I think there's nothing wrong with judging someone who lives off the attention of the public by his public appearance. And when determining whether we like an F1 driver (or any prominent person) we basically have nothing but his appearance in the media. I think it's perfectly fair to do so, and saying you can't because his cockyness maybe just perceived is kind of ridiculous, tbh. That's how he carries himself and if we perceive him as arrogant he either is in fact arrogant or an idiot for presenting himself as arrogant or whatever. If someone else perceives the very same behaviour as just being self-confident, so be it, but that's just as right (or wrong). I could just as well interpret his behaviour as being insecure and find him cute for that.
And I personally think I can look somewhat behind the "propaganda" that any public appearance of a superstar also is and judge for myself whether I am finding that person sympathetic or not.
[I don't know if anyone is into Tennis, but Roger Federer is for me the perfect example of self confidence without arrogance or cockyness. I remember seeing him in an interview after he had just won a game saying something that came down to something like this: "Yeah, my opponent did have a very good match, but then again, he played against me, the best in the world." That didn't come across arrogant or cocky one bit.]
Exactly. They want you to have a cushion so you don't switch back and forth constantly.
Thanks, Strobe, I was just about to post something similar.
But according to Victor, apparantly we are the racists around here.
If you gained nearly 0.5 SR, you must have gone from just below one full point to above it (f.e. from 3.99 to above 4.0). Everytime you cross a full point you get a boost of around 0.4x, thus when you only gain 0.01 which would take you to 4.0, you're actually going to 4.4x. That is so you don't keep switching back and forth between those levels (with a Rookie license and >4.0 you're eligible to drive the skippy and with a 3.99 you're not).
And 0.1 is a normal gain for an incident free race. How much you actually gain depends on license level and on how clean you've been in the past.
At an SR of 3.0-3.99 it's easier to maintain your SR than it is at an SR of 4.0-4.99. And if you've been very clean in the past, a 0 incident race will gain you less than if you've had some bad races with lots of incidents. That's because there is a history of your corners per incident kept in the background. The longer back, the less your cpi is calculated into your current SR gain or loss. Thus it might happen, that a rather clean race will only gain you little SR, because it sort of replaces a much earlier 0 incident race. This also goes the other way around, of course.
I think I've read somewhere that they're working on paypal implementation.
Of course, that's of no help right now.
Of course, that's of no help right now.
Which is probably why Bourdais hugged the inside of T1 as much as possible...
Is it just me or is participation rather good atm -- or at least very stable? Also, the standard of racing seems to have gotten better since the last time I raced (except my own, unfortunately).
I hadn't been able to race for a month due to lack of an internet connection and had my first races tonight. One skippy race where only few people crashed or spun and one Adv. Solstice which seemed to have only very little car to car contact and a tolerable amount of spinning.
Myself, I noobishly crashed into the wall twice on the first lap of my skippy race, of course. The second time due to broken suspension from the first crash. And I spun in the Solstice race (also very noobishly), which probably cost me around 3 places in the end. Needless to say that I didn't meet my goal for tonight which was staying clean and pushing my SR further beyond 4.99 to end up at above 4.0 when promotion time comes.
Well, two weeks left to get it done, so I'm not worried. In any case, it's great to be back in business.
I hadn't been able to race for a month due to lack of an internet connection and had my first races tonight. One skippy race where only few people crashed or spun and one Adv. Solstice which seemed to have only very little car to car contact and a tolerable amount of spinning.
Myself, I noobishly crashed into the wall twice on the first lap of my skippy race, of course. The second time due to broken suspension from the first crash. And I spun in the Solstice race (also very noobishly), which probably cost me around 3 places in the end. Needless to say that I didn't meet my goal for tonight which was staying clean and pushing my SR further beyond 4.99 to end up at above 4.0 when promotion time comes.
Well, two weeks left to get it done, so I'm not worried. In any case, it's great to be back in business.
F1 is entertainment, and as in all other forms of entertainment, personality and performance are important. To what extent depends on the particular form, but important it is.
Also, seeing how a little more anonymity on track would have been a great improvement for Piquet, Renault might actually like the fact that Di Grassi wasn't sticking out all that much and just collecting points like no other.
