#the only good thing about becoming an f1 fan so late is all the funny lore i get to find out later

[overtake]

😭😭😭

[anonymousboxcar]

TTTE Headcanons: Engines’ TV Habits

This is pretty goofy, but I’m thinking about what sorts of TV the engines might watch if they had a TV or a streaming device in their sheds. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far!

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Henry loves nature shows, of course. In addition, after his fireman lamented his spilt hot cocoa, he wanted to understand why humans care so much about food. This led him to cooking shows, which he found very relaxing. He likes to watch raw, disparate ingredients become something beautiful and complete.

Edward goes for mysteries — lighter, cozier shows like Midsomer Murders, Rosemary & Thyme, and Murder, She Wrote. He’s also a fan of Granada Studios’ 1984 Sherlock Holmes. It tickles the same part of him that enjoys ghost stories, giving him a slight thrill alongside a pleasing mind-teaser.

Gordon watches the news every morning and evening. He likes to feel up-to-date on important events, expounding on them to his colleagues. Any program about opera and orchestral performances also appeals to him. There’s some snobbery involved, but he does enjoy hearing and learning about musical genres.

James likes game and talent shows, often shouting answers and opinions at the TV. He’s so attuned to these shows’ editing that he’ll guess a season winner, set up a betting pool, and rake in all the favors after the finale with a smug grin. (Gordon and Henry only keep placing bets because they want to show him up someday.)

All three big engines indulge in the guilty pleasure of soap operas. They think nobody else knows about this. Pip and Emma “obliviously” intrude on their watch parties to make them squirm.

Thomas and Percy watch ghost hunting shows together. They scoff at the idea of ghosts, accuse each other of being ‘fraidy-cats, and huddle close in fear as an episode progresses. They also watch late-night airings of schlocky films with Toby, whose sly commentary cracks them all up.

On his own, Thomas watches motorsport broadcasts. Bertie hooked him on it not long after they started racing each other. He’s a fan of some F1 drivers and their cars, often comparing notes with Bertie in serious (and sometimes heated) discussions.

Percy has a soft spot for period dramas. He’ll laugh at historical inaccuracies, get invested in all the characters, and ponder common tropes. He’s not afraid to ask about the servants who have to endure the wealthy protagonists’ dramatics.

Toby doesn’t watch much TV outside of what he sees with Thomas and Percy. However, he and Henrietta are partial to some late-night talk shows. If the show’s interviewing someone they’re interested in, or if they think the host is funny, they’ll give an episode a try.

Duck adores How It’s Made. It’s very satisfying for him to watch a bunch of moving parts at work, slotting pieces into their rightful places to assemble something. Other nights, he watches travel shows. They explore locations all around the world, scratching his itch to see what’s beyond his horizon.

Donald watches stand-up comedy specials, going for a good laugh at the end of the day to decompress. Ever since Duck “gifted” him Dilly, he also watches nature programs and shows about training/caring for pets. (He and Dilly are working on some tricks.)

Oliver picks sci-fi shows, with Star Trek and Doctor Who as his favorites. He’s drawn in by the pulpy adventures, moral dilemmas, and complex protagonists. It all makes him feel better about himself: you can mess up on an astronomical scale, but still be capable of good things. You don’t have to be a perfect hero to be a good person.

Douglas enjoys shows about antiques and vintage items — things in the vein of Antique Roadshow, or American Pickers. He’s a sucker for knickknacks that meant something to someone, for all the stories behind each one, and for their loving restorations.

Bill and Ben think fitness shows are hysterical. They’re forever amused by the odd ways the instructors contort their bodies. But they also scheme for their crews to watch these shows, hoping they’ll participate and stay healthy for years to come.

Daisy’ll watch any program about fashion or body art (tattoos, piercings, etc). Being so attentive to her swerves, she’s curious about the ways that humans adorn themselves. She’ll sometimes take inspiration from what she sees, but she’ll always argue that fashion is an art form, pointing to these shows for examples.

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What are your guys’ thoughts/headcanons? I’d love to hear them!

[lightningmickqueen]

23 or 34?

why not both ☺️☺️

34 - my least favourite championship battle was 2018. it broke my heart early on as a tifosa but i also just got ridiculously bored and actually stopped watching f1 for awhile. 2021 also genuinely sucked overall because of how hateful it got in online spaces, regardless of who you were supporting.

23 - other than my father nico rosberg, i think that charles leclerc is underrated and before i get laughed at i will explain!! but under the cut i tend to ramble and i've been thinking about this a lot lately i am so sorry in advance u did not ask for this

send me a # from 1-78 and i will give my f1 opinions

to start this is a summation of both online AND offline places because i socialize and work with f1 fans irl.

also i am absolutely 100% bias but literally EVERY winter break for as long as i can remember charles has been the target of SOME debate that shouldn't be one at all. and he is largely viewed as the "loser" in these debates which are essentially talent competitions where the other driver is hyped up and people act like charles leclerc can't drive a car. this winter it's leclerc vs norris, last year leclerc vs sainz, the winter before was leclerc vs (iirc) russell, before that was leclerc vs vettel.

so we must ask WHY it is always charles being shoved into these debates and that is because people think that he is OVERrated and undeserving of the hype he's got. but he actually IS fully deserving, and because people think he is overrated and undeserving of hype, he is actually underrated.

he's so close in age to max, has known him for long enough, and has been in the ferrari seat for long enough that people want to comapre him to max. that's understandable, but charles isn't max. everyone seems to forget that he's been on the grid 3 full fewer seasons than max and he's only had a properly functioning team for ONE of them, maybe one and a half if you pick and choose certain moments from 2019 too.

it's all well and good to call ferrari a joke and a clownshow, especially for last season, but to acknowledge its relevance ONLY when discussing shitshows as a whole and when discussing carlos but not when discussing charles is strawpicking and fully negates and erases the fact that charles fully is becoming that guy and could be that guy when he has a team willing and able to back him up.

