Formula One thread

[Bodes]

Mount Panorama is too dangerous for F1 cars. When Buttton went around there, they had to raise the ride height quite a bit just to drive over the big dipper.

Similar story with Phillip Island in between turn 9 (Lukey Heights) and turn 10. Plus the pits are terrible and is a real bitch to get there. Not close enough to an emergency hospital by helicopter either.

Both those corners are the main overtakes in most racing. Although like was stated earlier, F1s don't overtake in corners much, they wait for the DRS zones.

Both those tracks are also a few hours drive from closest airports. Can't have precious rich guests have to travel that far.

Then again, who doesn't want to see F1 drivers actually have to drive their cars?

 

[Vostre Roy]

Mount Panorama is too dangerous for F1 cars. When Buttton went around there, they had to raise the ride height quite a bit just to drive over the big dipper.

Similar story with Phillip Island in between turn 9 (Lukey Heights) and turn 10. Plus the pits are terrible and is a real bitch to get there. Not close enough to an emergency hospital by helicopter either.

Both those corners are the main overtakes in most racing. Although like was stated earlier, F1s don't overtake in corners much, they wait for the DRS zones.

Both those tracks are also a few hours drive from closest airports. Can't have precious rich guests have to travel that far.

Then again, who doesn't want to see F1 drivers actually have to drive their cars?

Yeah I was aware that they'd be some very good reasons why they can't race on Philip Island, and Mount Panorama is waaaaay to crazy for F1 (but so damn fun with GT3 and Super V8 series), but speaking of SV8 series, they race in a number of other tracks that I don't l know but I'm sure that there is one in the lot that could be used.

Anything but street circuit basically, I had at least some hope that Baku would gove a show this year and was left quite disapointed

 

[Bodes]

Yeah I was aware that they'd be some very good reasons why they can't race on Philip Island, and Mount Panorama is waaaaay to crazy for F1 (but so damn fun with GT3 and Super V8 series), but speaking of SV8 series, they race in a number of other tracks that I don't l know but I'm sure that there is one in the lot that could be used.

Anything but street circuit basically, I had at least some hope that Baku would gove a show this year and was left quite disapointed

Too many of the Aussie tracks are not suited to F1. Pits too small, massive upgrades for safety, not long enough, etc.

Only one that is close to F1 standard would be Tailem Bend, which is about 40 min drive from Adelaide. They South Australian government tried to win back the F1s, but as announced this week, Melbourne won the right until 2035.

 

[StevenC]

I actually don't have a problem with Albert Park because, at least, it's a fun enough track to drive, it's in a park so has some geographical constraints, they fixed some of the crap corners, it's been around for 25 years, we have to have an Australian track, we've had Australian drivers in every season for at least the last 20 years and at plenty of other times before that too.

And it's a better circuit than Adelaide and I don't care what any of you say.

 

[Vostre Roy]

Best race of the season, with 12 laps to go and safety car out race just got event better

And that Zhou accident, worse since Grosjean's I'd argue

 

[Vostre Roy]

Yup, loved that race. Great show, and Zhou was back before the race was over, so no injuries

 

[StevenC]

I hate F1 sometimes. Stewards just don't care anymore and to top it off Ferrari fumble into gifting Carlos a win.

Carlos "probably the biggest racist on the grid" Sainz of all people. A sad day for the sport overall.

 

[Vostre Roy]

Stewards just don't care anymore

Are you referencing a particular incident? Can't say I've noticed something out of the current "norms"

As for Ferrari, no clue why they left Leclerc out with old hards. Sainz might be an idiot, be he drove well today.

Perez also deserved his driver of the day, huge comeback

 

[StevenC]

Are you referencing a particular incident? Can't say I've noticed something out of the current "norms"

As for Ferrari, no clue why they left Leclerc out with old hards. Sainz might be an idiot, be he drove well today.

