does, he's the Lebron of F1. Its called being competitive, they are all the same. Just because Vettel is a better actor, it doesnt mean he doesnt feel the exact same way when he looses. I'm sure he was happy for Jensen, they have a great relationship but you have to take into account that he prob thought he was going to win this race judging by how qualifying went

and lol WTF is Webbers problem, he keeps doing the same thing, crazy how he always pulls a good race and ends up in the top 5