the questions asked to charles and carlos mid-race are not just a meme they are things that actually happened and they should NOT have happened. imagine how YOU would feel if asked to do mental gymnastics about tyre strategy at 350 kmh when you also have no way of knowing what the lap times and tyre performance are overall?

there is a reason it's funny and that is because NONE of the other teams expected this from their drivers. it is not fair to not take this into account when discussing the driving skills and talent of charles (and carlos).

also a SMALL anecdote i love is that, on multiple occasions in the last couple years, charles has asked for max's lap times even when he wasn't anywhere near him because he knew that he could do the same times or close, rather than the times that others closer to him are doing. max has literally done the same. they're playing 5d chess but ferrari (and a lot of fans dfkm) are playing 2d chess. and that's at the same time that max has a team able to back him and support him when he makes a mistake, which he does because he's a fucking person, and so we don't even remember it happening later on.

anyway. charles has had ONE fighting chance for a championship and his team took it from him before he could even start fighting. did he fuck it in imola? yeah, but he rallied as best he could. did he fuck it in france? yeah but that's ONE mistake in a season where his team was out to get him and where it was already becoming obvious he wasn't going to win. the gravediggers started digging in spain and were just waiting for everyone to notice.

overall charles did really good considering it was his first season fighting for a championship and i think if he'd had a team supporting it he wouldn't have "cracked" under pressure so much. i'm still not convinced he even did "crack" though since he was fighting for p2 until literally the last lap of abu dhabi.

and yet there is STILL this massive debate going on about whether or not he's talented enough for his seat at all. i have had this conversation with coworkers who have watched f1 for years and who seem to genuinely believe it for whatever reason. i don't know if it's because he's getting blamed for the team or because the team is pimping him out instead of focusing on his skills and wins or because his "mindset" isn't as murderous as some people want it to be, but his talent and skills as a driver have become genuinely underrated. the end

[my-fragment-of-peace]

I have a lot of thoughts about the M*x and Ch*co interview/video so I'm just gonna share them here.

- First off, I wasn't honestly that surprised that M*x said what he said. I've always made note of the fact that he's a talented driver and athlete, which he is, but he has always struck me as an asshole person based on comments he's made. Which is why I've also always mentioned that I wish he had better influences/mentors around because then maybe he wouldn't be such an asshole.

- As an F1 fan who happens to be a woman, I've become aware very quickly of how much misogyny there is within the sport. Women fans are not taken seriously and are assumed to only be interested because they think the guys are hot or whatever. Because of course, women could never be interested in things like engineering, or cars, or the competitive aspects of a sport. So I'm not at all surprised the comment was made, just because in general, F1 tends to alienate women from its fanbase (this is regarding the fandom overall, so it's not necessarily a direct comment on F1 as an entity).

- As a woman in my late 20s, this kind of comment was not shocking to me at all. I've heard so many misogynistic things throughout my life, even from guys I've dated (and then promptly broken up with), that this sort of thing is just like this guy's an asshole, so what he's saying is in-one-ear-out-the-other type thing. Like I'm not personally affected in any way. BUT. What really, really bothered me about it was that the two doing the interviewing seemed to be quite young. For them, talking to these two men, who they likely look up to, who are older than them, this is very dangerous. The implications of the comment are that men can own women and have all this power haha what a funny joke. I hope they have a good support system around them to teach them that this ideology was wrong. This, to me, was the worst part of it all. The influence that comment might have over younger people who don't know better. Thankfully, judging by their reactions, they knew it was wrong in some capacity. But holy shit. If y'all wanna talk like this and be assholes in private, then that's on you, but the minute you start publicly saying shit like this to and around young people, you do have some sort of responsibility.

- I'm more disappointed in Ch*co. He's always been one of my favorites, so perhaps I'm a bit biased, but I really thought with him being happily married and having kids of his own, he might be like "hey...this isn't okay." But he just laughed and even encouraged it.

It was just super gross. As I said, I'm not at all surprised by it, but I am bothered by the fact that it was said to such a young audience and with the opportunity for other impressionable young people to hear it. I'm also bothered by the fact that people are writing it off as "just a joke" and not fully understanding the implications of what was said. Jokes aren't made at the expense of other people's autonomy or equality. It's not fucking funny.

[someone-worth-racing-for]

Hey there!

I am quite new here and I was wondering how you got into this fandom. Specially the carlandofandom :)

Also, when did you start writing? I saw your posts the other day about not being able to write all of it, so it somehow triggered me to write some stuff myself (some requests were just too cute).

Havent been properly writing for ages though and I am not quite sure if anybody wants to read my stuff...any advice? Im so indecisive...

Thanks for all your great stories and have nice day :)

Hey you, anonym and especially – welcome to the fandom! 🤗❤️

Oh my God, believe me – you actually don’t want to know how I got to this fandom, it’s such a long story.. You better grab yourself some Coke and popcorn, because this will be a longer one.. 🥤🍿

But alright, everything has begun with that the TWD (The Walking Dead) fandom has started to annoy/boring me, also because the show has become pretty bad and I wanted to leave the sinking ship before it will be too late. That must have been around autumn/winter 2018. During the winter months I really, really love to watch ski jumping, also because it’s pretty popular in my country (Austria). I was already a fan of it since many, many years, but I only became a real fan at that time. I always say I love this sport so much, because those jumps are always so “quickly over” – meaning that I don’t have to wait for too long to find out the results. Yeah, the competition itself isn't that short, but the individual jumps of each athlete are. That’s why I actually “hate” F1 so much, because I have to wait freaking two hours of pure stress, several mental breakdowns and heart attacks later to finally find out who will win, and also because so much can happen during a race, while those ski jumpers are practicing individual – does that make any sense!? However, so I got pretty deep into the ski jumping fandom over that time, especially also here on Tumblr, where I have met a pretty nice girl back then, who had been as thrilled about the fandom as me. But you know, during the summer there aren’t any competitions, so it had been pretty boring in the ski jumping fandom and then suddenly that girl came up with F1.

