F1 Fanatic

After the race in Monaco, where I was last for the 6th time in a row after 6 races, I got the impression it was the standard.
Anyway I do not accept being pushed into the wall on straights or being driven into mid corner, Monaco, Hungary, Singapore, Korea just to name a few. Especially from this one driver.

But it seems I may have to consider changing my name to Lewis.

@mrgrieves, @McWoblin, @carnivorouspope, @powderfinger, @lemon, @mnmracer, @strunk27 @infernojim @ljkobrien @kvothe @arowan @ms20 @infernikus @agentmulder

OK! The season opener is just the other side of the weekend! to build the excitement I’ve provided a series of interview style questions (just like last season!) Grateful for your answers to the following!

Q: How are you feeling about the upcoming season?
Q: What expectations and targets do you have for this championship?
Q: (For those returning for a second season) What areas do you think you can improve upon compared to last season?
Q: (For newcomers) What can you add to the championship? What sort of driver are you?
Q: What do you think about your team mate?
Q: Are there any tracks on the calendar that will suit you?
Q: What are you expecting from the season opener?

The two drop rule has been confirmed. This means that your two lowest race scores over the course of the season will be dropped when taking the championship standings into account.

Also if you and your teammate would like to change team names then please let me know before the race on Monday. This will count has your official team name on the wiki page and in the championship standings. It can be a straight swap from real life eg renault to lotus or it can be completely original.

Please stay tuned for more posts over the weekend, including Mad Dog’s Season preview! :-)

Q: How are you feeling about the upcoming season?
Nervous, I’m not going to lie about that. This is my first competitive season so I really dont know what to expect, I just want to go out and put on a good show.

Q: What expectations and targets do you have for this championship?
I’m expecting to be one of the Back runners. But I want to get on the podium atleast once during the season.

Q: (For newcomers) What can you add to the championship? What sort of driver are you?
I hope I can add a bit of excitement to the midfield of the pack and maybe challenge for a good finishing position come September.
Like I am not the best driver out there and I know I wont be the first to say this but I do tend to drive pretty erratically, so I want to avoid as many collisions that I had during the sprint championship.

Q: What do you think about your team mate?
I haven’t spoken to the guy yet, but I plan to before the season starts. I’m hoping we can get along well.

Q: Are there any tracks on the calendar that will suit you?
Melbourne is my personal favourite track. I want to do well there. I’m glad that Malaysia and Singapore are not there as I always have a bad race at those tracks.

Q: What are you expecting from the season opener?
I want a good solid drive. As I said I am expecting to be one of the abck runners but If I put the time in to get the set up right I reckon I might be able to push for a podium position… Pending on the stewards!

Q: How are you feeling about the upcoming season?
Feeling good. Winning the pre-season sprint championship is obviously a big plus, but as we have discussed many were racing differently than they normally do. Obviously there are people entering the main event who didn’t participate in the pre-season sprint so there’s a bit of uncertainty going forward.

Q: What expectations and targets do you have for this championship?
My expectations and targets are slightly different from one another. I expect to be strong, but how strong we’ll have to see after the first race. As for targets, I’m going for WDC.

Q: (For newcomers) What can you add to the championship? What sort of driver are you?
I’m sort of a mix of Button, Hamilton, and Kobayashi. I can be easy on the tires when I need to, aggressive when I need to, and if you leave a space I will overtake you.

Q: What do you think about your team mate?
I can’t really judge him right now. He seemed strong during the sprints, but found himself wrapped up in other peoples’ incidents. We’ll have to see.

Q: Are there any tracks on the calendar that will suit you?
Istanbul is by far my strongest track, followed closely by Hungary, Spa, and Singapore.

Q: What are you expecting from the season opener?
An interesting race.

Q: How are you feeling about the upcoming season? Tentative, taking a break to complete my exams, was the best decision for my future, but probably a death knell for having any hope of winning the championship this season. I wasn’t one of the best drivers before, and having not been able to play the game, am completely unprepared, and race rusty, on the bright side i have nothing to lose, and lowering expectation always helps.

Q: What expectations and targets do you have for this championship?
I think my best hope is of having a Heidfeld 2008 season in that initially my much better team mate will significantly outscore me, however I will drag team resources over to my side of the garage and will attempt to screw any chance of a championship for the both of us :p

Q: (For those returning for a second season) What areas do you think you can improve upon compared to last season?

I think attending most of the races this time round will definitely help improve my results, and it is certainly what I’m aiming for. Before I dropped out, my team mate and I were level on points so it looks to be a tasty inter team battle hopefully with a nice shiny constructors championship. Other then that general improvement in quali, and less do or die decisions, 3 abreast into turn 6 at Montreal is something I’m not looking to repeat.
Q: (For newcomers) What can you add to the championship? What sort of driver are you?

Q: What do you think about your team mate?
I couldn’t be paired with anyone better. We had our Monaco race in which we came together more times then in the rest of the season combined, but we both got over it.

