Getting up to speed with F1

With a new F1 track landing in my backyard, I'm getting more interested in following the season this year beyond just passively watching and enjoying fast cars. What resources are out there for someone new to the sport to see the progress this season? Looks like the Austin race is going to be near the end of the season, so it would be fun to find a favorite driver and root for them here.

Really hoping this raises interest in F1 in general here in the US.

The BBC here in the UK do amazing coverage and insights into the sport, I'm not sure if you are able to pick that up in the US. I've seen some of the content that Sky is producing for this season and it seem a bit drawn out and boring, so I'd say if you can find anything the BBC has produced you'll be on a winner.

I've followed the sport for so long I can't remember how I got into it, I think just watching each race and listening to the BBC commentary would do the trick

It was the fag packets for me, loved them JPS Lotuses. The drivers were cool too; James Hunt, Niki Lauda etc

Watched a bit of the practice session on Sky today, all a bit over the top really. I think they are going to ruin this great sport if they are not careful. They clearly have some kind of deal going on with Force India.

I have a problem with auto racing that I discussed a little in the TV thread, and I wanted to see if anyone else has it:

Quite simply, there's a disconnect between what I see on TV and what I know is reality. In other words, on TV the cars just look like they're going slower than I know they are. My head is telling me those NASCAR cars are currently going 180mph, but on my TV it looks like they're going about 45. Is this a problem with production? Does anyone else have this issue?


This is one of the [many] things that's kept me from getting into auto racing.

What, you actually suspect that what and how you see something on TV isn't exactly the full reality?



It's to do with camera angles, and long focal lengths especially. Difficult to get around it when the track is just a couple of very long straight lines with banked 180's at each end.

I think that's just a problem with NASCAR Matt.

Give F1 a try, I think this is getting much less of a problem. The onboard angles, on screen telemetry and much tighter racing we saw last season certainly help to give an impression of the speed. Of course it's not going to be anything like actually being there, but I think the F1 coverage last year was the best yet.

I've never really watched NASCAR as it's not really on the TV over here, shame as it seems to be a really big deal over your way!

Cheers

Cris

You're not missing anything unless you really like watching pseudo-normal looking cars drive on an oval for hours.

As someone who's watched F1 for years - if you *really* want to see heart-in-your-mouth racing then watch Moto-GP bike racing - really, just give it a go.

The skill and guts of those guys is amazing - they can pack more into one lap than F1 does into an entire 2h race.

F1 has improved a lot over the last couple of years though : now you can barely fit in a quick powernap if you want to come back and find nothing has changed

I'll be at the Montreal F1 event this June.
Anyone else from here planning to be there?

Cheers

Great coverage today, even some on helmet stuff!!! Looks like it's going to be an amazing F1 season.

The Sky driver tracker iPad app really is very good too.

While it often doesn't have the 'pack jousting' that GP tracks have, the on-bike cameras at the Isle Of Man TT definitely give you the 'heart in mouth' experience.

Actually, if you really want to see a video with a real 'feel for the speed', check out this crazy Russian.

Probably the same reason that distant celestial and geographic objects (rising moon, setting sun, mountains) look huge when you see them with your eyes, but appear like tiny specks when photographed with a standard camera lens. Human perceptions of things like speed and scale are amorphous, and can be heavily influenced by context and environment.

Bit before my time but still one of my favourites:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17406716