F1 2024: Chinese GP - Shanghai (Apr 21)

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by ptack

Often there's more than the car to clear with debris on the track and/or barriers to fix. The barriers can be the real delay depending on what they're made of and how extensive the damage is. I think it's perfectly acceptable for a driver to get the chance to rejoin if he can get his car back to the pits under its own power and without it dropping parts all over the place. It's probably pretty rare though for that type of accident to happen under a red flag as opposed to just a safety car. The red flag today was probably questionable as were some other odd decisions by the race officials.

May seem odd or strange with some of the decisions stewards take but there are other factors to take into account that may not seem obvious at first.

[M5Rick]

One of the things that is obvious is that all cars should be cleared from the track before a car lifter truck is allowed onto the track to remove an immobile car in view of the Jules Bianchi tragedy. Safety first should be paramount and the bad old days where many safety things were ignored are now just a memory.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by NickyC

Lando knows the deal.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formu...orris-32632281

And this wasn't boring ?

[Chihuahua]

Originally Posted by NickyC

Lando knows the deal.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formu...orris-32632281

"It is frustrating for people watching but it has always been like this," the McLaren racer said.

This is true. For context, I started consistently watching F1 in 1999.
I've been watching replays of previous seasons (the races are all on YouTube). I started with the 2002 season, I'm into 2005 now. It's not Max, it's the cars and the regulations - they suck. The cars are too big, too heavy, and they sound like ass, literally. F1 cars from the V10, even the V8 era, were frantic and that translated really well to television. And it wasn't just the sound; on the straights, through corners, those cars looked like they were constantly teetering on the edge of going off track. They're so big and heavy now that they look like they're just cruising through corners, if you're watching on TV you just don't get the sensation of speed. Not only that, F1 cars were mechanically pushed to the limit and so the possibility of an engine going 'kablammo' was always there and did happen pretty regularly. F1 cars today are as reliable as a Corolla, and reliability has no place in F1. No amount of adjustable wings, sprint races before the sprint races, etc is going to fix that. Max isn't the problem, the regs are. F1 needs to simplify but as long as Liberty Media keeps raking in the cash, I don't expect much to change.

"If everyone had the same car you would lose half of the fans and you would lose the specialness of what Formula 1 is which is everyone coming up with their own ideas. It is just so complicated so maybe we need to make it more simple by opening up or closing the regulations. Both could work, I guess."

yep.

[M5Rick]

The GP highlights.

[NickyC]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

And this wasn't boring ?

Boring yes, but at least Bottas had a chance at winning. Checo is so far behind Max it’s scary. The fact he once again couldn’t put a vastly superior car on P2 is depressing to watch. Yes he would have been P2 by a mile without the safety car, but him not quickly reclaiming the 2nd place position in the restart was depressing. There is no fight in that dog, he should be removed. Give the seat to Alonso or Lando and then there’s a chance of at least some inter team rivalry.

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by Chihuahua

It is just so complicated so maybe we need to make it more simple by opening up or closing the regulations. Both could work, I guess."[/I]

yep.

I don't think it's the regulations make it that complicated. I think every team understands the regulations to the letter.
I also think it's a strange way to put it: opening up or closing the regulations? Which one is it?

Unless you go to cupcars, teams will always try to imporve their cars within a set of regulations, and that will always give the result that one team will come up with a better car than the other team.
In the past, that was heavily dependant on their research budget, where some teams had 10 times the budget of other teams. That is now gone, pretty much every team has got their maximum 145 million annual budget covered. So now it's way more a result of intellectual merit than money if you come up with a good car or not.

If you want cars to have the same performance, you have to take care that everyone has the same car. And that's called a cupcar.
Indycar has it, formula E has it, F2 has it. And no one cares about those except that such classes exist so they might act as a stepping stone to F1.
And with the billions per year coming in from F1, the FOM will never choose for such a format. Fans want to see the pinnacle of technology, not a cupcar.

