Well I thought this weekend was very good. The sprint race in particular was absolutely fantastic action, that's exactly what the FIA had in mind when they introduced the concept with a mix of strategies and the race initially favouring the soft starters but then coming back to medium runners for the climax.

 

Piastri is an absolute don, most impressive rookie season since Hamilton (and indeed the first driver to win a race in his debit season since him too). Gotta be a bit crippling for Lando for now both Ricciardo and Piastri to have a won a race at McLaren before him while he sits with about 10 second places! Certainly validates Oscar's decision to ditch Alpine too.

 

Perez right now is worse than Albon and Gasly ever were at Red Bull, it's actually quite disgraceful for a driver with 13 years of experience to be beaten by both Alfa Romeos when you're in the most dominant car of all time. It's not a stretch to say that any other driver on the grid bar Stroll and Sergeant would be doing a better job. How many track limit violations did he want as well!

 

Speaking of Sargeant, that's another driver who disgraced himself this weekend. Retiring because of exhaustion? Unforgiveable act and think of all the drivers that would kill to get a seat in F1 meanwhile the one race he's not throwing the car into the gravel he can't even be bothered to finish... sackable offence tbh.

 

And lastly what a day for Merc. Lewis quite rightly taking full blame for the George incident. The latter has had a mostly terrible season but that drive on Sunday was absolutely magnificent and reaffirms the credentials he has once Merc finally get their act together.

 

Piastri hasn't won a race though, the sprints are not classified as such and will not appear in his stats as a race win.

 

 

Also think you're being harsh on Sargeant. He was suffering from flu before race day and was found to be suffering from severe dehydration after the race. Albon also had to be treated for acute heat exposure and Ocon was vomiting in the car due to the intense temperatures they were driving through. Stroll later said he was passing out in the car at times and Magnussen said he was nearly sick on more than one occasion.

 

It was the right move to retire from the race in his condition.

 

The race began with the temp at 31 degrees, with no wind and high humidity it was borderline dangerous to be racing in those conditions, coupled with the mandatory tyre limits it meant every stint was done at near to qualifying pace, on a circuit with many high speed corners. The lack of any respite due to a safety car compounded the issue

It's still a race though even if the official stats won't consider it as such.

 

Re Sargeant point is everyone else finished the race even the other rookies. All those other drivers despite those problems you've listed soldiered on and made it to the flag. Whether they should move the race to a cooler time of the year is another discussion of course which I'd assume most parties would be in favour of.

 

I found the mandatory tyre thing very interesting and wonder if the FIA will enforce that in the future to try and spice things up.

There isn’t really a cooler time of the year in Qatar. Tho arguably it’s the best argument of all for us having no more Sand Prixes.

It's still a race though even if the official stats won't consider it as such.

 

Re Sargeant point is everyone else finished the race even the other rookies. All those other drivers despite those problems you've listed soldiered on and made it to the flag.

Even Piastri said he wouldn't call himself a race winner when interviewed. F1 doesn't call it a race, the majority of fans don't call it one, and the drivers and teams don't most of the time. By F1's own definition an event is not a race unless the scheduled distance is at least 260km, which is a very deliberate regulation to preserve the sanctity of the actual race.

 

 

 

All the other drivers were fully fit before the race began, Sargeant was not, he'd had 'flu all week.

 

Frankly, that the race went ahead as it did was the biggest safety mis-step since Suzuka 2014.

Both Piastri and Norris are doing a great job this year, they're my two favourite drivers on the grid at the moment. I'd really love to see McLaren win more again so hopefully it is coming

The FIA says it will look into calendar changes and other measures in Formula 1 to deal with extreme weather following the Qatar Grand Prix.

 

Some drivers needed medical attention after a race run in temperatures of more than 30C and high humidity.

 

Alpine driver Esteban Ocon said he had vomited in his helmet.

 

"They should not be expected to compete under conditions that could jeopardise their health or safety," said motorsport's governing body.

 

Mercedes driver George Russell called the Qatar Grand Prix "brutal" and said he "felt close to fainting", while Williams driver Logan Sargeant retired because he could not cope with conditions any longer.

