Race start, Miami International Autodrome, 2022

Rate the race: 2022 Miami Grand Prix

2022 Miami Grand Prix

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What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Miami Grand Prix.

RaceFans has held polls on every F1 race since 2008 to find out which fans thought of each round of the season.

Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2022 Miami Grand Prix out of 10

  • 10 (4%)
  • 9 (1%)
  • 8 (8%)
  • 7 (24%)
  • 6 (20%)
  • 5 (15%)
  • 4 (12%)
  • 3 (6%)
  • 2 (4%)
  • 1 (4%)

Total Voters: 237

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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104 comments on “Rate the race: 2022 Miami Grand Prix”

  1. Dull.

    1. It did put me to sleep. And while that has happened once or twice if I didn’t sleep well, it’s because the European rounds are in the wee hours for this part of the world.

      But it never happened in the daylight with the Mexican GP, because, although boring, it’s one of the shorter events, or with the Brazilian GP because those tend to be awesome races.

      This track was always going to be a car park and no amount of paint could ever hide it.

    2. 2 bad ones in a row. season settling in or 2 bad tracks for racing? Maybe a bit of both.
      this track has a vibe but truthfully it is just another tilkedrome, the return of the dreadful tilkedrom, a track that tries to do everything and crucially bundles in a knock off silverstone sector, as always. Miami’s s1 forces the cars to stop racing, follow in line and ends the excitment of the start right away.

    3. I thought the race was about a 6 – dull (as most F1 races are) but from all the negativity the drivers mentioned about the track, there were some overtakes.

      The celebrity scene is what turned me off. Tacky to say the least I’m a American and long time F1 fan and it just doesn’t seems to be a good fit.

      Plus it’s a bad time to race in South Florida. Too hot and rainy although luck was on their side with the latter.

      Still better than Monica IMO but some track tweaking definitely needed.

  2. Probably a 0/10 before the safety car, then the last 10 laps maybe lifted it to a 2/10 at best.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      8th May 2022, 22:12

      The safety car helped. A bit reminiscent of Sochi, not sure why.

    2. Why so drastic?
      Is a 4 or 5 not enough?

      1. Because voting at the extreme end counts more towards moving the average down.

      2. Because 5 would literally mean that it was an average race. Which it wasn’t – it was far worse.

        1. Oh ok, I think it’s a matter of interpretation. I come from a country where in schools, 6/10 is the minimum acceptable level to pass exams. So for me 5 is already negative.

  3. Straightforward & slightly weird race. Good battling here & there, though.

  4. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    8th May 2022, 22:12

    Mercedes’s strategy has gone from proactive to reactive to retroactive…. How could they not put Lewis on sofas?

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      8th May 2022, 22:14

      Sofas? Er..Softs

      1. MaddMe (@)
        8th May 2022, 22:17

        @freelittlebirds With the porpoising he’s been suffering, I suspect he was wishing he was on a sofa…

    2. I think Lewis probably would’ve rather been on the sofa today

    3. ThreePurpleSectors (@)
      8th May 2022, 22:29

      @freelittlebirds, another race another Merc strategy blunder for Ham. It’s to be expected.

      1. He had so many years of luck

    4. They gave Hamilton the options to get softs. He chose to stay on hardship.

      1. The team should have called the choice. With the cars bunching at the start of the safety car, Hamilton said he had no idea where other cars were on the truck. He said he did not have the data to make the pit/no out decision. Further he told the team to make the call.

        This was bad management my the team.

    5. They have a horrible car but RUS called his shot and asked to stay out and hope for VSC/SC/Rain. HAM on the other hand did not pit to get fresh tires. His blaming the team for strategy is tiresome as he should have called for stop the second the VSC lit up. The car is barely competitive and fresh tires were the only thing they could do during the races this year to improve performance.

      1. ThreePurpleSectors (@)
        8th May 2022, 23:11

        @jimfromus, Let me help you out on how pitstops work. Driver doesn’t just pull into the box and gets tires bolted on. There is a whole procedure behind it orchestrated by the pits. Cause you know, they have a global perspective of the race unlike the driver. Two, its amazing to me people watching the race do not understand this:

        RADIO MESSAGES BROADCASTED DURING THE RACE ARE NOT IN REAL TIME!

