A1 on tv?

Running Bing · 09-09-2005 12:37PM #1

Looking forward to the start of a1 (things are looking promising for Ireland http://www.a1gp.com/news/index.php?flashNavId=1&newsid=45 Check out the times down the bottom). Just wondering what channel it will be shown on and whens the official launch of the Ireland team(or has it already happened? I cant seem to find much up to date info). Thanks.

Beekay · 09-09-2005 02:23PM

I think the launch is when the F3/GT race is on in Mondello,because i seen an ad in Autosport.
Aren't Sky Sports supposed to be showing it,i don't know if an Irish channel is,because i don't really want to watch Sky they will concentrate on the GB team and end up pissin' me off

ffocused · 09-09-2005 04:59PM

A1 is going to be on Sky Sports. They are advertising it now.

ffocused · 10-09-2005 01:46PM

The unveiling of the Irish team is next Sunday (18/9). Tickets EUR20 via www.mondello.ie Just got mine

Running Bing · 10-09-2005 05:35PM

Whats the deal with the tickets? If I order on the net do they post it out and if so will it make it in time? I dont mind paying the extra fiver on the day if I thought there would be enough tickets but will there be a big demand. Sounds like a great day though looking forward to it.

ffocused · 10-09-2005 07:23PM

Babybing wrote:

Whats the deal with the tickets? If I order on the net do they post it out and if so will it make it in time?

I dont know, i presume they are posted out. After completing the online purchase, i only got a thank you screen. No transaction I.D. or reciept or indication that they will be posted out. Am ringing Mondello on Monday to find out. I would assume that you could get in on the day if your tickets do not get to you on time by going to the office past the main car park and giving your details there.

Kersh · 14-09-2005 10:13AM

The car was picked up early today, and will be in my work place being prepared until the weekend.... yee ha.....

Running Bing · 24-09-2005 03:04PM

What did everyone think of qualifying. Must say I dont think the format is great(why the hell dont they show all the times?). Also disapointed with the lack of coverage ireland got, I dont actually think the camera followed them once :mad: Biggest shock for me was how poorly Scott speed performed.

gs39t · 24-09-2005 03:10PM

Babybing wrote:

What did everyone think of qualifying. Must say I dont think the format is great(why the hell dont they show all the times?). Also disapointed with the lack of coverage ireland got, I dont actually think the camera followed them once :mad: Biggest shock for me was how poorly Scott speed performed.

Apart from the lack of on-screen live timing, (which surely will be sorted out) there seems to be a very good response to it if you read other forums. I think it works very well.

This series has a LOT of potential, im looking forward to the races

Running Bing · 25-09-2005 11:42AM

Agreed it definately has potential it was really just sky sports coverage I thought was crap. It was really a mess, showing the wrong cars and not even knowing themselves what was going on and I thought the inteviewer was very poor just a pretty face. I dont watch much motorsports besides f1(and I havent even been following that for long) and I found it very confusing so a complete newbie to motorsport watching to support their country could be easily turned off. Im sure Sky will get their act together I just hope its sooner rather than later.

gs39t · 25-09-2005 12:03PM

Babybing wrote:

Agreed it definately has potential it was really just sky sports coverage I thought was crap. It was really a mess, showing the wrong cars and not even knowing themselves what was going on and I thought the inteviewer was very poor just a pretty face. I dont watch much motorsports besides f1(and I havent even been following that for long) and I found it very confusing so a complete newbie to motorsport watching to support their country could be easily turned off. Im sure Sky will get their act together I just hope its sooner rather than later.

A1GP admitted that the onscreen (TV) timing wasnt working yesterday for qualifying and they are working to fix it.

pH · 25-09-2005 01:42PM

*yawn*

Some parts of that 1st sprint race almost woke me up. Now some idiot is telling me how exciting the pitstop is going to make the 2nd race.

Now this really gets my goat, I'm sick of commetators shrieking hysterically about pitstops, IF CHANGING TYRES WAS EXCITING IT WOULD BE A SPORT!

Watching a group of men fill a car with petrol and change it's tyres is about as interesting as watching paint dry.

As for these Boost buttons - anyone notice them being used. After we were told about them ad-infinitum pre-race, the commentators didn't mention them once, did they work?

Motor racing needs to be competitive, fast and dangerous.

