Alt+F1: 10 - 05/12/2014 - Spanish Standoff

Why the Hell is the image a picture of Angela Merkel cutting up a Döner?

Angela Merkel seems to like kebap, but is not a fan of Turkey joining the EU. Such irony!

I second this question what the hell.

Edit: of cause there is a discussion of breakfast and drunk food in this F1 podcast

First VGCW, then Alt+F1.

Wait this isn't the German Grand Prix! Deutchland!

I saw this gif of a helicopter shot of the race posted on the F1 subreddit:

Cool stuff!

I like how the "e" in "WipEout" is capitalized. Good attention to detail.

Just to clarify, Ricciardo isn't new to F1, he drove for Toro Rosso for two seasons prior

@pkopetzky:

Yea, it is also strange how the EU is so obsessed about getting Ukraine into the Union, completely ignoring the fact they have historically no real ties to the country, but now wants them to cut all ties to Russia. Two countries with historically very close ties. I mean if they want Ukraine to be a member with its almost chronically corrupt politicians, then why not Turkey. Probably not going to happen with Erdogan though. Nothing against Ukrainians (some of the nicest people I've met have been Ukrainian), but membership of the European Union isn't really on the horizon and certainly wont solve the country's problems.

Also, screw Angela Merkel, ever since she called Greeks lazy (in fact they work more and retire later than Germans), my respect for her has been pretty low.

It's insane to me that commercials for F1 races appear and I know what they're referencing!!

You'll probably get emails about it, but the drivers do in fact have little lights on their steering wheel to indicate flags! See the second image here:

http://interestingengineering.com/guide-to-the-new-mercedes-f1-steering-wheel/

It's a bit different to what it was in the F1 2013 game, but they have LEDs to indicate red, yellow and blue flags as well as other instructions (like 'get the fuck off the track you nutter')

Also, i can't remember where or who, but on a large forum i post on, a marshal (not F1, sadly) shared some of their experiences and commented that the F1 marshals were almost certainly all local, and in europe at least were all trained volunteers that just love the sport. Some more exotic races with less of a racing history (like Abu Dhabi) have had British marshals flown in to do the job there as well.

The blue flag in each sector was left to the most experienced marshal (though the FIA might instruct them during F1 races) since it requires a lot of attention as well as timing.

I enjoyed the race this weekend, lots of success stories throughout the field. Bummed about Ferrari's strategy choice for Kimi, but shit happens. Go Kimi!

Vancouver poutine? Fuck... FUCK.

And while i'm here, Differentials!

A differential's main job is to transfer the power from the engine to the wheels while allowing for the wheels to turn at different speeds, like when turning a corner - the outside wheels have to cover more distance than the inside ones - but a solid rear axle would cause the car to lose grip, making it harder to control.

This is a picture of a basic diff:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Differential_%28Manual_of_Driving_and_Maintenance%29.jpg (7 is the input shaft from the engine, and 1 is the rear axle)

And this video illustrates the mechanical concept better than i can if you have 5 minutes spare:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4JhruinbWc&feature=player_detailpage#t=210

The big middle gear takes power from the engine, and is connected at 90 degrees through sets of gears to each wheel's axle - the big gear always turns, and regardless of whether either wheel turns, it can always transfer 100% of the power to whichever gear gives way. This is also a problem, as it makes it so that if one wheel was on the ground and one wheel was in the air, the wheel in the air would spin at full speed and no turning force would reach the ground.

All modern race cars have 'Limited Slip' Differentials, which use various methods (like small clutches) to make sure that the difference between wheel speeds is not too great, so that if one wheel starts to spin too fast (because you're doing a sweet burnout, or are accelerating out of a corner and lose traction) it will bring the speeds closer together. Very fancy sports cars like Mclarens and Ferraris (and others), as well as F1 cars, have electronically controlled diffs, which can respond more intelligently to data from the drivetrain as well as other factors from the car's ECU.

To relate this to the point, Hamilton's diff adjustments could have been one of a few settings, as fancy diffs can change the permitted amount of rear wheel speed difference when the car is accelerating, braking or coasting. Broadly speaking, diff settings change how controllable the car is due to the influence of the engine, with the downside being that the more controllable it is, the harder it is to get the power down more firmly, and too far in either direction risks burning rubber with no gain.

