[Official] Rate the Abu Dhabi GP

[strider]

Originally Posted by elspethhardie

Jake said on his twitter account earlier that would happen for freeview viewers so I'm now watching on line

As it happens, when I did switch to the marathon it was still in its early stages, so I went back to F1.

Nice to see Red Bull celebrating, but nobody had anything much to say beyond the obvious.

[GORDON STREETER]

I watched the first four or five laps and actually went to sleep. My other half woke me up for the last couple of laps so I missed all the "excitement"

[Jamesy-18]

Wow, people are being really critical of this. I can imagine people would have enjoyed it if it was a European track!

I actually really enjoyed it. If you think it was boring, you should stop watching F1. Comments like "I've had more fun watching paint dry" obviously show you no longer enjoy F1. What is the point watching something you don't like?

Anyway, a 7 for me.

[Hendrik]

Gave it a solid 5, because I quite enjoyed the circuit and saw some decent racing today. Sure, we've seen very little overtaking but that's what happens when the fastest cars start at the front. It's a little bit unfair to compare the race to Brazil where the grid was totally mixed up and all the teams were gambling with dry, wet or inter setups.

[brands]

Originally Posted by Jamesy-18

Wow, people are being really critical of this. I can imagine people would have enjoyed it if it was a European track!

Boring is boring regardless of continent.

[Super Hans]

Originally Posted by Jamesy-18

Wow, people are being really critical of this. I can imagine people would have enjoyed it if it was a European track!

I'm sure if you were to dig up the threads for the two European Grands Prix at Valencia, you'd find a similarly negative consensus.

Originally Posted by Jamesy-18

I actually really enjoyed it. If you think it was boring, you should stop watching F1. Comments like "I've had more fun watching paint dry" obviously show you no longer enjoy F1. What is the point watching something you don't like?

Would you give up listening to music because you heard a rubbish record? Most people on here are genuine enthusiasts, not just fairweather followers. They're not going to give up on a lifelong obsession just because the current regs leave a lot to be desired.

[jab]

Originally Posted by brands

Boring is boring regardless of continent.

Well there were a lot of positive responses to this year's British GP, despite the fact that it was a dreadfully dull boring procession - far far worse than today's race

I think Jamesy has a point

[ScotsBrutesFan]

It went flat in places, though that seems to be the way of of it these days. Pockets of action along the way, were good and I think they showed that the circuit isn't actually that bad.
A solid 7

[JeremySmith]

A very solid 7.35 The facility is just mind blowing the race was pretty good...

I am not disappointed at all...

[EBXR8]

Last Lap 10

Rest of race a big fat 1 snooze fest, With that said however I could watch that last lap dash with webber and button on replay over and over again.

[DanShenise]

A 3, it was as bad as David Hobbs's impersonations.


I do architectural design for a living, so there are a million and one places to go for neat architecture. I'd prefer my race tracks to be, well you know, race tracks first and if you have to have secondary design limitations, minimize them. Its especially annoying considering it was completely from scratch and they had total freedom of design.

[Bononi]

Originally Posted by Jamesy-18

Wow, people are being really critical of this. I can imagine people would have enjoyed it if it was a European track!

I actually really enjoyed it. If you think it was boring, you should stop watching F1. Comments like "I've had more fun watching paint dry" obviously show you no longer enjoy F1. What is the point watching something you don't like?

Anyway, a 7 for me.

I think it was boring. The championship was over and the fight for the second wasn't good enough to live up the boring track. I liked the pit exit though, it was different and sometimes was thrilling to see the cars through it. But the broadcast was confusing and the scenery was fantastic but the point is look at the track not on the trackside, the only exception was for the usual female beauties, something that was lacking there. I'm pretty sure that people on the site was having a great time, but watching on TV doesn't add anything.

[DanShenise]

^^^Boring races are boring races. I remember after Imola was neutered it generally became a rather boring race. Hungary is only entertaining because you never know which pitstop Renault will forget one of the wheel nuts on their number one car. The Nurburgring is getting pretty bad and frequently needs someone like Taku to try something bat crap crazy at turn one. Its the Tilke tracks in general, his record is pretty spotty. Shanghai and Sepang are pretty good. Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Hockenheim and Nurburgring are OK. It is possible to put together a few corners in a nice flowing manner that leads to driver and viewer/spectator enjoyment. I just can't stand the number of right angle corners at Abu Dhabi when you consider it was a totally blank piece of paper. For instance, why the chicane consisting of turns 6 and 7? They totally blow the entry to 8, which could have been another decent overtaking opportunity and ought to be turn 6. I don't think its a Euro bias, I'm in Atlanta, I just think its easy to spot a dull track nowadays. Look at how good Interlagos was two weeks ago, and that place is supposedly just terrible. Great race though.

[ukaskew]

Very average race with a great final couple of laps.

Worst FOM feed in memory for me though, we didn't even get to see half the overtakes. On the plus side, I've now memorized every inch of that bloomin' hotel.

[Jamesy-18]

Originally Posted by brands

Boring is boring regardless of continent.

