DVR for me. Plan on running out and getting donuts in the morning and enjoying them while watching the race.
Apparently Bottas has some sort of soft tissue damage. They haven't yet announced, maybe haven't decided, whether he'll race. Neither of their reserves drove in any of the sessions so if Bottas doesn't drive Williams will have just one car on the track.
The comments about the race are as interesting as the race was. Arnold on the podium made it all worth it.
Meh, I always skip the podium ceremony so I missed Arnie and I don't regret it. I predicted they'd drop like flies during the race but had no idea it would start before the race started. The race, itself, wasn't thrilling but I enjoyed watching to see how things have changed and how the new drivers would do. I loved that with all those rookies Maldonado still managed to be the first carnage casualty. The Saubers looked really good. You can Bet Giedo VDG is drooling over his chances in Malaysia...I'm sure he figures he'll be driving for them by then. I'm looking forward to seeing how the teams behind the develop/test curve get to grips (or don't) as the season progresses. Still have my fingers and toes crossed that Honda will figure things out soon.
Wish I had recorded it instead of enduring it live... When folks started dropping out on the warm up lap we knew things weren't going to be good... Was nice to see Vettel get a podium in his first start with Ferrari, after that the fact that a rookie in a Sauber pulled off a fifth speaks volumes about the overall competitive health of Formula 1.. Twas the first race, fingers crossed!!
The lap 13sih fight between Button and Perez was the highlight. And I never in my life thought that McLaren would be a back-marker. Geez. :frown2:
Looks like another year like last year. The front of the race boring everything behind that is interesting. At least the TV coverage didn't just stay on the front running cars. Sad state of affairs for McLaren and Red Bull
To me it was enjoyable to see the younger drivers battling it out for points, it's not like anyone was going to catch the Merc boys. I know it wasn't his fault this time, but I wonder if Lotus adds contingency $'s to their yearly racing budget to account for Maldonado's crashes! It will be interesting to see how the next couple of races play out from a car reliability perspective.
What's up with the absence of F1 Countdown? :mad2: I was looking forward to the 30 minute pre-race recap of the offseason, tech changes, expectations for the new year, yada yada. Just the usual Matchett, Hobbs, Diffey, & Buxton banter & BS. I didn't see a separate program on my cable guide either: just the 2.5 hour race broadcast.
Yup, and RB have issued another F1 quit threat, saying something needs to be done to create parity. Which sounds a bit like "we can't keep up, do something about that or we'll pack up and leave." Funny how they didn't seem to like the idea of parity adjustments when they were winning..... It's mostly business, though, apparently. On the other hand, though Horner is pushing for changes, the quote below is Helmut Marko speaking so it should be taken with a large grain of salt...