Perez also deserved his driver of the day, huge comeback

Perez overtaking Leclerc by cutting the corner and forcing him off track, then forcing Hamilton off at the next breaking zone is a big one. But generally they just gave up on stewarding after saying forcing off as against the rules at the start of the year. It was a really messy race from most of the front runners and no one got a penalty. Max consistently running Mick off the road, too.

Carlos was the last deserving today honestly. He was slowest and made mistakes. Ferrari were screwing Charles all race or he would have been well clear of Sainz. Without the safety car he would have been an embarrassing 3rd.

 

[SD83]

Since I've not been following pretty much anything outside of the racing itself, could someone elaborate what's the deal with Sainz and racism?
As for the race... the end was wild, but if that was against the rules, you could as well make a rule against punching to the head in boxing. I get that it might not have been perfectly fair driving by everyone involved and it might have been a bit dangerous at times, but what's the point of being ahead of someone in a quicker car through luck or strategy if you can't block him by any means possible? F1 had for many years, at least that's the way I saw it, turned from exciting racing on memorable tracks with legendary drivers into a boring game of chess on wheels. No one was taking any risks (and the few drivers that did almost never stayed for long), and the best and often only chance you had for overtaking was with a better pit stop strategy. And just as my father, I pretty much turned my back to it and if I watched any racing, it was touring cars or rally. Because those had stuff happening on track. As impressive as those cars are from a technological point, as impressive as the driving skill displayed by pretty much everyone is, doing pretty much the same lap times over and over and over again, it's only been in the last few years that it got interesting again. And the last bit of the Silverstone GP was some of the most entertaining racing I saw in the last few years (although I still feel sorry for Leclerc, who should have won that, but I guess Ferrari just isn't overly interested in stuff like championships).

 

[Mathemagician]

Stuff like going 4 wide in the first lap is exciting. The whole race was really. But damn did Ferrari just…be Ferrari. Carlos won in spite of bad calls, but Leclerc could have been well ahead by the end.

 

[Vostre Roy]

Perez overtaking Leclerc by cutting the corner and forcing him off track, then forcing Hamilton off at the next breaking zone is a big one. But generally they just gave up on stewarding after saying forcing off as against the rules at the start of the year. It was a really messy race from most of the front runners and no one got a penalty. Max consistently running Mick off the road, too.

Carlos was the last deserving today honestly. He was slowest and made mistakes. Ferrari were screwing Charles all race or he would have been well clear of Sainz. Without the safety car he would have been an embarrassing 3rd.

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it, I absolutely despise Verstappen's racing style. He's one of the fastest driver on the track, no doubt in my mind about that, but when it comes to overtake or, as seen last race when battling against Mick, defending his position, he sucks. Speaking of the latter, the way he was driving looked like he thought "I'd rather drive us both out than loose another position to a fucking Haas". He has matured a bit this year, but it really gets under my skin that they basically modified the rulebook to allow a car to drive the other off the track if "they haven't passed them at the Apex", which then can be interpreted in favor of a driver over another one depending on the situation.

As for the Ferrari debacle, I can only think that the team wanted to score a maximum of point regardless of whom was winning and since Leclerc had sustained damage on the front wing, they decided to favor Sainz. Right now, 43pts between Verstappen and Leclerc, 63pts between Ferrari and Red Bull. I'd think that they are more confident that they can outscore Red Bulls than Leclerc outscoring Verstappen.

With all said and done, it was still a great race, that battle for the top 5 was wonderful. Next up is the Red Bull Ring, love that one on my simulator games so I'm hopeful for another fun race.

 

[StevenC]

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it, I absolutely despise Verstappen's racing style. He's one of the fastest driver on the track, no doubt in my mind about that, but when it comes to overtake or, as seen last race when battling against Mick, defending his position, he sucks. Speaking of the latter, the way he was driving looked like he thought "I'd rather drive us both out than loose another position to a fucking Haas". He has matured a bit this year, but it really gets under my skin that they basically modified the rulebook to allow a car to drive the other off the track if "they haven't passed them at the Apex", which then can be interpreted in favor of a driver over another one depending on the situation.

