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Open Wheel Racing 2021, anyone there to watch?

RaceBoarder said:
I think the biggest thing someone new to racing needs to realize when attending a race is that it's more of the social experience than the actual racing. And this applies to all forms of motorsport, not just F1 (Indycar, NASCAR, Dirt Track in Slave States, etc.). It's an entire weekend, not just something you show up an hour before the race and then expect to be on the road 45 minutes after the conclusion.

It's a pretty different mindset when compared to the stick and ball sports.
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This. And it's not just the parties other posters have mentioned, but the the whole idea the event is a weekend long affair. Off track stuff, watching the preliminary races (which can sometimes be much more exciting than the main event) and the people.

I just got back from bring a volunteer worker at the NYC E-Prix event at Red Hook, Brooklyn. (Was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed the racing aspect of the Formula E series.) Granted I was on the inside, but the fellow workers I met were amazing. And political views, religion, gender, whatever means nothing for racing people. Racing people are racing people. That's all that matters.

Besides all over North America, I met folks from England (took three to a Yankees game, who had never been to a baseball game; I was peppered with questions, but they had a great time, and now they are offering me opportunities to attend races in Europe), South Africa, Italy, Singapore, India. And we all got along wonderfully. It's all about the racing, nothing else.
 
Kepler said:
The racing is fun. But man the intrigue and politics and flat out junior high school b1tchiness rivals The Bachelorette. That's just as much fun.

Dr. Mrs., myself, and my sister-in-law are making a date to go see the Vegas GP next November. I would greatly appreciate all advice on where to get seats and how to get the most out of the experience.
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I don't know if Vegas would be my suggestion for someone's inaugural race. First, to your question, I don't even think I've seen a map which shows where the grandstands are going to be. So, it's hard to answer that.

Even then, you sometimes don't know until the first race is run. I was at COTA in their first year, and sat in the Turn 15 grandstand. Many thought that would be terrible (as opposed to the Turn 12 grandstand), because it overlooked a "stadium" section of the track which looked Mickey Mouse-ish. But it turned out to be a great spot, as a lot of passes occurred there. And you could still see Turn 12 where the drafting and out-braking passes were made.

But I fear Vegas might be like Miami, geared towards the upper crust as opposed to the real racing fans (though perhaps not as bad as Miami). And any decent seat to see decent action will require a second mortgage.

My friend and I are looking into attending, but we'll see. We're remaining skeptical At least there are so many hotel rooms, they can't rip you off (too much) on the jacking up of their rates.

I would strongly suggest a road course and despite your hatred for Texas :-) COTA is an excellent choice for a zillion reasons. Other than the fact it sold out in hours this year... Which quite frankly, Vegas will do also.
 
MichVandal said:
Funny- have been to 5 F1 races- 3 at Indy- which were all great, one at Spa and one at Monza. Hope to get to Silverstone and Monaco before they get dumped based on the history. Vegas is far from our list of places to see an F1 race. I probably won't even stay up to watch it. The only way I we would consider Miami is to also go on a cruise.
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Is Silverstone in trouble? That would be a shame. It’s provided great racing the last few years.

I know Monaco is and Spa is on the chopping block as well. Even the most novice fan knows the history behind Monaco and what it would mean to
drop from the schedule, but it might be time to retire it. The track is just too small for the modern cars. The fact that any significant overtaking only happens when it rains shows how limited the track is now. It was absurd how Alonso was able to separate everyone from the front six once conditions dried out this year. And last year saw zero overtakes after the first lap.
 
Spartanforlife4 said:
Is Silverstone in trouble? That would be a shame. It’s provided great racing the last few years.

