Category Archives: F1

F1 (Formula One racing)

F1’s shameful return – by FP2 F1TV was already down

F1’s shameful return – by FP2 F1TV was already down

Formula 1 / F1, is finally back, for its first race of the much delayed 2020 season, without spectators on the circuits and several other strong preventive measures in place, to minimize health risks.

One would expect that after the many technical issues that plagued the associated “F1TV” service, during its first season, this second round – the coverage of the 2020 season – would run more smoothly. Moreover, I suspect F1TV has become many fans’ primary channel to keep live contact with the sport.

Unfortunately, by the time of the “FP2” (Free Practice #2) event, the service was already down, with frustrating technical messages on display, no matter the device used, from mobile to desktop. It was a brutal failure, especially hurtful to an audience who has been getting persistently decreasing entertainment quality, over the recent years, with races that systematically reward the same racer(s), with rare natural overtakes, and boring tracks with no design features to highlight some sense of speed.

As I write (2020-07-03 1400), the URL
https://f1tv.formula1.com/en/current-season/austrian-grand-prix/2020-austrian-grand-prix-formula-1-practice-2
should be giving access to the FP2 live stream, to paying subscribers.

The pictures show what one was getting, instead.

In a tweet’s length (@my_dot_com – https://twitter.com/my_dot_com/): “Incredible! By FP2, @F1TV #F1TV #F1 already NOT working. That was fast. This should not be happening after such a long preparation and one full experimental season already factored in.”

https://twitter.com/my_dot_com/status/1279045286200070150



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    Senna's top 8, not top 10

    I would reduce formula1.com’s selected “top 10 moments of Senna’s brilliance” to 8 moments. Two selected situations do not show the good in Senna and one can even remember what was less good about him.

    Moment #10 – “a defensive masterclass” – is also a lesson on how to NOT care about the pursuing driver and riskily close all the doors, building a bully reputation. In modern F1, some of these “defensive” moves would rise safety concerns and could have caused collisions with less intelligent pursuers.

    Moment #4, regarding “Monaco GP 1984”, a race that was cut short and awarded only half the points, is written as speculation. The text speculates that Senna could have passed Prost for the lead, which is probable, but what is certain is what happened: the 4.5 points (instead of 9) awarded to the winner cost Prost the World Championship to Lauda, by 0.5 points. Senna could also have crashed, or a known mechanical issue could have prevented him of reaching the end.

    Moreover, Senna’s statements on his own racing skills at Monaco, explaining himself as being “controlled by God”, were just too absurd and, unfortunately, would be repeated too many times.

    https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.top-10-moments-of-ayrton-senna-brilliance.7agG0t99di8rxGAh4Wq2RZ.html%20-