Gasly given a drive through penalty, which will play out as a 20 second time penalty. He also earned 2 penalty points on his license

Japanese Grand Prix Review

 

 

Best driver:

Worst driver:

Best team:

Worst team:

Best overtake:

Worst overtake:

Best moment:

Worst moment:

Best thing about the race:

Worst thing about the race:

 

And the race in a sentence:

Gasly given a drive through penalty, which will play out as a 20 second time penalty. He also earned 2 penalty points on his license

Amazing it’s taken them until now to sort this given they had a million hours of red flag stoppage time

Best driver: Verstappen

Worst driver: Gasly

Best team: Red Bull

Worst team: Haas

Best overtake: Verstappen on Leclerc (it sort of counts)

Worst overtake: Any of those on Schumacher

Best moment: Vettel Vs Alonso

Worst moment: Take your pick - a recovery truck on the track or Gasly going Harry Flatters through double yellows and barely slowing after the red flag came out

Best thing about the race: Suzuka in the wet is always eventful

Worst thing about the race: That lessons are still to be learnt on safety in the wet, and this includes the drivers

 

And the race in a sentence: Verstappen crushes the field after finishing 26 seconds ahead after only 28 laps.

Why on earth did they put out a crane immediately? They'd already red flagged the race, they literally had 2 hours to remove Sainz's car. Also, even if Gasly was travelling slowly he could easily lose the car in those conditions. Its absolutely horrendous and indefensible imo...

 

And major eye roll at the stewards giving Leclerc a pen after 2 minutes yet took about 5 hours to give Perez one last week for a similar black and white offence.

 

Ngl tho the confusion about whether Max won the title or not was absolutely hilarious. No one thought to actually clarify the half points rule during the entire event? f*** knows what the rules are anymore it seems there's something new and contentious every single race now. At least they're getting their Drive To Survive drama this season in absence of a title fight.

Why on earth did they put out a crane immediately? They'd already red flagged the race, they literally had 2 hours to remove Sainz's car. Also, even if Gasly was travelling slowly he could easily lose the car in those conditions. Its absolutely horrendous and indefensible imo...

The race wasn't red flagged before the crane was out. As Gasly approaches the hairpin the red lights appear on the trackside and his steering wheel. He proceeds to accelerate out of the corner to high speed but encounters the crane on the straight. It was definitely deployed too soon, the Japanese marshal crew are known for their impressively quick response and under dry conditions this would have been applauded. However, the rules make no differentiation for wet or dry conditions and the marshals did exactly as they were instructed.

 

There's definitely a conversation to be had about car recovery on a wet track. That is one issue that needs sorting - ideally no recovery vehicles on track until ALL CARS are behind the Safety Car.

 

The second and separate issue is that Gasly pitted, which the marshals hadn't anticipated, meaning he was separate from the rest of the field and gunning it to catch up. Pierre knew or at least should have been informed by his team, that Sainz's car was stranded at the edge of the track and controlled by double waved yellows - meaning be prepared to stop. Then it turned red BEFORE he reached the accident site and he failed to observe a speed close enough to th mandated limit. Regardless of the presence of the truck, Gasly had to at the very least expect marshals on track. The vehicle on track is bad - terrible even - but even if it wasn't there had he lost control at that point he could have killed a marshal or collided with the stranded Ferrari. His comments afterwards aren't invalid but he wasn't seeing the whole picture and I'm sure he's smart enough to reflect on that.

 

It was the most egregious example of reckless endangerment of track staff that I've seen in years and his penalty was bit of a let off to be honest. The onboard camera from the Ferrari shows quite clearly how fast Gasly was going and it was far too quick even for double yellows.

 

And major eye roll at the stewards giving Leclerc a pen after 2 minutes yet took about 5 hours to give Perez one last week for a similar black and white offence.

 

Slam dunk on this one. No need to speak to the driver as it was clear cut. Singapore required a conversation with Checo and they rightly gave him a penalty even though precedent was Bottas at Jeddah getting off without no reaction. They took too long in Singapore and were fairly criticised, then when they act promptly they get critcised...

 

Edited October 9, 20222 yr by Severin

Well from what I understood Gasly was driving within his Delta when it was under yellows so when he was accelerating out of the hairpin then I assume it was to catch up to that. Then it turned red literally 2 seconds before he reached the crane which is certainly not enough time to react accordingly. The onboard Ferrari shot does look bad on Gasly I must admit. I think the crane being there gave no thought to the visibility aspect either, irrespective of the track conditions. Alonso said he literally didn't even see it when he passed it under the SC!

