Formula 1 2006
 

Hey All,

So, let's get this sucker started. Bahrain is going to be kicking off the F1 season in about 2 weeks - what do you think is going to happen this year?

The grid is more open than it has been in a long time, thanks to the new V8's. No one has a lot of experience with them, and with pitstop tire changes back, I think we're in for a humdinger of a season. I predict the Japanese teams, Honda and Toyota, will be the ones to perform really well this year.

What say you?

I'm really glad that tire changes are back. I'd rather eliminate refueling than tire changes, but at least they figured out tire changes are not a bad thing. There are a couple more cars on the grid this year than there have been in recent years. For me the interesting thing will be if Toyota can contend for the world championship. It will also be interesting to see if Scott Speed can score any points this year.

its that close allready!?!?!

thats soo sweet


i'm hoping schmacher does good this year, and down with the japanese makers!!

Actually Cosworth who is supplying engines to Williams this year has immense racing experience with V-8s, as well as Toyota and Honda.

This should be an interesting season, at least at the beginning until each team gets the changes sorted out. By mid-season I expect some stability. Will be interesting to see how well Alonso does this year, since the team already knows he won't be back the next year. Which sets up a battle at McLaren, which driver will be kept? JPM or Kimi?

Scott Speed won't score any points no matter how good he is. The most he can hope for is to consistantly beat his team mate.

taken from SpeedTV.com

I ,for one,am pumped about the comming season.....Ferrari will have to work hard,but I see them as the dark horse that will emerge at the end of the season ahead of the rest.....Shuey is the best,smartest driver around and will make the most of that!....

............let's keep in touch over the comming months! love ya all, bobby xoxoxoo

Cool on you bobby, didn't know you followed F1. We had a somewhat growing thread here last year on F1, got updated after each race but kind of fell apart towards the end of the season for lack of interest. We need to revive that this year!

Thanks for the pre-season update. Looking forward to the new teams, new colors, new V8 engine sounds, new drivers.
Hopefully we'll have some good, close racing this year. Go Raikkonen!

Well... this year i was beaten on opening the thread. Lets hope that this year is has a few more posters.

After all the politics of the winter, the formation of new teams, drivers desperately hoping for a drive (sato - can't believe he is back) and new cars and quali rules, it is all setting up to be an excellent season. As for predictions, it is impossible to give any afterall testing never produces reliable data for the fans. I'm of course hoping it is Jensons season, he needs to do something season or he'll just fade into darkness.

I'm thinking that Ferrari will come out strong, especially as many are saying it's michael last year. I'm so excited, one week and counting.....bring it on finally the dark and cold winter is behind us...let us see the light and let us know that it will be good.

suposidly the lump in the back of the williams car (the cosworth one) is the one with the most hp on the grid. However, it might not be the lightest so i am not sure about the hp/weight ratio of just the engine.

And speaking of Williams/Cosworth. Take a look at what happens when you lop off two cylinders. Look at the fin as it extends back from the airbox.

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Honda

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Ferrari

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McLaren - orange for testing only - have to find the pictures of the totally blinged out race livery

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BMW Sauber

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Renault

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Midland (RIP Jordan)

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McLaren - in total bling mode :D

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New Ferrari front wing was found to be worth .3 sec in testing. Huge!!

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Super Aguri (an updated Arrows maybe)

needs more everything

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I just wish F1 coverage was easier to get in the US. Speed Vision used to be real good about it. But since the change to Speed Channel, they've dropped WRC, and have less and less F1 coverage. Its hard for me to keep track of it, when all I can find on tv are TV shows about chopper motorcyles and NASCAR. (Dont get me wrong I like NASCAR, but I only need about an hour of info after qualifying on Friday night and the race, not 24 hour 7 day a week coverage.) I also need my weekly update on F1 and race coverage, but thats harder to come by.


edit: because I got Speed Vision and Channel out of order.