The first thing I have thought was ‘NO WAY! NEVER EVER!’ – you have to know, I have really hated F1 with a passion before August 2019. I was always making fun of my boyfriend watching those cars driving in circles for two hours. I just couldn’t understand it how someone can watch that voluntary (I sometimes still can’t..😅) and I really, really hated it with everything I had. My boyfriend even was at the Austrian GP in 2019 and back then my biggest nightmare would have been if he would have forced me to come with him (he got there with his father in the end – today I would give everything to get there!)

I remember, we have been on vacation during the beginning of August 2019. We were in a theme park, when my boyfriend said at one point that he will get over to that bench in the shadow under the tree now and watch the qualifying. I have really thought he was kidding me, because I couldn’t understand how the hell someone would watch something so stupid like F1, while being in a freaking theme park. Well, today I would be the one sitting there on the bench, while my boyfriend would probably urge me to please finally stand up so we could go on 😅

That was at the beginning of August 2019 – so I must have slowly but sure fallen for the fandom around 15th of August. And if you believe me or not, but I have neither fallen for Lando nor for Carlos at the first place. It was actually Max, also because he was one of the less drivers I have known next to Lewis, Sebastian, Valtteri (I always had to think about Harry Potter because of Bottas..😂) and probably Nico. But I have actually began to “stalk” when I have got to know about that Max has a little sister and I have found those sweet pics of him with her together (Do you know which pics I mean? You should really check them out – they are so cute). And somehow Lando came into the play as well and so my first story for this fandom resulted. Back then I have really, really thought it would be the first and also last story I will ever publish for this fandom. Well, that didn’t aged well..😅 Somehow my interest grew and grew with every more day stalking the internet for content and by the time of the first race after the summer break, I was already a fan. Spa 2019 has been the first F1 race I have ever watched from the start till the end and I have to say that this weekend has broken me (literally). Of course, because of Anthoine, but also because this time of the year is since 2017 never easy for me and on that weekend also Carlando finally came into the play. Check out this post from a few weeks ago – Carlos’ birthday on Sunday and that Lando has supposedly hugged Carlos after his DNF has really, really touched my heart and since that day these two boys own my heart and I remember, that the next day after the race I have got up at five in the morning to write “Tomorrow will be kinder” – because writing is sometimes my only way to deal with things, so I just had to write my thoughts/feelings down and it was the beginning of something beautiful actually.

But there is one more little story I have to tell you about my F1 past – this story right here is actually one of @hurtsprincess favourite ones. Because back in 2015, when F1 was finally back in Austria again, I was there by the race as probably the biggest F1-hater under all of them. Half of our town and so also most of our friends has got there, so it was kind of peer pressure, why I have finally joined them as well. We had to stand up really, really early – actually it was still in the middle of the night (I think it was three in the morning or so) and got to Spielberg with the bus. It was one of the hottest day of the year back then and after watching “the race of generations” with Niki Lauda, Gerhard Berger and some others and then following also the F3 and F2 races (Me, back in 2015: What do you mean there are races before the actual race? What the hell is F3 and F2?) and because we were so damn tired after standing up so early, most of us, including myself, were sleeping in the meadow during the F1 race. So I have missed over half of the race and I really can’t even remember anymore who has won 😅 But it had still been a funny day for my as a F1-hater, but believe me - if I should ever get to a GP again, this won’t ever happen to me again! 😅 I promise! 🤞🏼

Wow, this has turned out longer than you have actually wanted it, right anonym?! 

Your first question about how I have got into the Carlando fandom is probably answered now and also half of your second question. But I have actually started writing fanfictions back in autumn 2016 for the TWD fandom. I have written overall 16 stories for that fandom and 4 stories in German for the ski jumping fandom, but as much as I have already loved to write fanfictions back then, it only really became my passion and biggest hobby with Carlando. I just can’t stop writing about them, also because they make me so happy and for me so easy with those dorks just being them 😊

Yeah, I’m still very sorry about that I just can’t write stories to all of these great requests, even tho I would really, really like to do - but if you have got inspired by one of these, you should give it a try!

But if you are really that indecisive and shy, you could use the anonymity of the internet for your favor (in this case this posibilty is a good thing - as long as you use your anonymity not for spreading hate/attacking/bullying someone) You know what I mean? I actually did/do that as well. Only three people here on Tumblr know who I really am. Some of you may know from where I am (because I don’t make a secret out of it) and some here even know my name, but that’s it. I don’t share any more personal things about my identity, because I also prefer to stay anonymous here, especially because only my boyfriend, my best friend and my mother know about that I’m writing fanfictions. All those other people I call “friends” don’t know about it or me having this account here and I also don’t want them to know, because they simply wouldn’t understand it.

What I’m trying to say here - if it makes you feel better and also more secure, you could upload your story on AO3 without telling anyone it’s you. Or if you don’t want to post it on AO3 and you also don’t want to post it on your Tumblr account, I offer you to send me your story anonymous. I would post it in your “name” aka anonym, saying that this story isn't mine and you could watch/read the reactions.

