Jimzk5 Posted February 5, 2013 Share Posted February 5, 2013 (edited) Wife has bought me a ticket for the British GP, can't wait. I'll be in the general public... As much as I am looking forward to it (never been before) what can I expect? Is it worth getting there early or take some of my own food? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I went 3 years ago, its a great experience but if I was to go again id definatly sit in grandstand, so id recomend taking a fold away chair (they are allowed in, many people by us were using them) earplugs are a good idea but you can buy team livery ones in there for reasonable prices, I got a mclaren in-ear pair for £5, if your not camping pay for the on site parking as the cars that didnt were fined the second they walked away from them (iirc it was £30 but had to be brought beforehand and had to be displayed as you entered the car parks (which are all fields, hence the parking difficulties if it pissed down), the beer was about £3.80 a pint and only served in plastic cups, vodaphone always have a stand doing promotions with mclaren for vodaphone cuatomers, just hand over your phone number and we got a peice of Lewis Hamiltons race suit from the 2010 Bahrain gp, you can take in your own food, not sure about alcohol though, and a book or magazine to waste the dead time between sessions, the support races are pretty dull, in terms of money over the Saturday/Sunday weekend I spent nearly £200 Edit - in terms of food In there, its the same as football grounds, over priced burgers and hotdogs, and your gauranteed to have some bellend with an airhorn by you Edited February 5, 2013 by Jimzk5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saturdaygig Posted February 5, 2013 Share Posted February 5, 2013 Wife has bought me a ticket for the British GP, can't wait. I'll be in the general public... As much as I am looking forward to it (never been before) what can I expect? Is it worth getting there early or take some of my own food? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Get there very very very early. The gates open at 6am. I've known people who think they can arrive about lunch time and end up still be queuing on the A43 when the race is starting. My normal form is to go the night before and camp over. If you're on your own its tricky to hold a decent spot on the banking. If there are a few of you you can put out a blanket and bags and stake your claim to some real estate for the day, but then at least one person stays there to hold the turf if others wander off exploring. Come actual race time real estate tends to get overrun but by then it doesn't matter so much. I suppose on your own you could just wander around the circuit seeing how far you can manage to poke your nose in, then take up position wherever you can squeeze in a ten to three. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted February 11, 2013 Author Moderator Share Posted February 11, 2013 So Ferrari have brought the legendary designer, Rory Byrne (of Schumy title fame), back to work on their 2014 car. There are big changes afoot for next year and I suppose they want to attempt to stop Newey from getting a headstart. Good luck with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 I think Red Bull title to lose. Alonso cant possibly have a brilliant a season as last year though I think Kimi will be a dark horse as think took him a while to get back in groove last season Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted February 11, 2013 Author Moderator Share Posted February 11, 2013 It's hard to take anything concrete from Jerez but what struck me was how quick the established teams were out of the box. Particularly Ferrari and McLaren. Vettel didn't seem ecstatic about his car. He was happy enough. The Lotus too looked capable. Sauber appear to have a tasty car. Barcelona will; as always; tell us far more about the cars' capabilities given that it is almost the complete racing circuit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted February 14, 2013 Author Moderator Share Posted February 14, 2013 Adrian Sutil has had a seat fitting at Force India. Very astute signing if this comes to pass. They can't afford to have a slow or inexperienced second driver in what looks a competitive car while Sauber hire the very quick Hulkenberg for their also-quick looking car. Williams might struggle this year. They need Maldonado to stay quick and lose the drama. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimzk5 Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 Max chilton is on the f1 show atm, gut instinct - privately educated stuck up prick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted February 15, 2013 Author Moderator Share Posted February 15, 2013 Well Daddy is rich and he's a pay driver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimzk5 Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 Adrian sutils agent says he will be confirmed as the other force India driver, personally I think his had his chance and they should have given it to bianchi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted February 27, 2013 Author Moderator Share Posted February 27, 2013 Sutil was only dumped because of the court case. He was always plenty quick enough. I agree with you that he is a known quantity (I'd argue a good one) and that Bianchi isn't. Perhaps FIFI didn't see enough in Bianchi to take a risk in what is going to be a very competitive season in the midfield where you won't be able to carry a pedestrian driver. There might have been serious consequences in the WCC if Bianchi didn't work out. They know they'll get competitive results with Sutil. Even allowing for the potential falling out with Ferrari over the snub for their junior driver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted March 4, 2013 Author Moderator Share Posted March 4, 2013 So, Luis Razia has been dumped by Marussia who have gone for Ferrari-backed Jules Bianchi who missed out on the Force India seat to Adrian Sutil. There must have been financial/sponsorship issues around Razia because he was nowhere to be seen in Barcelona for the majority of testing.As for the testing itself. It's a strange situation but pretty much everyone looks good.Mercedes topped a lot of the days and with Hamilton on-board they look like they will make big gains this season. They are full of optimism.Lotus look like they have a race-winning car especially in Kimi's hands.Ferrari, despite not setting blistering times, have gone aggressive on their design and are "miles better" than at this stage last season according to Alonso.McLaren topped some timesheets too and are happy with their car at this stage.Red Bull are Red Bull. The ones to catch.Sauber look to have closed the gap on the teams ahead of them and in Hulkenberg have someone capable of getting results above the car.Force India remain competitive and should be there or thereabouts with Sauber in the WCC if Sutil can hit the ground running.Williams have been setting some nice times via Maldonado in their car and they're very happy with how testing went. Bottas looks useful too.Toro Rosso look far more competitive than last season. I'm still unsure of their drivers' abilities though.Marussia appear to have completely closed the gap to Caterham and Bianchi might be one to watch.Caterham are the one I'm unsure of. They are confident and happy so on that basis they look good.It's all because the rules have barely changed for this season so there's no excuse for designing a bad car at this stage. Next season will be very different. But this season looks intriguing. No-one appears to have dropped the ball. Even Australia won't be a good gauge because it's a very atypical track. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 SIt's all because the rules have barely changed for this season so there's no excuse for designing a bad car at this stage. Next season will be very different. Whats changing next season to make it so different to this season? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted March 4, 2013 Author Moderator Share Posted March 4, 2013 Pretty much everything in the sense that this years cars will be largely obsolete from a visual point of view.1. The engine will become a 1.6 V6 turbo with an 8-speed box with a lower rev limit and twice the life span.2. It will also integrate KERS into the engine with TERS (thermal energy recovery system) taking KERSs place as the supplementary power source.3. The front nose can be no higher than 185mm off the ground (compared to 550mm in 2012).4. The exhausts will now be angled upwards towards the wing so as to make exhaust-blown diffusers very difficult to achieve.So that's the front of the car, the back of the car and the power source(s) changing for next year. They're also messing with the amount of fuel you can carry (down by 30%). In F1 terms it's a mahoosive change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimzk5 Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 out of interest bof, who covers f1 in ireland? sky have vastly improved the viewing experience of formula 1 compared to to the rubbish ITV delivered, BBC were ok, but sky with a dedicated channel have taken it to another level Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCDAN Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Agreed about sky, I was quite cynical about it when I heard they bought the rights but I watched the first few and never watched the bbc coverage again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted March 7, 2013 Author Moderator Share Posted March 7, 2013 Jim, I watch BBC or Sky. It's too expensive for our channels to waste funding on with such a small population so thankfully we get all your channels too. In fact I watched some 3d F1 testing this very evening. Meh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Dont Setanta Ireland not still show the races? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted March 11, 2013 Author Moderator Share Posted March 11, 2013 Do they? They're PPV anyway (and recently bought by BT). I wasn't aware of whether they show F1 or not. Anyhoo, just popped in to say it looks like a wet one in Melbourne this weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackbauer24 Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 Anyone ever done any foreign races? Been to Silverstone a couple of time (3 day camping/general admission) and they were epic weekends but beginning to think it's getting too expensive (well more than normal!) and am looking at a race abroad. Over the years my Uni mates have all drifted away and had families etc so am thinking of introducing the girlfriend to the experience that is an F1 weekend. The noise is incredible. Hungary is the strongest possibility due to my availability through work and general admission there is less than half the cost it is in this country. I haven't looked at camping/ hotels yet but, having been to Budapest before, I know that it's not an overly expensive country in the main. Whilst the overall cost may be more I am wondering whether it'd be better value for money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodders Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 I would love to see an F1 race live someday. If i was going to go abroad id love to see the Belgian spa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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