|
|
On March 26 2022 07:36 Ben... wrote:
There's a non-zero chance the race is about to be cancelled. The team principals (some of them reluctantly) agreed to continue with the race but the drivers are possibly going to refuse. There was a drivers meeting after FP2 that is still going on and has been for an hour and a half. It sounds like they have some pretty obvious safety concerns regarding the race given the missile strike on the nearby oil refinery. The F1 leadership team (Brawn, Domenicali, etc.) were at this meeting but left.
This very much has Australia 2020 vibes where the teams were initially going to continue with racing but after a McLaren mechanic got COVID, Seb and Kimi were spotted at the airport leaving the country a few hours later despite organizers not officially cancelling the race. With no drivers they can't hold the race.
edit: Apparently team principals are now joining this driver meeting.
double edit: Four hours of meetings later, it sounds like they are in fact continuing with the race. The drivers were all up well into the night at this meeting.
But hey, #weraceinanactivewarzone 
Not many people can say that
|
Not gonna be cancelled but:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/60880598
But eventually they were convinced to go ahead and race after being given further information by bosses.
Part of this information involved the possible consequences of not racing, such as how easily teams and drivers would be able to leave the country if the race did not happen.
I would not be surprised if F1 pulls out of Saudi in the future despite the 10 year contract they signed. The memes on the various F1 subreddit show it well. Literally drive to survive.
|
So I've decided to watch some F2 since we finally have a Norwegian there. Ya'll think F1 had bad race direction? Holy cow this is on another level.
Poor Hauger, completely robbed. Told to go through pitlane twice by race director, then they throw up a "pitlane closed" sign just as he swings the car in. Then they give him a 10 second 'stop and go' penalty on top of it for their own mistake. With only 3 racing laps out of 20 due to constant SC, it was just a consistent clusterfuck
|
On March 26 2022 15:37 Lmui wrote:Not gonna be cancelled but: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/60880598Show nested quote +But eventually they were convinced to go ahead and race after being given further information by bosses.
Part of this information involved the possible consequences of not racing, such as how easily teams and drivers would be able to leave the country if the race did not happen. I would not be surprised if F1 pulls out of Saudi in the future despite the 10 year contract they signed. The memes on the various F1 subreddit show it well. Literally drive to survive.
Everyone's probably keeping their mouths shut right now for obvious reasons but I feel like we're going to be hearing a lot about this once the teams and drivers are safely out of the country. I could see some drivers refusing to ever race in Saudi Arabia ever again after this incident.
Domenicali just stated a few days ago that there's 30 venues trying to be on the calendar now. I'm pretty sure any of the 5 or 6 not on the calendar right now would be a better option than Saudi Arabia. Going to this track was already a huge PR problem for F1 last year, and that PR issue has multiplied in severity the last 24 hours. One would think their lawyers would be evaluating every option possible to get out of the contract to race in SA for the next 10 years. They'll probably lose Aramco as a sponsor (which I think is a good thing) but F1's among the most popular it has ever been and will easily find a different title sponsor.
As for FP3, it appears the strength of McLaren and others yesterday was possibly down to the Honda and Ferrari powered teams having their engines turned down for practice. Now 8 out of the bottom 10 positions are occupied by drivers driving for teams with Mercedes engines, including Mercedes themselves. Given this track is around 80% at full throttle, that's not a good sign for Mercedes or their customers. I'll be curious to see if Mercedes is truly a second off Ferrari and Red Bull in qualifying.
|
On March 26 2022 23:37 Excludos wrote:
So I've decided to watch some F2 since we finally have a Norwegian there. Ya'll think F1 had bad race direction? Holy cow this is on another level.
Poor Hauger, completely robbed. Told to go through pitlane twice by race director, then they throw up a "pitlane closed" sign just as he swings the car in. Then they give him a 10 second 'stop and go' penalty on top of it for their own mistake. With only 3 racing laps out of 20 due to constant SC, it was just a consistent clusterfuck
I watched this in disbelief. Part of me still hopes Prema just misunderstood the race director. Otherwise how incompetent can you be? Incredible.
|
I'm just catching up on F2 right now. The sheer volume of yellow and red flags is certainly a... uhhhh... red flag. This track seems designed badly and their fixes didn't make it any less dangerous. High speeds with no runoffs and no visibility is a recipe for disaster.
|
Hamilton out in Q1. Wow.