I used to be an avid F1 fan, but the last 3 years have killed any interest. I was hoping for something new from A1, but sadly the same; a long string of cars circling a track with the gaps beween them gradualy expanding.

zAbbo · 25-09-2005 01:53PM

Boost gets you an extra 30BHP, not sure if that will make a huge difference on 550BHP cars. The presentation is poor, the sprint race(18 laps) ended with Ireland moving up into 10th position(starting on 12th)

At the moment, we're watching random cars with similar paint jobs(ireland/india/mexico/italy etc.) and not knowing who's who.

Only way i knew the Irish car was when it showed it front on and you can see the tricolour on the nose, or if it showed the USA car which Ireland was ahead of.

Feature Race starting @ 3pm

Mossy Monk · 25-09-2005 02:28PM

wow, what a collision between Netherlands and Italy. the onboard camera shot was excellent

pH · 25-09-2005 03:07PM

OK, feature race was much better, some good racing.

Seemed silly to let back markers hold up the actual racing, they have no blue flag system which is weird - any idea why?

Boost seems once again irrelevent.

So all in all 6/10 - I'll probably watch some more!

gs39t · 25-09-2005 03:18PM

For a race at Brands Hatch to be THAT exciting is amazing.

A lot of amatures who shouldnt be there; the opening lap of the feature was a disaster, but the racing itself proved good.

Goodbye formula one, nice knowing you

Running Bing · 25-09-2005 03:56PM

The feature race had some cracking action but Im a bit disapointed about the boost button, seemed to have little or no impact(can someone please explain what the numbers beside the drivers name has to do with the boost?). the feature race was very boring and again the lack of coverage of the ireland team was very disapointing. Does anybody even know what happened when we went out?

Big Ears · 25-09-2005 04:07PM

The number beside the drivers name indicate how many boosts a driver has left . I saw a good couple of overtaking manouvers where the boost was used and I think its a good addition to the sport even if it is only 30hp for about 5 secs .

I found this much more exciting than Formula 1 and I know which code il be keeping my eyes mainly on in the future .

gs39t · 25-09-2005 04:08PM

According to Ben Edwards explanation of the boost:

They have 4 (i think) boost 'shots', where when the driver is on full throttle, activing the boost button will increase the power by 30hp (not sure how, didnt say) UNTIL they release the throttle. So, the boost lasts only until the driver gets off the throttle.

It's nice the way they implemented it into the onscreen graphics. 30hp against 500hp wont equate to a massive speed increase, but would give the driver a good run to get alongside or close up on another car. Some people seem to think there's gonna be big orange flames coming from the back of the cars when the boost is on. :rolleyes:

CART had a similar system a few years back which just went to full rich mixture.

Kersh · 26-09-2005 10:08AM

I thought the coverage was sh1te. The commentators are brutal, as was that blonde presenter. Ben Edwards trying to get way overworked about triviial moves on track . For example - Kerr was diving up the inside of some driver, it was plain for anyone to see that he wasnt going to make it , yet Edwards was roaring (football commentator) style about the 'move', which didnt work, and i just think he is 'hyping' it a bit much. Martin Brundle would have sat back and said 'thats not gonna work Robbie, duck back in and try elsewhere".
as for the cars, i just dont think they are quick enough. Just 3 secs a lap quicker than a 2 litre f3 car!!!!!! , plus there are some drivers that should not be there.
But isuppose it was the 1st race...............

Running Bing · 26-09-2005 10:51AM

Yeah thats another problem Kersh pointed out the cars are pretty slow and it shows

Kersh · 26-09-2005 11:54AM

Oh the other thing that really annoyed me is this:
They keep calling us the UK.
That we are part of the general UK teams, and gb is the british team, and we are the irish team. Cos they keep saying - lets check on the UK teams, and Devaney bla bla Kerr bla bla.
Last I checked, we were not part of the United Kingdom. This is really annoying me too.

Running Bing · 26-09-2005 12:32PM

Kersh wrote:

Oh the other thing that really annoyed me is this:
They keep calling us the UK.
That we are part of the general UK teams, and gb is the british team, and we are the irish team. Cos they keep saying - lets check on the UK teams, and Devaney bla bla Kerr bla bla.
Last I checked, we were not part of the United Kingdom. This is really annoying me too.

That was absolutely infuriating :mad:

gs39t · 26-09-2005 12:35PM

Kersh wrote:

Oh the other thing that really annoyed me is this:
They keep calling us the UK.
That we are part of the general UK teams, and gb is the british team, and we are the irish team. Cos they keep saying - lets check on the UK teams, and Devaney bla bla Kerr bla bla.
Last I checked, we were not part of the United Kingdom. This is really annoying me too.

I never noticed this, but if it was mentioned its probably because Sky bought the rights to the UK and Ireland for A1GP.