KEEP YOUR BUTTER OUT OF MY PORRIDGE.

@yyziggurat: That is cool as shit dude. If that's what F1 looks like, I'd definitely get into it.

Stay gold Daniel Ricciardo!

@yyziggurat: It's good to see the LOTR's cinematographer is still getting work.

I think the sponsorship Danny was mentioning, the black and gold, is Jordan during the late 90's early 00's. In the UK and Europe at this time some but not all of the countries were banning tobacco sponsorship in sport and on TV but tobacco companies were still a big sponsor in sport at this time.

This meant they had to get inventive about their liveries so as to still sponsor the cars in the banned markets but not be directly recognisable. They came up with some clever ideas, Jordan's 'Bitten and HIsses' ie B&H was the one I remember at the time. I smoked B&H than and it was obvious to me what it was about but it did create a cool livery.

The only one left is Ferrari under the official title of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro with a very subtle livery other than it being red and white like the Marlboro brand colours.

Well, duh. If they join the EU, they'll stop moving to Germany and we won't be getting any more delicious kebaps. Makes perfect sense.

Danny Danny Danny... It was McLaren. Senna, Prost, and then a slew of mostly idiots until Hakkinen.

and then turned to West, that was Black and Silver. Speaking of Senna, Williams was Rothmans.

Oh and Ferrari also had Marlboro

AND The Black and Gold one was the John Player Special Lotus. Most beautiful Livery EVER.

In the NHL they have Media timeouts where they just have a timeout so they can show commercials. They can't really tell everybody to stop in F1 so they can show commercials...sadly

@ashler said:

Danny Danny Danny... It was McLaren. Senna, Prost, and then a slew of mostly idiots until Hakkinen.

and then turned to West, that was Black and Silver. Speaking of Senna, Williams was Rothmans.

Oh and Ferrari also had Marlboro

AND The Black and Gold one was the John Player Special Lotus. Most beautiful Livery EVER.

I forgot about the JPS Lotus, I had a toy one as a kid, I played with it all the time, then later in life I smoked for about 10 years......... I wonder.

I mentioned this at one stage, really worth a look.

@ashler: Appreciate the clarification. This is where my "knowledge" dries up honestly. Sorry if I keep getting these bits wrong - I'll try get these clarifications into the following podcasts as much as I can.

Danny dropped so many references that I, as a common Commonwealth criminal, take for granted. (Although I'm not sure that singing a Rolf Harris song is the best thing to do at the moment.)

For approximately 36 years of my life I avoided black/blood pudding because I thought it sounded gross as fuck, despite my grandfather being mad into it. Then, the morning after my wedding my wife, my friends and I all went for breakfast to try to sort out the hangover situation. One of the options on the menu was a big fry up that included blood pudding. I have no idea why (probably because I didn't have the energy to ask for it without) but I ordered it. It was FUCKING DELICIOUS, especially when it had the yolk of my poached egg all over it. Now if there's ever blood pudding as part of a big breakfast, I am ALL UP FOR IT.

And the bacon that Danny describes is how we have it here, and it's the best. OH GOD I'M STUCK AT WORK WITHOUT BACON AND NOW I'MMA DROWN IN MY OWN DROOL

P.S. Oh yeah, Formula 1 something something Daniel Ricciardo something something Aussie Aussie Aussie OI OI OI etc

As a reformed Europeon, and a card carrying 'Merican, the white-and-red MARLBORO machines screaming around the the track are what my feeble brain automagically associates with Formula 1.

Maybe one of those times I tuned in to the local news, it was a report about Ayerton Senna dominating. I was too young to know honestly. But that iconic image will forever be burned into my mind. Thanks Big Tobacco. Fuck your cancer sticks though.

@scampbell:

Germany doesn't want Turkey in the EU because then the EU will be bordering such lovely countries as Syria, Iraq, and Iran. As such, the EU will inevitably be drawn deeper into Middle Eastern politics than it really wants to. The EU is already bordering on Russia, so expansion that way doesn't matter.

