I'm still peeved they chose as of yet unpaved Texas over beautiful Monticello Motorsports Park, which has only had rave reviews (doesn't hurt it's literally in my backyard...)

I haven't been to Road America or Monticello.  I'm bummed it's not coming to Laguna Seca.  I don't think it's got enough luxury suites for F1 though, not to mention getting in and out of the track.

Laguna is another one they should run at.  Just think of the corkscrew in the first lap.  I'd be there.

anyone interested in setting up a group for Speed's fantasy GP?

http://pirelligpchallenge.com/en

Not many changes this year, the biggest technical changes are the elimination of blown diffusers and stricter crash testing.  There is a change with how the safety car works (lapped cars can be waved around until the safety car picks up the race leader, gives the leaders a clear track on the restart.)

If you want more:

The BBC has a short (really short) primer on this year's F1.

F1's own website has good summaries of the 2012 rule changes and technical data on each car.

And if you really want to geek out RaceCar Engineering has their usual detailed analysis of this year's cars.

I'm tempted to go to Montreal this year. What do tickets run to one of the races?
* ~$110 for a one person race day general admission ticket. May be worth it...

Last edited by VTPhotog (2012-03-16 00:33:01)

I just got this app. It seems to be pretty solid...and WAY less expensive. Not as fancy as the "official" app, but it gets the job done

http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/f1-2012- … 06440?mt=8

My brother and I camped out one year in Indy....Just in a tent. It was pretty awesome and like $30 a night. Couldn't afford a room that particular trip because we spent all our money on the three day pass and pit passes. We went to a local Walmart to shave and clean up LOL!

We were all dressed up supporting Jensen Button and the BAR team.(Takuma Sato was on the team as well) All crazy with face paint, flags, shirts with buttons glued on them in the color and shape of the BAR logo, painted fro wigs. Ridiculous. But the BAR guys were amused and let us into the paddock with them One of the coolest days of my life hands down! They even gave us two sets of the driver stickers that go on the side of the car that has the drivers name, country and blood type. After that, we got the autographs of the Speed Channel announcers Bob, Steve, and David. THEN shortly after that, Jackie Stewart came by on the back of a golf cart and started cracking up at our outfit. Gave us a big thumbs up and yelled "Nice job lad's" 

Totally worth shaving and washing up at a Wal-Mart 

:ibcoolF1storybro:

Topher wrote:

Scargo wrote:

I'm still peeved they chose as of yet unpaved Texas over beautiful Monticello Motorsports Park, which has only had rave reviews (doesn't hurt it's literally in my backyard...)

I filmed a commercial there late last year.



It's a very cool track.

I was in the back of one of these:





/off topic

Had I known, I would've thought of hanging out, or meeting up or something.  It's like 30 minutes (really less, but Big Brother is watching) from my house.

Scargo wrote:

Had I known, I would've thought of hanging out, or meeting up or something.  It's like 30 minutes (really less, but Big Brother is watching) from my house.

I was in and out in less then 24hrs. Flew in the night before, stayed at some shitty hotel by LGA and then drove out at 5am. Then took the 745p flight home.

But yes, we should have hung out if I'd had more time. 

Topher wrote:

I was going to fly to Montreal to watch the race, it was only 35,000 miles for a direct flight. The hotel was what killed me, three night minimums and the Westin downtown was $730/night. 

Holy F.  That used to be a roadtrip for us back in the early 80s.  You could get into the Ramada on Rue Guy for around $100/night, which worked well split four ways.  God those were great trips, took in every session from Friday practice through the race.

tonka92x wrote:

Not many changes this year, the biggest technical changes are the elimination of blown diffusers and stricter crash testing.  There is a change with how the safety car works (lapped cars can be waved around until the safety car picks up the race leader, gives the leaders a clear track on the restart.)

If you want more:

The BBC has a short (really short) primer on this year's F1.

F1's own website has good summaries of the 2012 rule changes and technical data on each car.

And if you really want to geek out RaceCar Engineering has their usual detailed analysis of this year's cars.

Perfect.  Exactly what I was looking for.