TBK-Light.com

Well, exactly, it's not for US

But if it turns some people's heads to check out a race who wouldn't before, then great!
Mission accomplished

_________________
RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

Even though it's not totally for die-hard fans, it has some interesting stuff.

I got very impressed with how they got

I like how they are exploring the racing footage in a more aesthetical way. However, the crashes feel like I am watching Fast and Furious. I got annoyed a bit because I have the impression they put the commentators to make some tailor-made commentating for the series like they were live (or like they were playing the role of commentators in a movie).

In the end, it was made for some binge-watching before the season starts and it's worth it.

Of course not, the die hard fans will be frustrated by the lack of shootings, German terrorists and swearing

_________________
RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

Yeah definitely a bit annoying to watch as a die hard F1 fan. But it's clearly aimed at the casual fan and should do well to draw them in. The one thing I really enjoyed was the inner team conversations that you don't get to see otherwise. Although I have to say the editing was really poor, even as a casual fan. Jumping from a season recap, to winter testing, back to a race...not good flow.

I was hoping it'd have more inside access like the McLaren show of Amazon Prime did. The Steiner call with Haas was the only part I enjoyed in the whole episode. I guess the latter episodes where they'll deal with Ricciardo's boiling discontent with Verstappen and eventual exit to Renault might be interesting but otherwise the same old humdrum 'omg these guys are fighter pilots defying death at 200 mph' casual fan pandering, and that's totally understandable.

Yeah and then they'll immediately turn off after 10 minutes because the on track product is not what was portrayed in the docudrama.

Casual fans are a myth, you're either into a particular past time, or you're not, I watch racing, I don't watch football and if I casually stumble across a football match while channel surfing I carry on to the next channel, I don't "casually tune in" to the match. This is the problem with having busiensses running sports, they neglect to understand the fact that your core audience is far more likely to bring in a new viewer, than it is you yourself hook in a casual fan, the target audience is limited and they should concerntrate on pleasing them instead of alienating them in pursuit of a mythical casual fan who doesn't really exist.

I've seen the first 5, it's pretty decent indeed.

I'm annoyed though about the fact they use images from different GP's when they talk about a certain driver or team's race.

Also lulz that some teams sure love to troll Grosjean and Haas

Admittedly I only watched Ep1 with half an eye on the TV, so I’m interested to know the inaccuracies I missed. Care to share please? That way I don’t have to go and rewatch.

_________________
BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

In the first four episodes, where there is a clear Daniel Ricciardo arch, the series sell Red Bull as title contenders in a way they were far from being. This is the only inaccuracy that called my attention so far.

They tried to catch the stories behind the season much more than the coldness of standings.

By the way, the fourth episode, focusing on the tension between Red Bull and Renault is awesome. Some great paddock stuff from Horner and Abiteboul right there.

Also some of the radio transmissions they used between Ricciardo and RBR pitwall in Free Practice Melbourne sounded like it was taken from latter races and portrayed as if Ricciardo was driving the car for the first time and all of a sudden it had transformed into this stallion that was ready to win the championship.

I dunno, ricciardo won 2 out of the first 6 races iirc, it wasn't a stretch to think red bull would keep developing and be in with a shout.
This was a year that started with ferrari winning back to back and Bottas looking like he was the stronger merc driver after all.

But yeah, if merc and ferrari had taken part in this, I guess the narrative would be much, much different.

I enjoyed ep 1 a lot but thought there were far too many narrators.
I get they were going for a senna vibe with cut footage but half the lines felt the were recorded specifically for the docco instead of being cut from commentary
It'd prob be better off if they just focused on ben edwards and 1 local commentator imo

_________________
RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

I think you're applying your form of fandom to everyone. It's a pretty common strategy to attract new fans to a sport by pushing character stories of it in front of them, and once they start caring about those characters, that's the hook to get then seeking out more coverage, watching live telecasts and maybe looking for a race to attend. The racing spectacle, exaggerated or not, has not much more to do with it than material for the ads to get people watching the series.

_________________

They do this a lot, it's bad.

Lance Stroll, Vitaly Petrov, Aguri Suzuki, Philippe Streiff, Stefano Moddena, Ivan Capelli and........Pastor Maldonado

Just some of the drivers that have scored a podium in F1 while Nico Hulkenburg has a big fat 0 next to his name. He would sure as shit want to get his name on that list. If he doesn't do it this year then maybe I will start to think that he actually isn't as good as I thought him to be.

@Scotty Red Bull liked to crap on about how much they paid Renault for their engines, then compared to Merc and Ferrari underpaid the drivers by a significant margin! Yep, no wonder he jumped ship. Could see the writing on the wall in regards to status then glanced down at the cheque Renault dangled in front of him. No brainer really.

In Red Bull's defence, the driver contracts they employ are (or were) bonus-heavy to incentivise the drivers. Max's new contract was the first to break that system, at least in part.

Although they obviously weren't offering Max 50 million dollarydoos and he won't get close to that even if he wins the championship.

I do wonder where the money for that sort of salary comes from. Ghosn isn't in any position to authorise that sort of budget increase, and they are down to just one engine customer which is a fairly significant source of revenue. Could be that Ghosn did sign it off before he got nicked, I suppose, although what that means for the future is up for debate.

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

I watched the first episode on Netflix.

I don't know what to think about it. It was not bad. But I didn't feel urged to watch the other episodes.

The HAAS part was great. But a bit sad losing so many valuable points. I was forgotten both cars had the same problem, and I felt sorry for the guys responsible for that.

But the part with Ricciardo was in my opinion typical American-ish to include his parents to add some emotional drama.

Apparently Ferrari and Mercedes didn't wanted to cooperate, which is a real pity.

So I don't know. They should make these and post one week after each Grand Prix, then it would make much more sense. Seeing things from a year ago doesn't make much sense to me.

Driver salaries in Freedom Dollars and in the same order (it was driving me insane to compute what an Australian Dollar was to get an idea)

 51 730 000
 39 410 000
 34 300 000
 12 950 000 
 8 400 000 
 4 550 000 
 4 550 000 
 3 850 000 
 3 220 000 
 3 220 000 
 1 820 000 
 1 291 500 
 1 162 000 
 1 162 000 
 560 000 
 297 500 
 259 000 
 226 100 
 180 600 
 168 000 

Even though the top salaries are obnoxious, I still think a couple hundred thousands is kind of a shitty salary to drive an F1 car at that level, even for rookies.

Agree, but it then gives off a special vibe that the Ferrari/Mercedes teams are so far away in front that they're just that ominous, faceless, emotionless and crushing Villain that always wins in the background while we're mostly following the underdogs. It fits the stories perfectly.

I like the series in general for what it is. It's not a season review nor a documentary, hence why each episode is more about a main theme rather than a chronological order in races.
It's doing a better job at dramatization than most Hollywood movies about racing ever did. Even as a hardcore fan I feel we're still seeing snips of the team managers/drivers' lives that you never get to experience during the season. Pleasantly surprised overall.

The bottom end is pretty pathetic when you think about it even if they have performance bonus payments. The big surprises to me are Sainz is getting $900,000 more than Leclerc and Albon and Russell are getting bugger all. Hey Albon and Russell, F1 is soo glamorous isn't it? you might be able to afford a 1 bedroom apartment in a really really shitty area of town far away from the action lol.

But thats all base salaries.
Red Bull works with lots of bonusses so Albon's salary might be higher in the end.

And thats what Williams is paying him, maybe Mercedes is also paying him.

Besides that, I think the entire grid would have driven for free in their first season just because it means they have a shot to proof themselves.