Alt+F1: 01 - 03/10/2014 - Preseason Primer

Get two of the most likeable people at CBSi, put them in a room, and have them talk about things?

That'll never work.

This is going to be amazing!!!111F1

I had a good laugh at "The Irish CarBombcast", even if it's unfortunately understandable why that probably shouldn't be used...Fun show, definitely looking forward to more!

Yo! Where were they talking about this at? Just wondering how I missed it, although I must say stumblin upon it today was a great surprise.

I live in Melbourne! Unfortunately I have neither the time nor the money to go to the race itself however I will hopefully find time to watch it on TV. It gets interesting here every year when tons of people start calling for the city to ditch the race due to the amount of money involved.

Hope this gets me back into F1! I can't believe this a real thing. So weird. But I love it nevertheless.

F1!! Beep Beep!!

This is GREAT, i am a big f1 fan.

There were a couple mistakes, but that is fine.

@lightningproof: like

I love how two awesome people are making an awesome podcast on an awesome website...uhhh AWESOME DUDERS!

Ha! Whoever drew that art should be awarded a medal. I saw it on the homepage and just started laughing after the quarter of a second it took me to realize it was Danny in the car. Can't wait to listen to this.

File not found error using the rss. Other premium podcasts have downloaded previously.

The more I hear from Danny, the more I feel he can blend in perfectly with the Giant Bomb crew. He needs to change teams and join the right team.

F1 and more Danny? I can't believe this thing exists. What a beautiful world we live in.

@crazycraven: You should hit up Rorie in the bug reporting forum.

Who made that fantastic image? :o

This is fantastic. The last time I watched F1 was sometime in the mid to late 90s. With your podcast in hand, I am ready to get back in.

Really enjoyed this, excited for when the actual races start!

I'm excited for the new season. I hope I actually wake my ass up to watch more races this year.

Oh and Danny if you are reading this can we please, please get a World Cup podcast with at least you in it.

PS. I love you even though you're a gooner. #COYS

Pretty amazing that this podcast is happening. I love F1. I've played a lot of the codemaster's F1 games over the last few years. This is great. Can't wait for the first race this weekend.

Awesome intro to F1, looking forward to this season!

I know almost nothing about F1 (though I was excited to recognize some circuits from GT6) and just wanted to say that this podcast was fantastic. I don't have the means to watch these races, but look forward to following Danny and Drew through the season.

This is great! - Haven't followed F1 (properly) for the last decade, this gives me an excuse to get back in. Will be watching this weekend.

This is fantastic! F1 is one of the few sports I actually follow...and religiously at that. I love me some F1. Can't wait for Sunday's opener in Australia.

I've followed F1 for nearly 20 years now and was all set to ditch it this year with more stupid rule changes and ugly cars. But now there's a Drew and Danny podcast, so I'll give it at least one more year. I guess it should be fun watching Vettel throw his toys out of the pram this season with the (allegedly) dud Renault engine.

"Parc fermé" is "closed park" in french, they say parc fermé when the car are locked and teams don't have access to them.

They flew-in the cars wit hairplanes, DHL do it, that's why all the DHL publicity around tracks.

They started the 3 round knockout qualifications because team used to wait until the end, for the first 45 mins they were no cars on track, for a spectator sports it wasn't good.

Same with tires, they could run on one set back in the days but had to pit for fuel. So first they forced team to use two compounds, then they asked Pirelli to increase degradation.

And to make pitstop even more interesting they also removed fueling, since it took 10 seconds to fuel a car anyway, changing tires wasn't exciting to watch.

PS. Most car research and development comes from endurance racing like the LeMans and American LeMans series, not F1, especially since the 90s.

I am writing this comment to show interest!

Excited for this podcast guys, good stuff. As another who has basically followed F1 for twenty years, it's exciting to see a renewed interest in the sport. Teaching F1 rules, especially to new people is hard thing as there are so many complexities, so I admire the podcast for attempting it, but I suggest new fans to take it slow by ramping up the knowledge in a need to know basis over the season and not get bogged down by previous seasons rules. You have to realise most people in F1 are math geniuses so it can be hard to grasp the layers, (eg. I was looking up the Fuel rules for the qualifying relative to the race and what they drivers and teams do to manipulate it.)

Just to fix another error in the most pleasant way possible (I’m trying not to be 'that guy' and the others seem to already mentioned others); DRS can't be used anywhere in practice and qualifying anymore, only in the designated area as per the race since last season.