You don’t have to lose anything, anonym 😉 I would really, really like to read your story, no matter if you will decide to publish it with your name or anonymous. Because there won’t ever be enough writers out there, blessing us with their great stories. Also because I am as much a passionate reader than a writer. And I’m also pretty sure about that you are talented and also about that your story would be more than just worth reading it 😊

Thank you so much for your message, anonym and I’m sorry my answer turned out to be so long 😅 but I really hope my words have helped you in some way, because I’m pretty sure about that you actually don’t have to have a reason to be that shy and indecisive 😉 Just give it a try, as long as it makes you happy 🤗❤️

[track-walk]

I finally understood why I'm not enjoying F1 this season as much as I though I would. We waited so long for the season to start, but here I am, watching only qualifying sessions and races instead of all practices, interviews, reports, etc. I love the cars, drivers, races, teams, drama, but just not as much as I expected and sometimes real life seems more important.

I know it sounds strange but the long break was positive. Of course, pandemic was happening and I was stuck in a tiny tiny room, but some F1 related things helped me to stay positive and forget about all the bad things in the world. Even if they were very short-term, like, Dan's instagram challenges or twitch streams that had me in tears from laughter.

Now, if I watch only the races (preferably, muted), all is good, midfield is interesting, we have a lot of cars that are more or less at the same level, so it's fun. I mean, I wasn’t able to stay in my seat while watching Lando’s last laps in Austria, I was holding my breath to see if Red Bull will be able to fix Max's car in Hungary. But everything around that is just... so much filled with negativity.

Negativity is everywhere: commentators, twitter comments, tumblr. A part of this critisism is rightfully deserved - like whole community's attempt at #weraceasone and stupid excuses. But sometimes it looks like negativity is just trendy right now so everyone's trying to come up with the better insults, more comments, not so funny jokes, trying to hurt not only drivers or teams but other fans as well. Have you seen Ferrari’s social media accounts? lately, Red Bull’s, too? also, holding different drivers to different standards. In general, I am interested in comments, other people’s opinions, different views than mine, but recently it’s just impossible.

For years, I was working on myself, trying to become a better, more positive, less judgy person, listen to others and discuss things, but it feels like F1 2020 is just trying to bring down the progress I’ve made. I am still watching F1, I am still supporting more than half of the grid, I will still make gifs and edits, it’s just not as ejoyable lately and sometimes I just don’t feel like I am a part of the community or even if I really want to be if it’s first response to everything is spreading negativity.

[formulatrash]

Bit late for International Women’s Day but nevermind: a non-comprehensive primer of women in motorsport you should stan for

Lella Lombardi (on the right) being a stone cold badass as per. She is the only woman to have ever scored points (well, half a point) in a Formula 1 race. So far. I believe in you, Tatiana.

Motorsport is, regrettably, a boys’ club all too frequently. And it’s not “getting better” - there are fewer female F1 drivers now than in the 70s so don’t give me that shit but there are also loads of amazing women driving very fast and you should be into that.

Like, seriously, we should be into this. It’s easy to be into the men cus there’s loads of them but if you do nothing else off the back of this, please pick a lady and REP HARD for her. Consciously become a fan, get interested - female racers struggle to attract sponsorship and attention, for all the reasons that make motorsport (and indeed, the world) awful - and well, we’re all social media fiends here, we can very literally help change that.

Also they awesome and you should just get into following them. This list is so incredibly non-comprehensive because it’s just the people I like and know about, so please please make your own or add to it or whatever - I just didn’t want to let today go without posting something like this.

In no order whatsoever:

Jamie Chadwick:

Jamie has just signed to race in British F3 this year, the kind of thing 18 year olds do. Unusually, however, she spent the previous year becoming the first female and youngest ever champion of British GT - she is seriously fast and very talented and I really hope Aston Martin get her in their LMGT programme soon. (She raced for them in British GT)

Emma Kimilainen

It’s slightly tempting to make this list all youngsters but there are loads of women with established driver careers, so here’s a Very Fast Mum - Emma has done a lot of various GT championships but the one she’s in now is the one I’m most excited by, which is the new Electric GT series. As we all know, I love squeaky brum brums and I am generally super excited for the series and very, very happy Emma will be part of it.

Christina Nielsen

12 Hours Of Sebring winner and general endurance GT badass Christina is one of my favourite ladies in racing and also really funny on social media. She drives in Ferrari Scuderia Corsa, which is difficult for me as it means I have to like a Ferrari team but I hear they are the good bit.

Alice Powell

I just love the pink bits on this car sorry not sorry.

Alice has done British F4 and F3 and is now in Electric GT. Can we talk about how electric series are way better at getting women in and what a sorry statement that makes about petrolhead testosterone? Oof. Anyway, Alice is awesome - part of her job is kicking the Renault F1 drivers into shape because she is a protein-shake-guzzling gym dweller and more power to her.

Also, Alice was the first woman to win a Formula Renault championship and score points in GP3. The next woman to score points in GP3 is obviously featured shortly.

Katarina Kyvalova

She speaks 6 languages and appears to be a genius and is probably at least my age but can make photos like this look cool 👌🏽

Katarina races with the Bentley Belles, who are an all-female team - although she’s raced all over the place and I’m particularly into her rallying - who race, like, properly old Bentleys. I am pretty sure I would not be able to drive to the shops in a classic Bentley (they’re big, heavy, unwieldy) and not just because I’m an idiot, so this seems particularly knockout.

HERE FOLLOWS A SELECTION OF LADIES IN GERMAN FORMULA 4:

Michelle Halder:

Sophia Floersch

You turn a car pink, I will get excited about it. (Relatedly, same sponsor as might turn Force India’s car pink)

Carrie Schreiner

Oh god I love Carrie so much??? I seem to be a bit of a stan for GT drivers in particular but hey this is not new information. As well as having hair that any given member of Little Mix would envy (and so would I) Carrie is properly really fast and the kind of aggressive racer I always go hard for. She’s been in Formula 4 (indeed, the aforementioned ADAC F4) for a bit and did Lambourghini Super GT Middle East & Asia this year and like... what if... what if I really want to go to Dubai to see her race in it? Perhaps? Am I... potentially... in love with Carrie Schreiner??? This seems likely.

