What to watch this Weekend (April 7th - April 12th)

• Formula 1 - Chinese Grand Prix; from Shanghai, China/Shanghai International Circuit. Practice. Friday @ 2am - 3:30am (NBCSN(HD)) live
• The Grand Tour. Season 1 available on demand. Friday (Amazon Prime) replays
• Formula 1 - Chinese Grand Prix; from Shanghai, China/Shanghai International Circuit. Qualifying. Saturday @ 3am - 4:30am (NBCSN(HD)) live
• WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. Bubba Burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach. Saturday @ 4pm - 6:30pm (FOX(HD)) live
• Formula 1 - Chinese Grand Prix; from Shanghai, China/Shanghai International Circuit. Race. Sunday @ 1am - 4:30am (NBCSN(HD)) live 
• IndyCar Series - Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Street track in Long Beach, California. Sunday @ 4pm - 7pm (NBCSN(HD)) live 
• Pirelli World Challenge. Long Beach. Sunday @ 2:30pm - 4pm (CBSSN(HD)) same-day delayed airing  
• Top Gear. Season 24 Episode 5. Sunday @ 8pm - 10pm (BBCAmerica(HD)) new
• Chasing Classic Cars. Tuesday @ 7pm - 7:30pm (VelocityHD) replay
• Motorweek. Tuesday @ 7:30pm - 8pm (VelocityHD) 
• Wheeler Dealers. Wednesday @ 8pm - 9pm (VelocityHD) replay
• Chasing Classic Cars. Season 9 Ep 5. Wednesday @ 9pm - 9:30pm (VelocityHD) new

Loaded weekend ahead, with World Challenge, WSCC, F1 and Indy Car this weekend. We're back at it with F1 with an anticipated follow up to the melee that was the 2017 Australian Grand Prix. There were plenty of retirements, including Alonso after almost holding on to tenth position with a handful of laps left, and unfortunately the hometown hero Ricciardo who had one gearbox problem after another, following a wall impact during FP3. McLaren is still lost, HAAS had a double DNF, but the most significant headline was who won the race. Hams took another pole, followed by Vettel and Bottas, but Vettel took the checkered flag after a keen strategic move by Scuderia Ferrari after Hams pitted on lap 18 for new tires (one stop). Hamilton left the pit with softs into traffic, immediately being help up by Verstappen looking to make his tire strategy work. The difficulty to pass given the 2017 regulation changes seems to be a common thread between all of the drivers post-race. The turbulence from the larger tires and revised under-tray/diffuser seems to work against the benefits of added mechanical grip, aero, power and tire durability. The tires still need to be finessed into the proper operating window and depending on how your out-lap goes you could miss the boat completely, like what appeared to happen to Hamilton. In the end we have the media-banned Ferrari team taking the lead in the drivers championship for the first time in years. Torro Rosso and the pepto-bismol-esque liveried Force Indias all finished in the points, including young Esteban Orcon getting his first career point in his new drive with Force India. Appears we'll have a more interesting Championship fight this year, but I still think Mercedes AMG will take the Constructors for a fourth time unless unreliability comes into play. With the smoke cleared the Driver's Championship standings are as follows: Vettel, Hamilton (-7), Bottas (-10), Raikkonen (-13), Verstappen (-15), Massa (-17). The F1 traveling circus is in Shanghai this weekend to make use of all the data gathered from last week. It should be another great race.

Enjoy your weekends.

Video courtesy of HarrysGarage.

What to watch this Weekend (July 22nd - July 27th)

• Formula 1 - Grand Prix of Hungary; from the Hungaroring in Budapest, Hungary. Practice. Friday @ 11pm - 12:30am (NBCSN(HD)) replay
• Formula 1 - Grand Prix of Hungary; from the Hungaroring in Budapest, Hungary. Qualifying. Saturday @ 8am - 9:30am (CNBC(HD)) live
• IMSA Weathertech Sports Car Championship. Northeast Grand Prix at Limerock Park. Saturday @ 3pm - 6pm (FOX(HD)) live
• Formula 1 - Grand Prix of Hungary; from the Hungaroring in Budapest, Hungary. Race. Sunday @ 7:30am - 10am (NBCSN(HD)) live
• FIA World Endurance Championship. 6 Hours of Nurburgring. Sunday @ 7am - 1pm (FS1(HD)) live
• Chris Harris On Cars. Monday @ 9pm - 9:30pm (BBCAmerica(HD)) new 
• Top Gear (UK). Monday @ 9:30pm - 11pm (BBCAmerica(HD)) replay 
• Motorweek. Tuesday @ 7:30pm - 8pm (VelocityHD)
• Chasing Classic Cars. Tuesday @ 10pm - 10:30pm (VelocityHD) new 
• Wheeler Dealers. Mini-marathon. Wednesday @ 6pm - 9pm (VelocityHD) new

