October 27, 2015

F1 on TV: Mexico 2015

Señors y señoras, hola!  Bienvenido a El Estanque!  That's pretty much used up my supply of Spanish, but it hopefully got you in the mood for this week's race, the "debut" of the Grand Prix of Mexico at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.  I put debut in quotes since there's been plenty of GPs of Mexico in the past, but it's been a while and never on this version of the track.  Let's take a look at the map, shall we?

A laps of the 2.76 mile-long circuit is expected to take around 75 seconds.  Alas, said lap won't be ending in the classic Peraltada corner, a massively fast 180° arc that used to run from Turn 12 to what is now Turn 16... Turn 17 is roughly half of it, though the banking is gone.  Instead, the layout now runs through a baseball stadium... on the aerial maps I've seen, it looks like Turn 12 enters the stadium somewhere near the right-field corner, and Turn 16 exits it somewhere up the third base line, but short of third base itself, through a gap in the stands.  It's hard to tell, as there is no outfield wall, and clearly the infield can be picked up.

That front straight is no slouch, by the way... indeed, at 1.2km, it becomes one of the longest on the F1 calendar.  That should make for some interesting pileups on the first lap.  We don't really know anything about how it'll race, per se, since F1 hasn't been there in 20 years or so.  Should be fast though, and my guess is about USGP level of tire wear.  That could be really wrong, however, so don't hold it against me if it turns out differently.  Definitely give me credit if I'm right, because I'm just that sort of duck.

The Tres Amigos plus Will Buxton will be providing their usual commentary, but NOT at the usual time and days.  Let's take a look:
Saturday
Quals:  1p - 230p  live on CNBC
Sunday
Grand Prix of Mexico:  1230p - 330p live on NBC

Yup, there's no mistype there: we're not getting coverage of Friday Practice except online.  For that matter, the coverage won't be on NBCSN, either!  How passing strange is this?

Well, we'll watch what's being shown... and we'll see you afterwards, yes?  Yes?

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:19 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Mercedes has already locked up the Constructor's championship, haven't they? And with Hamilton having won the Driver's championship, is there anything left that's on the line for this race and the next two?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 27, 2015 07:18 PM (+rSRq)

2 Nope.  Not a sou.  Racing for pride and second place, really.

And to be honest, the difference between second and third in the constructor's championship is considerable... millions of dollars, if not tens of millions.

Posted by: Wonderduck at October 27, 2015 09:59 PM (a12rG)

3

(Oops! He changed the question!)

Even second place isn't in play. There's no way Williams can catch Ferrari. Red Bull could catch Williams, and Force India couls catch Red Bull, theoretically, but it won't happen. (I can't tell you how happy it makes me that Force India is in 5th place...)

The only real contest remaining is between Vettel and Rosberg for second in the Driver's championship, where they're only 4 points apart.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 28, 2015 01:25 PM (+rSRq)

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What colour is a green orange?




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