There doesn't seem to be the one overwhelming candidate in GP2 this season. Grosjean looked promising after GP2 Asia, but didn't live up to the expectations, due to not being consistent enough. He is a great driver, though and overtakes like no other in GP2 at the moment, but he might not be ready, yet. Same with Senna and many others. Why STR should be interested in Buemi, I really don't know. As far as I could tell, he hasn't done anything special throughout the season.
I don't know if it's the same guys (probably not), but the GP2 Asia coverage on eurosport was some of the greatest motorsports I've ever seen on TV as far as commentary goes. Not that the guys were particularly knowledgeable (although one was an ex GP2-driver, iirc), but I as a viewer got the overwhelming impression that the guys genuinely loved what they were doing, had heaps of fun and were taking themselves not overly serious. I was really sad when they said goodbye at the end of the GP2 Asia season and felt they were too.
I agree. At least on my system, which is not bad, I'm finding graphics not exactly mind blowing. Tbh, I prefer LFS graphics for the fact that they are so damn coherent. I don't think I've ver seen a sim that does a better job of making everything look right in place. And I prefer that over fancy shaders.
Car sounds and tyre squeal could be more informative imho. Also, I hear the FM doesn't sound much like the real car.
+1
Feels spot on to me and much more involving than LFS. Whether physics are better than LFS, I don't know, but the whole behaviour of the car feels better to me.
It surprises me a bit, that you weren't able to find any races. Rookie class should be rather well populated. The FM however seems to be a little scarce of racers, and Adv. Solstice wasn't too good at times, either, but I couldn't race for the last two weeks, so it might be better now. Overall, the system needs lots more racers to really provide full fields in all series. I sure hope it will grow rather sooner than later.
While this is a fair point, it's also something you knew in advance, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise. I'm not satisfied with the pricing scheme, either, but overall iRacing is really worth it for me. It doesn't hurt me really, but I can see how it might be hard for others to shell out that much money for what is essentially still a computer game, and a rather unfinished one at that.
Back on topic:
Admittedly, Whiting is not the one to decide whether a penalty shall be handed out or not. However, the regulations state:
16.2 a) It shall be at the discretion of the stewards to decide, upon a report or a request by the race director, if a driver or drivers involved in an incident shall be penalised.
Charlie Whiting is the race director, who apparantly confirmed twice that Hamilton gave back the advantage in a manner that was 'okay'. And, as is also stated in the regulations, "The race director must be in radio contact with (...) the chairman of the stewards at all times when cars are permitted to run on the track" (12.5). So, did Whiting request that the incident shall be reviewed by the stewards after he deemed it to be okay? Did Whiting not confirm with the chairman of the stewards before telling McLaren everything was okay?
In any case, something went seriously wrong there.
Admittedly, Whiting is not the one to decide whether a penalty shall be handed out or not. However, the regulations state:
16.2 a) It shall be at the discretion of the stewards to decide, upon a report or a request by the race director, if a driver or drivers involved in an incident shall be penalised.
Charlie Whiting is the race director, who apparantly confirmed twice that Hamilton gave back the advantage in a manner that was 'okay'. And, as is also stated in the regulations, "The race director must be in radio contact with (...) the chairman of the stewards at all times when cars are permitted to run on the track" (12.5). So, did Whiting request that the incident shall be reviewed by the stewards after he deemed it to be okay? Did Whiting not confirm with the chairman of the stewards before telling McLaren everything was okay?
In any case, something went seriously wrong there.
I guess this pretty much nullifies my point about the FIA being consistent regarding the Alonso/Klien incident and the Lewis/Kimi incident.
So, Hyperactive is right of course, two similar decisions don't make consistency. At all.
I finally watched the Alonso/Klien(?) incident from Suzuka 2005, and it's basically the exact same situation. Alonso got a drive-through then, so FIA is definitely consistent on this one. I don't really agree with the stewards (in both cases), but it's consistent and therefore "right", I guess.
The Nürburgring GmbH is actually owned by the federal state (Bundesland) Rheinland-Pfalz and the county Ahrweiler, but it's basically privately managed. The state just asks every once in a while what the GmbH is doing with it's money and why it is not making any profit.
While I don't think that Kimi had to give Hamilton room, comparing the Kimi/Hamilton incident with the Heikki/Webber incident is ridiculous.
They could do it like they do in NASCAR or BTCC at some chicanes: If you take the escape route, you have to come to a complete stop before rejoining the track. That'll certainly stop people from cutting, be safe and keep people at least in the race.