Looking more at the long-term, the Germans effectively want the EU to become a federation. You can't achieve that without a collective sense of shared ideals, beliefs and history. It's already tough enough as it is, and it will likely take at least another two or three generations before Europeans think of themselves as Europeans first, but it is not impossible with the current member states. The rough reality is, that they all share societies based on Christianity. An ever-islamisizing Muslim juggernaut like Turkey would inevitably dilute Europe's sense of collectiveness, no matter how westernized Istanbul is.

Lastly, with regards to Merkel: I'm fairly confident she never literally called the Greeks lazy. She was talking about the number of vacation days and retirement ages varying widely throughout Europe, and criticized that. I don't think she ever explicitly mentioned the Greeks - that was just the hysterical media. Further, work hours and retirement mean jack if you just punch the clock and take a nap. Productivity is what matters, not time spent - and there, the Germans have the Greeks beat by almost double. (Source: http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DatasetCode=LEVEL)

It's funny that the sponsorship question came up just before the Monaco GP, the home of the weird F1 marketing stunts. Maybe some of you guys can list some others, but the ones that I remember were:

• Red Bull pit crew dressed as stormtroopers (complete with helmet) to promote the Star Wars prequels
• Coulthard with a Superman cape on the podium to promote the 2006 Superman movie
• My favorite: A company named Steinmetz mounted a $250,000 diamond on the nose of each of the Jaguar cars to promote Oceans 12. Christian Klien predictably had a crash and the diamond was lost forever.

Also, the successor to F1 will obviously be F-Zero, not Wipeout.

To really step up F1, I think we need more variety in track climate. A lava track, where you have to go crazy managing your engine heat. An ice track where everyone switches to hovercraft frames or something. And maybe get the announcer from Rock n' Roll Racing. Maldonado is in another timezone!

This is my new favorite thing on Giant bomb... but I still want more Pathfinder!!!

We totally had dunkaroos in Australia. I think they might have been shit? I certainly haven't seen them in about 15 years.

GO RICKY 'ARDO! BEST OF THE REST!

@dannyodwyer this is Romans 5th year in F1 and Honda is joining as engine provider for Mclaren an maybe one other team next year. And this is NOT the first year Ricciardo is in F1, he has been racing with Toro Rosso the last two years and one year with HRT before that, so this is his forth year in F1, he was a test driver before that i believe.

Doing real life Wipeout would be super dangerous because at a certain point, you just can't account the human driver reaction speeds anymore. It'll become a game of AIs and computers and at that point, why bother? Especially with the potential for the loss of human life at such speeds.

Also, I had blood pudding once. LOOKED like a chocolate biscuit-y thing, but TASTED like a scab, so I was even more upset.

Not sure if butter in oatmeal is an american thing or a Drew thing.

Danny needs to visit Montreal and get some drunk poutine.

Yes obviously she didn't straight up say "Greeks are lazy," and to be fair she was talking about Spain and Portugal too, but that is how I interpret it. Here is the quote:

"It is also about not being able to retire earlier in countries such as Greece, Spain, Portugal than in Germany, instead everyone should try a little bit to make the same efforts – that is important."

Again as I said; Greeks retire later than Germans, as do Portuguese, where Spain got the same retirement age as Germany. I guess it doesn't matter since we both agree that retirement age doesn't really have anything to do with productivity, but I just wanted to highlight her hypocrisy.

"We can't have a common currency where some get lots of vacation time and others very little. That won't work in the long term."

Again, Greeks works 2.017 hours per year, compared to Germany's 1.408, just pointing it out.

It is a really arrogant thing to say when these countries have gone through some of the worst austerity measures seen, and its citizens feeling its consequences heavily. As a representative of EU (no I don't mean it literally) she should never create divisions in such a way.

With economy still being a major topic, it is strange to get

Yes Greece has low productivity, but that has more to do with the extensive corruption in Greek society than your stereotypical "...punch the clock and take a nap" perception of Greece. Agriculture is a much larger part of Greece's GDP than in Germany, and agriculture is obviously a lot less predictable than manufacturing and often means long working hours and a lot of downtime, not aided by Greece's relatively low level of technology in production.

As a member of the European Union I don't like the EU being referred to as one big homogenous mass with one voice, what the current powers in Brussels wants right now, may not be what it wants later. The same goes for Germany (no, I'm not German). As it comes to things that unify, I see language and culture before any religion and as is obvious in Ireland and in history in general, it can often be the opposite of unifying. It seems people attribute a lot to religion what is actually culture, though admittedly it can be hard to tell the difference sometimes.

