2023 Season

[Skam85]

Yeh, weird thing to choose to get mad about

[Greem]

I'm off to Silverstone tomorrow. I'm hoping I've been able to leave my magnet behind, after last year's British GP and this year's Le Mans 24hr.

I was very fortunate yesterday to go to the Mercedes F1 factory as an unexpected thank you for dealing with last year's big turn 1 shunt. We saw some really really interesting stuff, of which I can only say you'll see it at the weekend

[broadrun96]

What you didn't bring your official F1 issued spy cam with you? I guess Aston will have to settle for the telephoto lens at Friday's practice to make their copies

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

I guess Aston will have to settle for the telephoto lens at Friday's practice to make their copies

Nothing new, then!

[Greem]

Originally Posted by Greem

I'm off to Silverstone tomorrow.

Forced change of plan. I'll now be watching from seat A1 on my sofa.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by Greem

Forced change of plan. I'll now be watching from seat A1 on my sofa.

That's too bad. But it does give me a great idea of labelling the seats in my house! Maybe I should just redo my media room to look like a luxury skybox! Make yours a workers station with flags, fire extinguisher, etc.

Richard

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Greem

Forced change of plan. I'll now be watching from seat A1 on my sofa.

Oh, that's a shame and it means that you''ll miss Brad Pitt "racing" there on Friday as part of a his appearance in a film that he is starring in that's about F1. The making of the film is being assisted by Hamilton and Mercedes.

See: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...shire-66125109

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Oh, that's a shame and it means that you''ll miss Brad Pitt "racing" there on Friday as part of a his appearance in a film that he is starring in that's about F1. The making of the film is being assisted by Hamilton and Mercedes.

See: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...shire-66125109

I can imagine William Storey is smiling at the very Rich Energy/Haas like livery on the fictional team.

Richard

PS: We need someone to create the British GP race thread.

[Greem]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Oh, that's a shame and it means that you''ll miss Brad Pitt "racing" there on Friday as part of a his appearance in a film that he is starring in that's about F1. The making of the film is being assisted by Hamilton and Mercedes.

See: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...shire-66125109

That was one of the things we saw at MBAMGF1 on Tuesday - the film car and livery being used. Literally on top of that was a BAR 555/Lucky Strike chassis, hanging upside down in the roof of the paint shop.

There was more but we were told that it was a "Men In Black" thing

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

PS: We need someone to create the British GP race thread.

Just saw this on the sky instagram. Hope to see the rest of it during the pre race shows. Made me sad and contemplative!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CuXJJ...RlODBiNWFlZA==

[S griffin]

I see Brad Pitt's playing an aging racing driver coming out of retirement to help a rookie. Now where have I heard a plotline like that before? Maybe Brad has never seen Drivel?

I wonder how many real drivers might appear in it?

[nobster]

Originally Posted by S griffin

I see Brad Pitt's playing an aging racing driver coming out of retirement to help a rookie. Now where have I heard a plotline like that before? Maybe Brad has never seen Drivel?

I wonder how many real drivers might appear in it?

have you ever seen drivel....?

[Born Racer]

Yeah, my experience of motorsport films has been that they're usually on the cheesy side and not as good as real motorsport.

[Born Racer]

Originally Posted by S griffin

I see Brad Pitt's playing an aging racing driver coming out of retirement to help a rookie. Now where have I heard a plotline like that before?

Aston Martin F1? Sort of.

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by nobster

have you ever seen drivel....?

No, but Marshall Pruett wrote a review on it and that was painful enough!

[P38 in workshop]

Originally Posted by nobster

have you ever seen drivel....?

Sadly I have wasted a couple of hours of my life enduring that particular form of nonsense and improbability.It was so bad that I kept watching to see just how awful it could get and it was really,really bad.Which means that the new picture will have very little to beat if it is to avoid the description of worst motor racing film ever.Whether it will stand comparison with Grand Prix or Le Mans is yet to be seen and I fear we will be subjected to a lot of CGI to get the full Hollywood effect.

[nobster]

Originally Posted by S griffin

No, but Marshall Pruett wrote a review on it and that was painful enough!

You mean Driven…? that ridiculous movie from Stallone? Terrible film!


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[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by P38 in workshop

Sadly I have wasted a couple of hours of my life enduring that particular form of nonsense and improbability.It was so bad that I kept watching to see just how awful it could get and it was really,really bad.Which means that the new picture will have very little to beat if it is to avoid the description of worst motor racing film ever.Whether it will stand comparison with Grand Prix or Le Mans is yet to be seen and I fear we will be subjected to a lot of CGI to get the full Hollywood effect.

I think that what the producers are aiming to do is capture footage of Pitt driving at Silverstone and some other circuits later on, and then incorporate that with CGI from actual racing scenes to produce the film, if that makes sense. I very much doubt that, to a real F1 observer and aficionado, it will be anything like truly realistic and it will be panned.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by nobster

have you ever seen drivel....?

Terrible movie, the only good thing about it were the Lolas and Reynards they raced back then.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

I think that what the producers are aiming to do is capture footage of Pitt driving at Silverstone and some other circuits later on, and then incorporate that with CGI from actual racing scenes to produce the film, if that makes sense. I very much doubt that, to a real F1 observer and aficionado, it will be anything like truly realistic and it will be panned.