And just a general statement regarding those speculations what kind of discussion we'd have if Kimi or Massa had done what Lewis did: Please don't use the broad brush. I can tell you with absolute certainty that my opinion regarding the incident would not change one single bit. That's because I'm neither a Hamilton nor a Kimi or Massa fan and have always made that clear.
On a completely different note: Was Kubica really bitching about not getting enough support from the team and that it favours Heidfeld? If so, that's really lame. He should really be careful not to pull an Alonso. Alonsos stance towards McLaren was a disgrace last year, and for Kubica to take a similar stance towards BMW this year is just a joke, as there is absolutely nothing to back that up.
And just a general statement regarding those speculations what kind of discussion we'd have if Kimi or Massa had done what Lewis did: Please don't use the broad brush. I can tell you with absolute certainty that my opinion regarding the incident would not change one single bit. That's because I'm neither a Hamilton nor a Kimi or Massa fan and have always made that clear.
On a completely different note: Was Kubica really bitching about not getting enough support from the team and that it favours Heidfeld? If so, that's really lame. He should really be careful not to pull an Alonso. Alonsos stance towards McLaren was a disgrace last year, and for Kubica to take a similar stance towards BMW this year is just a joke, as there is absolutely nothing to back that up.
I wasn't even paying attention to the first part, but upon reviewing it, you might actually be right. I wouldn't know as I've never driven an F1 car, but it does seem like he could have slotted in behind Kimi instead of cutting. If that is the case, the penalty would certainly be much more debatable than I initially thought.
Not sure if the inboard has been posted, but here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70rXr2Mkq_M
For some reason it doesn't seem like Hamilton lifted to let Kimi by, he seems to accelerate 100% after cutting the chicane. However, Kimi still gets by. Either, Lewis didn't have the momentum or he deliberately accelerated more slowly than he could have. Not sure what to make of it, tbh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70rXr2Mkq_M
For some reason it doesn't seem like Hamilton lifted to let Kimi by, he seems to accelerate 100% after cutting the chicane. However, Kimi still gets by. Either, Lewis didn't have the momentum or he deliberately accelerated more slowly than he could have. Not sure what to make of it, tbh.
I'm not british, I'm not a Hamilton fan and I still think the FIA decision is wrong.
(Are we at least at 10%, yet?)
(Are we at least at 10%, yet?)
Boy, oh boy. I'm really starting to believe that the FIA is Ferrari biased after this ruling. And I always said it's a conspiracy theory.
As for the incident itself: I could agree that in general, a move like Lewises at La Source is debatable, if the advantage gained by cutting the track had not really been given back. However, in this case, a steward would have to take into account what went on before the advantage was gained and the position of the cars relative to eachother.
Lewis had considerable overlap before he cut the chicane (which was unavoidable). He slowed down after cutting to a point where he was fully behind Kimi. So, any advantage gained was given back, maybe even more. Therefore the FIA decision is plain wrong, imo.
It was a damn exciting race, though.
Btw: The GP2 races were even more exciting. There was more overtaking going on than in the last 5 years of F1 combined. (albeit at least one questionable decision by the stewards regarding the unsafe release of Senna).
As for the incident itself: I could agree that in general, a move like Lewises at La Source is debatable, if the advantage gained by cutting the track had not really been given back. However, in this case, a steward would have to take into account what went on before the advantage was gained and the position of the cars relative to eachother.
Lewis had considerable overlap before he cut the chicane (which was unavoidable). He slowed down after cutting to a point where he was fully behind Kimi. So, any advantage gained was given back, maybe even more. Therefore the FIA decision is plain wrong, imo.
It was a damn exciting race, though.
Btw: The GP2 races were even more exciting. There was more overtaking going on than in the last 5 years of F1 combined. (albeit at least one questionable decision by the stewards regarding the unsafe release of Senna).
No toll road, but there are quite a few track days held there. I did mine this may with Renault Sport.
Excuse me?! You don't car about Stavelot? What kind of car were you driving?
That corner is awesome even in my puny little Clio, I can't even begin to imagine how great this corner must be in a more powerful car.
Actually the whole stretch from Pouhon all the way to Stavelot is the most fun part of the circuit. Bar the Eau Rouge complex, of course. I'm so glad they won't change it.
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG