Quote from BlueFlame :

Depends where you are on track, but whats the point paying for something you can watch on TV for free? And sharing that GP-time with thousands of fools who know nothing about F1? Plus if I want to hear decent engine sounds I'll go to a drag racing meet, or go to a historic F1 or GT event.

For F1 you have to go at least once just be because it is F1. it's the fastest thing you can watch and having seen F1 cars first hand going through Becketts - wow, you just don't get the same sense on TV. There's also the sense of history; you're watching the current F1, but flick through the previous winners of the race you're watching and there's Clark, Hill, Fangio, Moss, Andretti, Piquet, Prost, Senna - fantastic.

If I can recommend one motorsport event to go to then try Misano for MotoGP. Make sure you go next year, because Rossi is not guaranteed to be there after that and to experience Rossimania in his own backyard is something beyond description.

But Rossi brings it home - 2009 World Champion.

Nice to see Osvaldo make an appearance.

The Queen doesn't choose who gets most of the honours per se. The lists emerge from various arms of Government and collated by the Ceremonial Secretariat (part of the Cabinet Office) so technically the PM will make the decision which is ratified by the Queen.

Some grades of honour are chosen by the Queen, so if she is a F1 nut then he might join the Order of the Garter.

According to the logic on this thread, Nigel Mansell must be the least deserving WDC ever, as the Williams in 92 was frequently 1.5 sec per lap faster than the opposition. it was so superior that Patrese could regularly beat Senna who was driving a McLaren.

Quote from tristancliffe :

The WCC is the one that even the teams don't really REALLY care about.

You could not possibly be more wrong if you tried.

Quite sad for Barrichello as he drives into oblivion with Williams next year that his one true chance to win the championship has passed him by.

On the other hand, happy for Jenson that he took his one and only chance to take the title.

With relative stability in the regulations over the winter Brawn will struggle to match the development pace of Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull - all of which have caught up Brawn's performance since the start of the season even with a testing ban.

Perfect result for the championship situation. I'd favour Vettel coming through the pack rather than Jenson, but probably not to 2nd.

I don't speed, but I regularly hit 100mph on the way to work. No speed limit, no law break.

Quote from JJ72 :

But I am not financially limited to make that decision.

Just that I can't pay being a Hong Kong citizen, even if I want to.

They lost nothing, I didn't even use their bandwidth, and actually preferred it to a Hong Kong rival which provide a similiar product.

Sigh,

Here's how it works....

FIA owns and controls F1. They have sold the commercial rights to F1 to the Commercial Rights Holder (Bernie Ecclestone, CVC and so on). The last deal I saw figures on was $375m for 100 years(!!). The Commercial Rights Holder then sells the media rights, usually on a geographical basis, to media companies (eg BBC). These media companies will then exploit the rights.

• The Commercial Rights Holder reserves the rights they have not sold to others. This means that if F1 is not available in your area you are still infringing on those rights.
  
• By watching illicit streams you are stealing intellectual property. It doesn't have to be tangible to be property.
  
• You do not have an inalienable right to watch F1. If F1 is not available in you area (or is only available on PPV) that is not a defence against the crime you are committing.
  
• "No harm" is not a valid defence in law. Just because you don't think something will affect anyone else doesn't mean that act changes from being illegal to legal. Speeding on a deserted road is still speeding. Smoking crack at home is still illegal.
  

You might not think you are doing wrong, but you are. There is no contrary position, no obtuse example that can supercede the argument. It might not be the most serious crime in the world, but people seem to think that, for a variety of stupid reasons, what they are doing is not illegal.

I'm in work right now, so I have money and therefore have the luxury

Quote from DevilDare :

Look up...

Good call - one of the lightbulbs isn't working. I'll get Maintenance onto it on Monday. Thanks.

!

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/1 ... ven_suzuka_penalties.html

Quote from hyntty :

No. If the crown Jewels were for sale for UK residents only it would be okay to steal a UK passport to buy them. There is a difference.

