They have a few back-to-backs during the season. This is the first. Upcoming back to backs are Germany + Hungary in July / August, Belgium + Italy and Singapore + Russia in September, and Mexico + USA in October / November.
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After such an exhaustive preview I am in no need for silly programmes or TV interviews! FANTASTIC job!
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Amazing coincidence - Schumacher wins in the 6 years 2000 - 2005 also equal 52.8%! (very important * footnote though.)
* 6 of the wins were by Ralf Schumacher. Lewis is King.
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BE has some pretty radical suggestions. Not all of them are complete nonsense either 
Worthwhile reading for your lunch break.
Love his intro: āFirstly, I wouldnāt be talking to the teams. Itās like having a committee and you donāt need that when making decisions like this.ā I agree with him. They need to make business-based decisions that suit the sport, not a select few of the prominent teams. Basically need to come out and say āHereās how F1 is going to work from now on. If you want to take part, do these things. If you donāt like those conditions, cheers.ā
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Iām always a bit hesitant about statistics. But I thought it would be amusing anyway regarding the comments about making F1 more exciting.
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I would love to agree, however, at this point there is a significant (you could argue āunhealthyā) dependence on the top teams and manufacturers to keep the sport alive. If Merc or especially Ferrari donāt like the ultimatum and make good on their quit threat, you lose a major manufacturer and about one-third of your engine supply for the grid.
Now in more diverse formats (GT racing etc), this is not a huge problem because there are enough teams and manufacturers to keep the series going. F1 by comparison is on very shaky ground. You will not survive the loss of a major manufacturer unless you can manage to lure a replacement (preferably several). So who would that be? BMW came and went, and will not go near F1 again as long as their bitter rivals are dominating, because it would make them look bad. Same goes for Porsche, VW, Audi, and any other German company you care to name. Toyota tried and failed despite a massive budget. Aston Martin are apparently not interested.
Truth is, the current formula is so complex, and the barrier to entry so high, that it is very difficult if not impossible to convince major players in the auto industry to get involved. Nobody wants to go through the hell that Honda just endured. Thankfully they were committed enough to stick with it, but how many companies would have just called it quits in a similar position? No one is willing to race in F1 just for the fun of it, and on-one besides the big companies can afford to get involved in the first place.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
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Oh noā¦I just realised that Iām going to miss the race this Sunday. Taking the parentals out on Sunday to a show. Is there a way to watch full broadcasts of the race?
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After the fact? Not unless you subscribe to F1TV, I think.
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Damn.
Checked the DSTV schedule now, seems like the race is being rebroadcasted at 20:00 on Sunday, so will stay off the internet and try to be spoiler free until then
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Doesnt work in SOuth Africa
So hammer stay off stuff even the F1 app is useless you get radio commentary that gets interrupted with team broadcasts
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Yeah, I knowā¦ But I think you can watch a full replay of the race afterwards. Either way, not worth it.
I think its available 14 days later - that is why i didnt bother with it
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One day when I am rich I will commision this dude
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Teams worried about āheatwaveā temperatures in Europe at the moment. +35Ā°C air temps expected. Lots of new air intake slots spotted all over the place in the Red Bull Ring pits yesterday.
Could we have global warming and climate change to thank for making things interesting this weekend?
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Nooooooo I forgot about the practice session. Had such a busy morning.
Max lays some rubber down in the pit box just before having to hand that set of tyres back. Clever man.
I missed the whole thing. Why must he give the tyres back and why did he do that?
Teams get an extra set of tyres per car to use in the first 30 minutes (or is it 40 now?) of Free Practice 1 on Friday mornings. This set doesnāt get counted against their tyre allocation for the weekend. If I remember correctly it was introduced to try and get teams to do more running in the early part of the practice session as they were pretty much spending most of it in the garage due to being worried that they would use up too many of their tyres during practice. Honestly donāt know if it made much of difference.
Max was trying to ārubber inā the pit box so that when it really matters - after the race pit stop - the car would get as much grip out of the box as possible. Same reason that youāll see them trying to lay a little rubber on the start grid when ever they can, although if the feeder seriesā are using the same grid slots, itās not so bad.
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