RaceFans Live: F1

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272 comments on “RaceFans Live: F1”

  1. Hello everyone and welcome to RaceFans Live for the Qatar Grand Prix weekend.

    First up we’ve got the only practice session before the competitive action begins. This session is obviously going to take place in the daytime so we’re expecting high temperatures and it’s also very windy at the track which will make things tricky enough to begin with at a circuit with so many medium and high speed corners, and is also going to blow a lot of dust around.

    Once this session is done we’ll be hearing from four team principles in the FIA press conference – Ferrari’s Frederic Vasseur, Williams’ James Vowles, McLaren’s Andrea Stella and AlphaTauri’s Peter Bayer – so keep an eye out on the site for more from them including what they make of the FIA’s decision to approve Andretti as an 11th team.

    Then qualifying starts at 8:00 PM local time which for those in the UK is 6:00 PM.

  2. The slippery track is still catching out lots of drivers even as the track conditions improve, Leclerc is the latest one to catch a snap of oversteer and run wide.

    Verstappen: “I have a lot of understeer in right hand corners.”

    There’s 10 of those, so could do with sorting that out…

    1. They should have brought in another tyre supplier ages ago in my opinion. Tyres are crucial aspect and major factor in a cars’ performance. If F1 claims to be the “pinnacle of motorsport” then they should allow competition and performance from the tyres as well, I’d be willing to bet that any tyre big-name supplier that came in would whoop them in their first year.

      At least we would have some kind of rivalry in the “sport” then.

  3. Multiple drivers are screwed given their usage of their medium tires.

    For example Lewis has 3 mediums allowed to do 18, 13 and 10 so that is 41 laps meaning he either needs to take the hard (slow tire) for 16 laps or try to take his new soft but then has to make it last 16 laps (in sprint they were done after 7-8 hot race laps) or make an extra stop for fresh softs.

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  4. This is tbe definition of everything wrong with the racing in F1.

    Lots of passing but no competitive racing or good battling. It’s all too easy with an overly powerful DRS or tire life differences.

    And this silly tire stint length is making things really tricky to follow. It’s like a formula e race where the order is yoyo-ing everywhere due to power usage making it hard to know who’s where and the race as a whole becomes confusing to follow as a result.

  5. There’s something horribly wrong with these they’re and pirelli’s place im F1.
    A race with 4 stints and they’re still being told to manage tyres, and told when to push or not. What a joke. Remove pirelli. F1 is not the top of Motorsports with them making tyres.

  6. Hello everyone and welcome to RaceFans Live for the first practice session for the Mexican Grand Prix.

    Five test drivers will substitute for the regulars in this hour:

    Frederik Vesti for George Russell
    Jack Doohan for Pierre Gasly
    Theo Pourchaire for Valtteri Bottas
    Oliver Bearman for Kevin Magnussen
    Isack Hadjar for Yuki Tsunoda

  7. Norris: “Something’s happened.
    Joseph: “What do you see Lando, what do you feel?
    Norris: “Just look at the revs, mate. It’s like the throttle got stuck on or something. It over-revved like hell.”

    Norris: “Yeah but it was revving into the limiter.”
    Joseph: “Yes, we see it and understand it. We’re happy to continue.”

  8. I wish Sky would shutup about Sargeant finally earning his maiden point, he didn’t earn sod all, he inherited it by a stupid infringement that half the cars on the grid would have been taken up on had they all been checked, probably including Sargeant himself. It’s all hyperbole and they’re so desperate to big him up, it’s absolutely cringeworthy.

  9. mercedes ride height is crap! add the parachute like rear wing dragging them like a tractor! never seen mercedes this bad in setup. this is worse than redbul in singapore. guess they were scared of floor regulation, raised the car way too much. its rear looks like driving on jacks!