Man I don't know about the McLaren...it looks ridiculous in pictures, but it might look fantastic out on track. The Renault: like the color scheme, too many wings everywhere. BMW/Sauber and SuperAguri both look equally boring. The Ferrari looks like it hasn't changed in 6-7 years. The Williams looks great - not too excited about the Cosworth engines though. Could be a long year for Williams. Thanks for the pics.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS...............XOXOXOO


2006 FORMULA ONE SCHEDULE

March 12 Bahrain, Speed, 6 a.m.
March 18 Malaysia, Speed, 1:30 a.m.
April 1 Australia, Speed, 10:30 p.m.
April 23 San Marino, CBS, 1 p.m. (SD)
May 7 Europe (Nürburgring), Speed, 7:30 a.m.
May 14 Spain, CBS, 1 p.m. (SD)
May 28 Monaco, CBS, 1 p.m. (SD)
June 11 Great Britain, CBS, 1 p.m. (SD)
June 25 Canada, Speed, 12:30 p.m.
July 2 United States, Speed, 1:30 p.m.
July 16 France, Speed, 7:30 a.m.
July 30 Germany, Speed, 7:30 a.m.
Aug. 6 Hungary, Speed, 7:30 a.m.
Aug. 27 Turkey, Speed, 7:30 a.m.
Sept. 10 Italy, Speed, 7:30 a.m.
Oct. 1 China, Speed, 12:30 a.m.
Oct. 8 Japan, Speed, 1:30 a.m.
Oct. 22 Brazil, Speed, 12:30 p.m.

All times are Eastern

Qualifying
One of the biggest and most anticipated changes affects qualifying. A shootout format replaces the almost universally criticized one-car, single-lap system. This is intended to shake up the grid as single-lap qualifying often did, yet bring back the excitement and gunslinger nature of the one-hour, 12-lap, fastest-man-standing system used until the end of 2002. Here’s how the new knockout format works:

Part I

All 22 cars may run unlimited laps during the first 15 minutes of a one-hour session. Afterward the six slowest cars can no longer participate; they will make up the last six grid places according to their times.

Part II

Times are reset after a five-minute break, and the 16 remaining cars compete in another 15-minute session with no lap limitation. The six slowest cars are eliminated again and fill in places 11 through 16.

Part III

Following another break, the times are reset for a final 20-minute, unlimited-lap shootout between the 10 remaining cars. This group decides pole position and the top 10 grid positions.

The catch

Cars may run with any amount of fuel in the first two 15-minute sessions. Cars eliminated after these two sessions may refuel to any level ahead of the race.

Also, with the two-race-per-engine rule still in effect, the bottom 12 cars will put fewer miles on their engines.

The top 10 drivers must start the final 20-minute session with the fuel load they intend to start the race with. (Could starting 11th for a top team be an advantage?) Each car will be weighed before it leaves the pits, and the fuel used during the session may be replaced at its conclusion.

But because teams must start the session with their race fuel loads, and cars go faster as fuel is burned, you can expect teams to run more laps to lighten the fuel load. This also may see some teams compromising their race strategy for the sake of a good start position, and piling up excess mileage on their engines.

drop the flag, I'm ready

I like the new (old) qualifying rules.
Having all the cars on track at the same time during qualifying was always exciting to see.

Amen, to that brother. Also nice to see the tyre change coming back.

I'm like the bling of the McLaren, i like shiney things. Only 4 days till some action, it's like losing my varginity all over again.

Suderia Torro Rosso - RIP Minardi

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In the pictures notice how much stronger the suspension arms are as opposed to the previous years. I can't recall who it happened to last year, but there was at least one suspension failure resulting in some scary accidents. These are all carbon fiber pieces and if compromised they will lose all load bearing capabilities in an instant, unlike a metallic piece. Not only does each piece bear the weight of the car but also is designed to flex acting almost like a damper/shock absorber. Other open wheel formulas do not have these pieces hard mounted as in F1, they are mounted on a pivot point with the suspension designed completely different. Probably costs a small fortune for each one!

very cool paint job

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Looks like Ferrari are feeling confident after signing a new test treaty which will limit their testing. We all now know that they didn't want to do that last year because they were rubbish. Anyway about 13 hours and qualifying will finally start. Lets hope that it will live up to the hype on the TFP.

very cool pictures, but ahhhh darn am i not used to seeing that ferrari sporting that number 5.....!!!!

What a cool race. Nice to see the old master against the new. Even better was all the battles in the middle of the field. I think that Alonso was a deserved winner, it truelly was an excellent proformance by the team. Michael looks like he's finding his groove again, which will make this season even better than last year.

