rincewind

Finally, here it is.

Schumacher on Pole for the start of the F1 season.

What channel do you guys watch it on? I can only see it on Speed (150). I miss Martin Brundle (and Murrey for that matter).

I also miss the F1 Interactive I used to subscribe to on Sky

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

Qualifying times:

1 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1m24.408s
2 BARRICHELLO Ferrari 1m24.482s
3 MONTOYA Williams 1m24.998s
4 BUTTON BAR 1m24.998s
5 ALONSO Renault 1m25.699s
6 WEBBER Jaguar 1m25.805s
7 SATO BAR 1m25.851s
8 R.SCHUMACHER Williams 1m25.925s
9 TRULLI Renault 1m26.290s
10 RAIKKONEN McLaren 1m26.297s
11 MASSA Sauber 1m27.065s
12 COULTHARD McLaren 1m27.294s
13 DA MATTA Toyota 1m27.823s
14 FISICHELLA Sauber 1m27.845s
15 HEIDFELD Jordan 1m28.178s
16 PANTANO Jordan 1m30.140s
17 BAUMGARTNER Minardi 1m30.681s
18 PANIS Toyota no time
19 KLIEN Jaguar no time
20 BRUNI Minardi no time

Pimpbot

Speed channel is all you got here I am afraid. I watched qualifying last night and thought the coverage had improved a little. Its just the advert breaks that spoil the show. So many more than ITV ever had. The race is on at 7.30pm mountain time tonight here.

The interactive TV coverage was stopped by Bernie, as it wasnt making any money. The French and Germans had it about 2 or 3 years before we did. But it wasnt making any money there either and it was costing Bernie a fortune shipping all the TV trucks around the world. If you ever went to a race, you'd see 10 or so silver trucks parked up in the paddock, all for the extra TV coverage.

Franklin

I miss Murry like crazy. He was so good to listen too and it was so funny to here him come out with his Murray-classics! Sure miss him.

Looks like Kimi was right, his car does suck (again). Hopefully McLaren will the problems with their car sorted out soon. I root for Michael and Kimi.

Webbie

I haven't watched or listened since Shuey was winning every race a couple of seasons ago.

I miss listening to Murray as well. As well as the boring syncronised racing it just wasn't the same with James whatshisface. Brundle was good, but without MW it is just not the same.

- Got a quick story - a friend of mine from Germany moved to England to work and before he moved I told him all about Muddy Talker and his commentary. At first he wasn't sure about it, but when he was there he watched every race and loved listening to Murray.
Eventually he moved back to Germany and took his English-bought TV with him.
He plugged the telly in to watch the Grand Prix over there and the sound didn't work for some reason, so he sat there for over an hour providing the commentry for us by imitating Murray !

Franklin

For a while not hearing his commentary was rather difficult so for a while I would watch F1 with the sound off.

Some Murray classics ...

"And Nigel has climbed from 7th to 6th to 4th to 5th."

"He's obviously gone in for a wheel change. I say obviously because I can't see it"

"If's a very big word. If is Formula One spelt backwards!"

"And here comes Damon Hill in the Williams. This car is absolutely unique - except for the one behind it, which is exactly the same"

And his famous catch phrase “…unless I'm very much mistaken …� And yes, he often was!

From memory: “His car would be OK if it wasn’t on fire�, “let’s stop the start watch�, “he’s doing well except he is slowing down� … "I think there's something wrong with his tire ... its come off" "Was that a little something I saw fall of his car ... oh, heaven", "And he's back in the lead ... oh, that's just a replay", "The race would be over but for the fact that it's not"

I think one of the funniest moments I saw in F1 was Pele heading for the podium to wave the checkered flag ... he was there, flag in hand, and was chatting to someone and the finishing cars streaked by ... the commentator said (from memory, so I could be mistaken), "They will have to go round again, they didn't get the checkered flag." Then someone corrected him ... I don't remember the commentator's name, but it wasn't Murray, he was too bright to fall for that whammy.

On another tack, didn't Button do well for BAR!!!!! Qualified in fourth place!!!! Jacques Villeneuve must be sick to the stomach over this. As much as he might like Button, he is bound to have ambiguous feelings about BAR management.

Franklin

Walk in the park for Ferrari, a 1-2 win!

Alonso finished third for Renault, fantastic start off the line, a great opening race for Renault.

The Iceman suffered a needless water pump failure that seized his engine and locked up his rear wheels in right royal style ... but the age of the Iceman is coming.

Button did very well cruising in fourth place only to loose it to the great pretender finally finishing in sixth for the BAR team; but still a great start for BAR, long overdue imho. Go BAR, GO BUTTON!

Malaysia next ... brrrrrmmmmmmm ...

mattbutt

nice to see button do well,

I didnt really follow the whole season build up this year, can someone tell me what happened to villeneuve?

rincewind

I felt the same way when I watched it today. I started feeling old seeing the new young drivers in the paddock. The graphics on the screen kinda lost me for the first hour trying to work out who the hell people were.

Well, here is the story on Villeneuve:

Looks like Schuey could be going for the 7th

lairdside

Speed channel is 408 here and 76 down in Reno (even though they are both Charter).

I miss Sky coverage also

What's everyone's opinion on the difference the increase in the pit lane speed limit made?

Franklin

Probably not related to pit lane speed, but Jordan's mechanics had a fright (likewise the viewers) when one of their cars had a rough pit stop hitting some of them. :scared:

Apparently the mechanics suffered no more than a scare and a few bruises.

But imho there should be a full investigation of the incident. As an aside, there was talk before the race about the design of the pit lane. Specifically, the quick switch from concrete to asphalt along the pit lane that might cause grip problems for the race cars as they rapidly decelerate to a final stop at their pits. I'm not sure if the asphalt runs parallel to the concrete, if so I can understand the issue would apply to the final turn into the pit stop to take on fuel and new tires. Anyone else heard about this?

http://www.f1central.net/news/1078656965.html

lairdside

Hmm..

Was the switch made to standard asphalt concrete or to rubberized asphalt concrete?

The asphalt/rubberized asphalt/concete debate has been raging for years.

rincewind

Out of all the pitstops that occured this weekend, only one driver made an error and hit his pit crew. I have never seen this happen before in Australia so I find a full investigation pointless. But that's just me.

Funny how he broke down right after his pit stop Guess his pit crew were a little pissed and stuck a handful of rice in the gas tank

mattbutt

Thanks for that, sounds like a few internal politics there,

It cant be that hard getting on with your manager when you are being paid millions of pounds...now shoemaker junior is at it too.

Cant be that difficult shaking a few hands and saying hi to the sponsors that pay your wages?!