I cant compare the lap times, but part of the track was re-configured, so that may account for the time difference. Having seen a demo run of the A1 Ireland car at Mondello, it certainly didnt seem 'slow'. The car specs are fairly decent. To be honest yours is the first major complaint ive seen about the series

Give it time; its already better than F1, but what isnt these days

Kersh · 26-09-2005 01:10PM

Maybe just cos im heavily involved in racing its more obvious to me - but the cars are slow, they look slow. An f1 car looks sensational going around quick corners. The A1 car doesnt. Its not even as good to watch as a well set up f3.
It wants to rival F1, but its falling way short of it right now. Its on a par with f3. At least it wasnt quite as boring as f3000.
The track is slightly different, but should be quicker than it used to be, as they got rid of the ferocious Dingle dell chicane, and replaced it with a bend.
Majorly disappointed I was - and I should be real excited- since my cousin is Ceo..... and i hear loads of A1 news in here.

gs39t · 26-09-2005 01:18PM

If they are slower, thats not necessarily a bad thing. Sure, F1 has been trying to slow the cars down, no? Look at that series, fast cars with 500 feet between them all. I'd rather watch a race with slower cars and closer racing. Some of the best racing i watch is on short ovals where the speeds dont go above 130mph.

Kersh · 26-09-2005 01:24PM

Then watch f3!!
Euro F3,
Formula renault, bmw etc.
For all the hype, it was a let down. Not helped by the crap sky program. The sprint race was brutal, not much overtaking going on at all, which is what we were promised. The onboard cameras looked like they were held on with sticky tape they shook so much.
What if Piquet wins the next one..... and dominates.... him a nd Parente are the only 'true' quick guys ala Alonso/kimi. The rest make up the numbers. F3 cast outs, f1 cast outs, a Frenaukt driver, f3000 guys......
I really hope it gets better, i really do - something to watch in the off season.

AdMMM · 02-10-2005 01:23PM

Don't suppose anyone has been taping/capturing these races? I don't have Sky

aidan_dunne · 09-10-2005 06:06PM

Well, after watching the race in Germany earlier today, I think I have to agree with some of the comments other people made about how slow the cars look. Maybe it's partially down to the Lausitz circuit itself, I don't know, but watching it today the cars looked painfully slow. And not just on the twisty infield section either, even on the part of the oval circuit they were using the cars looked slow. I've seen F3 cars racing on the same circuit and they've looked quicker, to be honest! :rolleyes: Funnily enough, though, I don't think they looked nearly as bad at Brands a couple of weeks ago. Yes, they looked slower, but it didn't seem quite as bad as it did today. As I said, perhaps it's the nature of the Lausitzring circuit or whatever that seemed to give that impression today, I don't know, but the A1 cars looked terribly slow today.

Flicking between the A1 race on Sky Sports and the repeat of the Japanese Grand Prix on ITV, the speed differential is massive. Okay, I know, completely different formulas and all but, my God, an F1 car looks amazing in comparision, expecially around corners. I know they're quick, and always have, but it's when you compare them side by side is when it really shows up how much faster an F1 car is compared to anything else. No matter how much I see F1 cars in action, I never seem to be able to get over the speed of the direction changes, in particular. If only we had more F1 races like we did today. Some of the overtaking moves, WOW! :eek: I know a lot of people have been asking the question is A1GP going to mark the end of F1. On today's comparison between the two, I'd have to say F1 has little to worry about at the moment, to be honest.

Running Bing · 09-10-2005 07:46PM

Have to agree the A1 didnt even compare with the f1 this weekend. f1 was another level altogether. I again thought A1 failed to live up to expectations this weekend. I dont think some drivers dont even bother using the boost. Again I thought the qualifying was a mess without timing for a large chunk it was like an f1 practice session with cars that are slower and dont look as good. The sprint race was again extremely boring for some reason compared to the feature race( which was far from spectacular). And how come when new zealand stall and brazil have mechanics crawling all over their car the race is restarted yet when it happens to Italy and Netherlands they have to start from the pits?.

I was seriously looking forward to this series as much as anyone but so far Ive been disapointed. For something billed as the future of motor racing and which promised such exiting wheel to wheel racing and overtaking it hasnt delivered. The end of formula 1? I know id take f1 any day.

Beekay · 09-10-2005 07:52PM

The pitstops are a disaster.It looks so stupid that they have to run from the garage when the car comes in.
and what was with all the problems wit the rear wheel nuts.

The overtaking isn't even that close,it always looks easy because the car behind has that stupid boost button on.

A1 on tv?

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