Reply to: British Grand Prix

[ratewhore]

For some of the best bike racing around, check out the NorthWest 200.

Mad!!

[Dow Jones]

F1

F1 is incredibly close. The best drivers tend to end up in the best cars, so it's very easy to say that it's just the car, but it isn't true. Apart from the odd occasion where drivers end up in the wrong team (i.e. Alonso in an underperforming Renault at the start of the year), the best drivers are the ones that are getting the results.
.....
Hanging off a bike might look dramatic, but they're much much slower than an F1 car, and the driver/rider doesn't have anything like the amount of G-forces or physical effort to contend with. And by "easy" what I meant was overtaking is easy, or at least always appears to be.

F1 has changed so much it's not worth watching any more. If you want to see real racing, go see the Le Mans 24 hrs or any rally like the 1000 lakes or the Acropolis where in extreme conditions, cars are tested to almost destruction and only the very best drivers can cross the finishing line.

As far as the G-forces and speed of F1, it's probably no harder than going for one of the top rides at Alton Towers.

[DaveB]

Haven riden motorbikes I think it would be harder to ride a bike fast. Although F1 cars are very 'ungrippy' at low speeds

In a straight line bikes get more stable the faster you go but going around corners gets far more interesting at speed than it does when your going relatively slowly.

You won't catch bikes cutting the kerbs like the F1 cars do either, instant face full of tarmac if you try it.

[Bagpuss]

Haven riden motorbikes I think it would be harder to ride a bike fast. Although F1 cars are very 'ungrippy' at low speeds

[The Lone Gunman]

Compared to F1? Doubt it, since an F1 has extra downforce (at speed) and so extra traction.

From a standing start the F1 has traction to accelerate faster, but I think from a flying start the bike does better and tops out faster (less mass etc.).
This is a distant memory and I am by no means certain but I think that a bike peaked at 218 where the car made 210 on the same track. The car lapped at 1:32s where the bike was nearer 1:50s.
I think it was Tamada, I will have to look it up.
I dont think the cars ever do their hypothetical top speeds.

[TimberWolf]

I think ouright straight line speed at any track is held by a MotoGP bike. Even though lap speeds are dramaticaly slower.

Compared to F1? Doubt it, since an F1 has extra downforce (at speed) and so extra traction.

[The Lone Gunman]

I think ouright straight line speed at any track is held by a MotoGP bike. Even though lap speeds are dramaticaly slower.

[The Lone Gunman]

F1 is incredibly close. The best drivers tend to end up in the best cars, so it's very easy to say that it's just the car, but it isn't true. Apart from the odd occasion where drivers end up in the wrong team (i.e. Alonso in an underperforming Renault at the start of the year), the best drivers are the ones that are getting the results.

Okay so Michael Schumacher would never have been champion in a Minardi, but he had the ability to do better than a Minardi and so he did.

And talking about Michael Schumacher, now he's retired from the high stakes, extreme fitness, extreme skill of F1 he's taken up bike racing as a way to relax.

Hanging off a bike might look dramatic, but they're much much slower than an F1 car, and the driver/rider doesn't have anything like the amount of G-forces or physical effort to contend with. And by "easy" what I meant was overtaking is easy, or at least always appears to be.

The key word there is appears.
Schumi is quite an accomplished biker. A number of car racers are/were.
Of course F1 cars are faster and pull lots of g. Bikes have to slow down to get round corners. The footprint of the rubber on the track is tiny compared to a car and of course cars are more stable as they have a leg at each corner.
There is a lot more money in car racing too.
F1 was close last year but has not been for a long long time (same with bikes) but the racing isnt close or exciting. It is rare for F1 cars to pass each other. There is something going on at every corner on a bike track. Maybe not for first place, but there is something going on.

The best drivers do not get the best cars, it is the same with the bikes. A lot depends on the sponsorship a pilot brings with them, or the politics in the sport.

Riding a bike is not easy, riding one fast is difficult. Racing one to any level takes an amazing amount of skill. The consequences of getting it wrong are a little more serious than in a car too.
I suspect like a lot of non bikers you do not know enough about bikes/biking to fully appreciate the racers.
That is not a dig BTW.
Watch motGP with a biker, get to know the sport. It is far better than F1.

[TimberWolf]

Hanging off a bike might look dramatic, but they're much much slower than an F1 car, and the driver/rider doesn't have anything like the amount of G-forces or physical effort to contend with. And by "easy" what I meant was overtaking is easy, or at least always appears to be.

Yeah, motorbike racing doesn't do it for me the way F1 does, I can't watch it, nor the fast normal souped up car racing thingy. Not sure why, the personalities, the high tech, wheel changing, dunno. maybe because bikes are too slow. Anyway Schumacher came off recently racing on a motorbike and didn't do well. I imagine you need to be even shorter and lighter on a bike.

[VectraMan]

You have that the wrong way round, it is F1 that is easy.
The reason there is so much competition in bike racing is due to a much more level playing field as far as technology is concerned so everybody has a chance.

F1 is incredibly close. The best drivers tend to end up in the best cars, so it's very easy to say that it's just the car, but it isn't true. Apart from the odd occasion where drivers end up in the wrong team (i.e. Alonso in an underperforming Renault at the start of the year), the best drivers are the ones that are getting the results.

Okay so Michael Schumacher would never have been champion in a Minardi, but he had the ability to do better than a Minardi and so he did.

And talking about Michael Schumacher, now he's retired from the high stakes, extreme fitness, extreme skill of F1 he's taken up bike racing as a way to relax.

Hanging off a bike might look dramatic, but they're much much slower than an F1 car, and the driver/rider doesn't have anything like the amount of G-forces or physical effort to contend with. And by "easy" what I meant was overtaking is easy, or at least always appears to be.

[The Lone Gunman]

I find bike racing boring for those very reasons: it's too easy. The lead can change half a dozen times per lap, which makes it all a bit meaningless. Bikes should race on tracks 3 feet wide; then it'd be interesting.

You have that the wrong way round, it is F1 that is easy.
The reason there is so much competition in bike racing is due to a much more level playing field as far as technology is concerned so everybody has a chance.
It still takes a great deal of skill to go fast on a bike and requires tactical nouse to be at the front when you cross the stripe.
Racing is about what happens on the track and being able to pass each other is part and parcel of racing.
F1 is all about qualifying and getting to the first corner first, after that it is about pit stops. The driver is very much just a steering wheel attendant.

If you dont believe me just look at how few F1 pilots have ever won the champions competition in the canaries at the end of season. A car racing event where Rossi managed a third place.

[Bagpuss]

I'd like to see a robot driver, racing against the humans.

that will be Kimi Raikonnen, although I long suspected Coultard is a thunderbird puppet

[TimberWolf]

I'd like to see a robot driver, racing against the humans.

[Bagpuss]

It would be quite amusing if F1 introduced success ballast!

Ferrari should be forced to put Mansel in their car. Remember a few years ago his comeback when he couldn't fit in the McClaren?

[~Craig~]

BTC again, if you keep winning they keep adding weight to your car to handicap you. Kepps the racing close regardless of mechanical advantage.

It would be quite amusing if F1 introduced success ballast!