Q: Are there any tracks on the calendar that will suit you?
I made the mistake of answering this question with honestly last time, and it really came back to bite me so I’m not going to answer, I am however with a controller expecting to stuggle at Monaco in comparison to the steering wheel guys, since it’s advantage appears to be more apparent there.

Q: What are you expecting from the season opener?
Hopefully a bit of 2012 formula 1 madness.

(Most questions may have been answered with tongue firmly latched to cheek)

I use a steering wheel…

@mcwoblin

Would you mind being stats man again for this season? 

I think this season we should make the wiki more of a central hub for all stats and results. Instead of publishing the championship tables in the forum, could you update them on the wiki page? Would be easier to find it than in the pages of the forum. also make people visit the wiki more often!

Maybe on The Tuesday evening after the race I could pm you the confirmed results (we need to leave time for protests). Then once you have updated the wiki, could you post in the forum providing the link to the wiki? Maybe copy and paste a list of all the members and place at the top of the post like I normally do.

I think you may need to set up an account on the wiki and work out how to use it.. But it’s pretty straight forward.

Would that be ok? Just thought it would create more consistency. Let me know if you need any help! 

MAD DOG’S SEASON PREVIEW

Here we go then! It’s always an exciting time when a new season begins. Everyone is equal on points. Everyone has high expectations. Everyone thinks it will be their year….

With the number of talented drivers we have on the grid this season,  It’ll only end in tears for the majority. Lemon will want to defend his crown, O Kevin will want redemption for Brazil. Alfred can now race in a complete season and McWoblin will want to show he  is more than just a gentleman. Strunk, Y2j and co will want to improve upon last season. Chuck in the exciting new blood ( or meat as lemon liked to call them) the new circuits and the new rules, and you have the recipe for an epic season.

Championship Rivals become Teammates

Among the vast number of driver changes, none shook the F1F XWC paddock more than the happenings at McLaren. The top two from Season 1 will be competing as team mates! Let the fireworks begin!

World champion Lemon joins the famous team after outperforming his Renault last season. He could perhaps scale greater heights than he did last season. If he dominates races like he did in Monaco and Canada and cuts out the errors that he has made at races like Turkey and Silverstone, who knows what he could achieve.

Omorfos Kevin leaves Ferrari angry at his team losing him the title. He will want to forget about Brazil really quickly and what better way to do so than beat his team mate and have a great start to the season. Just like last season, where he picked up 2 wins in the first 2 races and kick started his title challenge. 

Renault sign Alfred and McWoblin

Is there a  better way for the championship winning team to react after losing its star driver? 

After agreeing sponsorship 3 races into last season, Lt Alfred finally gets to show his potential over a full season. The fans favourite in a recent poll, could easily have won the title if he had a full season in the uncompetitive Force India. A better car and a full season may lead to great things!

McWoblin will have been looking forward to starting this championship since winning the final race of last season. That was his reward for a great season where he was a regular face on the podium. Nowhere will you find a fairer, cleaner racer than McWoblin. But you can be sure that he will want to prove he is more than that!

No change at Sauber

Strunk is one of the few drivers to actually stay in the same team this season. Will Sauber repay his loyalty with a great car? Quick in the pre season sprint championship, he also looks to have upped his game. His current form combined with the notion that he is very hard to pass will surely make him a contender. He’s not bad in changeable conditions either! 

Infernojim is given a full term drive this season. Gaining experience from last year, Podium places are possible  if everything falls into place. One to watch if he can prevent some of the strategy errors he made last year.

McLaren boys tempted by Newey

After being shown the door by Martin Whitmarsh, both drivers team up again at Red Bull. The potential of the Adrian Newey inspired machine make them dark horses. 

MadDogMolloy needs to learn from the mistakes he made last season while Kvothe will want to prove his potential!

New Blood at Williams

With McWoblin moving to a bigger team, Frank Williams has put his trust in two impressive rookies. Snake from USA impressed by being fastest in pre season while Infernikus is quick but lacks experience. Could this be the season, Williams returns to the top?

Mercedes more prepared

Y2j stays at the team, with ms20 joining him. Y2j needs to have some better luck this season and he will be in the fight! Ms20 is an unknown quantity but will surely add excitement to the competition between the rookies.

Constructors Champions field only one driver

At the time of going to press, the legendary team looks set to have only  driver on the grid. Will they repeat their success with just CarnivorousPope? It’s going to be difficult. Don’t underestimate CP though, a full season will let us see what he has to offer!

The championship heads east

Two new tracks in China and India have been added to the calendar. China looks to be an eventful circuit which creates crazy starts due to its long first corner. It also has the longest straight in the calendar. India seems to be a drivers favourite, but it is still unproven in terms if excitement. As the penultimate race, it could be  a championship  deciding event!

So everything is in place. Australia is first and always provides crazy races. Who will come out in top? Not long to find out! :-)