heywood on 12/3/2010 at 23:54
Quote Posted by casalor
By mid June I wonder if you'll be having to negotiate with ticket touts at the main gate. I find it pretty ridiculous that Shanghai organisers were having to bus in chinese schoolkids to make the grandstands look full when the BRDC have to charge as much as they do (Damn you, Bernie) and still manage fill the place up!
I went to the inaugural Shanghai GP and it was pretty well attended, but you could tell that F1 was just a curiosity to the vast majority of the Chinese. The people who seemed like actual F1 fans were mostly expats and Japanese, with a lot of visitors from HK and Oz as well. And once China decided to host a race, other countries in the region felt they had to do so to. As a result, there's too many races in Asia relative to the size of the fan base: Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Suzuka, and now Korea too.
Personally, I'm kinda happy that F1 is gone from the US because it opened up Indy to host MotoGP, which is a far more competitive series. F1 has slowly devolved from a sport into some kind of soap opera for men. I pine for the 90s when Formula 1 was great, but we also had CART here in the US, and British Touring Car racing was in its heyday too.
Ostriig on 12/3/2010 at 23:59
Thanks for the heads up, though there's not much I can do about it at this point. My plans are for summer completely up in the air at this time, and they will remain out of my hands for another few weeks at least, so I'm just gonna have to bide my time and hope that if I can make it there are still tickets to be had.
casalor on 13/3/2010 at 10:24
Quote Posted by heywood
Personally, I'm kinda happy that F1 is gone from the US because it opened up Indy to host MotoGP, which is a far more competitive series. F1 has slowly devolved from a sport into some kind of soap opera for men. I pine for the 90s when Formula 1 was great, but we also had CART here in the US, and British Touring Car racing was in its heyday too.
I would be quite happy to see F1 in the US as long as it wasn't at Indianapolis, heywood. I'm sure you could name at least half a dozen circuits which woud be far better. Is Watkins Glen still open? ;)
As for todays qualy, my heart says Jenson but my head says Alsonso for pole
David on 13/3/2010 at 10:34
I saw Free Practice this morning and the Ferraris were astonishingly fast. The new bits of the Bahrain Circuit are bumpy as hell!
casalor on 13/3/2010 at 10:54
A big shout out to HRT too. Didn't Senna reduce the gap to the front by 3 seconds or so compared to yesterday?
Ostriig on 13/3/2010 at 16:11
Quote Posted by David
I saw Free Practice this morning and the Ferraris were astonishingly fast.
That's good news from where I'm standing, rooting for Massa on that side. On the other hand those first timings suggest Schumacher's not exactly coming back with a bang, unsurprisingly. As a long time fan I have to confess I don't have great expectations of his return, though I'd be thrilled for him to prove me wrong.
Anyway, anyone know if there's any options available to see the race live on the net in the UK? And would it require having a TV license? I don't have a TV, so last year I caught this and that race off the BBC site, but those were after-the-fact recordings.
casalor on 13/3/2010 at 17:30
I'm pretty sure iPlayer will show it live if you're in the uk.
Ostriig on 13/3/2010 at 18:12
Awesome, thanks guys! Haven't caught a live race in over a year now.