Eff you Tour de France; last race it lead to some crap F1 coverage and we're in the same boat again this weekend, with P2 not being aired live on the NBC networks. It's hard to bash solely NBC though, FOX effed up F1 coverage when they were handling it years back, too. But I digress; where we last left off, Rosberg was looking to get back into the swing of things heading into one of Lewis' favorite circuits, his home circuit @ Silverstone. Well as we all suspected, that didn't happen. What we didn't know was going to happen is that Red Bull has officially eclipsed Ferrari in pace, and Vettel is having some pretty terrible luck to go along with errors in strategy through this point. Random British weather was the name of the game, affecting both qualy and the race. Rain in Q3 lead to one of the more exciting knockout sessions of the year, with the top ten being determined by flyers as the track dried out. Some jumped on slicks too early and paid the price; the same would come into play during the race, which started in the rain behind the safety car. Young Verstappen finished both qualy and the race in third position, but due to Rosberg getting bailed out by his team over the radio late in the race, his 10 second time penalty put Max in second. This is pretty important, because this drop in points for Rosberg affects the drivers championship standings. Verstappen has been damn good this season and since joining the varsity Red Bull team he's accomplished quite a bit, which Ricciardo will need to keep his eyes on. Raikkonen resigned with Ferrari, Ricciardo made his intentions clear about staying with Red Bull; Rosberg is in a contract year. With the checkered flag dropped, the Driver's Championship standings are as follows: Rosberg, Hamilton (-1), Raikkonen (-62), Ricciardo (-68), Vettel (-70), Verstappen (-78). Ricciardo's consistency has brought him up to fourth, Vettel has dropped out of the top three and Raikkonen's consistency has brought him ahead of his 'Number 1 at Ferrari' teammate. Hungary should be entertaining.

 Enjoy your weekends.

Video courtesy of YouCar. 

What to watch this Weekend (July 7th - July 13th)

• V8 Supercars. Darwin Triple Crown. Thursday @ 7pm - 8pm (CBSSN(HD)) delayed airing 6/18-6/19
• Pirelli World Challenge. From Road America. Thursday @ 8pm - 10pm (CBSSN(HD)) delayed airing from 6/23-6/26
• Formula 1 - British Grand Prix; from Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England. Practice (1). Friday @ 3pm - 4:30pm (NBCSN(HD)) replay
• Formula 1 - British Grand Prix; from Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England. Qualifying. Saturday @ 8am - 9:30am (NBCSN(HD)) live
• Formula 1 - British Grand Prix; from Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England. Race. Sunday @ 7:30am - 10:30am (CNBC(HD)) live; replay @ 2:30pm on NBCSN
• United Sports Car Championship. Mobil1 Sportscar Grand Prix. From Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Clarington, ON. Sunday @ 11am - 2pm (FS1(HD)) live
• Chris Harris On Cars. Monday @ 9pm - 9:30pm (BBCAmerica(HD)) new
• Top Gear (UK). Monday @ 9:30pm - 11pm (BBCAmerica(HD)) replay
• Motorweek. Tuesday @ 7:30pm - 8pm (VelocityHD)
• Top Gear America. Tuesday @ 9pm - 10pm (HistoryChannel(HD)) 
• Chasing Classic Cars. Tuesday @ 10pm - 10:30pm (VelocityHD) new 
• Wheeler Dealers. Wednesday @ 9pm - 10pm (VelocityHD) new

Top Gear UK Season 23 ends and Chris Evans leaves the show, capping off the swirling rumors of his need for control and Matt LeBlanc not wanting to work with him. After watching the new season and seeing Chris Harris kill it with his short films, I remembered that he could do a show on his own filled with sweet car reviews and wished he would return to the interwebs. Then I saw an advert for Chris Harris On Cars the TV show airing next Monday @ 9pm on BBC America. Glad he's back to giving the people what they want. Back to Top Gear UK, though, it was rough to start, but episode 6 was decent, despite it being a collection of solo-acts until the final presenters showdown. Word is they'll be looking for a more subtle and witty lead Brit for season 24, to bring the ratings back up, but it will take seasons to build the fans back up again. Top Gear was it's presenters, not the production, but I hope it turns around as the world needs more car shows. That said, I'm looking forward to The Grand Tour.