I know Monaco is and Spa is on the chopping block as well. Even the most novice fan knows the history behind Monaco and what it would mean to
drop from the schedule, but it might be time to retire it. The track is just too small for the modern cars. The fact that any significant overtaking only happens when it rains shows how limited the track is now. It was absurd how Alonso was able to separate everyone from the front six once conditions dried out this year. And last year saw zero overtakes after the first lap.
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From what I understand, Silverstone is ok, for now. But it seems that every time the contract is back up- some other place in the UK suddenly gets a huge bonus. But I have been to Silverstone for other races (back in the late 90's when I worked with Aston Martin), and I'd love to see an F1 race there.

I know that Moncao sucks for a race, but this is one time that I think we would have fun pretending to be a rich person. It's a wonderful part of the world, so wherever we would land to train into the principality would be really cool. Like we had a great time in the place we stayed to drive to Spa (Houffalize, really close to Bastogne).

For years, we've had this idea to take a cruise ship from somewhere to Barcelona, go to the race there, tour all the way to Monaco, see the race, and then come home. Maybe after a big boost in the stock market now that we are retired, lol.
 
MichVandal said:
From what I understand, Silverstone is ok, for now. But it seems that every time the contract is back up- some other place in the UK suddenly gets a huge bonus. But I have been to Silverstone for other races (back in the late 90's when I worked with Aston Martin), and I'd love to see an F1 race there.

I know that Moncao sucks for a race, but this is one time that I think we would have fun pretending to be a rich person. It's a wonderful part of the world, so wherever we would land to train into the principality would be really cool. Like we had a great time in the place we stayed to drive to Spa (Houffalize, really close to Bastogne).

For years, we've had this idea to take a cruise ship from somewhere to Barcelona, go to the race there, tour all the way to Monaco, see the race, and then come home. Maybe after a big boost in the stock market now that we are retired, lol.
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Oh, if you’re talking about going to the race, definitely keep Monaco on the schedule. It’s the party to end all parties. But I’m not sure there’s a more frustrating race to watch on tv. If only that tunnel was about 20% longer there’d be at least one passing opportunity on the course.

I’d like to go to one someday. Catalunya seems like a good one. Stateside it would be easier if they brought it back to Indy. Not that COTA is the hardest to get to, but Indy wouldn’t involve a plane.

Probably won’t try Miami. Trying to recreate the Monaco vibe in a parking lot 10 miles from the water is pretty lame. Vegas will be legendary but I can only imagine the surge pricing that town will have for the weekend.
 
Spartanforlife4 said:
Oh, if you’re talking about going to the race, definitely keep Monaco on the schedule. It’s the party to end all parties. But I’m not sure there’s a more frustrating race to watch on tv. If only that tunnel was about 20% longer there’d be at least one passing opportunity on the course.

I’d like to go to one someday. Catalunya seems like a good one. Stateside it would be easier if they brought it back to Indy. Not that COTA is the hardest to get to, but Indy wouldn’t involve a plane.

Probably won’t try Miami. Trying to recreate the Monaco vibe in a parking lot 10 miles from the water is pretty lame. Vegas will be legendary but I can only imagine the surge pricing that town will have for the weekend.
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Indy was fun- we got tickets from friends after the Michelin debacle- they were given a bunch- so we went for a few years. It's too bad that they could not work that out- by a pretty wide margin, the track is the largest spectator capacity of any F1 track. And it was an easy drive from here- hotels in the NE region of the region were still pretty reasonable. Oh, well.

If anyone is considering going to a race in Europe, I can't recommend enough Spa. You can actually see a bunch of the race, Eau Rouge is much more spectacular in person, wandering the track during support races rocks AND the area near the track is filled with history. We did many Battle of the Bulge tours after the race, it's super close to the Netherlands, and honestly, France is right there (we did a trip to Normandy after the race and touring). It will end up being one of the most memorable vacations you will ever take. We still talk a lot about it, and that was 15 years ago.
 
I don't understand two things from Sainz' qualifying run today.

1. It looked like they deliberately positioned him in Q3 to tow LeClerc, but he immediately retired after. Why would they care so much about getting the pole to the point of sacrificing the second car?

