Your F1 pre-season traditions
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So F1’s 2012 season has just about finished its final Winter Tests, excluding HRTs supposed Filming day tomorrow, before the cars are sent down-under for the opening race of 2012 in Melbourne.
That leaves 2 weeks of an F1 hole in our lives to fill. My question to people is, what do you do before the start of every season to get you in the mood or psych you up for the racing?
I for instance, religously read every damn article and thread on the sport soaking up the information and speculation on the previous tests and coming races. Places like Scarbs and F1 Technical are great for this, in addition to Keiths very own Team Previews on this fine website.
Secondly, I traditionally rewatch John Frankenheimer’s 1966 Classic, Grand Prix. I love this film, sure the acting is a bit here & there, and the film plays out like a soap opera. But man, when those cars fire up and the races start, its by far and away the best fictional racing (let alone F1) film ever. Its the perfect way to get in the mood for the coming season. And I think a rewatch of Senna needs to be done (the extended-cut ofcourse).
Whatever I can do. I, at the same time love and hate the hype for anything especially F1. The wait is horrible but the speculation and the mood of it is also amazing. To psych myself up I do what ever I can. I read every article I find, I play the F1 games and simulations I watch old races ( http://www.f1archives.com/blog/ ) I watch dvd’s like Senna and other F1 programs I have recorded. I actually have the movie Grand Prix but I’ve never bothered to watch it so maybe I will now. But basically just anything and everything
@ Hollis Graham ah you should dig it out and watch it, if only for the races and Jessica Walters. The opening race at Monaco is sublime and some of the best editing ive seen in any film, let alone one from the 1960s and its fantastic to see some actual footage of the Old Spa Road circuit.
I suppose the only ritual I have is that I start to shift my sleep pattern so that I can watch the early races live. At least I can watch practice before I head to work, that’s a plus I suppose.
I break out the season review DVDs before the start of a new season. It’s a great way to get excited ahead of the first race
I’ll browse F1 Fanatic, Autosport Forums, and F1 Tech when I get the chance but tbh University goes so quick that it will be F1 2012 in no time at all!!
Time seems to go slower and slower the closer we get to the opening round every year. This isn’t really a tradition but normally I start talking about Formula One with my friends more, usually by just throwing F1 into conversation we’re having which has nothing to do with the sport. I only have one friend who watches F1 as closely as I do, my other friends usually keep up to date with the results and standings, but they don’t watch F1 race by race.
Haven’t really got any traditions as such, but I am constantly on here and on Twitter looking for info about the season ahead. I will be taking to the PS3 for some online racing from now on also, just to while away the winter months.
That’s about it really.
I choose a new wallpaper of my favorite F1 team and driver ,then I read the whole internet about f1 and a week before the race,I forget about reading forums ,f1 sites . It’s a way to ceep me excited about things. THen , a day before the australian gp weekend I watch loads of great f1 racing videos on youtube ang myself fired up for the great damn thing.
Learn all information I need to about Albert Park, and the shakedown of the cars and name changes to the driver line up! Then its a religous countdown! Less than 2 weeks to go and I plan my gameplan for Friday 1:30 AM!
My rituals until last year ran to making sure I’ve got all the preview material I can get, checking any support gear I might want to wear is clean and setting the alarm for the right time (I forgot to do the latter in 2008 – suffice to say Timo Glock’s crash on lap 45 woke me up…)
This year things got a lot more complicated. I have to admit to a severe lack of enthusiasm about the F1 bit (to the point where I need to remember to do the sporting regulations analysis, something I’ve usually done a month prior to this), the British TV deal means I can’t watch with my parents (they’ve both decided to stop watching F1 altogether and rely on me telling them what’s going on rather than wake up to listen to Five Live or watch the race at inconvenient times). And finally, the Australian Grand Prix is on the same weekend as the highly promising WEC opening round in Sebring (I live-comment as much of any race involving Giancarlo Fisichella as possible, partly for the benefit of a supporter forum).
The combined upshot of all this is that I will be following the whole weekend from my computer (the only place where I can get Five Live), attempting to work out how I will cope with a near-total lack of sleep for three consecutive days and with parents who no longer fully understand why I’d be making myself quite that sleep-deprived (they’ve never been all that interested in sportscars). So my revised ritual list goes:
– Finish the sporting regulations analysis for F1
– Check I have 2 complete-as-possible lots of preview material
– See if I can manage a season preview of some kind from all this (if I’m dropping any part of the ritual it’s this one)
– Checking my combined timetable is accurate
– Stocking up on enough snacks to get through 3 nights awake without accidentally awakening parents
– Checking I have enough drink for 3 nights (difficult to underestimate the importance of a decent drink nearby)
– Getting enough reading material for the quiet parts (my usual F1 “time-filling” technique of extra pages won’t work because 2 series worth of pages doesn’t leave spare bandwidth for that)
– Coming to some sort of arrangement that means my parents won’t mind me hogging so much bandwidth for so long
– Ensuring I rest my fingers enough to stand a level of typing only likely to be matched on Le Mans week (and on any other weekend where WEC and F1 clash)
– Ensuring I sleep enough to make up for more lost sleep than I’ve ever attempted before
– Re-arrange things so that I have as much of the practise, qualifying and race time clear of other distractions as possible
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