[HeelToeShift]

Originally Posted by NickyC

Boring yes, but at least Bottas had a chance at winning. Checo is so far behind Max it’s scary. The fact he once again couldn’t put a vastly superior car on P2 is depressing to watch. Yes he would have been P2 by a mile without the safety car, but him not quickly reclaiming the 2nd place position in the restart was depressing. There is no fight in that dog, he should be removed. Give the seat to Alonso or Lando and then there’s a chance of at least some inter team rivalry.

Bot had a chance of winning? Let's ask Bono...because chances are they'd ask him to move aside to help manufacturer another win for Ham. As you can see from the results above, different track, but Bot was over 25 seconds behind. Per is usually closer than that and they don't ask Checo to concede positons.
Yes, Per got a bit unlucky with the SC, but he did use too much tire passing Lec and that is why he couldnt get up to Nor. Overall, I don't think in Per's hands, the RB is vastly superior to the other cars. Again, Max is the difference here, plain and simple.
No offense, but Nor really isnt that good - if he wasn't from the UK he'd get a quarter of the praise he receives now. He never seems to have the drive to win, and when he is in a position to be up front, he usually drops the ball. He also knows he'd never touch Max in the RB and even admitted to it. Alo is a strong driver but I don't think he'd be breathing down Max's neck. He might cut some of the deficit to Max, but not enough to make it a rivalry that people think it might be.

[Chihuahua]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

I don't think it's the regulations make it that complicated. I think every team understands the regulations to the letter.
I also think it's a strange way to put it: opening up or closing the regulations? Which one is it?

Unless you go to cupcars, teams will always try to imporve their cars within a set of regulations, and that will always give the result that one team will come up with a better car than the other team.
In the past, that was heavily dependant on their research budget, where some teams had 10 times the budget of other teams. That is now gone, pretty much every team has got their maximum 145 million annual budget covered. So now it's way more a result of intellectual merit than money if you come up with a good car or not.

If you want cars to have the same performance, you have to take care that everyone has the same car. And that's called a cupcar.
Indycar has it, formula E has it, F2 has it. And no one cares about those except that such classes exist so they might act as a stepping stone to F1.
And with the billions per year coming in from F1, the FOM will never choose for such a format. Fans want to see the pinnacle of technology, not a cupcar.

That's my fear, that we're not far away from turning F1 into FE. I think this whole environmentalism push in F1 is laughable when you consider how many resources are consumed just moving all of this shit around the globe. The cars are just too big, too heavy, and with respect to the drivetrain, too complicated and too regulated in my opinion. I'm not a fan of the turbo-hybrid formula. What Lando Norris meant by 'open it up and close it down' I'm not sure. I'd like to see F1 go to a simpler engine regulation and make the cars much smaller than they are, maybe even bring back refueling.

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by Chihuahua

I'd like to see F1 go to a simpler engine regulation and make the cars much smaller than they are, maybe even bring back refueling.

That might make it more relatable to watch, but I don't think that'll reduce the performance gap between teams.

Refueling is a risky business.
The FIA wants to keep the pinnacle of autosports as free from incidents as possible.
Accidents and deaths are the worst thing that can happen to the top of autosports promotionally speaking.

[Chihuahua]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

Accidents and deaths are the worst thing that can happen to the top of autosports promotionally speaking.

Absolutely agree. I watched Marco Simoncelli get killed on live TV, and it quite literally made me sick to my stomach.

[dfox]

I think the teams are going to make the best of the new regulations. I like that the cars are shrinking a bit, but they could certainly get smaller. I'm skeptical of the 2026+ powertrain, I kind of agree that it would be fun to see things open up a bit more and let manufacturers have more engineering freedom.

Back to the race - Man, I really want to like Stroll, but he's a total doorknob... Not sure else how to describe him. Outside of racing, he seems like a dude I'd get along with, mtb, snowboarding, surfing, etc... but the dude's attitude towards racing is that of a spoiled little brat... oof. Even after watching the video of him slamming into Ricciardo he had no apology.

