Stroll pulls off the track does a 180 into a marshall safety zone well off the track and behind the safety barriers. Red Bull's golden boy is in 15th so they bring out the safety car to enable him to a) get a 'free' pit stop under safety car conditions after most others have already pitted and, b) closed up the field. Then they penalise Alonso twice. First fair enough harsh but he broke the rules. However the second penalty should never have been retrospective after he had been on th podium. The had plenty of laps (two thirds of the race!!) to award the ten seconds for touching the car during the timed pit stop and it affected the race as Alonso was pacing himself and could no doubt have had sufficient margin to get clear of Russell in 4th. Shambles from the stewards yet again.
A Saudi Arabia grand prix eh? Money talks doesn't it. Even noticed that idiot Will Smith in the pit lane.
I don't really get F1. It seems daft that teams just make a car so good it doesn't matter who is driving it. I think each team should have a set budget, they then bid on drivers and whatever they've got left is what they can spend developing the car
They are given strict specifications to follow and a budget to stay within, then it is up to each team to find ways of making their car as fast as possible. Glad to see Alonso has been reinstated to P3. F1 really needs to sort itself out this year.
Id like to see a Wacky Races format. Win at all.costs using any underhand tactics you desire..Nails on the track oil slick smokescreen painting fake tunnels against walls etc.
I agree. I went to my first race last season, loved the build-up, the track, the atmosphere, the noise, the colour, the history, the fans, the Tifosi especially. But the race was a damp squib. It was effectively over after three laps. Arguably the F2 and F3 events were better races. A bit more pure in spirit. The way Barnsleys season was going F1 had a big opportunity for a new fan ......... but even though the colours, graphics and HD look great on our TV's, sadly I just cannot watch the racing under the current rules. It is not the sporting spectacle it was when I was younger.
I will come across as an old fart but C8 (SKY terrestrial) here shows the entire race as ' highights' a few hours after the race finishes. Except for the Italian GP and a couple of others they do not have commentary just the ambient sound -cars, helicopters, crowd,Tannoy announcemnts etc. which is great no jabbering Italians constantly banging on about Ferrari this and Ferrari that. The problem I have is that between session there is the incessant noise of a DJ pumping out house dance trance ((whatever) to gee up the crowd. That put me off going to the GP- something I always wanted to do. The pre/ post race coverage is also full of American soft rock rather than hearing the engine on an 'in cockpit' replay of a lap you get crap like ' danger zone' blasting out. Makes me wonder who I would be surrounded by if I went. Pretty sure they are catering for fanboys nowadays rather than F1 fuddy-duddys like me who like the nerdy tekkie aspects of the racing. Glad that the travesty of Alonso's 2nd penalty was resolved. Shame about the safety car. I don't think they did it to specifically help MV/RBR but use it to close the field up in the mistaken belief that it makes it more exciting. I would have much preferred seeing MV battling his way through the field like Hamilton, Alonso and other drivers with faster cars have done in the past.
On the safety car thing was the back end of the car maybe sticking out further than we thought from the TV angle? It's all I can think of. Also worth pointing out that they need to change the positioning of the recovery vehicles, the truck being so close to the access gate was the only reason he had to stop otherwise he would have driven completely behind the fence.
Maybe, but the aerial shot I saw on TV suggest otherwise. Besides the run off area was huge .. he must have been 50 metres away from.the track and on a line where no driver would have been on that line if they lost control especially driving round under waved yellows. I also think, unless marshals have to actually go onto the track to clear debris or be trackside the VSC would be sufficient ( the Bianchi situation was different as the recovery vehicle was in a vulnerable spot and weather conditions were bad. As an aside if an SC is deployed, IMO they should then red flag it and bring the cars in and then start the race from the pit lane releasing the cars in order that they were in when the SC was deployed AND using a timed release ( like Rally stages) . I know close intervals of a second or less are not really possible but it would be fairer where cars have built up a sizeable gap through strategy only for it to be wiped out. Also teams cannot touch cars/change tyres between the SC deployment and the race restart for the same reason.
I agree with most of that. Well all of it really but not sure on how well it would work. The idea however makes sense On this specific incident I've read that the actual reason was they claim they didn't know where the car was because they couldn't see it on any cameras and the GPS was showing it on track (which I guess a tiny part of it still was). The problem is though hadn't we all already seen where it was before they put the safety car out? If we had surely they had