Katherine Legge

One of my main girls here, not gonna lie. Katherine has done lots of things, including DTM and Indycar and the Indycar is probably actually the more significant BUT also she was in the first two races of my very own beloved squeaky brum brums and I still weep for the injustice of her being dropped. Now she does the sort of endurance bonkersness that goes down in GT cars in the US.

(BRING BACK KATHERINE LEGGE aaaaaargh, sob)

Which brings me to

Simona de Silvestro

I stan so hard for Simona de Silvestro that I am kind of surprised I haven’t booked a plane and started a new life stalking her round Australia in Supercars. Ilu, Simona. Former Sauber development driver, Simona competed in Formula E’s first two seasons with Amlin Aguri/Andretti and this made me so happy I would probably let her burn my house down and remain a fan. I hope she fucking bosses supercars.

Louise Cook

I love rally drivers, I love British drivers, I mega love Louise Cook. She’s a very good example of why it’s important, massively important, to support female drivers - despite podium successes she had to sell her trophies in order to fund her last season. :( BUT she persevered and she’s lovely and very good at rallying and I would lovely nothing more than to see her repeat Michele Mouton’s contesting the WRC in the 1970s. Relatedly, here’s a gratuitous picture of Michele Mouton looking hella cool:

Hella cool.

Catie Munnings

Catie is only 19 and she’s already a European champion, what a boss. I think (although it is slightly unclear) she’s now Red Bull backed, as well as Peugeot so looks to be in with a strong shout of getting in the World Rally Championship extremely soon.

Esmee Hawkey

Esmee is another GT racing Brit and part of the Porsche programme, which is awesome. I’m totally going to have to watch loads of GT racing this year, oh no, what a problem I will be so upset.

Sara Williams

I nearly didn’t include Sara as things have kind of stalled for her a bit, sadly but fuck it I’ve been fond of her for ages and she’s still going.

Tatiana Calderon

If you don’t know about Tati what are you doing here. GP3 points-scoring queen and Sauber F1 development driver, Tatiana is an absolute boss. The only woman actively racing in the top flights of single seaters (sob, come back Simona) she’s an excellent, incredibly skillful and seriously hardworking racer. If anyone can break the 25-year stint since a woman raced in F1 then I very honestly reckon she can. Go Tati (also her teammates clearly like and respect her enormously, which is a bit of a daft note but something it’s potentially and tragically difficult to get, in a boys’ paddock.

ANYHOO those are but a very few of my faves, I might do some more shortly but this post was way out of control already.

Here’s Maria Teresa de Filippis, F1 driver in the 1950s, being an absolute badass:

Go fast, ladies.

[holding93]

Last week I wrote about the things I was looking forward to in 2018.  The coming year isn’t going to be all beer and skittles though. Here are the things that are going to suck about 2018.

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Toyota is the Only Manufacturer in LMP1 at LeMans

The FIA literally wound up the proverbial creek without a paddle on this one.  Two of the three manufacturer competitors in LMP1 were actually from only one manufacturer and when they got fined a literal buttload of money for being a bit funny about their gases, they had to cut out luxury and non-critical marketing.  Like their very expensive LMP1 program.

The hybrid LMP1 car has effectively priced itself out of existence.  The hybrid systems, especially the one on the Porsche were so complex and expensive, like Formula 1, no new manufacturer would enter in their right mind.  Nissan tried and had the Honda experience, they were just smart enough to walk away when they knew they were barking up the wrong tree.

The privateer non-hybrid LMP1 teams like Manor and Rebellion are being allowed to increase the performance of their engines to match the Toyota and at least create a race of it.  They’ll still be at an overall disadvantage though, because the hybrids will have the fuel economy to to an extra lap per stint a LeMans.  So there’s going to be the illusion of competition that never really materialises.  Because they don’t have Toytota’s budget either.

Ginetta G60-LT-P1 LMP1 car in Manor Racing livery

At least LeMans will be interesting – I mean based on form the Toyotas will gradually hand grenade themselves one by one, meaning we might see a LeMans privateer race for the win.  Hell, we very nearly got an LMP2 outright winner last year, so anything could happen.

It must be said, massive respect to Toyota for sticking the course in LMP1 even though they’ve got no real competitor to race against.  Here’s hoping someone else joins in soon.

Manufacturers Flocking to Formula E

I don’t know whether I like or dislike Formula E.  I wanted to like it.  I watched the first season.  I’ve been back to watch a couple of races since.  One or two of the races were even a little bit interesting.  But I’ve lost interest.  The exclusive use of street circuits which make overtaking tricky and the need to swap cars mid race like some uncoordinated version of a relay race just seems stupid to me.

That hasn’t deterred any car manufacturers who are flocking to the sport in droves.  I should be celebrating manufacturer involvement in motorsport but here I’m not so sure.  Renault has been heavily involved right from the start, being the sole supplier of the powertrains for the first season.  Citroën has been involved with the Virgin team for a while and BMW have always been around the fringes supplying the safety and course cars and with influence on the Andretti team in later seasons.

Jaguar jumped in boots and all last season as the first full manufacturer entry since the inception with Renault.  Except for Mahindra.  Does Mahindra really count?  I’m going with no.

2016/2017 FIA Formula E Championship. Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City, Mexico Saturday 01 April 2017. Photo: Andrew Ferraro/LAT/Formula E ref: Digital Image _FER1992

Audi cancelled their LMP1 program to focus on Formula E with their full factory backed effort in this current season.  It’s the end of the year that things really ramp up though.

The next 2018-2019 season of Formula E signifies the first major change in the car and rules.  Finally, they’re going to be able to do a full race with one car.  The chassis is a spec chassis.  So no costly development needs to take place.  The car can finally do a full race in 18/19 and I hate to say it but it looks very cool – sort of half way between a Formula 1 and LMP1 car.