Checo's gotta pass people a little quicker. He ran in dirty air for way too long against Alo and Lec... Killed his tires so he couldn't catch Lando. 3rd place is still great, but he should have had #2. Can't overlook the fact that Lando had a huge benefit from the safety car that put him in 2nd though.

Checo's move in the sprint race was killer though, love seeing those double passes.

Glad to see McLaren coming back into form.

[NYG]

Heyyyyy heyyyy sexy boyssss

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by NYG

Heyyyyy heyyyy sexy boyssss

WOW

Where have you been?
You've been missing for like a year! Nothing bad I hope?

Welcome back!!

[HeelToeShift]

Originally Posted by dfox

I think the teams are going to make the best of the new regulations. I like that the cars are shrinking a bit, but they could certainly get smaller. I'm skeptical of the 2026+ powertrain, I kind of agree that it would be fun to see things open up a bit more and let manufacturers have more engineering freedom.

Back to the race - Man, I really want to like Stroll, but he's a total doorknob... Not sure else how to describe him. Outside of racing, he seems like a dude I'd get along with, mtb, snowboarding, surfing, etc... but the dude's attitude towards racing is that of a spoiled little brat... oof. Even after watching the video of him slamming into Ricciardo he had no apology.

Checo's gotta pass people a little quicker. He ran in dirty air for way too long against Alo and Lec... Killed his tires so he couldn't catch Lando. 3rd place is still great, but he should have had #2. Can't overlook the fact that Lando had a huge benefit from the safety car that put him in 2nd though.

Checo's move in the sprint race was killer though, love seeing those double passes.

Glad to see McLaren coming back into form.

While the 2026 cars get smaller from a footprint standpoint, the massive increase in battery power likely means it's going to be a tough task to make them lighter.
I agree, Nor got a massive boost from the SC in which the call on VSC to SC was a bit odd but I don't know what they know. He did make a killer double pass in the spring and did well to pass Lec in the race so I can applaud him for his more aggressive driving this year. It would have been nice for a 1-2, but not at the expense of going through his tires to much that it gave Lec a chance to pass him in the last few laps. He had an overall great weekend - only second to Max overall.
I think this could be an inflection point in the season where RB starts to pull away especially if they keep up with the 1-2 or 1-3 finishes as the rest of the top 5 jostle for the rest of the positions without consistency. We saw Ferrari here struggle a bit (even though they thought they'd be strong) and do not think they will develop well whereas it seems Mcl, AM, and even MB are nipping at their heels.

[NYG]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

WOW

Where have you been?
You've been missing for like a year! Nothing bad I hope?

Welcome back!!

I've been bimmerless for too long and work has been consuming more of my time than usual but I've got another on order and needed to check in with my F1 bros.

[HeelToeShift]

Originally Posted by NYG

I've been bimmerless for too long and work has been consuming more of my time than usual but I've got another on order and needed to check in with my F1 bros.

Glad you're back!

[NYG]

Originally Posted by HeelToeShift

Glad you're back!

Love you too buddy

[omgzirra_exe]

by far one of the most enjoyable races this year.

Miami is just gonna be zzz. street tracks are whack for these big as cars.

[NYG]

Originally Posted by omgzirra_exe

by far one of the most enjoyable races this year.

Miami is just gonna be zzz. street tracks are whack for these big as cars.

Last year's Miami race was pretty solid though.

[omgzirra_exe]

Originally Posted by NYG

Last year's Miami race was pretty solid though.

maybe i just dont remember it well lol.

BUT F1TV needs to do a better job at broadcasting.. tbh. tire of irrelevant replays and watching slow cars passing slower cars and cars on softs passing cars on hards lol

I think that what leads me to think the races are boring. I don't have sky f1 anymore since i'm no longer a UK resident v_v

[dfox]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

RIC got a 3P grid penalty for the Miami GP ...

RIC overtook the Hulk under the SC

This one confused me.

Hulk overtook Ric when he got hit by Stroll. Ric just took the spot back? right? Seemed like a BS situation for him.