*** As with last season's thread, we'll be talking freely about races without spoiler tags, so please beware if you watch races on a delay! ***
How to watch in the US:
- ESPN carries races live both on their various broadcast channels, but also on their various apps as long as you’ve got a TV provider login with the appropriate access to ESPN.
- F1TV is an official streaming service that offers two tiers. The “Pro” tier lets you stream races live for about $80 a year, but you can get on demand streams of all races for a much more reasonable $26 a year if you don’t fancy waking up at 5 AM or something for like 2/3rds of the races. There are also month to month subscriptions available, and there might be promos available as we approach the start of the season.
- The official F1 YouTube channel doesn't offer full replays, but they do have great highlights packages for every practice, qualifying, and race session throughout the year, as well as great interview an analysis coverage throughout race weekends, and a variety of other miscellaneous interesting video clips in between.
Can I get a concise overview of where the sport stands at the start of the season?
When and where are the races?
I mean, who could really say?
For now, this is what the tentative schedule looks like.
Update 3: Turkey is back out -- British travel restrictions made it untenable, so for now we're looking at two rounds in Austria again.
Update 4: Turkey is back in, only later in the season now when presumably travel restrictions will have lifted.
Who are the teams?
The official F1 channel has now posted all of their quick "intro to the team" videos, which are a great way to get to know (or remind yourself of) the teams as of the start of the season. Here they are, in reverse constructor's championship order from last season:
Additionally, here's the full lineup of teams, drivers, and liveries as of the week before winter testing in convenient infographic form.
Generally these things are pretty well locked in at this point, but you never know. Last year, for example, Williams had a last minute livery change after losing the sponsor whose colors they were using. This year, don't be surprised if there's some level of dust up over the Haas livery, since there is currently a world wide sporting ban on the use of the Russian flag as punishment for recent doping violations. At the moment, Haas claims this livery has been approved by the FIA, but the World Anti-Doping Agency is currently investigating whether it is in violation of the ban.
And for those who might be curious, here's a quick infographic showing how team names and drivers changed from last season.
Who is a giant pile of human garbage that I shouldn't root for under any circumstances?
Nikita Mazepin
And with apologies to poor Mick Schumacher, probably best to write off Haas in general for making the compromises they did in taking Mazepin on as a driver.
Other Useful Links:
GWJ F1 Fantasy League: https://fantasy.formula1.com/league/...
The invite code to join is: bc10216117
Official Site
Drive to Survive, Netflix's excellent documentary series about the sport, an EXCELLENT way to introduced yourself to the sport. You'll learn all about the sport in general, meet the current drivers, and get a full recap of the 2018, 2019, and (once the third season is available at the end of February or start of March) 2020 seasons of the sport.
Shift-F1, a podcast about F1 hosted by video game media personalities Drew Scanlon (Cloth Map, formerly of Giant Bomb), Danny O’Dwyer (No Clip), and Rob Zacny (Waypoint).
Fantasy Formula 1
F1 Reddits: Formula 1 , Formula 1.5 , Formula 1 Posters, Inspector Seb
FINAL EDIT: And that's it! I'll make updates to the post if there are any big changes worth noting, but for now it's time for the first race weekend of the year!
How confident are we of the calendar?
Alonso hit by a car while out cycling...
Mercedes, on the other had, had no end to trouble, with unexpected gearbox issues tanking Bottas' running time, and Hamilton never managing to find any comfort driving the car throughout his session. Still, it's only the first day, and it's only testing so one would be wise to not read too much into it -- but I'm sure there's a lot of excitement down at Red Bull today.
Normal service resumed then?
My hope is the restricted development has helped Red Bull. Normally they get stronger through the season and then start the next season with a new car that they have to learn. This year they have only be allowed to change such a small amount of that they should have less to learn.
I expect the Mercedes to get so much better by the first race and Lewis is still Lewis, so even if the car isn’t dominant he’s still going to get wins.
Most interesting test in a while in terms of the championship.
Really glad to see Alonso looking punchy too. The Alpine looks like a good midfield car and hopefully Alonso will collect the most points from it, but definitely get the impression Alonso is here for next year’s rule change.
I have no strong impression about Ferrari. They seemed fine. Do people think they are in striking distance of the top 2?
So do we think Merc is sandbagging it?
Very pleased to see Russell doing well though.
Best joke I've heard about the season so far:
IT'S RIGHTS OUT AND MONEY FLOWS... I MEAN AWAY WE GO
A million points for the "That's my barrier" joke.
Oooh should be a tasty one. Max top, Mercedes 2-3, Ferrari looking competent again and McLaren looking quite good!
Here's hoping for a good, exciting season with some real surprises throughout.
I am currently swinging wildly between “the hype is real, we might have a competition for the championship” and “oh no, it is going to be a Red Bull dominate season.”
I've been saying it for at least 4 years now. As long as the Merc's don't breeze away with both championships then it's a win.
In other news, you may have seen that all around sh*tbag Mazepin ruined laps for Sainz, Ocon, and most crucially Vettel with his second spin of the session. What you might not have seen is that just a few corners before he had rudely and aggressively cut the line to get ahead of them for his hot lap, with literally no reason to do so except perhaps with the hope of saving his ego and getting his time a little closer to Schumacher.
Not that anyone anywhere needed any more reason to despise the guy, but seriously, what an utter waste of oxygen (not to mention an F1 seat).
Quite an auspicious start for him.
Is there any way to watch seasons of F1 without spending tons of money on cable? I seem to recall that it's really difficult. Honestly, if there was a recap kinda thing that sums races up in 30 minutes or so, I would be super into that.
Been watching that Netflix thing, and wouldn't mind following seasons as they progress. Always been a little fascinated with Formula 1.
The F1 YouTube channel also puts up race highlights (usually 7-8 minutes). I also enjoy listening to the Shift+F1 podcast which also breaks down the races each week.
Oh, nice! Thanks ya'll! I may have to do that.
Pages