Nissan are jumping in to replace sister company Renault, Porsche are in, and BMW steps up to a full manufacturer.  Mercedes cancelled their DTM program to have a go next year.

While the manufacturers are free to develop their own powertrain – fantastic I say because racing will improve the electric breed – the battery is conspicuously a spec part.  I fail to understand this.  Surely it is battery technology that would benefit most from a development arms race.  You’ve also probably heard of the company that’s supplying them too.  A little crowd from Surrey called McLaren.

Is regular motorsport missing out on manufacturer involvement because they’re distracted by this electric spec-racing series barely anyone watches?

Formula 1 Politicking

The politics in the Formula 1 paddock are going to ratchet up a gear or several this year. Late in 2017 Ross Brawn announced his new consulted and thought-out engine road map for 2021 which all the engine manufacturers promptly decided to complain about.

Ferrari have threatened to leave, their default position at the start of all new rules negotiations.  It’s a bluff.  As Martin Brundle quite rightly pointed out in the Sky F1 Christmas Special – they don’t spend a dollar on marketing, Formula 1 does it all for them.  There’s nowhere else to go for their platform.  Nowhere else that provides the exposure and the fans.  They just won a GT Endurance world title and who’s aware of that?  Are they really going to pack up and go and race Toyota in LMP1?  Or take on Honda and Chevrolet in Indy?  No.

1. By S.Di Lorenzo (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons,  2. By Embassy of Italy in the US [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Flickr, 3. By AngMoKio (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Here’s a cliché – Too many cooks spoil the broth.  Formula 1 has always been governed by people who kowtow to the noisy paddock influence.  The paddock power brokers are already posturing like they always have in the Bernie era like there’s a negotiation to be had.  Liberty are going to have to be stone cold to get to where they want to go and it certainly looks like the teams aren’t going to come there willingly.  Here’s hoping they have the resolve to stay the course.

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More Formula 1 Grid Penalties

What does the FIA expect?  They want to force the manufacturers down to 3 engines for an entire season – to cut costs – yet the complex engine formula is so crazy, unreliability is a given.

3 engines, sorry, power units for an entire season is just impossible to fathom.  Teams used to use more than that for the just one weekend.  The championship is going to be won by the team who can incur the fewest grid penalties.  It makes no sense and it makes a great sport look like a farce.  As Christian Horner rightly puts it – the fourth and fifth engines get made anyway.  They’re still coming on the world tour.  There’s no cost benefit at all.  And just look at the 2017 Brazilian Grand Prix, where Lewis Hamilton had a fresh engine.  It looked like he had 100 horsepower more than everybody else with their shagged out power units.  After all, you can run an engine that only has to do two races a hell of a lot harder!

Mercedes AMG F1 V6 Hybrid

Renault V6 Hybrid F1

Formula 1 is has become the engineers championship and it is good management of parts lifing that wins the day.  How exciting.

Has all of that got you riled up?  Angry?  Then lets not talk about the ludicrous amounts of money the manufacturers have had to spend just to make a racing engine that will do at least 7, yes 7 race weekends.  But hey, at least they won’t have to pay for that fourth engine.

Halo

Of course this was going to get a mention on this list.  Divisive. Ugly.  Heavy.  All things a Formula 1 car should not be.

By Jen_ross83 [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Sure, sure.  There’s a slim chance it might save a life.  But since the death of Ayrton Senna – in which it’d have made no difference – there is one situation where the thing might have helped – the Felipe Massa spring incident at the Hungaroring.

I’d love to see some data that says otherwise but from watching the harrowing footage of Jules Bianchi’s incident there is no way a small piece of carbon and titanium would have made a scrap of difference.  That was a procedural problem, there’s no way that machinery should have been in the firing line under a local yellow in those conditions.  The FIA acknowleged that and now we have the Virtual Safety Car.

So the Halo isn’t really a safety device.  At least not in the literal sense.  The protection it offers is not for the driver, it’s for the FIA.  As in, the issue of head trauma was raised so now we’ve done something about it.  So now we stand a chance if we ever get sued.

Welcome to 2018.

Last week the good, this week the things that are going to suck about 2018. #h93 Last week I wrote about the things I was looking forward to in 2018.  The coming year isn't going to be all beer and skittles though.

[rob-blog1234]

WEEKEND TV HOT FILM PICKS!

Check out my guide to the top films on TV this weekend and the best of the rest. Enjoy!

LATE FRIDAY 1st SEPTEMBER

HOT PICKS!

ITV2 @ 2000       Inception (2010) *****

I still hold this film in very high regard. In a world of remakes, sequels, prequels and reimaginings it was a delight to see something fresh, new and challenging. This film does have some serious merits. It immediately reminded me of Satoshi Kon’s brain twisting dream travelling Paprika from 2006 and I’m pretty sure Nolan must have taken some inspiration from it. Regardless, Inception is an amazing accomplishment, intoxicating and completely immersive. It’s a complex action packed Sci-Fi Thriller which could capture the complete attention of even the most fidgety of cinema goers. I’m always left in silence and awe.

Director - Nolan, Lead - DiCaprio, Music - Zimmer… now there’s a recipe for success. Watching Inception showcases all 3 and they can now stand a lot taller as their already king-like CV’s are boosted with an eternal stamp of skill and success. Huge kudos to the editor of this film. It really is micro-second perfect and cuts between the scenes seem more like master strokes of storytelling and really help drive home what is actually going on in this multi layered mind fuck.

For me this was one of the strongest films to come out of 2010 in a year with some serious competition.

