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F1, like soccer and the metric system, is OK for everyone except Americans

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Re: F1, like soccer and the metric system, is OK for everyone except Americans

#41

Post by riffraff »

nicholassmith wrote: post #25
sjh wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 'football' in the UK, but in most of the rest of the Anglophone world, it's 'soccer'. Australia has its own 'football', as does Ireland.

Oddly in most of Europe it's 'football' as well, EUFA, IFA, Ligue de Football and so on, seems to be quite fractured depending on whereabouts in the world you are, and with the rise in people learning American English through TV/movies/etc I can see it becoming more popular to call it soccer.

it's football in south america too ( Fútbol,Futebol).

Maybe of interest:

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

Re: F1, like soccer and the metric system, is OK for everyone except Americans

#42

Post by Maro »

guelo wrote: post #37

I guess its the international America-hating crew on HN at this hour but come on, this story has nothing to do with tech and is not even a good sports story. It is just a way for smug Europeans to feel superior. Get over yourselves.

But it feels so good. Europe out.

Re: F1, like soccer and the metric system, is OK for everyone except Americans

#43

Post by dnm »

chaosprophet wrote: post #23
nicholassmith wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry I should have said 'previously no American tracks', was typing a bit too fast and I'll fix it.

There was also an F1 GP held at Indianapolis between 2000 and 2007.

I've been an F1 fan since I watched Ayrton Senna get killed 10 minutes after I turned on my first race in '94. Weird, but I was hooked. The last time F1 was run at Indy in 2005 was a disaster. Michelin brought the wrong tires and 14 cars did one lap and pulled into the pits quitting the race.

Re: F1, like soccer and the metric system, is OK for everyone except Americans

#44

Post by nikcub »

> Racing isn’t like professional soccer or curling; something that Americans don’t do.

Soccer it top 5 in the USA in most played for both men and women

> and driving a French car (Renault).

Don't tell Red Bull that their car is French

> Americans are too fond of their ovals

Both NASCAR and Indy race on regular racing circuits. The majority of the Indy season this year, 10 of 15 races, is on regular circuits.

> a 120,000-person capacity track. But, said Weaver, a large part of that audience was from Mexico, Latin America, and South America.

Ridiculous and unsubstantiated. I know a large number of US based fans who went to the race. It averaged 2.2M viewers in the USA.

This article is furthering poor generalizations from both sides of the Atlantic about the various sports.

For a better and more accurate take on F1 in the USA see The Economist:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gametheory/2012/07/formula-on...

Re: F1, like soccer and the metric system, is OK for everyone except Americans

#45

Post by paulyg »

rickmb wrote: post #36

This isn't just a lack of interest in F1, it's an almost complete lack of modern motorsports in general. Oddly enough, for a country where cars are sacred, the US has barely any capability to develop racing cars of any kind (NASCAR is low tech, Indycar, like most other US racing series, buys its cars from Europe), and there is little to no serious competition. There are no modern racetracks (besides Austin), the faci…

"Third world country when it comes to racing." That is total BS. Maybe the problem is people don't know about all the different ways you can go racing in this country. It's a big country and there are a lot of different groups with different interests. Maybe you should check out the SCCA or NASA. Don't tell me there are no feeder open wheel series.

And there is tons of technology going on in the tin-top road racing and autocross world. I know folks working on open source engine management. There is currently an indie-go-go for an open source data acquisition system. The "import scene" is full of turbocharged four cylinder cars. Look at some of the cars we have now b/c auto enthusiasts have been screaming about why does Europe get them and not us: Mini Cooper, Fiat 500 Abarth, Mitsu Evo, Subaru STi, Ford Focus ST, Ford Fiesta ST. There are plenty of people in this country who like to turn left and right and are aware of what is going on in the rest of the world. We just do not make the evening news.

P.S. I also take offense to the metric system comment. I'm an mechanical engineer and in practice have to use both unit systems. I'd love if we could just switch to metric.