 

The American's team-mate Alex Albon was also taken to the medical centre and treated for acute heat exposure.

Well given that iconic image of Mansell passing out whilst trying to push his car over the line was almost 40 years ago, I'm not holding my breath they'll actually do anything.

 

I think the temperature itself wasn't the issue, they've even raced in over 40 degrees before (2005 Bahrain GP says hello) but that humidity was the killer...

if he had flu, then he shouldn't have run, give his seat to the reserve driver

 

 

if he had flu, then he shouldn't have run, give his seat to the reserve driver

 

My thoughts exactly, should have given Drugovich or even Mick a run out.

That wasn't much of an option though.

 

Sargeant was ill in the days before the weekend began but felt well (and cleared fit) enough to be named to enter the race. He managed practice and Qualifying fine and if the conditions for the race had been similar, then he would have been fine. However, the extreme conditions (which affected over half the grid) meant his weakened system was struggling to cope.

As he'd already completed qualifying there was no option to change drivers as it's not allowed, so it was either miss the race or try to tough it out.

 

If every driver pulled out because they'd had a cold or flu in the days before a race, just in case the race may be in difficult conditions, then we'd see drop outs all the time.

 

Personally I'm impressed he got as far in as he did given that most of the drivers struggled with it, without any lingering illness.

In some great new, Spa gets an extension to 2025

Golfer Rory McIlroy and boxer Anthony Joshua are among the sports stars to join a group that has invested in the Alpine Formula 1 team.

 

Liverpool and England footballer Trent Alexander-Arnold and NFL star Patrick Mahomes have also joined up with Otro Capital, which owns 24% of Alpine.

Daniel Ricciardo will make his return from injury at this weekend's United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

 

The 34-year-old Australian has missed five grands prix since breaking a bone in his left hand in practice for the Dutch Grand Prix on 25 August.

Of course he'd return for Texas, it's basically his home race!

Hamilton and Leclerc were both disqualified for excessive wear on the plank and both had been running their cars with a noticeably low ride height.

 

Verstappen and Norris also inspected but found compliant.

Well thank f*** Lewis didn't actually win that race on the track after all then. Sainz getting yet another podium he didn't stand on, must be about the 5th time in his career!

 

I can't remember a disqualification for plank wear since Schumacher in the 1994 season, now we've had 2 in one race! Very sus...

 

Sargeant getting his first points then in a very similar fashion to Kubica in 2019.

And Sargeant passed Hulkenberg in the last few laps to get that point!

 

A bit gutted for Norris - such a strong start but just didn’t have the car

how bizarre, feels wrong with lewis after all his effort

Well thank f*** Lewis didn't actually win that race on the track after all then. Sainz getting yet another podium he didn't stand on, must be about the 5th time in his career!

 

I can't remember a disqualification for plank wear since Schumacher in the 1994 season, now we've had 2 in one race! Very sus...

 

Sargeant getting his first points then in a very similar fashion to Kubica in 2019.

Jarno trulli was disqualified from the 2001 US GP for the same reason but successfully appealed and was re-instated.

 

The most curious thing is 4 cars were tested - Max, Charles, Lando and Lewis and the suggestion is the stewards looked at the cars who are running the lowest and with the most porpoising. The RB and McLaren were fine but both Ferrari and Mercedes admitted they'd run the cars lower for performance reason - not an attempt to cheat but they miscalculated the wear, (possibly due to the extra mileage in a Sprint) and the lack of practice sessions didn't allow time to gather enough data. Several teams spotted this and changed their set-ups, which is why so many started in the pitlane.

But once they found issues with Leclerc and Hamilton, the question is being asked as to why they didn't look at Russell and Sainz's cars too. It's entirely possible both those cars were illegal too.

 

(I'm aware the answer is down to time and that in order for teams to pack up on schedule they need to begin immediately they can.)

Yeah I’d heard a lot say that Ham and Lec were far lower than anyone else, even their team mates. The major risk at COTA because it’s so bumpy and with only a one hr FP1. I saw Ferrari this morning saying mea culpa we f***ed up the maths.

 

 

Big risk for the sprints but they’ll know for next time. Wonder how many other cars were under but got away with it