I though Kimi done a fab job in coming through the field. He has shown yet again that he never gives up the ghost. It was a shame that Jenson has such a bad start, but then again if you want to be champion then you have to learn the get off the line first.

Rosberg at aged 20 (i think), what a race he had. He kept it real thoughout the whole race and took his chances. My driver of the day... looks like there will be more to come from him. Webber had a soild proformance but i still think that he'll never make it to the top of F1.

Final words: I'm so happy that F1 is about racing again. However, i still can't believe Sato got a drive.

Roll on next week.

Yes, a pretty exciting race...good to see F1 back again in 2006.

Raikkonen with an excellent drive...what would he have done from pole, then?!? Lap the field a few times? The new McLaren looks good out there...the bright red flashes on the front/rear wings really make it stand out nicely.

Quite surprised to see Schumacher running so hard at age 37. Great stuff. He gave 24 year-old Alonso a good fight - one mistake from Alonso and Schumacher would have won. No slowing down yet for MS.

Nico Rosberg: 1st F1 race, fastest race lap. IMPRESSIVE. I like this guys driving style, seems very very talented. So young too, yes. The LeBron James of F1??? Webber with a good finish as well - the Cosworth V8 looking surprisingly good so far. Great looking car.

I don't think Super Aguri has any business in F1..what a disaster of a team. I think I heard them say the chassis is from the 2001 Arrows...what??? This Ide dunce nearly takes out half his pit team on a stop. Not good! Too bad for Sato - I would have liked to see him at BAR for one more year, but he's finished in F1.

Poor Toyota...maybe they need to spend their hundreds of millions in NASCAR instead...oh wait...:p

Great race. Rosberg impressed the hell out of me. They guy won't back down. Kimi, Fernando, Michael were all at their best -- as usual.

Did I say great race? So glad the season's started!!!!

PS - let's retire this thread since I put so many pictures in it, its slow to load. How about a new thread each race?

Sounds good here...maybe we can rename this thread F1 Photos or something more...colorful, as a place to put various images of F1 that come during the season? (F1 Babes...winkwinknudgenudge...)

Just wanted to second the comments on Rosberg. He's my new favorite talent. Everyone else on good form. Disappointed by Barichello and Ralf, though. They could have done better. And what a shame for Fisichella. He's finally in a decent car, and the damn thing loses hydraulic pressure... That has to suck.

I'm all for starting a new thread for each race. Bring it on!

You certainly did slow the whole thread down with your pictures:crazy: May i suggest that we could just axe the pictures out of this thread. I think if we open a thread for every race we will be in danger of either losing people due to thread fatigue or simply the thread won't be filled as it should be. Just my thoughts.

Of course if a new thread is open for every race, i'd follow. I just like the central thread that's all.

Can't believe we are racing again next week. I'm truely living for the weekend. :D

April 1 Australia, Speed, 10:30 p.m.

this is the one im attending


its allways a great day
'

Cheers

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No this page runs faster than an F1 V10. Cheers Craven :thumbsup:

ferrari did well.................may suprize as season goes along....I missed the race(was out of town and no speedchannel...........waiting for replay xoxoxoo..

What's this, nobody saw qualifying today? no body with any predictions. I was relying on you guys to give me an insight for the race tomorrow. Unfortunally i miss qualifying today and was unable to celebrate Jensons 2nd place along with Rosbergs 3rd. But no matter the race is about 7 hours, so time enough to sleep and be ready for it, albeit tired.

Anyway on the basis of what the rankings for tomorrow, i predict an awesome race where Rosberg will become the most talked about driver and Jenson will fall back towards sixth after Alonso, Kimi and Michael take him. Sato will do his best to avoid his team mate but they will spin out together and montoya will take 4th.

If any of this is right, then you all owe me a beer.

Oh and keep writting on this thread, it can't die already.

schuey will have to work hard this time.....McLaren will win...mark my words...xoxoxoo

Well...your words were marked but as you can see you were wrong. Then again i didn't fair much better. Although i did get Montoya place right.

