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Post by Big Blue on Mar 28, 2022 13:10:32 GMT
Well, rocket blasts, gigantic crash, driver meetings and a Red Bull lead lost under a safety car….. a busy weekend.
I thought LeClerc managed the race really well considering how much speed deficit he had to the Red Bull. Shame Hamilton missed the pit opening otherwise he’d have recovered what was essentially a lost weekend although Merc are still somehow 2nd in the team standings.
Biggest issue is again stewarding. How did it take so long to bollock Perez for his shoving on Sainz? I also thought Perez moved before lights out at the start but then caught himself, although that could just be the vitriol speaking. The other big issue is how the fuck can they justify going there? Maybe if the pre-race entertainment is a public stoning at turn 1 or the winners prize is the freshly sliced-off head of a criminal to drink the rose water from ( a “skully” in Ricciardo terminology) they might have second thoughts but as Toto said “it’s different round here to Europe” so that’s all fine then.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2022 13:38:50 GMT
I agree re the track, far too narrow at parts, ditto the brain fart over Perez and allowing him to hold Sainz up for a while lost him a lot of time. They need to grip stewards very tightly until the blood is shut off for a while perhaps.
The dicing between Max and Charles was epic, a joy to watch even at close to 1AM and following on from the previous race is showing F1 in a positive light again for me at least. I believe that the politics and money will forever more decide the location of the races which is counter intuitive for me because the safety aspect takes a back seat. Yes the cars are safer but blind spot, overtake and get faced by an accident possibly leading to dead track marshals etc.
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Post by PetrolEd on Mar 28, 2022 14:55:37 GMT
F1 has always gone to random locations so I guess Saudi fits the bill.
Its a great track however. Qualifying was epic with a very un-Perez like lap that was all balls. Schumacher's crash looked nasty but Alonso proved you could make a mistake on those curbs and just about pick the car up in time.
Max and Charlie were epic again. Its all fun for now but its going to get messy between them at some stage. I can see Sainz picking up the odd victory from those 2 clashing.
Russell did well, Hamilton just looked lost on the Saturday with Russell taking a load of time out of him at each corner. Wasn't until about lap 20 in the race that we woke up.
Alonso and Ocon were making their own show, I'm surprised Alpine let them dual for so long but glad they did. Given the entertainment Saudis delivered in the last 2 races it'd be a shame to get rid.
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Post by Sav on Apr 1, 2022 23:46:35 GMT
The race itself was decent. The most positive aspect of the new regulations is that the trailing car no longer gets massive aero wash on corner exit. The aero wash is still there, but the impact of it has been lessened. In my view DRS needs to stay is because the cars no longer slipstream as well as they used to with the higher-drag cars. With last year’s cars the drivers could start slipstreaming before DRS, now it appears that they need DRS to actually close up. It swings in roundabouts, but at least a chasing driver can follow the leading car for sustained laps. Well done to Pirelli, for producing tyres that allow the drivers to do so. The tyre overheating appears to have lessened. I say that tentatively, because the two races so far have been under darkness when it is cooler. But the early signs are that battles can be had over multiple laps, without the pursuing driver needing to back-off.
The Saudi track is still a shambles. The volume of high-impact crashes last weekend was unacceptable in my view. One might say, drivers made mistakes and there were walls? Well yes, but the track has been artificially created to give the impression of a street track – which it isn’t. People have asked for track limits, like grass or gravel. Not a trip to hospital for slight errors. The angles of the walls, the blind corners and the run-off areas are just not suitable for modern high-speed single seaters.
The other issue with the circuit is that it’s impossible for drivers to go offline in the flat-out kinks, because it’s so dirty – and every year that will be an issue. A few drivers tried it in F2 and realised they were heading for a crash. It’s not a particularly raceable track at all. Think about how long DRS is; it runs from turn 22 and until the braking point for turn 1 (the only thing separating the two DRS zones is the final turn). No wonder there was passing.
You only need to look at the new Las Vegas track for how a wall-lined circuit should be done. There are only 14 turns, I’m amazed by this, because it bucks a trend of longer but drearier circuits. It’s a simple, straight-forward layout with no silly blind flat-kinks.
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