These teams and drivers going straight for the inters...crazy. Maybe if the forecast was for it to get better but if it's marginal at the time of change and the forecast is pretty sure it's going to get heavier then just...what are you doing?

When/if Liberty gets control of the calendar, it should seriously look at the start dates & times of races. Sod European viewing figures, i'd rather we could actually have a race rather than one interuppted by storms... It's always in the same countries, Brazil, Japan, Malaysia, etc. etc.

I feel bad for the trackside audience, because they've paid for it. The TV viewers, it doesn't make as much of a difference because we get these things are part of a package. But when you're paying for a single race which you've saved up for, it's more galling. I mean we still have 2.5 hours to go as i post this, so we could get racing in a while yet.

Channel 4 highlights show tonight will be interesting to edit!

Easiest job of the day.
Show the rain
Show Romain crashing
Show everyone else crashing
Show the fans booing
Go to the next show on the epg

Ted is making some very good calls tbh, mentioning the Bianchi legal action (which is probably where its coming from - FIA terrified of another crash, another death or serious injury), and the fact that it takes so long to get the cars going again in general once a red flag is called. Doesn't help that the rain is coming in waves either, one minute its light, the next its suddenly heavy again.

Although as I speak, its now going to start in 10mins time again. Panic over.

Maybe Interlagos should invest in better drains & Pirelli should improve their wet tyres...

But for how long behind the Safety Car?

We shall see.

I'm crying Such moving scenes with Massa there...

Meh, Was hoping Nico would wrap the championship up today so that I wouldn't have to watch Abu-Dhabi. I simply loathe that circuit, I think its by far the worst circuit on the schedule & simply don't enjoy watching cars driving/racing around it.

Ted was talking rubbish.

Sounds like the nicknaming for big clashes now have creeping into F1. #DuelInTheDesert creeping into the promotion of Sky's Abu Dhabi coverage. It's much better though than what they nickname some PL games.

I was at Austin in 2015, where we got the tail end of a Hurricane, boy it was wet ! (albeit an almost dry race) but although the Practice and Quali were peppered with storms, wind and rain, the atmosphere at the circuit was electric, everyone seemed to almost thrive on the rain ! Yes we were soaked, but a really enjoyable weekend.......apart from the parking fiasco ! lol

As for this race... Verstappen ! well... he seems to know how to drive in the rain !

I agree. Horrible circuit. No fans. Ruins the end of season. If it was a bog standard mid-season race could just about understand it but as a season finale it is utterly terrible. That famous 2010 season finale. Garbage because of the terrible track. Give me Brazil or Japan as the finale end of day.

--
In other news some of the hyberbole of the 'amazing' race chat... Simon going "can't remember a race like it..." I mean it was good when it got going! Dramatic... Been far better races / wet races though. Whenever a race starts behind the SC when it shouldn't have been... that already derails it a peg.

Simon has evidently forgotten the race that Sky viewers voted "Race of the Century", even if it was a pre-Sky race. (Canada 2011)

Didn't see the race live so only just seen the utter plank that is Romain Grosjean!
Why would you try and spank it there with that amount of water flowing DOWN the hill? That's the kind of thing you'd expect a rookie learning the basics to do, not seasoned pro!!!

Pretty sure he was correct about the tyres though - if we had proper monsoon tyres there wouldn't be so much SC nonsense.

Thought there were a couple of nice replays shown by FOM during one of the stoppages (I think the first), the one that stood out to me was the Massa overtake before the safety car line, with the line indicated.

Nice into to the C4 coverage from Bruno Senna, just the right tone.

Of course the drivers will say in Abu Dhabi on the podium how the fans made for an incredible atmosphere, it's wonderful to see them, they made it so special etc......nonsense!

Oh and I know there's the issue of protests etc potentially after a race, but I absolutely beyond despise the fact that fans at the track (or anywhere in fact) never see the champion lift the trophy the day they win it, or even ever, as they only get it at an awards ceremony attended by people who are invited in a far away land for sponsors benefits for example. Really ticks me off does that.

That save from Verstappen was worth the price of entry alone

Agreed, whether it was luck, skill, or anything else, it was an absolutely astonishing save (oh and Raikkonen was SO lucky that the Manor moved at the very last moment, as if he hadn't, well.......let's not go there).

Thought it was an interesting decision by Sky to cross over to Horner as Verstappen was going for 3rd. Worked well though.

Also, FOM cutting to a fairly random onboard of Max just as he had his moment was very bizarre. If it wasn't for the fact I had live timing in front of me, I'd almost be thinking that they held the clip back a few seconds to show "as live"...

Pretty odd race overall though in terms of racing at some points when it was extremely wet and not racing at some other times when it was much drier. Not entirely consistent, really.

The Massa stuff was a nice touch though - ironically almost a better send-off for it to happen that way than him coming home for minor points placing.

That was probably 1 of the most pi55 poor efforts yet by FOM in terms of coverage of todays race.

How many shots, especially the 1st post safety car start, where as soon as Max completed his overtake we launched into shots of the pit followed by atleast 2 replays, NOT the possibility of following him for a Hamilton overtake, (granted that never happened, but that was sheer luck as we would have missed it all)

As for SKY, their insistence on breaking up the shows into individual shows, ie track parade, and paddock live, means that paddock live started AND finished recording before the main show had even finished, so of course if you weren't watching live you missed most of the post race analysis. Thank Fook that Ted's notebook is repeated.

It's come to the stage that if you offered my the choice of watching a Grand Prix on a massive 4k ultra screen and Sky commentary or an old bedroom tube tv with the Channel 4 team, I'd have a much better viewing experience on the latter.