April 5, 20232 yr Yeah but you can't just annul a race result should a team or driver crash deliberately. Or else you could potentially get Red Bull ordering an Alpha Tauri driver to crash on purpose in a race that Merc or Ferrari are winning. Only thing comparable with Abu Dhabi is that neither have any chance of being overturned. There's never been any precedent for retrospectively changing or cancelling a result outside of penalties, only example I can think of is Brazil 2003 but that was to do with lap countback, not foul play. Also do you really still blame Glock :P had he pitted for wets like most other drivers he'd have already been behind Lewis.
April 5, 20232 yr Author Both Massa and Hamilton made a bunch of errors that year, for instance Massa crashed out the points in Australia (colliding with Coulthard), he spun out of the race in Malaysia, he spun 5 times in Great Britain. Hamilton hitting Alonso in Bahrain, that move in Japan, crashing into Raikkonen in the pit lane in Canada, getting a drive-through penalty in France for cutting the corner, on the wrong tires in Italy in qualifying, forcing Raikkonen wide in Japan in Turn 1 and getting a drive-through penalty. 2008 is done and should be closed.
April 5, 20232 yr Yeah but you can't just annul a race result should a team or driver crash deliberately. Or else you could potentially get Red Bull ordering an Alpha Tauri driver to crash on purpose in a race that Merc or Ferrari are winning. Firstly, the FIA can if they so wish, just as much as they can cancel a Russian GP on you if they see fit. They did so with the 1986 World Rally Championship at San Remo, annulling the race and taking the title away from Markku Alen and giving it to Juha Kankunnen. Tbf that situation you suggest didn't exist at the time but to offer the counter argument. Let's assume Red Bull were to order Tsunoda to cause a yellow flag then it would almost certainly have to be an accident rather than just pull up as the amount of telemetry the officials can view means a perfectly functioning car would be exposed as such in the data. All communications are monitored and recorded so this would have to be planned before the race but it would be nigh on impossible to account for all the variables and external factors. You'd have to have a code of some sort to use to instruct the driver. It then involves several people from both teams as well as the driver(s) and you also run the risk of a driver speaking out should they feel aggrieved or switch teams later. You also end up with a compromising repairs bill and a high chance of permanent expulsion from the championship if caught. It isn't impossible but extremely difficult to pull off these days. Not like 2008 were much less monitoring was involved. Remember that Ecclestone has stated that they were informed by Piquet snr via Charlie Whiting way before the Brazilian GP but chose to ignore it until Piquet snr spoke out FOR A SECOND TIME the year later. Even then they couldn't do it without being discovered and the FIA and F1 are unlikely to allow that to happen again, would likely permanently expel multiple individuals from both teams and deduct all the two teams points. I can't see anyone dumb enough to take that risk nowadays But overall I agree. This should have been dealt with properly years ago and nothing is likely to change
April 5, 20232 yr Fair points especially regarding the the fact less monitoring was involved back then. Certainly would be way more hard to engineer something similar nowadays with so much scrutinising of everything (see Tsunoda's retirement at Zandvoort last year to expand on both of our points). Also at the time F1 was still recovering from the Spygate scandal the year prior so not surprised to see why they were trying to keep it under wraps to prevent further reputational damage to the sport.
April 7, 20232 yr Ferrari have officially requested that the FIA look in to overturning the result of the Australian GP by contesting Sainz' 5 second penalty, alledging it is not consistent with their handling of the two other incidents that occurred on the same lap (Ocon-Gasly and Sargeant-De Vries). Interesting to see how this plays out. Most who have an issue with the penalty appear to do so on the basis that you have penalised a driver for an incident on a lap that technically doesn't exist. I notice too that Hamilton overtaking Verstappen during a red flag period has gone largely unnoticed. Lewis passed Max on the cool down lap after the chequered and reached parc ferme first but a red flag had been thrown due to fans on the circuit. The race may have been over but the flags remain in effect, meaning technically Lewis should be in trouble somewhere. Other drivers spotted the flag - Alonso told his team to warn Stroll via the radio for example. However, I can see why it isn't being highlighted given the already controversial race.
April 7, 20232 yr Supposedly this is the provisionally agreed sprint format for Baku Friday. * 60 minute practice session, * Qualifying for the GP using the usual format. Saturday. * Sprint race Qualifying using a single lap format. They are thinking of running it in reverse championship order to increase chances of mixing up the grid for the sprint. There will be a 5 minute break after 5 cars run in order to allow broadcasters to take commercial breaks. * Sprint race. Sunday. * Grand Prix.