History is on your side. Most auto racing movies are bad. We cling to the few exceptions which have been fictional, but set within real series (Grand Prix, LeMans) and hope that newer ones will frankly not suck. And while the plot of Grand Prix could stand up today, something like LeMans (with it's dearth of character dialog) would not get made today. It only works for a specific niche and non-viable commercially audience.

The more recent motorsports movies that have been successful (Rush, Ford vs. Ferrari), are generally able to work from a plot perspective because they have cherry picking the best drama from motorsports history. And even then, they probably had to pump up some elements beyond what really happened for purposes of creating tension or making it entertaining.

I think something like Drive to Survive works mostly because it riding that "reality" wave in which people are more fascinated with real vs. fictional people. People watch because it is Guenther Steiner saying "we are a f'n bunch of %@#$" and not some fictional team principal saying the same thing.

The uphill battle this film has is that it is set in modern day F1. And we as a group generally complain about how bad things are with F1. Issues such as the dominance of one team and the resulting battle for second place, DRS passing, DRS trains in which nobody can pass, drama around penalties that are not really "racing", etc. We routinely rate races as poor in our own surveys on this forum.

So to make it work, they will have to create a level of drama that is above and beyond what we typically see and know to be "real". Because even current F1 drama (such as 2021 Abu Dhabi), while big for us, is unlikely to carry a movie for 2 hours for a typical movie audience. Sadly, it will probably fall back on the typical tropes for this genre which is "downshift and give it gas to pass", spectacular crashes, fist fights between drivers, in your face good vs. evil drivers/teams, etc.

So it is likely that we will roll our eyes at the plot and specific scenes which contain unrealistic dramatic scenarios. I think the best we can hope for is that that from a technical perspective it seems like "F1". That when you slow down crash scenes it's not clear the car is made from PVC pipe and cardboard, or that dramatic racing was filmed with cars traveling at about 1/5th their normal speed and uses quick cuts to make it seem "fast", etc.

With Lewis involved, maybe we can hope he is able to reign in the most egregious exaggerations.

Richard

[broadrun96]

So it's making the rounds of Vegas news and some national outlets that the GP organizers are trying to make up some of the costs by requiring any venue with viewing access to the circuit pay up. It's max capacity times $1500. Supposedly Planet Hollywood and a few casinos not in the main drag are starting to vent and talk about it, been threatened with lights shining at their windows and walls being put up. Cousin worked out in Vegas for years and hearing from friends there's a bit of anger from the smaller folks in town about the new race, will be interesting to see how it develops.

Repaving of some sections of the course is underway and started some of the anger closing lanes and easy access at the door for some outlets.

[chillibowl]

just realized that we havent heard from Schummy in a while so thought i would try to jump start a teammate comparison and or mid season awards discussion unfortunately minus the stats he used to bring to the table.


most dominant:

Max without a doubt!

most lopsided pairing:

between Albon v Sargeant and Alonso v Stroll.

willing to give Sargeant a pass given he is a rookie but i imagine if some real stats were included then he would be the one taking the biggest beating across every session relative to his teammate.

but going beyond stats and just relying on my eye test its Alonso v Stroll for me. while Stroll may be excused given his pre season injuries but as he has gotten healthier and the other teams have caught up to AM/AM has stopped developing he really seems lost (or completely exposed) compared to Alonso.

Closer than i thought:

between Chuck v Sainz and Bottas v Zhou. ignoring Ocon v Gasly because Renault is a dumpster fire imo

in terms of points im surprised that Zhou is as close to VB as he is but that car hasent really worked out well enough so its hard to tell if its close or if Bottas is underperforming.

so will go for Sainz and Chuck being so close at the mid season break is the bigger surprise for me. by season's end i suspect Leclerc will clearly be on top tho.

was thinking about adding Lando v Oscar in there but at the mid break i still have Norris well ahead of OP..but OP is improving a lot. i suspect by seasons end this pairing might be much closer.

best rookie:

Oscar without a doubt right!

if anyone has some more categories they want to add in please do!

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

just realized that we havent heard from Schummy in a while

It looks like he hasn't posted in a year!

I haven't put much thought into it, but agree with a lot of your performance commentary. One thing that might impact this as the remainder of the season plays out is the implications of upgrades plus rookie experience. For example I think Oscar has come alive with more races under his belt and the recent McLaren upgrades.

Richard

[chillibowl]

indeed about Oscar. while some of his improved form no doubt has to do with the Mclaren updates, he really does seem to be getting stronger and stronger with each additional race under his belt.

to Lando's credit tho, he also seems to be finding his groove again. nice to see things clicking for Mclaren again!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

indeed about Oscar. while some of his improved form no doubt has to do with the Mclaren updates, he really does seem to be getting stronger and stronger with each additional race under his belt.

to Lando's credit tho, he also seems to be finding his groove again. nice to see things clicking for Mclaren again!

Apparently Lando is not entirely happy with the car, despite the upgrades.


https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/su...tyle/10507081/