 

Slam dunk on this one. No need to speak to the driver as it was clear cut. Singapore required a conversation with Checo and they rightly gave him a penalty even though precedent was Bottas at Jeddah getting off without no reaction. They took too long in Singapore and were fairly criticised, then when they act promptly they get critcised...

 

Oh for the record it was good to see the quick penalty for this race and rightly so, don't think there's any arguments it was a pen but the Singapore one left a bad taste in my mouth tbh. I just hate the fact that they could do the whole podium ceremony, everyone switches off thinking they know the result only to find hours later it gets subsequently overturned - this has happened before at Spa 2008. Falling over 10 car lengths behind the SC does not require a conversation with the offending driver imo, who will obviously plead their innocence anyway. The rule itself (or at least the application) is very murky here, Perez did it 3 times in total. The Bottas one you mention. Then you had Vettel doing it in Hungary 2010 getting a drive through!

Best driver: Verstappen [another maxsterclass]

Worst driver: Sainz [loves a lap 1 fail]

Best team: Red Bull

Worst team: Alfa Romeo [they will be so lucky to hang onto 6th in the standings]

Best overtake: Magnussen on Stroll [Degner 1 in the wet, me like]

Worst overtake: Can't remember any bad ones, most drivers rightly erring on the cautious side]

Best moment: The Perez vs Leclerc battle was edge of your seat stuff

Worst moment: Tractor on track

Best thing about the race: The sheer hilarity of no one knowing whether Max won the title

Worst thing about the race: We only got half a race

 

And the race in a sentence: a title and 12 wins so far, no one can stop Max and his car

Well from what I understood Gasly was driving within his Delta when it was under yellows so when he was accelerating out of the hairpin then I assume it was to catch up to that. Then it turned red literally 2 seconds before he reached the crane which is certainly not enough time to react accordingly. The onboard Ferrari shot does look bad on Gasly I must admit. I think the crane being there gave no thought to the visibility aspect either, irrespective of the track conditions. Alonso said he literally didn't even see it when he passed it under the SC!

Oh for the record it was good to see the quick penalty for this race and rightly so, don't think there's any arguments it was a pen but the Singapore one left a bad taste in my mouth tbh. I just hate the fact that they could do the whole podium ceremony, everyone switches off thinking they know the result only to find hours later it gets subsequently overturned - this has happened before at Spa 2008. Falling over 10 car lengths behind the SC does not require a conversation with the offending driver imo, who will obviously plead their innocence anyway. The rule itself (or at least the application) is very murky here, Perez did it 3 times in total. The Bottas one you mention. Then you had Vettel doing it in Hungary 2010 getting a drive through!

But Gasly should not be accelerating to reach his delta time as that section, before it went red, was under double waved yellows which means drive slow enough that you are prepared to stop. He wasn't doing that either. Gasly should know that Sainz's car is there, possibly with him in it, debris on track and certainly with marshals present. The crane being there is wrong but it's a separate issue from Gasly's pace which is dangerous with or without a crane there.

 

 

 

On the second point I agree with you, penalties should be administered as quickly as possible and with consistency, which hasn't been the case with the 10 car lengths gap recently. The Vettel drive through is less relevant though as it was the most lenient penalty available at the time. I think if the stewards feel the need total to a driver, then they must have a good reason. There's something they're seeing in the data that requires clarification and we as the viewing public just don't have that info to make as informed a decision as it appears. It is very frustrating though

 

 

 

funny that 10-20 years ago I was always wishing for rain so races would be more exciting and favor the better pilots instead of the cars

and they never cancelled or delayed any race even if rain was heavy

Not I never wish for rain cos 3 drops and race delayed or cancelled

I Miss the days when you’d see rank amateurs go sliding off at 5kmh into a collection of abandoned cars at turn 1

 

 

 

Gasly for his part has owned up to driving too fast through T14/15 for The flagged conditions at the time of the incident.

 

 

@1579110418936901640

 

@1579110842553229314

 

It’s nice to see a driver partly own up to their mistakes, but he was still too fast through sections of track under double yellow in horrific conditions.

 

 

 

 

Second time under these conditions that Suzuka has endangered the safety and life of drivers and marshals. IF it is clear that nothing was learned from 2014 in terms of personal or protocols then Suzuka should be blacklisted by the FIA as a venue that is simply just unsafe to participate at. Don’t care if Honda owns it or not. This is the second time in a decade that this exact scenario has happened and we are just lucky we’re not dealing with another death or serious accident. Suzuka is the only circuit I can think of in the almost 20 years I’ve been watching F1 where this has happened twice. There probably is more and Someone with better memories than me will be able to correct me, but I can’t think off the top of my head of another circuit that’s even done this once, never mind had a fatal accident and then still made the same basic mistake again

 

At the very minimum the person who authorised the tractor to go on a live circuit should be sacked. Not sure if it was a marshal or the race director. But whoever they are should have known better and should pay the price for their reckless negligence and endangerment

The only comparable incident I can recall was Nurburgring 2007 where Liuzzi actually did clip a recovery tractor (at extremely low speeds). He actually would have completely wiped out the safety car too if the driver didn't floor it round turn 1 just in time.