To split the world between religions solves nothing. Only through mutual cooperation and cultural mixing (with limits), can we begin to achieve something like world peace (Cheesy, but that is what I think). Turkey seems like a good place to start bridging the gab to the middle east, it would improve Turkey's economy and could lead to more economic security in the country (extremism thrive on economic instability) and better relations between the populations. Turkey have long been a key player between the west and the middle east, and its constant support of NATO should be rewarded at some point.

Anyway, this has nothing to do with the Podcast really and I apologize.

@dannyodwyer: Let's be honest most of the livery stuff I posted is ancient history, and my knowledge of liveries is only due to me being an old fart...

And that McLaren ribbing was only because I tend to think that EVERYONE is old enough to remember Suzuka 90' and 91'.

EDIT: 89' and 90'. 91 had no crashes between Prost and Senna, and thus not worth remembering.

Schumacher used to drive in a Marlboro Ferrari when he was dominating F1.

@paulunga: Sure, but that was after my time. I just find it funny that my warm, fuzzy memory of F1 is a Marlboro advertisement.

I hope F1 doesn't turn into Wipeout, it should turn into F-Zero! Way better future racing franchise. F-Zero is actually FAST.

Race highlights:

1. Lewis "My rear end's everywhere."

Brundle "Imodium helps with that."

2. Vettel overtaking half the field! My driver of the race.

3. And these sick MB pit crew helmets. Want!

@realkman: I'm always shocked at how people in America (in this case Irish people in America I guess) seem so oblivious to everything about Canada.

@scampbell: With you on the Merkel thing but she's right about Turkey. It may be the most 'western' of the muslim nations but that's not saying much and is radicalizing, the Hagia sofia is being petitioned to become a mosque again (having been a non religious museum for decades). The EU was founded on secular liberal democracy. Turkey is a devoutly muslim, conservative (and as of right now) Junta that has horrific human rights. and as for helping the Turkish economy, honestly, tough... we have our own problems right now. And as @schuultz said, I actually find myself starting to identify more and more as European first as i get older (I'm Irish) and, lets be honest, a large homogeneous population of secular people with similar ethnicities and cultures helps that notion.

Well it is certainly not simple and I totally agree that Turkey is moving in the wrong direction at the moment, but with new generations born with the internet at their hands, the future might be brighter. The demonstrations where a way to test the limits of their democracy, and these people will at some point replace the old generation. Though it would certainly be a help to have a more democratically minded person in power than Erdogan.

To bar the door to every Muslim country, just doesn't seem sustainable to me to me in the long run. Muslims are already a part of my country and Europe, and will continue to be so, populations and cultures are already mixing, just as they always have.

Besides Turkey's got TaleWorlds, thats gotta count for something.

Let me apologize for my fellow American. Can't help you with the Irish guy.

At the very least, you'd think they would have known that Vancouver is not in French Canada, and "poutine" sounds like a very Frenchy thing.

The poutine talk on the podcast really bummed me out as a Canadian lol. It's from Québec you guys, but it's eaten all over Canada. There's actually a "poutinerie" chain called Smoke's that's been growing steadily and they specialize in all kinda of delicious poutines. We have one in my home city and it's fantastic. Drew and Danny come to Canada and we'll have some!

Regarding transitioning from driver to human after the race, I imagine there is still a ton of adrenaline in their body. One of the things I didn't like about the podium interviews when they added them was it seemed a bit harder on the drivers, giving them less time to get out of race mode.

It reminded me of the video of James Hunt punching a Marshall right after crashing his car in the '77 Canadian Grand Prix. Your mind can be in a weird place when it's full of adrenaline.

@frytup: I usually forgive Murrcans because their country is so big and there's already so much to know about it that their little brains are probably too tired for the rest of the world after learning all that.

tee hee :$

@mooseymcman: Yes, but WipEout is always so structured. F-Zero is out there and more fly by the seat of your pants. I feel like NASCAR would become F-Zero instead.

'You know in Final Fantasy when you level up?'

'No, I don't play JRPGs, they're for, uh, idiots'

'You know in first person shooters when you get kills?'

'ye'

Don't know why but this made me laugh way too much