We have F1 races, back to back, twice this month (!) so we're back at em' after that nutty ending in Austria that left the locals booing Hams on the top step for really no reason other than loving their neighbor-ish countryman, German driver Rosberg, despite him going out of his way to wreck Hams rather then be passed on the last lap. Rosberg is officially holding onto his Championship hopes with his fingernails and he'll be passed before long if this is his only tactic. If Toto and Nikki want to enforce team rules because Rosberg likes aggressively defending Hamilton's advances, with less than desirable results, then this will eventually turn into Hamilton getting the team order nod(s) when he more than likely takes over the Driver's Championship points lead in another few weeks. We'll see how this plays out this weekend at Silverstone. To recap; rain made qualifying more than interesting, controversial curbing updates and four cars with broken rear suspension prior to the race. Jenson Button starts 3rd for the first time since 2014 (qualy'd 5th), then finished 6th. Both Toro Rosso's DNF'd, Force India is still fast and Hulkenberg qualified 3rd. Ferrari is still fast, but a tire strategy gamble the team put Vettel on lead to a spectacular shredded right-rear supersoft, ping-pong, DNF. Vettel, much like the last time this happened (@ Spa last Summer), Pirelli was thrown under the bus. Perez had a brake failure on the last lap of the race that put him in the wall, for a gutting DNF, but this lead to Wehrlein getting a single point for Manor; he also put the Manor into Q2 with a strong outing and was generally quick all weekend. Speaking of benefiting off the error of others, Rosberg's destruction of his front wing lead to Verstappen snagging 2nd and Raikkonen 3rd, rounding out the podium. Kimi is supposedly racing for his job (sound familiar?), so he held the Ferrari torch for the weekend; and coincidentally he's now tied with Vettel in the Driver's Championship. Verstappen went on a one stop strategy to leap frog his teammate and used his old softs to hold off Kimi through the checkered flag. Alonso DNF'd due to mechanical failure late, again. Haas is still scoring points and the team now has 28, just behind McLaren Mercedes. With the smoke clear the Driver's Championship standing are as follows: Rosberg, Hamilton (-11), Vettel (-57), Raikkonen (-57), Ricciardo (-65), Verstappen (-81). This weekend in England should be another entertaining race.

Enjoy your weekends.

Video courtesy of CarThrottle.

What to watch this Independence Day Weekend (June 30th - July 6th)

• Formula 1 - Austrian Grand Prix; from the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. Practice. Friday @ 8am - 9:30am (NBCSN(HD)) live; replay @ 10:30pm
• Formula 1 - Austrian Grand Prix; from the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. Qualifying. Saturday @ 8am - 9:30am (CNBC(HD)) live; replay @ 12pm (NBCSN(HD))
• World Rally Championship. Poland. Sunday @ 3am - 4pm, 6am - 7am (MAVTV) live
• Formula 1 - Austrian Grand Prix; from the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. Race. Sunday @ 7:30am - 10:30pm (CNBC(HD)) live
• United Sports Car Championship. Six hours of the Glen. From Watkins Glen International Raceway in New York. Sunday @ 10am - 4:30pm (FS1(HD)) live
•  Pirelli World Challenge. Road America. Sunday @ 3pm - 5pm (CBSSN(HD)) delayed airing from 6/25-6/26
• Top Gear (UK). Season 23 - Episode 6. Monday @ 9pm - 11pm (BBCAmerica(HD)) new
• Motorweek. Tuesday @ 7:30pm - 8pm (VelocityHD)
• Top Gear America. Tuesday @ 9pm - 10pm (HistoryChannel(HD)) new
• Chasing Classic Cars. Tuesday @ 10pm - 10:30pm (VelocityHD) new
• Wheeler Dealers. Wednesday @ 9pm - 10pm (VelocityHD) new

We gots a great few days of motorsport ahead, but more importantly Independence Day here in the States. Look forward to the 6hrs of the Glen, Pirelli World Challenge, WRC, Top Gear, new eps of the regulars and F1 returns to Austria. Last go around, Nico got back to his winning ways, Vettel and Ferrari is still strong, but not quite on the level of the silver arrows, and Force India is turning into the surprise team of the season with Checo taking 3rd place for two races in a row. Hamilton's woes seem to be back, the tight street track of Baku catching him out on multiple occasions during the weekend. He started 10th due to issues during Q3 and finished 5th in the race primarily due to some settings glitch that had his Mercedes short on power for several laps. Ricciardo and Verstappen of Redbull may have pitted too early on the supersofts and fell victim to the one stop strategy of the majority of other front runners. Baku retired several cars and multiple people put their car in the concrete walls throughout the weekend, but was seen as positive by most of the paddock. With the smoke clear the Driver's Championship standings are as follows: Rosberg, Hamilton (-24), Vettel (-46), Raikkonen (-60), Ricciardo (-63), Verstappen (-87). Austria should be a race to see.

