Formula 1-2022 Season

In reply to alfadriver :

Glad to see people getting on the sorry to see you go Nicky bus!  He seems like a nice enough person but he doesn't appear to have the chops to advance the cause at this level. 

In reply to NY Nick :

He's a nice enough person, but has he ever really been better than his teammate?  Or even really competitive?

It's not as if I want to see him fail- his dad isn't Lawrence Stroll, afterall.

In reply to alfadriver :

Agreed. He seems nice. I think Stroll is a better driver. He at least seems to hold his own against his teammates. 

Finally get some passing in a sprint race.  And the result makes tomorrow very interesting at the start- with Max, Chuck, Checo and Carlos in order.  Can Carlos gain a spot the start and really mess with the red bull strategy?

Haas tried something different, but that very much didn't work- the tires didn't wear out on the other cars like they expected- well, other than LeClerc's tires.

Disappointing to watch K-Mag fall back so much, but at least he brings home another point.  Neat to see both Haas cars starting in the top 10 tomorrow. 

It was a DRS pass, but I thought the move Max put on LeClerc was great.  He was setting that up for a while.

Whether you like the idea of the Sprint race or not, one thing's for sure, it makes for an edge of your seat time as it's do or die almost from the get go - no tire changes and no worries about running out of gas!

This one was no exception - Max on pole and Char right beside him and again Max did not get a good start - tho he did manage to stay in 2nd.

Kmag slid down the order as DRS became available, but it was fun watching Mick climbing up the order - I think he's learning from Kmag, and of course having a better car always helps.

Both Sainz and Pez had a good race, each moving forward - in the end Max used DRS on the penultimate lap to get past Char and LeClerc was not able to do the same before the end, just like the race in Saudi.

Finishing order Red Bull, Ferrari, Red Bull, Ferrari......the rest

The two McLarens look like they're starting to come around too, while the Mercedes mostly looked woeful.....the Haminator lost 2 places at the start and only managed to get one back in the race, Russell didn't do much better losing one and gaining one back to finish where he started, in 11th......so the Mercs will start 11th and 14th tomorrow. Funny thing is, Russell was fastest in FP2 this morning.....

Rain is forecast for the race tomorrow, so it could get real interesting - some guys really shine in the rain, and it does tend to equalize the performance across the field so we could have a real interesting race with some new faces on the podium

HAAS will be starting 8th and 10th tomorrow, maybe Mick can get his first points of his F1 career?

Rain makes it fun for sure. 

I didn't find the sprint race terribly interesting for some reason. The move Sainz pulled to make a non-DRS pass was probably the highlight. Otherwise it was mostly DRS trains and a DRS pass for the lead - the first lead change in a sprint race.

The announcers congratulating Max for staying on the track after making his pass was pretty funny - that was a move several laps in the making, a much more strategic drive than we use to see from Max. He wouldn't have done that a couple of years ago. Heck, I'm not sure he would have done it last year. He would have just sent it up the inside and then complained that LeClerc "turned in on him". This was a lot more impressive and ultimately effective. 

Do you suppose if we started a letter writing campaign, Sky would fire Nico Rosberg?  Gossip-ey little bee-atch.

I thought they had some sort of ban on flyovers except for petrodictators?

What has happened with Saintz?  He's just been a mess this year.  Any opportunity to throw a car into the gravel, it seems like Saintz's number comes up.

I don't think Sainz could have done anything different. I really don't like the rule that if your car stops you're done. To me going to 20th is enough punishment. That car is fine, push it back on the track. 

In reply to NY Nick :

Yeah, he was a passenger in that adventure.  I feel for the guy and his bad luck.

How weird is it to see the Haas pull away from the Mercedes

wae said:

I thought they had some sort of ban on flyovers except for petrodictators?

I don't think F1 can control a country's airspace, if they happen to be doing some practice up there so be it 

I think the only one DRS benefited was Leclerc after his berkeley-up, otherwise it didn't add anything to that race like th Sky guys thought it would. The cars are so close to not needing it, hopefully they get there as that racing early on with Russel and Bottas getting past Kevin was great and creative. More of that, less replays of cars driving past each other down the straight.

No blown up Hondas, not well done for Ferrari, and wowsers, does Mercedes need some horsepower.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

The Red Bull and AT are very quick on the straights. Tsunoda just drove past Vettel towards the end but on the same note I'm surprised Gasly didn't have anything for Albon.

Mercedes needs to get a bit more creative and take some risks with a car running further down the order. If they had pulled Hamilton in a lap earlier (still a lap after Ricardo, not sure why they put hards on his car as that did not work at all) he could have had a much better day. 

adam525i said:

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

The Red Bull and AT are very quick on the straights. Tsunoda just drove past Vettel towards the end but on the same note I'm surprised Gasly didn't have anything for Albon.

Other than the Red Bull, I think the whole Gasley v Albon battle suggest that the Mercedes engine isn't as bad as everyone thinks.  There were more than enough times that Gasley should have passed the Williams had it been that big of an advantage- all of which never happened.  And there were *some* times Hamilton was able to get into a position to pass even with both cars having/not DRS.  

Given the race he had, I'd honestly give driver of the day to Albon- leading a DRS train that nobody could pass even as the tires wore out in supposedly a bad car.

adam525i said:

Mercedes needs to get a bit more creative and take some risks with a car running further down the order. If they had pulled Hamilton in a lap earlier (still a lap after Ricardo, not sure why they put hards on his car as that did not work at all) he could have had a much better day. 

That was the same lap Lewis thought it was too wet to even try.  

But I also wonder had his stop been nominal- how much would that have mattered?  Would have been in front of Ocon, for sure.  As much as Lewis struggled, his team didn't help much keeping him out of that spot.

I had a bit of a nap mid race.  Did Ocan get a penalty for the unsafe release?  That was pretty bad.

Yeah, 5 second Penalty 

Lots of close following this race - Mercedes and AT sure have solid data on how their cars behave when following close for most of a race! - but not all that much passing. Mercedes gave pit stop priority to their leading driver, as they should, and then Alpine screwed Hamilton with that unsafe release. DRS makes no difference in a train so it got boring. Remember that the radio calls are delayed so Hamilton's "not yet" message could have been from a lap earlier.

Man, bummer for LeClerc but that was all on him. 

What we needed was for the rain to come back around 5 laps from the end and it might have been a lot more interesting :) 

Watching the post race.  Really, can we shut Nico up completely?  What a little weasel.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

Nico is Nico's biggest fan. He's so annoying.