Um, no.

Quote from 5haz :

There is a difference between not being able to afford something and never having the opportunity to buy something in the first place, regardless of whether you can afford itor not.

So I can take the Crown Jewels then? I don't have the opportunity to buy them so that's okay just to steal?

Taking something (be that physical or intellectual property) or using a service that you are not legally authorised to do is illegal. End of.

Maybe all the people on here whining about not being able to afford things would find their time better spent finding ways to earn money instead of being wrong about stuff on the internet.

ON TOPIC:

Odd qually no doubt. Nobody seemed to heed the lesson that Webber gave in FP3. Kovi did it twice - sure sign of someone who is not having a good week. He must be under a lot of pressure with the Raikkonen business. McLaren will have a terrific car next year from the start and it looks like the prospect of tooling round at the back in a Campos or Manor is filling him with dread.

Quote from JJ72 :

I download the race coverage by BBC but I don't think its stealing, since even if I wanted to pay for it, I couldn't.

That's an interesting legal point. If that's okay then I'm off to hotwire a M5 as soon as I finish work, because I can't afford one of those.

Quote from samjh :

It's probably the FIA Gestapo. They're extremely efficient at sniffing out F1 live feeds and assassinating them with a high-powered shot of Cease and Desist.

And so they should. F1 is a valuable commodity to them, as witnessed by the large TV contracts that exist.

Watching "pirate" feeds is a bit like stealing your neighbour's car. Just because you don't like him and you really want to drive his car doesn't make it right.

In addition to laser scanning, I'm sure they've also realised that there is an immense amount of telemetry data that they could use from a variety of cars. When a car goes over a bump it will register as suspension movement and it cannot be beyond the wit of man to map this movement and recreate the bumps from it.

Question (hope it won't get lost in the noise):

Is this the general direction that LFS is to take in the future? I mean that is the current intention (perhaps in the absence of firm plans) that LFS will start to lean towards real life laser scanned tracks where possible? Also, will the trend towards real cars be something the devs are considering? Rockingham came up as an opportunity to take, but does this mean that Eric may still (present or future tense) continue developing fantasy tracks?

The slipstream effect needs to be reduced a little as at the moment you just need to be in the same postcode as the car in front and there is nothing they can do on a decent sized straight.

Quote from Ger Roady :

So i go at this point then and play GP4 again with poor Rain

GP4 is still the benchmark for rain IMO. Drying lines have not been done better since.

This...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_FW10

Only thing to do is keep the thread going until someone makes an official comment.

Well I guess they won't need to change LFS's kerb physics for this new track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgx0PrnL34U

Quote from 5haz :

If I was in such a position I would said no and if I felt the need to be such a grass I would've done it straight away, regardless of wether it threatened my position within the team, if they sacked me there and then at least I would be respected for blowing the whistle on some dirty deeds that needed to be stopped. Rather than simply using it as a pathetic personal vendetta long after it even matters any more.

Very easy to be principled on an internet forum with nothing at stake. You cannot possibly know what you would do in the same situation as you haven't spent 18 months being brow-beaten by Briatore.

Chances are, with your job at stake - and your future career - a little cheating wouldn't seem such a heinous thing. Not saying it's right, but that's real life for you.

Piquet has gone up a few notches in my estimation. Firstly, the disgraceful behaviour of Briatore at the last GP (leaving before the end because Alonso was out) really summed up how Piquet was seen and treated in the team. Secondly he whipped off his race suit to reveal a fairly big pair of bollocks by having a right old go at Flav both before and after he was shown the door.

I think given the right personal development he could have a career in F1. Shine in a Campos and everyone will forget what happened at Renault. Look at Button - rubbish last year, marvellous now. All it takes is a confluence of positive circumstances and suddenly you're a better driver, even though personally you're not trying any harder (maybe less so).