F1 Fanatic

V8 supercars, Indycar and Nascar.

I’ll catch the V8 Supercars when and where I can, but this year the sport has become too political for my tastes.

I’m actually quite taken with MotoGP. It tends to alternate with Formula 1, so when there is a slow Sunday night, there’s at least something worth watching. The MotoGP series is a write-off with Casey Stoner running away with it, but Moto2 has a grid twice as big and is very competitive; the Moto2 race at Aragon this weekend had some of the best racing I’ve seen in years.

I’ll also occasionally get the WRC, but I was very disappointed with the local coverage of Rally Australia this year. In three hours on the Sunday afternoon, I think I saw maybe thirty minutes of actual driving. Everything else was puff pieces about the town. And most of the coverage was dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. Fortunately, the one-hour recap from Europe was good – though I had to laugh when they kept mincing the stage names; there was a stage called “Urunga”, and they kept pronouncing it “Ooh-roong-ha”. But since I’m a local boy, I know it’s pronounced “Ewe-run-gar”.

I too watch the V8 Supercars when I can, although I don’t think the racing has been as good this year as it has in the past. Only two and a half weeks until Bathurst!!

That’s really the only other series that I follow on a regular basis. I love the Le Mans 24 Hour and I watch NASCAR and MotoGP occasionally but I wouldn’t call myself a massive fan of either.

- GP2 and GP3, as they’re live and easy to watch on F1 weekends.
- WRC (and some IRC).
- V8 Supercars.
- WTCC (not that much into it, but since it’s on TV and the races are short, why not watch it).
- Randomly: ALMS/other endurance series, whatever is on Eurosport at times, like ETCC or British Superbikes.

I used to watch DTM, F2 and MotoGP. But all of them either became incredibly boring (15 bikes and nothing happening, cars just going round in circles etc.) or moved to pay-tv.

I love Formula Renault 3.5 and it’s possible to watch it live. I like GP2 as well but I can rarely watch it as it’s usually not on Eurosport, and even when it is it’s on the UK channel only. Online live streams are usually pretty bad.

I occasionally watch GP3, which is also on Eurosport Europe.

From other than European feeder series, I like MotoGP and Indycar, though I don’t watch all the races. I like WRC as well but it’s a shame it doesn’t have live coverage (apart from the power stage).

I watch (and/or listen, depending on what’s available for that race) to every ILMC and LMS sportscar race, qualifying and practise, except the bits that directly clash with F1. I support Giancarlo Fisichella (who’s recently become LMS champion) and whoever his team-mate(s) happen(s) to be. Live coverage, but parts of it can be a bit flaky if my internet connection plays up and occasionally it can be hard to follow because the commentators often focus on the prototypes at the front of the field.

If Fisico is in any other sportscar races, I watch those. Frustratingly, the coverage can be highly variable – I remember the one he did at Vallelunga last year where the coverage was so poor I ended up depending on a Twitter user who happened to be watching the race for all my updates…

MotoGP is quite interesting. I support Valentino Rossi there so this has been a somewhat difficult year of support, but there’s still good racing to be had. Mum likes it too.

Sometimes I watch other forms of motorsport – I saw the BTCC races last week – but F1, sportscars and MotoGP are the main ones.