        They are picked to air at the discretion of the broadcast director.

        1. @threepurplesectors depends on where you get the radio messages. Those in cockpit view in F1TV are definitely realtime.

          1. ThreePurpleSectors (@)
            9th May 2022, 0:01

            @mattds, sure if thats how you watch “the race” live. Don’t let your reading comprehension overtake your need for snark. I’m not the one.

          2. @threepurplesectors lots of people using different feeds at the same time to watch the race live, switching onboards when and if needed to view/review stuff, after but also during the race. If you get from his post that he certainly did not do that, then you are free to explain where and how, because I don’t see it. My reading comprehension seems solid.

            Two additional comments:
            1) If ‘snark’ is what you read into my post, then I would suggest not commenting on my supposed lack of reading comprehension, because it was definitely not in there.
            2) Given your reply to @jimfromus, I would not comment on my “need for snark”, because you seem to be heavily projecting now mister “let me help you out on how pitstops work”.

        2. Let me help you out on how pit stops work! There are over 50 people in Mercs strategy corner watching the race remotely and constantly playing the “what if game” The theories that they come up with are fed to the team at the track on a constant ongoing basis. As a result the pit crew are ready to go with differing scenarios at a moments notice. The driver can just pull into the the pits and it would only take the crew a few seconds to catch up. But obviously they don’t if the can avoid it. Hamilton could and should have come in for a change of tyres when the opportunity arose but between his race engineer and himself they messed up. They need to be more decisive in the future.

          1. My comment is for ThreePurple Sectors.

    6. @freelittlebirds after years of Hamilton arguing everything the team says, today he tells the team “don’t ask me! But I don’t want to lose any positions!” So in order to ensure Hamilton didn’t lose anything under a pit stop, they chose not to stop him. Kind of Hamilton’s call, again.

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        8th May 2022, 23:25

        I think they asked him too late. They could have stacked him with George or the next lap.

        1. ThreePurpleSectors (@)
          9th May 2022, 0:03

          They could have. But once again the strategy department blows it.

        2. +1. Everyone knew that a full safety car was going to be called and the gap between Lewis and George was enough to stack them. But again, Mercedes were unable to figure out the best strategy on the fly. This could be the byproduct of having one person do the strategy for both drivers.

    7. I thought driver couching was banned…

  5. petebaldwin (@)
    8th May 2022, 22:13

    I’ve seen worse – I’ve seen better. It was a race entirely reliant on DRS so I can’t score it above a 5. The SC spiced things up a bit at the end but ultimately, it was a fairly processional race.

    Decent drives from the top 3 – Perez did ok but lacked a bit of pace and screwed his one big chance to get past Sainz.

    Good drive from Russell as well to keep the hards working for so long and then got lucky with the SC. He’d have had a run at Perez and Sainz if he had a teammate willing to play the team game. Disappointing to see after all that’s happened over the last few years.

    1. ThreePurpleSectors (@)
      8th May 2022, 22:27

      @petebaldwin, Couldn’t help yourself huh? Lewis Hamilton Derangement Syndrome is strong in this one.

      1. It is quite something, right?

      2. petebaldwin (@)
        8th May 2022, 22:35

        @threepurplesectors – Lol here comes the Lewis Hamilton Defence System. :D

        Yeah I can help myself very easily but today he chose to race for himself instead of the team and I think it’s worth pointing out. That’s fine for him to do so but he potentially cost the team points today. If he’d let Russell past instead of fighting, the he’d have finished in the same position but Russell could have finished higher…

        1. @petebaldwin however, you yourself have also indicated that, if Hamilton had benefited from the same sequence of events, you’d be writing it off as Hamilton “getting lucky”, rather than saying “well, he did a good job in managing his tyres”. If the same sequence of events would be said to be “luck” for one driver, but is then “skill” for another driver, it leads some to ask why you change the interpretation depending on which driver was involved.

          1. ThreePurpleSectors (@)
            8th May 2022, 22:48

            @anon, Nailed it!

        2. ThreePurpleSectors (@)
          8th May 2022, 22:47

          @petebaldwin, yea cause we’re fans! Imagine that. You on the other hand will twist yourself into knots over your hatred for Ham. Team orders for a P5? You honestly believe he had the pace to fight Perez? See this is exactly why I call it a syndrome. Why is it your ability to reason and think logically constantly fails you when Ham is involved?