I didn't think too much of todays race, granted i got up early and wasn't really in the mood but for me the racing wasn't there. No real good wheel to wheel action. Anyway i'm going to make one prediction for the next race, Jenson will be 2nd overall.

Damn that Rosberg and his good looks!!! ...ok, damn his engine for not lasting two races. I was counting on him to do really well, only to be disappointed by the hardware... Well, at least Ferrari didn't win, and Renault, showed us what they're mae of. I love the pit radios this year, allowing us to hear whats going on. Well don Ralf as well, coming up from the rear and placing in the points. I'm guessing Jenson was feeling like the slightly uncomfortable meat in a Ferrari/Renault sammich there towards the end. And Kudos to Massa for not letting Michael by. Gotta love the youngsters not bullied! But damn that Nico... Also, how much does Kimi's life suck right now... Can't wait for the next race!

kimi will do well.....if only the equipment will last......ferrari is not to be counted out yet

.....xoxoxoo

Woo Hoo 7th place for Jacques, I'm so freaking happy, especially after the small fire show the car gave off in Baharain.

Well it wasn't pretty, and he didn't get 8th until the last 50 yards of the race but Speed did manage to get a point today. Wild race, I don't think I've ever seen four safety car periods in one race before.

booo, Renault will

Go Alonso~ :P

Am I the only F1 girl in this thread? :)

The Australian GP was one of the best races I have seen in ages... and I agree fully on Nico Rosberg - what a hottie!

And Scott Speed got a penalty and lost his point I believe.

I really enjoyed the race today, However as Sharon stated Scott Speed was penalized for passing under the yellow and is no longer in the points.

Source - F1live.com

Go McLaren Go!

Wow they penalized Scott Speed for passing under yellow and didn't penalize Ralf Schumacher?

WHAT A RACE...FULL OF ACTION,NON-ACTION,AND CONTRAVERSY...RENUALT IS OFF TO A GREAT START....COME-ON THE REST OF YOU ...MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN !!

XOXOXOO

I'm lovin' this season. I missed the Australian race, because of work, but apparently it was pretty exciting! I so badly want rossberg and his Beemer to start taking some points. He has some serious potential, that kids. I see great things in his future. Also: Schumi parking it?! There's something you don't see often. I 'spect there are som engineers at Ferrari that have some 'splainin' to do...

umm... okay, i think massa wrecked a ferrari in qualifying or practice if i'm not mistaken? then both schmacher and massa wreck in the race..? 3 cars?? good luck to the guys who get to rebuild the fleet before next week!

Spy photo of Sato's sterring wheel












http://abort.boom.net/~sublime/sato_steer.jpg

yep, that's his wheel :D

hahahahahah!!!..Mothra + ramming speed = 1st corner take-out of last 4 starters!!!

xoxoxoxoo

I watched Australia twice just for the weirdness. Looked like they handed the keys to a bunch of SCCA drivers.

Or gave that steering wheel to everybody. :D

i went down to melbourne last weekend for my first ever LIVE F1 race..and wow was it a buzz! ill be going up to the gold coast for the Indy's and def back to melbourne next year for the next F1 race!

Can someone explain the exact rule to me that Button still got 10th place? Is it to do with the other cars being over 1 lap behind?

As far as i understand it has everything to do with lapping. When winner passes the finishing lap then the race is effectively over, in so far as you complete the lap you are on. If you are a lap behind then you can never make it up, or else you'd have some teams carrying on ages after it had been won in order to make up places (although that matter less under the new quali rules).

That picture of Sato's steering wheel is classic.

Sato's actually doing remarkably well in super aguri, don't be so mean :P.

And yeah, button was 10th because the race is over after the winner crosses the line, so everyone completes the lap they were on and that's it.

Melbourne being so late was weird. And rather funny too. Ferrari got it _so_ wrong.

ah, red in the front again :D



that was quite the race! i didn't think he was going to win, i was hoping for the pit pass to happen as it did, but then he just took off, alonso had no chance after that! and congrats to mesa!

Nice to see racing again this weekend. San Marino tire shenanigans were a bit painful.