April 7, 20232 yr I very much approve of having a separate quali session for the sprint (meaning Fridays quali only counts for the main race) but I'm sceptical about the one lap format. Even if you got the occasional mixed up grid the actual sessions were boring from what I remember from the time it was used in the mid 2000s.
April 7, 20232 yr Yesssss I miss one lap Quali!! If you f*** up you f*** uuuuuuup and you shafted for the race. No do overs until you get it right. No two laps to warm up the tires just right.
April 7, 20232 yr I'm predominantly in favour of this format as it mean the integrity of the Grand Prix is protected and I could ignore the sprint if I wish, although I would prefer it to be the sprint on the Friday and keep the weekend for the main event. I'd also like for it to feature reserve/academy drivers so they can gain experience and points for their license, but you'd need to field two per team the keep parity for the regular drivers. I'd also hate to see a championship contender lose a title because the reserve destroyed his engine/chassis in a sprint
April 7, 20232 yr I very much approve of having a separate quali session for the sprint (meaning Fridays quali only counts for the main race) but I'm sceptical about the one lap format. Even if you got the occasional mixed up grid the actual sessions were boring from what I remember from the time it was used in the mid 2000s. I think it could work if done right - similar to how Indycar does it. As one car comes up the the final sector the next must leave the pits or forfeit their lap. The first 10 drivers in the first 30 mins an advert break and then the final 10 after. That way there's always a car on track, and to keep it exciting I'd send them out in reverse championship order. For example Max is out first, followed by Perez and so on. That way as the slower cars head out, the track is getting more and more rubber laid down and faster as a result. That would surely throw up plenty of mixed grids, especially if it starts wet to dry. If you must have a gimmick make it separate from the main event and make it tight
April 9, 20232 yr Author Anybody understand what Sainz and Ferrari are hoping to achieve by protesting the penalty? Or am I missing something with this?
April 9, 20232 yr I think they believe they been treated unfairly by comparison with the other two incidents. Gasly and Ocon were both allowed to express their side of the story before any decision was made and that is consistent with past event but Sainz wasn't given any opportunity to explain what happened. Plus they'd get their 4th place back Vasseur - “What we expect is at least to have an open discussion with them and also for the good of the sport, to avoid to have this kind of decision when you have three cases on the same corner and not the same decision,” “The biggest frustration was – and you heard it on the radio – to not have hearings. Because the case was very special. And in this case, I think it would have made sense considering that the race was over, it was not affecting the podium, to have the hearing as Gasly and Ocon had.” “It is up to the stewards to decide what is the right penalty. But for me at least for Carlos, for the team, to reopen the discussion, it’s a first step. Now the outcome of this will be up to the FIA, that we have no argumentation. “For sure we are expecting the review of the decision because it’s a petition for review that we are not going there to get the same result.”
April 9, 20232 yr I think it’s fair to review that penalty. It was overly harsh given the other incidents had no consequences for the drivers (pen points or time pens) and all of them had effectively the same root cause The ultimate root cause was an entirely unnecessary red flag but I’m still irritated because it cost us a bunch of points and allowed McLaren to get on the score sheet
April 26, 20232 yr I would have liked sprint quali to be more of a sprint tbh. Feels very like they just took the boring bits out of normal quali, like a fast forward on your recorded copy. They could have done more tbh tho I would have liked to see one shot Qual back for it
April 27, 20232 yr The fact that the completely redundant Saturday FP2 session has been dropped already makes this an improved format.
April 28, 20232 yr The fact that the completely redundant Saturday FP2 session has been dropped already makes this an improved format. A few drivers have stated they'll treat the sprint as a practice session. I can also see teams being much more willing to drop out of the race to protect an engine for the real event if they're running way out of the points Perhaps even more so now they've lost most of the only practice to a burning Renault engine Edited April 28, 20232 yr by Severin
April 28, 20232 yr A few drivers have stated they'll treat the sprint as a practice session. I can also see teams being much more willing to drop out of the race to protect an engine for the real event if they're running way out of the points Yep that's very true, although at least with Baku there's a lot of jeopardy and the chance for chaos so even the backmarkers could still pluck a P8 out of nowhere. At the other tracks though that is where this format will likely suffer.
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