Dave @ 2300      Heat (1995) *****

Michael Mann’s Heat is an exceptional crime thriller starring Al Pacino as Lt. Vincent Hanna who is on the trail of professional criminal Neil McCauley played by Robert De Niro. I see I’ve already grabbed your attention! How can a film with two powerhouse performance actors go wrong? Well this certainly doesn’t disappoint. (and for the record - the less said about Righteous Kill the better.) It’s epically long at 3 hours but it’s full to the brim with such amazing detail into our leading characters it doesn’t feel that long. This is cops and robbers for grown-ups. It’s a great action packed film full of drama and the intricate story lines cut and change with skill. This is a story told extremely well. Heat will always stand tall as one of the most accomplished films of its genre. Got 3 hours to kill? Watch this.

Best of the rest:

Film4 @ 2100       The World's End (2013) ***

Comedy @ 2200   Zoolander (2001) ***

Sony @ 2345        Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) ***

BBC1 @ 0010       The Box (2009) ***

SATURDAY 2nd SEPTEMBER

HOT PICKS!

Film4 @ 2100 Prisoners (2013) ****

Like a good Thriller? Then get onto C4 on Sunday for the dark investigative Thriller - Prisoners. It’s the English Language debut film for director Denis Villeneuve. I haven’t dabbled in his other work until more recently with the outstanding head twister “Enemy” starring Jake Gyllenhaal. He must have liked working with him as in Prisoners we see him again at his startling best. He is pulling some outstanding performances out the bag of late and here we get none less than the best. Jake plays a young detective who through sheer dedication and a lot of patience works through a serious case of 2 missing girls. Hugh Jackman plays the father of one of the girls, whose frustration with the Police’s seeming inability to make any progress reaches boiling point and he makes more and more morally questionable decisions on how to better the search for the missing girls. Beautifully shot with cinematography that wows on each and every scene, Prisoners is a must see thriller.

ITV4 @ 0030      Senna (2010) *****

Senna is a phenomenal documentary about Formula One Legend Ayrton Senna. Pieced together through archive footage and intelligent narrative this film pulls on the heart strings of everyone I know who has seen it.  This film is not purely for F1 fans.  This is an amazing story and his rise to fame and his tragic death at the Grand Prix at San Marino aged just 34. It’s full of gems about F1, the drivers and those who ran the show but most of all tells the story of one of the greatest drivers F1 has ever seen.

Best of the rest:

Film4 @ 1300       The Book of Life (2014) ***

ITV3 @ 1500         The Queen (2006) ****

Syfy @ 1630          Ladyhawke (1985) ***

5* @ 1645              Footloose (1984) ***

ITV2 @ 1650          Despicable Me (2010) ***

Comedy @ 1800   The Addams Family (1991) ***

Film4 @ 1835        Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) ***

BBC1 @ 2100       The Full Monty (1997) ****

W @ 2100              Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004) ****

Universal @ 2100 Sleepers (1996) ****

Horror @ 2100      Drag Me to Hell (2009) ***

C4 @ 2250             X2 (2003) ****

Comedy @ 2300    Pineapple Express (2008) ****

Film4 @ 0210         The Evil Dead (1981) ****

SUNDAY 3rd SEPTEMBER

HOT PICKS!

BBC1 @ 1700      Toy Story 3 (2010) *****

Another great success for Pixar, they really know how to pull the heart strings of an audience both young and old. Toy Story 3 lives up to the hype with its wonderful characters who we know and love gallivanting through the superbly written story with plenty of drama, comedy, laughs, thrills and, of course, heart wrenching emotion that concludes this great trilogy.

Woody and Buzz are put through their paces when they are accidentally packed off to a nursery, here we are introduced to a host of new characters that all have great merit, especially Ken, Mr. Pricklepants and Chuckles the Clown, who all add some great comedy moments to an already funny film. However I was a little creeped out by Big Baby and the cymbal banging monkey - a little intense for the younger of viewers… and of course me. All the characters are once again excellently voiced by a huge list of equally huge names - but most importantly they become the characters completely - so you are never detracted from the film with the realisation of the voice behind the character which can so often mar the full immersion into an animated story.

As soon as our favourites decide to escape we are thrown into their action packed ride to freedom. The direction, animation and pace are all top notch, never does the story lose pace or interest.

I originally watched this in 3D - which I must add is not a necessity. I thought it would have been another film that suffers with the whole “being created specifically for 3D” and it almost becoming the driving force behind various scenes but I am thankful that Pixar focused purely on the film and didn’t sell out for an obvious 3D showcase.

I was looking for a reason to not give Toy Story 3 the full 5 stars but I could find no such reason. It’s a great success, my favourite of the trilogy and has once again proved the Pixar team are masters of animation and storytelling.

TCM @ 2100 The Wicker Man (1973) *****

A classic sinister film oddity. A marvellously menacing creation. Still terrifying. Not only is this one of a kind but it always manages to unsettle me through its mysterious blend of powerful performance, creepy script and fabulously folky soundtrack. Don’t miss this.

BBC2 @ 2300     Let Me In (2010) *****

A splendid but unnecessary remake of the excellent film Let the Right One In. It’s very well pitched and no doubt brought this great story to a much wider subtitle-shy audience. Without any comparisons - this is a truly great love story, accomplished, with great performances that with linger after the credits role, but unfortunately this film does not have the luxury of not being compared. The original Swedish film is a triumph, an amazing story that stayed with me for a long time afterwards, Let Me In fell only very slightly short of the originals greatness. With the addition and omission of various little points the remake still held its own albeit on a slightly different line. One thing is for sure this film marks a great return of Hammer to the horror genre.

TCM @ 2250    The Deer Hunter (1978) *****

Good grief. It’s an experience watching The Deer Hunter. It’s so real, heart wrenching stuff. Beautifully handled and presented. It is well deserving of its critique as one of the greatest films ever made.