Torrents are driving me mad though. For the first three races people posted almost immediately after each session. But since the 3wk break nobody posts until the night after the race. Bah!

ferrari 2 in a row....the brain trust + shuey are on a roll.....maybe to late for championship but they aren't going to roll over!!! wow,great race! xoxoxoo

I read that Ferrari has fixed a major engine flaw. Now they are on a roll. The first V-8 engine to win back to back (same engine both times) under the new rules. This could be the start of season long domination.

God I hope not. I like to see variety, but then again, i don't want Alonso winning every race either. Would be really nice if the McLaren's, Toyota's and BAR's could be on the front row.

the honda/ toyota guys seem to have the engine horsepower thing down,but the handling eludes them???.............why? xoxoxoo

they got it down, it's just a matter of getting it down as good as ferrari and renault!


i however don't see honda/toyota getting any podiums anytime soon...but it's likely that they could do it down the road

I for one am amazed to see father time Shumacher still winning races at age 53. Whatever Ferrari have done, I hope they keep it up as I'd rather see The Shoe winning instead of PeeWee Herman-Alonso. Poor Ide gets his license yanked. Where did Montoya go, where is Raikkonen, where did McLaren disappear to?

Barcelona: Sato just outqualified his teammate by 2 sec...give this man a decent car please!

SHUEY IS NOT 53!!!

http://f1.racing-live.com/f1/img/photo_mschumacher.jpg

03/01/69

GREAT SITE FOR INFO.....http://f1.racing-live.com/f1/

XOXOXOO

He's no Walter Rohrl, but he's getting a bit....senior...by F1 standards, what with all the Rosbergs and Raikkonens barely out of high school. You know you're getting old when you've been watching F1 since before some of the current drivers were born! :crazy:

Thanks for the link -- nice site

i'm watching now, honda just got blue flagged to let the leaders pass, so they arn't doing all that great... it doesnt look like shoey is getting to 1st place today, but oh well.. 2nd is still decent

Another good finish for Ferrari's Father Time.

How about Mr. Takuma Sato storming across the line for 17th place? He finished the race! It's a start...it's progress, it's baby steps. Next comes top 15 finish - top 10 finish - top 8 qualifying - points finish - consistent points finish - top 5 finish - 2nd row qualifying - fastest race lap - top 5 final standings - signed by Frank Williams - race wins - F1 World Champion 2009.

Looks like Raikkonen be in the Red Car for '07. The way McLaren has been running, its starting to look good for him and bad for Alonso. Looking forward to MONACO.

rather boring race,but still fun......Monaco will be great....xoxoxoo

would be greater if CBS wasn't airing it :rolleyes:

that's it !.............was in a fuzz at the time...cbs SUCKS! :rolleyes:

MAY TURN OFF SOUND AT NEXT RACE!!! :thumbsup:

Sheheen should be a hockey broadcaster and Dailey is a washed up wanabee
..........what crap!!! :crazy:

i get it good, but the broadcasters suck, they talk to the viewers like they are 10 years old.. and they explain the same things over and over :crazy:

I never thought I'd see the day that Schumacher would pull a stunt like he did today in Monaco. Unbelievable. He needs to be disqualified for purposely blocking the track during qualifying, as the rules clearly state. How could he possibly think anyone would believe that was an accident??? Has anyone in the entire 55 year history of the Monaco Grand Prix ever gone off like that at Rascasse? It's the slowest corner on the track! I like how Alonso didn't even try to hide his disgust for what Schumacher pulled. Booooooooo Schumacher! I hope Sato gets the Ferrari drive for 2007.

hell that rocked! it shows Ferrari and Schmacher still got a bad boy side to them :D i havn't seen them take advantage of rules and loopholes in a while :thumbsup:

Sent to the back of the pack

http://formula-1.updatesport.com/new...back/view.html

Spoken like a diehard tifosi!
Send him to the back, AT LEAST...
Anthony Davidson said on TV that he definitely did it on purpose. Said if you really crash at that corner, you hit the wall.

So Blatant!! :crazy:

i have yet to see the video of this, since it's controled by CBS this week, i dont think they aired anything on speed, and CBS only airs sunday... or atleast to my knowing...


did you see it yet or are you just going on what he said?

Stupid, stupid, stupid. The crazy thing is, Schumacher probably would have still been on the first row. I would never have expected it from 7x WC Schumacher. Shameful to Ferrari, shameful to his reputation, shameful to F1.