Enjoy your weekends.

Video courtesy of Lemans15.

What to watch this Weekend (April 29th - May 4th)

• Formula 1 - Russian Grand Prix; from the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia. Practice. Friday @ 7am - 9am (NBCSN(HD)) live
• Formula 1 - Russian Grand Prix; from the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia. Qualifying. Saturday @ 8am - 9:30am (CNBC(HD)) live
• Formula 1 - Russian Grand Prix; from the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia. Race. Sunday @ 7am - 10:30am (CNBC(HD)) live
• IMSA United Sports Car Championship - From Laguna Seca raceway in California. Sunday @ 2pm - 4:30pm (FS1(HD)) live
• Pirelli World Challenge. GT racing at Barber Motorsports Park. Sunday @ 4pm - 6pm (CBSSN(HD)) delayed airing from 4/24 
• Chasing Classic Cars. Tuesday @ 7pm - 7:30pm (VelocityHD) replay
• Motorweek. Tuesday @ 7:30pm - 8pm (VelocityHD) replay
• Legendary Motorcar. Tuesday @ 10pm - 10:30pm (VelocityHD) new
• Wheeler Dealers. Mini-Marathon. Wednesday @ 6pm - 10pm (VelocityHD)

There is a trailer load of motorsports this weekend with USCC, World Challenge and F1. Nico is on a roll, winning his sixth in a row, knockout qualy is back, Ham's car troubles put him at the back of the field to start, Ferrari looked like the fastest in Q2, but Mercedes put the hammer down in Q3, Redbull is very fast, Ferrari's touched on the opening lap and Vettel blames Kvyat, Vettel finishes 2nd, Kvyat 3rd, Ricciard 4th, Raikkonen 5th, Haas is still good but didn't have such a great outing, Hams clawed back to finish 7th, Massa is still consistent, Alonso is back in the seat and finished just ahead of Button. The driver standings are as follows: Rosberg, Hamilton (-36), Ricciardo (-39), Vettel (-42), Raikkonen (-47).

Enjoy your weekends.

Video courtesy of Shmee150.

What to watch this Weekend (April 15th - April 20th)

• Formula 1 - Chinese Grand Prix; from Shanghai, China/Shanghai International Circuit. Practice. Friday @ 2am - 3:30am (NBCSN(HD)) live
• Mecum Auto Auctions. Houston. Friday @ 12pm - 6:30pm (NBCSN(HD) live
• Formula 1 - Chinese Grand Prix; from Shanghai, China/Shanghai International Circuit. Qualifying. Saturday @ 3am - 4:30am (NBCSN(HD)) live
• FIA WEC. Silverstone. Saturday @ 7am - 9am (FS1), 9am - 1pm (FS2) live
• United Sports Car Championship. Bubba Burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach. Saturday @ 7pm - 9pm (FS2(HD)) & fanschoice.tv live
• Formula 1 - Chinese Grand Prix; from Shanghai, China/Shanghai International Circuit. Race. Sunday @ 1:30am - 4am (NBCSN(HD)) live
• IndyCar Series - Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Street track in Long Beach, California. Sunday @ 4pm - 7pm (NBCSN(HD)) live 
• Pirelli World Challenge. Long Beach. Sunday @ 2pm - 4pm (CBSSN(HD)) live  
• Chasing Classic Cars. Tuesday @ 7pm - 7:30pm (VelocityHD) replay
• Motorweek. Tuesday @ 7:30pm - 8pm (VelocityHD) replay
• Legendary Motorcar. Tuesday @ 10pm - 10:30pm (VelocityHD) new
• Wheeler Dealers. Caterham 7. Wednesday @ 7pm - 10pm (VelocityHD)

Plenty of mospo this weekend, but let do a quick catchup on F1. Rosberg is on a roll, Haas F1 and Grosjean are on a roll, Vettel's engine blew up, Hamilton got lucky to not DNF'd after Bottas tapped him, Vandoorne could be one of the best ever and put McLaren in the points, Massa had a decent race, medium tires didn't provide long lasting performance, you don't want to qualify in 8th, FIA is sticking to their qualy format, but there will be new changes to it. Button DNF'd, Alonso is still trying to get a clean bill of health, Ricciardo is quick with this rebadged engine and Kimi finally got on the podium. China should be outstanding. With the smoke cleared the drivers standings are now as follows: Rosberg, Hamilton (-17), Ricciardo (-26), Raikkonen (-32), Grosjean (-32), Vettel (-35), Massa (-36).

Enjoy your weekends.

Video courtesy of KingsPerformanceRace.