Best of the rest:

Comedy @ 1200    The Addams Family (1991) ***

ITV3 @ 1455           The Secret Garden (1993) ***

Dave @ 1320          Kelly's Heroes (1970) *****

ITV2 @ 1900           Inception (2010) *****

Comedy @ 2100    Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) ****

Syfy @ 1830           Ladyhawke (1985) ***

Horror @ 2100      The Crazies (2010) ****

Film4 @ 1900         Evolution (2001) ***

Film4 @ 2100         Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) *****

[hilmihisham]

#82 : Re: “Sometimes It’s Best To Quit A Game While You’re Still Having Fun”

I should be studying or finish up my assignment right now but oh well.. It’s not usually that I have some ideas of what to write so guess better not to block off my idea, right? Don’t wanna mess up with my writing streak haha

Well, this one is more about my opinion, really. I read a post from Kotaku of the exact same title from this one which you might wanna read it first before proceeding through my post here.. Click here to read that one..

I think I agreed that we should quit a game while we’re still on top of our game (no pun intended). I don’t really have anything much to back my thoughts up though - I’m not usually doing good on any v’games that I’ve played so far haha.. Yeah, I’m not that good of a gamer despite having played bunch of games before..

But, what can I instead show here is about me while playing F1 some times ago (I think it’s F1 2012 or 2013 back when my PC can still handle v’game pretty well).

Y’know, F1 is not an easy sport, nor it’s an easy game even when you set the difficulty to easy. Sure, the AI drivers will be slow but if you can’t drive the car well, you’ll end up being worst than those slow AI.. And so that’s where the Free Practice session is so important during any race weekend - both in real world and in-game.

Driving F1 car is not easy. If you drive it too slow, the tyres will cool down and you won’t have any grip, the brake won’t heat up and you’ll locking up and unable to stop the car. If you going fast, you’ll need to totally concentrate on the track so that you won’t miss the braking point and the point where you need to start turning the wheel to turn for the corner. 

Concentration is essential. You need to remember the track layout - might seem bizarre since it’s just a game (and I’m not even competing in a high level) but if I’m gonna end up in a grass or gravel trap or run-off area for each corners, that’s not fun isn’t it? Other than that, become familiar with the track surrounding, find any marks that you can use on the track as your braking point. Know exactly when you need to start turning in so that you won’t miss the apex and lastly, even after you’ve pass the corner, listen carefully to the sound of the car and the visuals you got from your screen so that you know when to hit the gas again or you’ll end up hitting it too early and spun the car. It might be a bit harder since I don’t use racing wheel and can only depend on the vibration of my controller (and before that, using keyboard which don’t even have any vibration).

After all of that paragraph, yeah concentration is very important in F1 (and probably on some other v’games also).

I still remember one time when I’m totally soaked into the game that after finishing the race weekend in Monza (which is known as one of the very high speed circuit), I switch off the game, look around and for a while everything seems so slow. My eyes at that point are already used to fast moving objects by spending most of the time on the track moving around at 200+km/h

F1 fans, might be an easy guess but which turn is this?

That’s all well ends well.

But not on the weekend at Hockenheim. 

Photo : Wikimedia

I’m not really keen to run a full weekend and sit in front of my PC hours and hours just to finish up a single weekend. I usually play short weekend in F1 game which only consist of 1 free practice, 1 qualifying session and 25% (or 50% sometimes) race distance. For anyone that didn’t used to F1 race weekend, we usually have 3 free practice session (2 on Friday, 1 on Saturday morning), 3 parts of qualifying session (on Saturday evening) and 100% race which usually goes on for about 1 1/2 hour.

Personally, I consider Hockenheim as one of my strong track. It wasn’t that hard to run if you got the setup right. It’s just the final part of the track that’s a bit challenging and easy to mess it up. So at that time, I spent all the time that I have on free practice and qualifying on the track driving hard to try to get everything right. (Usually I only drive around for half of the practice and only 3-4 flying laps for the qualifying)

At the end of qualifying, I managed to get it all right and grab pole position - something that I didn’t usually managed to do. 

Start of the race, I managed to pull off and build a solid gap between me and the drivers behind pretty quickly (no I’m not that good of an F1 driver nor a gamer, I’m playing at 5th level difficulty out of 7 (or 8) total). Then at the mid-stage of the race, my concentration runs out.

Maybe my brain is already tired from all those runs in practice and qualy session (and also because it’s already late at night when I played it). From concentrating hard on the race at the final corner of lap whatever, I managed to dozed off a bit during the dash on the pit straight. Pretty funny I should say. I still managed to hold my own for Turn 1 since it’s not a heavy braking corner that we can attack it pretty much flat-out. But before I reached Turn 2, I dozed off again. I realized I’m still in the race soon afterwards but it’s slightly too late. I’ve gone too fast for the corner, missing the apex of the corner and didn’t managed to save it. I crashed.

Aah~ all the hard work I’ve put in during practice and qualy has gone. Forget winning the race, I don’t even finished it T.T

And thus, don’t sleep while driving!

Eh no (yeah that’s correct too but that not what I wanna say in this post), what I wanna say is I agreed that it’s much better to stop playing while we still feeling good about the game. Well, probably depends on the nature of the game that we’re playing too, I guess. I mean, I’m playing F1 and after that qualy session, I think I totally know what to do, when to brake, when to turn, when to accelerate, when whatever for that track. Of course I wanna hit the race straight away while I’m still feeling good about the track. Stopping the game at that point and starting the race the day after is unthinkable for me. I feel like I’m gonna forget about some of the stuff that I’ve already learn about the track and will end up feeling unprepared starting the race what way. I’m not a racing driver. They can do that because the race and the track is the only things that they need to think about during the intervals. Me, I switch off the game and I’ll start thinking about other sorts of things. I have life too (yeah, I think I have). 

Well, that’s not a good example, isn’t it? 

Oh well, let’s try to do that for other games shall we? Today’s 3 April and my pre-order of Persona 5 is coming tomorrow! Woohoo can’t wait!