TouchedTheAxeIn82

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Jesse was going to get killed off early.

the chemistry with Jesse and Walt was so good in the first few episodes that the creator shifted and killed off Tuco.

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While it's true that the Pinkman character was initially planned to be only in the first season, I'm not sure how much the change (to keep his character) affected Tuco's character. Tuco was supposed to be around longer than he actually was, but the actor who played Tuco said he found it so stressful to become the Tuco character, that he asked to be killed off early. He also had an upcoming schedule conflict with another show he got a role in, so he was happy to end Tuco.

All right, we're just one day from the start of the Australian Grand Prix!!!

FP1 starts on Thursday at 7:30 pm CT.

For the TD F1 Championship, I will lock out predictions one hour before FP1 starts. I previously said Wednesday night, but only about half of the entrants have saved a prediction so far.

If I sent you an e-mail saying you are entered into the 2026 championship because you were entered in the 2025 championship, but you don't think you are going to keep up with it this year, you can still just save a prediction and let it ride the whole season, or just update it occasionally. Just save one prediction list! Do it!

For those who didn't follow pre-season testing closely, see below for the best lap time per team from the Bahrain Test #2. There appear to be three tiers:

Front: Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, Red Bull (the usual suspects)
Mid-field: Alpine, Haas, Audi, VCARB, Williams
Backmarkers: Cadillac, Aston Martin

One site that shall remain nameless did a deeper analysis of the test that included race sim pace and rearranged the order a bit (the brackets on the right show the teams that got swapped).

Predictions for the first race may be wildly off, but this at least gives you a starting point. :lol:

Unless Iran agrees to a ceasefire, they have to cancel the F1 events. A grand prix is too delicious of a target for their missiles. I think the timing for the initial strikes was bad (they should have waited until after the capitalists had their fun). The pressure is now on the US to get Iran to agree to a ceasefire, and bombing the shite out of them isn't going to do it. It's gonna take actual diplomacy and dealmaking. I'm not optimistic but ya never know. :lol:

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Open the Apple app and it tells you the local times for everything

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I just looked at the app. Yes, it's very well presented and easy to see the start time for each session. There's just one problem. The time they give is the start of their coverage, not the start of the session. The practice sessions are listed 20 minutes before the sessions start. The qualy session is listed 35 minutes before it starts. And the race is listed a whole 1 hr 10 m before it actually starts. So a lot of people in the eastern US are going to be surprised and disappointed for this first race on Apple TV.

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time for toto to learn about barber motorsports park

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:lol: I like the track, and I'd love to visit the museum there. But obviously the best natural road course for F1 in the US would be Road America. But neither the track nor F1 are interested. Watkins Glen would be the next obvious US track. And a fan favorite would be Laguna Seca, but it's too short and tight for F1, though the location near Monterey is great.

For a realistic alternative track on short notice, Imola would be the obvious first choice. But my choice would be Algarve (Portimao), where F1 raced in 2020/2021 during COVID. And since the track is scheduled to return to the calendar next year, maybe it's ready to go now. Algarve is one of my all-time favorite sim tracks (along with Silverstone and Suzuka).

If Dixon has already fulfilled the two-softs rule, he's gonna win the race.

Poor innocent Mick.

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Well. They can play it on Netflix too apparently and haven’t they said they’re going to put the US races out for free or something like that?

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Netflix is for the Canadian GP only. But I think you're right, I believe I heard the same thing, that the US races will be free to view in the US. Can't remember how they are going to do that.

Edit: Looked up the announcement.

All practice sessions this year are going to be free to watch. So I guess that means you need to install the app or get on the web site, and you'll need an Apple login, but not a subscription.

"Select races" will also be free to watch. I don't know if they announced which races will be free, but it must include at least one US race if not all of them, plus Monaco.

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I'll watch until May due to $5.99 promo I got at xmas from Apple... Just wanted to watch Severance and the likes again. After that, I'm not worried about it. To each his own, but I'm out.

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While I agree with everyone that it doesn't seem in F1's best interest to take a significant hit to their US viewership by putting it behind another wall, my situation is that I previously subscribed to F1TV, so the switch to Apple TV means my annual cost has gone down, so my situation has improved. :lol:

For those in your situation, where you only signed up for Apple TV because of the Christmas deal (I signed up for that as well), and you expect to drop it when the deal is over, I will second BottomlandBrew's advice and do the following:

1. Go to F1TV and find the button to Activate your account with your Apple TV subscription (it looks like you have to create an F1TV account then link it to your Apple TV subscription): formula1.com/en-us/subscribe-to-f1-tv

2. After they are linked up, you can watch all the F1 sessions via the F1TV system rather than the Apple TV app. You can watch from the F1TV web site or the F1TV app.

3. Download and install the Multiviewer app. It takes a little time to learn how to use it, but it gives you a ton of live information and you can watch the race from multiple viewpoints simulatneously. multiviewer.app

So if you have a favorite driver or team, you can watch the race from the main feed and from the cockpits of your favorite drivers at the same time, as well as having a live timing screen and a track map that shows the position of each driver in real time.

The ideal situation is to have a computer with a large monitor (e.g., I have a 32" monitor) showing the live timing screen and a couple of cockpit views, and a big screen TV in the same room showing the main feed. The only problem with watching the race from separate systems is that they will be out of sync until you adjust the delay in Multiviewer's feeds. Multiviewer users share pictures of their setups (on reddit and Discord), and it can get pretty wild with an array of monitors. :lol:

If you enjoy this enhanced viewing experience, it might convince you to extend your Apple TV subscription. :cheers:

OK, if you would like to join the TD F1 Championship this year, here are the instructions:

1. Write an e-mail to me, using my TD username at gmail. My username is a little tricky so it's best to copy and paste it when entering it as an e-mail address, instead of typing it in manually. :lol:
2. Make sure the Subject line of the e-mail includes: TDF1 and your TD username. The text "TDF1" is important because that's what I will use to automatically tag these e-mails as being for the TDF1 Championship. Your TD username is important because that's how I know who you are on TD.
3. Give me a few days to set everyone up, and I will start sending out return e-mails with your login links.

The Game

1. You will predict the race finish order for all 22 drivers for each race.
2. You can revise your prediction list and save it as many times as you like, but you will only be able to update it until the night before first practice. Once the weekend begins, your prediction is locked in.
3. The scoring system: With your prediction list, each of the 22 drivers' predicted race finishing position will be scored against each driver's actual finishing position. The 22 individual scores will be added up to your total score.
4. The total scores for everyone will be sorted high to low, to create the ranking. The people with the top 10 scores will receive F1 race points. So if you win a race with the top score, you will get 25 points. Your F1 points will be added up for the season to determine your final championship position.
5. After the race results are published, the prediction lists will be unlocked and you will be able to revise and save a new list until night before the next race.

Notes:

1. If you forget to update your prediction list for a race, it's fine, you are OK because your previous prediction is stored in the database and will be used for future races until you update it. So you could create a prediction list just once and let it ride through every race in the season.
2. The game is restricted to members of TD, preferably people who post occasionally to the F1 thread. I realize some people are more lurkers, and that's fine too. But you must have a TD username.

All right, for the 2026 TD F1 championship, tonight after work I will send e-mails to last year's participants. Your login URLs from last year are exactly the same this year, so you are all set. I have updated the code and you can even work on your list now.

dg42.net/TDF1/race-prediction.php (Of course this link won't show you anything. You need to use your full login link.)

The driver tiles on the prediction list now have the team logos, which I think helps see things better at a glance, and they look cool.

Tonight I will also make a post here with instructions for new players on how to join. So check here tomorrow to get started.