Episode 48 – Chinese GP Preview and More

Will Fernando Race at the Chinese GP?
Fernando Alonso on the grid.
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It’s hard to believe that it’s the Chinese GP this weekend and the season is nearly 3 races in! But here we are preparing for another late-night/early-morning slate of practice qualifying and racing at the Shanghai International Circuit again.

This week on the podcast as well as the Chinese GP preview we look at a few news stories that have cropped up over the last week, including the now confirmed news that qualifying will revert to the (in our opinion as well as seemingly everyone else’s) much better straight knock out format from 2015.

There’s also news that Jacques Villeneuve has been criticising the current crop of drivers for complaining too much, so we get our own back on him by including a bit of his track Foolin’ Around from his Private Paradise album (836 copies sold in North America according to Radio-Canada)

Also this week we start the #YourVoiceInF1 campaign, where we want as many listeners as possible to make it known what you would change, keep or improve in F1. Let’s all have a voice together and maybe we can make a difference.

Enjoy


As always, you can listen here or on Sticher and iTunes and most other podcast apps too!

 

1 Comment

  1. Hi there 3Legs 4Wheels #YourVoiceInF1 : Congrats on gaining another avid US fan from Chicago (UK ex-pat) looking for unbiased and more importantly “free” commentary on everything F1. I will be attending the Canadian race again this year for the 7th time and also Austin for the 1st time so looking forward to comparing the old with the new. Love Montreal – similarly to some other tracks mentioned, it is also a train ride from the city and walk-in event, very accessible with a strong local following and highly knowledgeable fans. For me what I want to see is probably the same as everyone else: it’s screaming power and speed in a straight line with sufficiently long braking zones to allow for overtaking into, and powering out of the corners where driver skill is at a premium. This is racing. It’s not relevant to road driving – who changes tires 3 time a day regardless of what engine or fuel we use in our car? Sure, we all (mostly) drive around as economically as possible most of the time getting from A to B, but does that do anything for our driving passion? No. If we could or if we get chance, we’re driving with less attention on fuel economy and more focus on the excitement of driving as quickly as possible. Why should we expect anything less of our F1 heroes who are supposed to be competing in a sport – the pinnacle of motorsport as it has been described. So, I don’t care what engine is used – loud is nice. Libraries and flower shows may be interesting but not as exciting as a live bleeding-ears rock concert. Pit stops are boring and artificial but “spice up the show”. Same for DRS. If the technical regulations were re-written with the real objective in mind, the artificial aspects would not be relevant or needed to spice up the show. Why the h*** are we relying on the tire (tyre) supplier to make races interesting? Madness! Also, ask the drivers for their opinions – they may not have a financial stake in the sport (arguably) but they certainly know the most about driving cars competitively. It makes sense that the FIA is entirely responsible for the Sporting Regs. but the Technical Regs. – I’m not so sure about that part because honestly they don’t have a clue about the technology or engineering that goes into racing car design. Great listening guys and good luck with #YourVoiceInF1 .

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