        3. Russell would have been able to overtake the wingman, who sits in the fastest car? Not really…

        4. “Lewis Hamilton Defence System” – lol
          But in fact he was the AH of the day.
          Complaining about strategy while Russell made a clear sensible decision.
          Maybe those jewelry is attracting a bad energy – it is that or the perspective of finishing behind Bottas and Russell.

        5. It is pretty delusional to think George could have gotten the better of any of the top 4. I also wonder whether you’d be saying the same if the roles were reversed for the two Mercedes drivers.

    2. @petebaldwin It is early in the season. World Champions almost never hand over points early in the season. Also, don’t forget George passed him in such a way as to require him to return the position.

      @threepurplesectors Look at the facts. Russell is easily Hamilton’s biggest challenge since Nico & this is only his first year in the same car. Hamilton has a very very long history of whining about tires, or strategy, or this or that or the other thing. If you even remotely think he isn’t a prima dona then you’re the nonsense, here. Hamilton absolutely went so far as to “imply” that someone on his side of the garage was sabotaging his car because of racism one season when Nico was beating him. The fact is Merc simply didn’t provide a stable car, Hamilton absolutely drove the car harder than it could sustain. It’s Merc’s fault for building a weak car but Hamilton could’ve already had another championship if he’d just realized that Nico was a smoother, softer driver instead of calling racism. There are plenty of reasons to dislike him, absolutely 100% plenty of reasons to dislike him. He simply has a bad attitude half the time and whines like a child every. single. race. Of course, there are reasons to like him, he’s obviously one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time hands down, but he’s seriously about as adult as “THIS IS A GP2 ENGINE” but y’all just raise him up like he’s black jesus. Get off it.

      1. ThreePurpleSectors (@)
        8th May 2022, 23:19

        @neiana, I see just like Pete you twist yourself into knots. What is with you lot with the obsession with labelling anything Ham says as “whining” or “diva.” Two, do you have a driver you actually cheer for?

        1. @threepurplesectors are you serious? You actually love him that much that you can’t hear his constant whining? Like I said, he insinuated that his own team was racist one season because he couldn’t keep the car in one piece. Again, Merc didn’t provide him or Nico a stable car but Lewis absolutely drove it harder than Nico, and therefore Lewis’ car broke more often, so of course Lewis immediately decided it was racism. From his own team. And ‘suggested it’ (via implication) publicly. It’s baffling that, despite being one of the best drivers to ever grace the sport, people are incapable of seeing his faults for… what reason, exactly, do you have such a hard on for him? Do you have a shrine in your closet?

          To answer your question. I cheer for K-Mag, Mick, Russel, Vettel & Alonso in F1 I also hope to see Zhou improve.
          I have given up on Tsunoda, but I imagine if he started doing well, I would be pleased. I am pleased to see Gasly do well. Oh! Hey, that’s more than I cheer for in NASCAR and Indycar, combined. If I ever get a chance to watch W Series, I’ll be cheering for the Filipina as I’ve lived there & married one, myself, so I do take pride when Filipinos do well in something besides beauty pageants & despite my little pro-America rant down at the bottom, I generally don’t cheer for Americans, as noted in the fact that in Indycar I am not cheering for Rossi, Newgarden nor the Mayor of Hinch-town. Besides that, fantastic wheel-to-wheel racing is fantastic wheel-to-wheel racing no matter who edges ahead. Hamilton isn’t winning every dang race, so I no longer cheer “anyone but Hamilton” as I did for 6 years. If Maxipad takes another 2 championships in a row, I’m certainly going to cheer “anyone but Max” as people used to cheer “anyone but Vettel” for 4 years.

          1. Your references to “racist allegations” purportedly made by Lewis against his team are absolute rubbish and render your entire comment worthless.

          2. ThreePurpleSectors (@)
            9th May 2022, 0:05

            @neiana, Jeez!

    3. @petebaldwin perez did look desperate though apparently Horner said he was 20kw down or .5 down on the straights, guess a ferrari overtaking a ferrari is hard.

  6. Good race, the track is ok but nothing exceptional. Definitely not something that should be considered a replacement for traditional European venues.