2. He made it to Q3, so I assumed he had P10 locked up but on the grid he is P19. Wha-?
 
Kepler said:
I don't understand two things from Sainz' qualifying run today.

1. It looked like they deliberately positioned him in Q3 to tow LeClerc, but he immediately retired after. Why would they care so much about getting the pole to the point of sacrificing the second car?

2. He made it to Q3, so I assumed he had P10 locked up but on the grid he is P19. Wha-?
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Carlos is getting a penalty for a engine parts changes (not sure what, if not all, is being changed). So he was starting in the back regardless- the last spot was between him and Schumi in the Haas. His engine went kablammo in Austria.

Getting him to Q3 was irrelevant to him, personally, but he could be very much used to drag Charles down the track- worked really well.
 
MichVandal said:
Carlos is getting a penalty for a engine parts changes (not sure what, if not all, is being changed). So he was starting in the back regardless- the last spot was between him and Schumi in the Haas. His engine went kablammo in Austria.

Getting him to Q3 was irrelevant to him, personally, but he could be very much used to drag Charles down the track- worked really well.
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Thanks!

Watching the pre-race. Nico Rosberg looks like Homelander.
 
Interesting race- some really exciting laps surrounded by cars that just could not pass. And the way that ended- George wasn't really that much faster than Perez- he just tricked Checo into missing the restart.
 
MichVandal said:
Interesting race- some really exciting laps surrounded by cars that just could not pass. And the way that ended- George wasn't really that much faster than Perez- he just tricked Checo into missing the restart.
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That was our first race and Dr. Mrs. and I loved it!!!
 
Kepler said:
That was our first race and Dr. Mrs. and I loved it!!!
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I'm glad because that wasn't one of the better races this year. Not by a long shot. Though, most of that was due to Leclerc crashing out and thus destroying any fight for the lead. There were some halfway decent battles elsewhere.

I'm concerned about Hungary. Notoriously a terrible place to pass. However, the new technical regs have surprised us at other tracks like Hungary. We shall see.
 
MichVandal said:
Interesting race- some really exciting laps surrounded by cars that just could not pass. And the way that ended- George wasn't really that much faster than Perez- he just tricked Checo into missing the restart.
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With the VSC, what's the purpose of slowing down if you're Perez? Tire deg? If everyone has their speed decreased to the delta, wouldn't it be more advantageous to keep that speed and keep the cushion?

Nice to see Mercedes improving each week. While a WDC is certainly out of the question, with Ferrari and Red Bull having reliability issues, I wonder if they still have a shot to make the WCC exciting. Ferrari is well within striking distance at 2nd, especially since they only seem to finish one car each week. Likely won't catch Red Bull, since even today they lost ground at 2-3 to RBR's 1-4, but Perez has not been very strong since Canada.
 
Spartanforlife4 said:
With the VSC, what's the purpose of slowing down if you're Perez? Tire deg? If everyone has their speed decreased to the delta, wouldn't it be more advantageous to keep that speed and keep the cushion?

Nice to see Mercedes improving each week. While a WDC is certainly out of the question, with Ferrari and Red Bull having reliability issues, I wonder if they still have a shot to make the WCC exciting. Ferrari is well within striking distance at 2nd, especially since they only seem to finish one car each week. Likely won't catch Red Bull, since even today they lost ground at 2-3 to RBR's 1-4, but Perez has not been very strong since Canada.
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Seems that George was messing with Perez and the gap. And maybe he forced Sergio to think he needed to suddenly slow down to meet his targets. The gap had gone so far up and then got small a few times- and it also took SO long from the "VSC ENDING" sign to when it actually did. I'll be watching some of the analysis of the race to see what happened.

For Merc, the important thing now is to get Lewis one win this season- so he can win one race for every season he's been a driver. He's getting close. And with the new rules enforcement in Spa- that *could* be it (some are speculating that both Ferrari and Red Bull are allowing their plank to flex farther than the spec by using the actual measurement to their advantage).
 
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