I doubt that applies to everybody.

[sparkione]

Like watching paint dry till Jens took on Mark at the end. And only the Arabs could throw £26 billion at a patch of desert and come up with something so eye-swivellingly tasteless and tacky. Why in the name of God should Silverstone even have to consider competing with this? Even my wife, who wouldn't know a diffuser from a dog biscuit, can get excited about close racing, wherever it happens. We don't need all the glitz'n'glamour. Just a track with integrity and a crowd who care passionately about the sport. And anywhere but Abu-bloody-Dhabi...

[Fox89]

Why in the name of God should Silverstone even have to consider competing with this? Even my wife, who wouldn't know a diffuser from a dog biscuit, can get excited about close racing, wherever it happens. We don't need all the glitz'n'glamour.

So... did we have "close racing" at Silverstone this year? Which lap was it? I must have dozed off.

Just a track with integrity and a crowd who care passionately about the sport.

Well, you can say what you like about integrity, but the grandstands at Abu Dhabi were full. I don't think it's fair to claim that they don't care "passionately about the sport".

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Lotusonpole

Another Tilke snore-o-drome.
Very impressive on the eye but not the action on the track.
Better than Valencia but isn't everything? The race was okay-ish especially the last couple of laps, but after Brazil a bit of a damp squib.
Gave it 5 for the Weber/button chase.

A gave it 6 for the race, although I don't feel the lack of excitement was due to the track.

When drivers did catch others on pace, there was a sense that overtaking might occur. It was just the qualifying and tactics that meant very few drivers were catching anyone else.

[steve_r]

Dull dull dull. Exciting first 2 laps and last 2 laps. In between was 1½ hours of monotony.

To be fair, Hamilton's retirement robbed us of a potential battle for the lead.

After all the media jizzing over this new track, I'm left somewhat underwhelmed.

[ECW Dan Selby]

The track was better than first impressions. There's a few things i'd personally like to change on it, but actually, it's a really good foundation.

The scenery was pretty interesting, but kind of becoming normal shockingly fast these days in F1. It's also crazy how manufactured the whole scene is, given this "green" approach F1 "wants" to be taking, and how they're wanting to promote cost-cutting. Just kind of ironic.

Race for me was greatly enhanced by my new epicentre of Formula 1 (2 screens, 1 all on-boards, and 1 FOM feed - Wowzers!), so the lack of quality on the FOM feed didn't particularly bother me. Plus, it just meant I always had something to look at.

I've certainly seen worse, but definitely seen better.

5

Selby

[ASCII Man]

Total snoozefest.

Bet some stoners were mightily impressed with the colorful hotel...
"Whoa, dude..."

Gave it a 3, anyhow.

[ECW Dan Selby]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

The circuit is nothing particularly interesting, true, but you have to look at the cars for the quality of racing. Once again, F1 has proved completely inept at enforcing regulations that allow overtaking.

It really is not rocket science, or even difficult engineering. I am not an engineer, but it stands to reason that all these percentage reductions in downforce DO NOT work.

They need to get RID of downforce, possibly of wings completely, and ban diffusers. Not that hard. And shame on those teams who refused to ban the kind of diffuser that Ross Brawn even referred to in their OWG meetings, for that!

Like i've said before, is there any unbias stats that could proove that before everyone began using the DDD's, more overtaking was happening? Because maybe it was just rose-tinted glasses, or maybe not, but I could have sworn cars were getting up eachother's rears in the first few races.

Selby

[ECW Dan Selby]

Originally Posted by ASCII Man

Total snoozefest.

Bet some stoners were mightily impressed with the colorful hotel...
"Whoa, dude..."

Gave it a 3, anyhow.

Erm, have you been bugging my bedroom?

Selby

[JamesH]

These Tilke tracks - lots of straight with corners at the ends.

The best tracks ? Hardly any dead straight bits - curves most of the way round (e.g. Spa, Brazil, Cadwell, Donington, some bits of Silverstone, Brands - sorry to be mainly UK specific, they are the only ones I know well)

It's a bit like fashion models - they look much better IMHO, with a few curves.

The curves I think increase number of possible fast lines (if there is still only one fastest line), so should therefor increase overtaking opportunities.

EDIT : I just realised what all these Tilke tracks remind me of. Scalectric tracks. Lots of straights with sharp corners. Is Tilke really just a Scalectrix dude, who made it big?

[chris bailey]

Tasteless Bling facility. Why is it that the packaging is becoming more important than the product? That tunnel pitlane exit is a disgrace.

As for the racing? Nothing will change until they get rid of front wings altogether. The rest of the aero then takes care of itself. That way, Jenson could have remained stuck to Mark Webber's gearbox through the fast stuff and out-braked him with ease.

However, none of this will happen, because we, the informed enthusiasts, are not important to the "sport" of F1 (for sure). Nevertheless, we'll continue to watch, because we're enthusiasts. Now, must go and set the recorder for the NASCAR Sprint Cup tonight. That's proper racing.......