Thanks for the report, Craven.

I saw it live.

Have a look:
Schumacher In Car Shot
Schumacher Overhead Shot

I didn't think he'd be up for such nonsense this late in his career. Memories of Mansell or Prost. Either he hit oil, spazzed, or did it on purpose. Sure looks like the stewards are right. Too bad. I'm a fan. I always enjoyed watching him nail that course, especially in the rain.

i just watched the replay of it on TV plus those videos.. you gotta admit ferrari isn't on top of the game anymore and losing one of the most powerful reigns in sports gotta be tough, soo it for sure could be done intentionally, but it might not have been... it's is just as likely that he goofed up, hell it happens all the time.. he goofs up once and a while, remember monaco two years ago when he wrecked? he did lock his wheels up an at the angle he was going into that turn, i don't think he could have made it, atleast he keep it from the wall...

Who cares, lets put behind us. Because it turned out to be an awesome race. especially with Michaels amazing 5th place. Overall, I'm glad he started at the back made for some interesting racing especially with the front end staying pretty much the same all throughout.

darn cable box fudged up my recording, i got two hours of a message dialog box recorded :(



the race did sound pretty cool, i allways loved watching monaco

I never much cared for Schumacher, having watched him race since his first drive in the Jordan at Spa. Mika Hakkinen had more charisma than Schumacher, and that's saying a lot. He's one of those ultra-successful sporting figures that commands respect, but never admiration. He's the Barry Bonds of F1. What he did this weekend at Monaco further solidifies my opinion of him as a ruthless, graceless, dirty driver. It's what has drove him to such a ridiculous amount of championships and why he's still racing at age 37. I have a lot of respect for how Alonso handled this nonsense, and then eventually winning the race.

Wow. ..I didn't know this thread existed!

I've got my tickets for the Canadian GP later this month, but I need to brush up on my French to work on the local hotties! Anyone on this thread from Montreal?

NOT THAT THIS HAS MUCH TO DO WITH ANYTHING....BUT

HERE IS ralph's WIFE BEFORE ralph..(nsfw)

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=105284

xoxoxoo

Not from Montreal, but have been to the Canadian GP multiple times. Where are you sitting? Female eye candy galore downtown...hope you have a strong heart.

Montreal is an awesome city with a million things to do. They have a modern subway system as well, that can take you right to the racetrack from the downtown area. Nothing beats the sights and sounds of F1 in person. Almost nothing... ;)

I don't know exactly where the seats are, but I have been invited to be part of a group that goes every year, and the seats are supposed to be in the best viewing area (Champion's Corner, perhaps? I don't know for sure). Some members of the party live in Montreal, so I'm sure I'll be well taken care of! Do I need to brush up on my French to get lucky? :lol:

While the francophone population outnumbers the anglophone population about 4:1, Montreal is officially bilingual. Most - if not all - public establishments downtown (and nearby surrounding environs) speak both english and french. It probably wouldn't hurt to speak a bit of French with the ladies, but a charming bastard is a charming bastard in any language, no? :D

Good luck and have fun. Don't forget earplugs, and check the weather for rain...umbrellas come in handy!

Thx. . . .maybe I'll pretend that I speak Portuguese, and thus we must communicate with our "broken" English.:D

Sounds like a plan...a few adult beverages to bridge the language barrier, and you are IN. "Oooooh, I jeeest looove your sexxeee ahc-cent, madp!" :D

***
Back on track:

Williams-Lexus?

This is pretty exciting. Williams have been running very well this year on garden-variety Cosworth engines...Toyota works engines could put them back on top. Time for a world champion to be back driving again for Williams F1.

USGP on Sunday. If you've ever considered going, do it this year. Two reasons why:
1. Michelin gave away two sets of tickets to each ticketholder that renewed at least two tickets. This year is a buyers market. Tickets galore, maybe at less than track price.
2. This may very well be the last year at Indy. Last year of the contract and Bernie's not sounding too optimistic about returning. Although I suspect its a negotiating ploy.

Really, if you've ever wanted to see the F1 circus, this weekend presents your best chance ever. And camping's cheap at the Coke lot, just a short walk away.

If you have questions, post them here or pm me.