  10. It looks average on TV. They should have just built it again in the car park (I was there for both). $500 million could have gone into an amazing circuit 10 or 20 miles away. All the glitz would have still shown up. I love INDCAR, but sadly this looks like the Baltimore GP so far. Also so stupid to not have a single support race to test and season the track.

    1. There is things happening but it somehow doesn’t seem that interesting.

      Track is not very interesting from a viewer standpoint. Too many shots of the trackside scenery from above.

      Hope this track not around for long.

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    1. The Merc era was fantastic in comparison. Even 2020 and 2015, the most dominant seasons with the least racing at the front were better than this season. F1 is a joke and this season is just further highlighting all the issues that were already clearly apparent

    1. The reliability is a large part of *why* Red Bull have been dominant. In the past, if your car was 5% faster than the field (which should be dominant), it might still fail to finish 3 races and have compromised pace in another 3.

      Now, if your car is 1% faster but it doesn’t break down, and your driver doesn’t have bad days, what’s to stop you winning them all?

      1. There’s another corollary: if your car is x% faster you don’t have to drive at 100% to maintain dominance. And engine modes can be set lower to reduce the rush of failure.
        But even the slower cars have been remarkably robust this year, it seems to me.

  11. Not sure why Mercedes weren’t using those tires more. You shouldn’t be coming in with the driver saying “I could do 24 more laps on these”. In contrast, Norris had clearly been pushing since Perez took Piastri

  12. Why does Alonso still do those kind of radio messages? What is it supposed to benefit? The team will know, or if not they can talk about it in the debrief, it’s not as if they can do anything about it half way through the race. I just don’t understand it at all…

    1. Likely mid-race frustration. As the commentators noted, his relative calmness this year has generally been surprising – for most of his career the way he gives 100% each race has led to tetchy messages. It obviously isn’t the detached, rational thing to say, but I’d rather see drivers with their hearts on their sleeves.

  13. Jeez, after the 2009 debacle where Alonso couldn’t pass Petrov, Ferrari really need to learn their lesson on this circuit. It is almost always a boring predicatable race. They’ve screwed him on strategy and now their 2nd place in the constructors is totally dependent on a lucky safety car which historically never comes here.

    1. Eh – Ferrari were clearly faster in quali, so keeping up with Leclerc seems like a decent race to me – especially with Russell 3rd and Hamilton somewhere around 9th. I think he could have pushed more in the middle stint, but his goals would have been to beat the McLarens and take 2nd in the constructors, and he’s on course to achieve that.

  14. Credit where it’s due: this has been an amazing season from Max. No-one has dominated to this extent with a car so close to the pack. I think half the grid could have won in that car (if Max wasn’t there), but I’m not sure anyone could have done what Max did.

    Credit shared by the team and the car, of course – car reliable, strategy consistently solid – gave Max the platform to show what he’s made of.

    1. Stories of the year outside Red Bull include:
      – Ferrari and Mercedes dropping the ball and sparring with the midfield all year
      – Alonso rolling back the years / Aston strong out of the gate
      – McLaren being everyone’s second-favourite (or 1st-favourite?) team with two young, friendly, talented drivers
      – The closest front-to-back grid we’ve ever had in F1, with contests from about 2-16 basically every grand prix

  15. I wonder how Guenther feels watching the last car developed under his leadership start 10th and 15th? Sacked for being last when he’s laid the foundations for being something like 7th

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  16. Gutting for Stroll to get hit through no fault of his own. Wasteful from Hulkenberg. Possibly overeager with excitement… it was a good chance for him

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  17. Safety car covers the blushes of the two on softs (Bearman and Bottas). Neither made the gains they would have wanted, but now everyone has a clean slate.

    Such fine margins for Stroll – but that’s Formula One

  18. I wonder whether the reason Norris hasn’t been penalised for his jump start is that he ultimately suffered for it. He started early, slammed the breaks, then started late. Perhaps the stewards decided that’s punishment enough?

    It would be nice if the rules were clearer, though – or if the stewards made a statement. Even “will not be investigated” would be handy.