I hope Mick’s ok. That was a brutal crash. I hate this track.
|
On March 27 2022 02:46 Ben... wrote:
Hamilton out in Q1. Wow.
I hope Mick’s ok. That was a brutal crash. I hate this track.
Same, this track needs to go, for several reasons.
|
On March 27 2022 01:43 Ben... wrote:
I'm just catching up on F2 right now. The sheer volume of yellow and red flags is certainly a... uhhhh... red flag. This track seems designed badly and their fixes didn't make it any less dangerous. High speeds with no runoffs and no visibility is a recipe for disaster.
This track is 100% going to kill someone. That Mick accident was brutal enough by itself, I don't even want to think what could have happened if it had happened in a race with cars close by each other. No way they'd be able to get out of the way fast enough.
Fast street circuit with no runoff and high curbs in fast corners that spits you out. It's like it was designed to to make people crash.
Cherry on cake that they should never have races here in the first place for moral reasons, and now literally having to duck from missile attacks. This needs to go
|
imagine working for 224 grand prix just to then get your first poleposition;
surreal; etherical; special;
that is almost 13 years. 13 years
|
Is this also the first time the 2nd RB driver has outqualified Max on merit?
|
No, Ricciardo has beaten Verstappen a few times at least
(edit: depending what you exactly mean by 2nd driver and if you could call Ricciardo that at the time).
|
Ricciardo was the only driver who beat Verstappen with any regularity. Overall Verstappen was about 0.3s faster than Ricciardo over 3 years, but for the first couple years of their time together, Ricciardo beat him with some frequency. Most famously, Ricciardo denied what would have been Verstappen's first pole position ever in 2018 by beating him by within a few thousandths of a second (It was in Mexico I think? From what I remember Ricciardo beat him in qualifying then almost immediately DNFed with mechanical problems in the race. It was during Ricciardo's half season-long streak of mechanical problems that destroyed what could have been a very good year for him).
After Ricciardo though it's been very one-sided. I looked it up and Gasly apparently beat Verstappen once in qualifying but Verstappen's position suggests that it may have been a mechanical issue or something because he was way off. Albon never beat him but did match him to the thousandth of a second in Suzuka 2019, which is kinda nuts because that was Albon's rookie year. Perez beat Verstappen once last year in Imola but Verstappen made a mistake in his final lap. On pure pace alone, I think this is the first time anyone's beaten Verstappen in years.
|
Well, that's possibly a DNS for Tsunoda. His engine failed on the way to the grid.
|
On March 28 2022 01:27 Ben... wrote:
Well, that's possibly a DNS for Tsunoda. His engine failed on the way to the grid.
Argh...
|
|
|
Everyone's having power unit problems at exactly the same time.
Magnussen just got very lucky. Hamilton didn't.
edit: Time to see how well Magnussen and Hamilton on new tires can make their way through the field.
Verstappen still doing moves like it's last year then getting passed by Leclerc.
Wow that lockup. Both locked up but Verstappen's seemed way worse. His tires have to be squares now.
|
Being a race engineer of Verstappen must be the toughest job in this industry. The poor guy had to endure 50 laps of whining
Other than that pretty cool race.
|
Great race, hopefully every race will be this close but damn that was unlucky for Perez.. :/
|
Pretty good race. Unfortunate that a bunch of cars had engine problems. Alonso was very entertaining up until his engine quit. Magnussen managed 9th despite his neck issues, though he did get a bit lucky with the cheaper pitstop that allowed him to get ahead of Hamilton. Mercedes still seems to struggle with making snap decisions. Their indecisiveness with whether to pit Hamilton cost them several points at least. McLaren have to be happy with a 7th place though without Ricciardo's DNF they could have potentially had a double points finish (it seems like Danny Ric and Lando were pretty much matching each other all weekend, which has to be comforting for Ricciardo given the setbacks he's had). Alpine easily was best of the rest today. That team seems very strong this year and has the potential for a podium or two, just like the last couple years.
Charles and Max both drove amazingly again. Sainz wasn't nearly as far behind this time, which is good. Perez got very unlucky.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