 

Then there was Turkey 2020 qualifying where Q2 was given the green flag despite there still being a tractor after turn 8, that was sketchy AF.

Edited October 10, 20222 yr by Dobbo.

Yeah, you only have to look at yesterday, when Bottas was calling it too dangerous to race and compare that with the 1994 Japanese race when Damon Hill momentarily achieved greatness, or '76 with Hunt, and those guys were in far less protective cars. The Bianchi incident has had a huge impact on the attitude towards wet weather races but the cars are very much to blame as well, being significantly larger the tyres throw up a lot more spray than they would have in the same conditions back then, as well as being designed with less emphasis on wet weather running. Add to that the new ground effect designs also throw a lot water and you've got a situation where drivers are far more likely to be cautious. Certainly, they will all remember Jules and it will have affected them of course but compare this with Jackie Stewart who was attending at least one funeral a month and related how he tried to count the number of friends he'd lost in racing accidents but gave up after he counted fifty.

I'm not suggesting they're over-protected these days, and any death in a race is one too many, and nor should it be accepted as part of the sport like it once was, but that the advances in technology and safety mean this generation of drivers have the luxury of competing in the safest ever era of an inherently dangerous sport, and it should also be remembered that the Bianchi incident was the result of a combination of multiple factors of which the weather was only one, and that, of the 52 drivers killed in F1 cars, whether in races, tests or historic events since 1950, Jules Bianchi is the only one where wet weather was an element.

Aaaah yes Nürburgring 2007 was the exact race I was thinking about, for some reason I thought of Fuji, but it was Nürburgring where we had a bunch of rank amateurs all go pinging off into the gravel. Think the saving grace for Liuzzi vs Jules was that T1 is such a low speed corner that you’re already approaching the gravel at a lower speed, he clipped the inside barrier on the straight which also took energy out of the car, and then he tapped the tractor with his rear wing rather than side on (a tractor that was trying to get out of the gravel as fast as it could but the pack was also behind the safety car)

 

 

They should have left f***ing Hamilton beached tho

 

We need to go back to Nürburgring. 2007 was a hilarious race

It's been reported that the FIA will release the cost cap certs at 5pm UK time. Just in time for everyone to be out of the office when the press want to ask questions.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the craziest starts to a Grand Prix, enjoy these highlights with Murray Walker commentating for 5 Live as a one-off.

 

 

@1579370153703542785

 

 

Not one marshal stopped to think of the consequences? Has anyone learned anything from 2014?

Red Bull have been found guilty of breaking Formula 1's budget cap by the sport's governing body, the FIA.

 

Red Bull exceeded the $145m (£114m) limit during 2021, the FIA said, adding that the offence was "minor", the lower of the two categories of breach.

 

This means the team exceeded the cap by less than 5%, or $7.25m. Both Red Bull and Aston Martin were found guilty of a procedural breach of the cap.

 

The FIA said it was "currently determining appropriate action".

 

Both teams have the possibility of appealing against the decision.

 

A statement added: "With respect to this first year of the application of the financial regulations, the intervention of the FIA cost-cap administration has been limited to reviewing the submissions made by the competitors and that no full formal investigations were launched."

 

A procedural breach is not an overspend, but rather a failure to fill in forms correctly. Williams were also found guilty of this and fined $25,000 earlier this year.

McLaren F1 boss Zak Brown has written a letter to governing body the FIA in which he says Red Bull breaking the budget cap "constitutes cheating".

 

Brown calls for penalties that will hit Red Bull financially and on the track.

 

"Any team who have overspent have gained an unfair advantage both in the current and following year's car development," he writes.

 

Brown adds the FIA should "communicate subsequent action and penalties at pace to maintain the integrity of F1".

FP1 sees an array of "young driver" substitutions, with Alex Palou, Logan Sargeant, Théo Pourchaire and Robert Shwartzman all featuring.

 

 

FP2 is extended to 90 minutes to belatedly allow Pirelli to test out the 2023 compounds.

 

 

And in what feels like forever, it's forecast to be a fully-dry, baking-hot weekend. I daresay, a proper grand prix! :D

 

Welcome to Round 19 of the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship for the US Grand Prix.