From: shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com   
      
   On 2/11/2025 11:40 pm, scole wrote:   
   > In article <10dju6e$3np19$1@dont-email.me>, ~misfit~   
   >  wrote:   
   >   
   >> On 25/10/2025 12:45 pm, Sir Tim wrote:   
   >>> Phil Carmody  wrote:   
   >>>> vintageapplemac@gmail.com (scole) writes:   
   >>>>> I do enjoy a sprint race weekend, the current format is pretty good and I   
   >>>>> am sold.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Nah. I want them to practice, to qualify for the race, and then to race.   
   >>>> Job done. Pack up. Go home.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Shoving an extra quali and race into the weekend is a wrongheaded   
   >>>> slavery to the "some is good therefore more is better" fallacy.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Other opinions are available, and probably equally valid.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Phil   
   >>>   
   >>> But I agree with yours.   
   >>   
   >> As do I.   
   >   
   > Well, I respectfully disagree... :-P   
      
   As is your right - thank you for being respectful about it. ;)   
      
   > We've got a  couple of sprints coming   
   > up, and I am looking forward to them as I know I'll be bathing myself in   
   > multiple hours of more racing those weekends, practice sessions are dull   
   > as ditchwater no matter how hard I try to enjoy them  (exception was   
   > Monaco, it was enjoyable to spend time just looking at the cars going   
   > around at that place). Lovely stuff!   
      
   My opinion is that the GP is the spectacle, practice sessions are just that   
   and not really meant to   
   be entertaining. However they are important for the teams to dial in their   
   cars properly for the   
   GP. The lack of practice sessions means that cars often start the sprint (and   
   to a lesser extent   
   the GP) out of place on the grid.   
      
   You'd think that would make for more entertaining racing but, with the cars   
   how they are overtaking   
   is almost impossible unless you are 1 second plus a lap faster than the car   
   you're trying to   
   overtake. At a lot or tracks the cars are all running really close so that's   
   rare. (Witness Sainz'   
   multiple attempted overtakes recently - he needs to remember that he's in a   
   mid-field car now and   
   doesn't have the lap delta to pull of these 'passes' on other mid-field cars.)   
   The one thing that   
   makes passing easier is a tyre offset but you don't get that in a sprint.   
      
   The situation we're in is that the owners of F1 are trying to milk it for as   
   much as they can (yay   
   capitalism!). As you say practice sessions aren't great spectacles so don't   
   get so many spectators.   
   I'm fine with that. I'd rather have one really good race a weekend than two   
   incident-filled   
   un-pre-prepared and unsatisfying things.   
      
   > I've also been watching more of the F2 this season than ever before, too,   
   > and have really started to get into it. Christ, I've even watched a couple   
   > of the F1 Academy races as well and had good fun.   
   >   
   > More qualifying and races = satisfied me. Bring on more sprints!:)   
      
   I'm pleased someone is enjoying them!   
   --   
   Shaun.   
      
   "Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy   
   little classification   
   in the DSM"   
   David Melville.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)