Re: F1, like soccer and the metric system, is OK for everyone except Americans

#46

Post by rmccue »

sjh wrote: post #13
smoyer wrote: post #4

I'm American, like F1 and NASCAR but rarely spend time watching either (or any other television). I also prefer to drive on a winding country road in a European touring sedan versus more boring routes. I played soccer (shouldn't he have said football?) when I was younger and I'm fine with the metric system (the real question is why they taught it in elementary schools starting in the '70s, but didn't bother switching…

It's 'football' in the UK, but in most of the rest of the Anglophone world, it's 'soccer'. Australia has its own 'football', as does Ireland.

> Australia has its own 'football'

In fact, we have multiple: 'football' here can refer to rugby league in QLD and NSW, AFL in pretty much every other state (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barassi_Line ), or soccer.

Re: F1, like soccer and the metric system, is OK for everyone except Americans

#47

Post by nicholassmith »

zalew wrote: post #34
nicholassmith wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was when you'd mention Top Gear and 'British' and I put two and two together and got 8. Honestly, you should try at least one race purely to see how aggressive some of the drivers can be. It's similar to the British Touring Car Championships, but even less polite. Superbikes is one of the reasons why I don't watch the F1 as much, it's far more entertaining, the drivers seem to be a lot more humble, and rules aren'…

Rallycross is very cool too, if we're talking only about contact sports. If not, obviously rallies are the shit, mad skillz. Yeah, the rules mess is one of the reasons I kind of lost interest in F1 (the major ones were BMW dropping out and later the Kubica hiatus).

Rallycross is fantastic to watch but mostly organised chaos, which is no bad thing. Rally is fantastic but I've not seen it properly for a number of years now, it got passed pillar to post in the UK so the coverage was always terrible, so I try catch it when I can.

Re: F1, like soccer and the metric system, is OK for everyone except Americans

#48

Post by patrickk »

dnm wrote: post #43
chaosprophet wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was also an F1 GP held at Indianapolis between 2000 and 2007.

I've been an F1 fan since I watched Ayrton Senna get killed 10 minutes after I turned on my first race in '94. Weird, but I was hooked. The last time F1 was run at Indy in 2005 was a disaster. Michelin brought the wrong tires and 14 cars did one lap and pulled into the pits quitting the race.

Senna was before my time, and I'm not even a F1 fan, but watching him in action is a mind-blowing display of skill.

Here's an on-board view of an on-board lap in Australia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOkvo5v5-VU

1400hp engine (in a car body weighing half-nothing), manual transmission (Senna would drive with 1 hand on the wheel a good chunk of the time), no electronic driving aids...pure driving. I've watched documentaries where he would make the car 'dance' in the rain and destroy everyone on the track.

One commentator described his cornering technique - Senna would flick the wheel in the direction of the corner before turning into the bend - allowing him to get the tightest possible racing line, so he would brake less than other drivers.

His famous heel-and-toe technique:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8By2AEsGAhU

Re: F1, like soccer and the metric system, is OK for everyone except Americans

#49

Post by criley »

guelo wrote: post #37

I guess its the international America-hating crew on HN at this hour but come on, this story has nothing to do with tech and is not even a good sports story. It is just a way for smug Europeans to feel superior. Get over yourselves.

It's so rare Europeans get to be superior -- let them have it. They do in fact have superior motorsports. It's okay, whenever an American feels bad, they can just look at the moon or Mars and smile.

Re: F1, like soccer and the metric system, is OK for everyone except Americans

#50

Post by alexkus »

criley wrote: post #49
guelo wrote: post #37

I guess its the international America-hating crew on HN at this hour but come on, this story has nothing to do with tech and is not even a good sports story. It is just a way for smug Europeans to feel superior. Get over yourselves.

It's so rare Europeans get to be superior -- let them have it. They do in fact have superior motorsports. It's okay, whenever an American feels bad, they can just look at the moon or Mars and smile.

We got something to Mars, it just didn't work!
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