Glad to hear Danny played the Geoff Crammond games on the 90’s. I used play the hell out of them, especially Grand Prix 2, as it was so easy to mod, like added a new seasons car models to the game, so I ended up playing it for years. Then EA tried F1, and they were ok but not great, but now the Codemasters games are where its at it’s good to be playing F1 games again.

It seems to me Mercedes engined cars are going to dominate (at least the early half of) the season. I think Williams are definitely are going to be up there again, which will make them happy as I remember one of there chiefs stating last year the goal this year was just to be the top of the middle pack. And it good to see potentially McLaren up there again, as if there is any team I have a preference for it’s McLaren, as I’m a Kiwi and of the Kiwi history of the team. But also concerned for the following season when they go to Honda engines.

This is awesome! Hope to see more! :D

Good stuff

Team Lotus

Been waiting for this since it was announced, huge F1 fan. Alt F1 is a great name but being from Northern Ireland I loved the idea of naming "Irish carbombcast"

I have no prior interest or any real knowledge of F1, but I really enjoyed the podcast. Good job!

god damnit i don't have time for all these awesome podcasts.

If only there were a way to thumbs up this :D

This was a great first podcast. I was worried that it was going to be too technical for me to enjoy; I'm glad Danny is taking the time to explain various things about the sport before the season begins.

Awesome idea, looking forward to the new season. Shame I no longer have Sky to watch the races but still a big fan.

Danny and Drew, what could be better.

I hope the changes do the sport some good, Vettel as been killing the sport like Schumacher almost did. Speaking of which, hoping Schumacher makes a recovery.

Let's go racing duders!

I've been watching auto racing as long as I can remember and F1 since 1997, so yeah, I know pretty much everything on this podcast, BUT it was a great primer for people who are curious. You guys definitely hit the high points well, but if other Americans want to get on board, don't freak out too much -- the announce crew for Formula 1 on NBC Sports Network is really good (the same as the old Speed TV crew) and I kind of miss them since I watch more on BBC or Sky Sports nowadays.

Watching from the US is really rough, what I'd usually do is DVR the race and watch while eating breakfast/surfing the Internet on Sunday mornings. If you can have lazy Sundays, it's fantastic for it. Races are usually done within 2 hours, too, so that helps.

Also, for those of you who want to learn more about the wacky world of Formula 1, go read Wikipedia...and marvel at how much things change from year to year. The current Lotus-Renault team used to be called Renault, but were sold by the French car company after about 10 years of ownership. Previously they were Benetton, owned by the Italian fashion company of the same name. They had THAT name for about 20 years. Before that, they were Toleman, and only really famous for being the first team that a certain Ayrton Senna drove for in Formula 1 racing. And that's only one team!

Another fun place to go read up: F1 Rejects. Can't start with a show-stopper, but go read up on the Forti-Corsi, LIFE, and the king of all awful teams of all time, Andrea Moda, which got banned from the sport for bringing the sport into disrepute. In Formula 1, that takes A LOT. Check it at http://www.f1rejects.com

Haven't watched F1 in 14 years but will listen regularly since it's Drew and Danny. Great podcast guys.

Fantastic!

with regards to why F1 exists there is an old saying used by car manufacturers.

Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday.

That was great guys. Keep up the great work.

Nice recap and posts.

I dig the neutrality in your info dumps, because we all have our favorite teams and drivers. I've noticed that newcomers (like Drew for example), they get the slant that Vettel is not fair, a cheater, or only wins because of the engineering behind him. Seriously its the one pattern I've recognized these couple of years.

I don't have time for all these awesome podcasts...

@gunharp said:

Thanks! I tried to keep my disdain for Maldonado at bay as much as possible, haha.

And I suppose that's understandable. I mean, Schumacher got the same angle during his Ferrari days. It basically happens for the same reasons constantly undermine Call of Duty as being shit and the same every year: people are just really reductive to things they dislike.

Great stuff, massive F1 and Giatnbomb fan. The perfect combo :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cNqaPSHv0

The best illustration of how insanely fast f1 cars actually are - the gt cars are super fast, make no mistake, but the f1 cars are just from another league.

Great initiative btw!

So many questions to be answered this weekend, but the biggest: How many cars will make it to the finish?

Here are my predictions:

Winner: One of the mercedes cars, Hamilton likely.

Pleasant surprise: Willams-Martini. With a livery like that they cant go wrong. Strong points, maybe even podium.

First crash: very early, turn 1, 2 or more cars.

Bomb of the race: none of the redbulls finish

Number of cars to actually finish: 12

Can anyone back up Danny on calling the Mercedes team Petronas? Because I've never heard anyone call them that.