I’d hand down a penalty myself. The team shares the blame here if they didn't give him a heads-up beforehand, especially since Max is an integral part of the crew. I just saw a comment over on ESPN arguing that there shouldn't be a penalty because Max was busy in the qualifying simulation while Stroll was on his out lap, but honestly, that logic doesn't hold water.
Max overtook Stroll right under the red flags. And yet, there's total silence from everyone. Does anyone actually know what the penalty is for something like this?
Elizabeth Mendoza said:This is going to be just like Monaco. Qualifying is going to decide the winner, there'll be some chaos at the start because the track is so narrow, probably a safety car in the first lap, and then it’s just a procession until the end.
If the start-finish straight were just a little longer, or if there was one more sweeping turn before the line, this would easily be in my top three tracks on the calendar. But that’s not how it works.
It’s a tight, narrow track, so expect things to get pretty crowded during Q1 once all the cars hit the asphalt.
I'm looking forward to FP2. Mercedes seems to be finding some rhythm; on a circuit where front grip is everything, they look stronger than Red Bull Racing right now.
The track feels ridiculously narrow by modern standards. Turn after turn, making overtaking a real challenge. The most interesting part? Those banked corners. Especially that final one, which lets you pin it full throttle straight into the first turn, right past the start-finish line and the DRS zone.
Seven right-handers per lap. Some are quite fast. Expecting a high DF setup here... which likely means trouble for the front left tire.
I also wonder how this circuit would hold up for motorcycles. With those steep banking angles, I doubt it would even meet modern safety standards. It's too tight for F1 and definitely not built for bikes.
If my read on this is correct, those stiffer components seem to suit Mercedes much better. I honestly think Mercedes holds the edge even without the tire advantage. To me, they look stronger through the slower corners where you really need that front end to dive deep into the turn without sacrificing stability.
stormybadger8 said:The system is breaking down because someone like Masia is a perfect example of administrative cronyism. It’s all about people who lack any real backbone and have absolutely no clue what they're doing... That is exactly why we see this nonsense constantly. You have officials digging through the rulebook just to protect their own skin, making sure they aren't held accountable while ensuring their employers don't lose a dime due to their decisions. What happens to everyone else? They clearly couldn't care less...
Like Lewis Hamilton says, money makes the world go round. They can't move the race start time earlier because the money won't allow it, and they can't push it back a day later because the money won't allow that either. Heaven forbid we move a race two hours earlier just to accommodate the fans or prevent the TV networks from losing their minds. Oh well, I guess if we moved it from 3 PM to 1 PM, the sponsors might get upset about their commercial slots. Priorities, right?
During the broadcast, there were plenty of reasons why continuing just wasn't an option. Between the terrible visibility from inside the cockpit and the fact that helicopters couldn't get aerial shots due to those low clouds—if I understood that correctly—it was a mess. Plus, trackside marshals wouldn't have been able to see far enough down the line if an accident happened...
Safety comes first. Everything is scrutinized now; that's just how things work today.
And honestly, I don't see how you can justify overtaking in weather like that. If I heard someone gained ten spots purely through overtakes in those conditions, I’d personally strip them of those positions. 😁 How can you overtake when you can't even see what's in front of you? You're basically gambling—risking everyone else's safety along with your own.
Robert Cox46 said:NASCAR races on wet tracks where there's a much higher risk of spinning out, yet nobody complains about that. Rallying involves driving through snow, rain, mud... and that’s just part of the job. In similar situations in the past (Brazil 2003, Japan 2007, Korea 2010, Japan 2014), Formula 1 used to run about 10 laps or more under the SC while drivers cleared the standing water, warmed up their tires and brakes, and got used to the new conditions.
But what happened yesterday—they just sat parked for three hours waiting to see if the sky would clear up. I know visibility was poor, but they should have kept driving under the SC to give themselves a chance to actually race. These kinds of conditions aren't exactly unprecedented. Maybe we can draw a parallel with Bernie; as Tibi noted, it's hard to imagine this kind of mess happening back in his era.
At first glance, the spray kicked up by a motorcycle is way less than what an F1 car produces. That's why they can manage it. It isn't just because they are warriors who aren't afraid of anything. The mist created by bikes is relatively small, whereas an F1 car creates a massive cloud behind it that makes it impossible to see anything. Modern F1 cars just aren't built for heavy rain because they are so aerodynamically loaded with all sorts of tech that they end up spraying water everywhere.
I believe the drivers—they really couldn't see a thing. In those conditions, racing makes no sense; if you can't see the cars ahead of you, how are you supposed to compete?
James Collins said:I’m honestly terrified thinking about what would have happened if they had treated Lewis this way. I haven't seen a bigger circus or a greater embarrassment. To just coldly hand him the win like this is a disaster.
If you listen to the rumors floating around the paddock, Lewis didn't even have the right setup for a wet race. That actually makes his lap yesterday even more impressive; he could have really struggled if the race had stayed messy. I don't think he would have been totally out of it, but he definitely would have been at a disadvantage fighting Max.
Since the rain didn't start coming down until 3:00 PM, I was wondering if there’s any actual talk about postponing the race until tomorrow. I mean, would that be a logistical nightmare given that we're already heading to Zandvoort this Friday?
Unfortunately, the track conditions just weren't there for racing today. During qualifying yesterday, when things were a bit better, the spray coming off the cars was so thick you basically had to be three or four seconds back just to see anything at all. I can't even imagine how much worse it would have been today.
The FIA is completely incompetent—honestly, it’s just those top officials pulling the strings behind the scenes. Maria needs to stop the clock after two hours of waiting. This is pure amateur hour.