As for the Ferrari debacle, I can only think that the team wanted to score a maximum of point regardless of whom was winning and since Leclerc had sustained damage on the front wing, they decided to favor Sainz. Right now, 43pts between Verstappen and Leclerc, 63pts between Ferrari and Red Bull. I'd think that they are more confident that they can outscore Red Bulls than Leclerc outscoring Verstappen.

With all said and done, it was still a great race, that battle for the top 5 was wonderful. Next up is the Red Bull Ring, love that one on my simulator games so I'm hopeful for another fun race.

Verstappen just never had the time in lower formulae to develop racecraft. And instead of throwing the book at him they've made ifs and buts his whole career. This year they said no more at the start of the season, but have evidently given up. He's just a hothead who can brake late, but as we've seen with Daniel, that only works in a Red Bull.

If Ferrari had just let Leclerc past earlier he could have built a gap which would have let him pit under the safety car, which would force Hamilton to pit, which would allow Sainz to pit. Then it's an easy 1-2. Everyone in F1 knows you need to build a gap for the chance of a late safety car.

 

[StevenC]

Since I've not been following pretty much anything outside of the racing itself, could someone elaborate what's the deal with Sainz and racism?

Carlos has a few things. First he has a weird, now deleted I think, video on his Instagram about being in a restaurant in Shanghai. He describes it as very "non-westernised", says he saw a cat, and then says he assumes the food they were served was the cat.

Then there's the whole deal with his family being big supporters of Vox, a far right party in Spain.

Then there was the blackface incident. It surfaced between race 1 and 2 in Austria 2020, he didn't kneel at the first race and he had a small part in the antiracism video. Then the next week the video was reedited to give him an extra line.

He hasn't really ever apologised or commented on any of this stuff which, in my opinion, makes it seem like it's not a big deal to him.

 

[StevenC]

Not sure what the Albon penalty was for. No other Red Bull driver has gotten a penalty for that sort of defending.

 

[Vostre Roy]

Not sure what the Albon penalty was for. No other Red Bull driver has gotten a penalty for that sort of defending.

He's not driving in one of the three top team (Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferarri) so that's a big no-no.

Wanna also talk about the fact that the steward took so long to penalize Checo during the qualy? It basically denied Gasly a chance to run in Q3 should they had actually did their job in a timely matter.

 

[StevenC]

He's not driving in one of the three top team (Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferarri) so that's a big no-no.

Wanna also talk about the fact that the steward took so long to penalize Checo during the qualy? It basically denied Gasly a chance to run in Q3 should they had actually did their job in a timely matter.

And it's not like Perez didn't have other laps deleted. He was only in danger because he kept going wide at 9 and 10. They denied a lap at every other corner pretty much, but they had to think about T8? Such a joke.

 

[StevenC]

Hearing lots of disturbing reports about sexist, homophobic and racist abuse at the Red Bull Ring this weekend. Cat calls, slurs, inappropriate touching, etc from a specific group of fans aimed at everyone else, even staff.

Utterly disgraceful.

 

[BenjaminW]

Are the track limit rules generally this strict or is the Red Bull Ring a particularly strict track regarding track limits? Never seen drivers get lap times deleted, warned, and shown the black/white flag like this.

 

[StevenC]

Are the track limit rules generally this strict or is the Red Bull Ring a particularly strict track regarding track limits? Never seen drivers get lap times deleted, warned, and shown the black/white flag like this.

It's sort of 3 fold this weekend. They said at the start of the year that track limits would be strict (and they generally have been, barring Silverstone), they're trying to make a point after last week, and yeah Österriechring is a historically track limits-y circuit.

You can gain time by going wide at pretty much every corner except T4 and T6, then you can cut T8 easily. They've been deleting lap times for T9 and T10 since the circuit came back, and adding kerbs at T1 and T3 to stop drivers getting a better exit off track. In addition, drivers have been getting penalties for defending on the inside of T4 for time immemorial.

There can be quite good racing here, but also it has a lot of penalties. Which oddly don't kill the racing.