    1. Unfortunately this track is here to stay.
      Not only some commercial dealings push them to it, but the public there seemed to have fun, promoters had their chance, and celebrities took their photos.
      As usual on new venues: on the track, the weekend is dull; outside the track a comecrial success.

      1. some racing fan
        8th May 2022, 23:27

        The track layout itself needs a few changes and some of the walls need to be moved back. This is only the first year- give this event 3 years.

    2. @pironitheprovocateur I found the track to be a bit more than decent, but that could just be the reflex of hearing everybody whine and cry about it in the weeks and months leading up to it. It was very nice to see the panning shots and legitimately see my own country in the background. Get rid of all the glitz & glamor & celebrity of this particular event, it was a very nice “car park course” that ran like a street course because there were actual undulations. It’s a Monaco where passes can actually exist. “Tradition” can fly out the window when far superior tracks exist, imo. That being said, Vettel is absolutely correct; we need to be running at classic American courses rather than these new Miami & Vegas tracks.

      I think this track — the track, not the glitter surrounding it — is actually more interesting and challenging (as an armchair expert, of course) than COTA. If we want to get rid of COTA and keep Miami, I am okay with that.

      But since I have some curiosity, let’s drop F1 back to a 20 race schedule. What 20 currently existing tracks, up to F1 spec or not, do you think F1 absolutely be racing at?

      Personally, while I love China and I love racing on the Abu Dhabi track, I’d first drop the oil tracks & tracks in countries where there is some kind of absolute BS human rights going on. We can cry about America all we want, but that’s because Americans are outrageously sensitive crybabies. If they ever went, physically, to Bahrain or China to live, they’d be singing differently real quick. I have family who lived & worked in Bahrain, made his money in oil. A bit of a hypocrite for him to complain about it, but he sure did.

      1. jim gelarden
        9th May 2022, 1:42

        Should be renamed the Plastic Grand Prix….. It was flat, flat and flat. I know there are hill in the US. Prop boats with painted blue water…. a freeway so you could not see the entire track in one, from a helicopter … and speaking of helicopters, poor Martin and Jenson broadcasting from one to show how special it was…. woo we have a prop helicopter to land at the race…. so sad…
        Brace yourselves friends, Las Vegas will be worse …. And don’t get me started about Danica ….

  7. 6. Saved by the safety car restart otherwise the race would have been completely dull. More sad than it was exciting.

  8. First 20 lap was binge but the middle part of the race was dull until SC deployed. 7 or 8. Good battles and there were lot of mistake.

  9. 1/10 for me. I’ve really struggled to engage with this track all weekend. I was hoping it would all come together for the race, but it didn’t.

    1. Agree 100%. Getting tired of all these high speed street circuits, all hype no show.

  10. 3/10 Circuit.

    5/10 Race.

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      8th May 2022, 22:19

      I hope it’s maybe a little better if they resurface it for next year but I think they are going to need to make some alterations… There don’t seem to be any great overtaking points on the track.

  11. Meh. No doubt this event will be considered a roaring success with all the high-profile attendees and pretty facilities, but I just wish they’d made some consideration for those of us who can only watch on TV. The on-track product feels like an afterthought; it’s just another Abu Dhabi.

  12. Pretty bad race not helped by the fact that the track is also really bad which made the most dull parts of the race feel even worse.

    4/10.

  13. The track is not as awful as some thought – it is even worse.
    3 DRS were not enough to allow some action.

    1. Gabriel Souza
      9th May 2022, 13:45

      What race you watched, Magnussen overtook Mick, Vettel overtook Magnussen, Mick overtook both, there was plenty of fighting all race long, there was plenty of action this race.

  14. Voted a generous 6 but without tweaks this will be a processional race in the future as teams gather more data on it. Podium ceremony a joke.

  15. Safe to say it was everything I expected, and less. The odd DRS-assisted overtake and a couple of laps near the end where there looked like being a genuine battle for the lead do not make up for the utter, utter tedium in between. You always know it’s boring when they start broadcasting speculative team radio messages about the vague possibility of rain (which never arrives).

  16. MaddMe (@)
    8th May 2022, 22:23

    I really felt this was going to be a dull incident ridden race. Whilst there were a couple of incidents, it was a decent race.

    The opening laps were good and overtaking was shown to be possible, the mid race laps were reasonably decent and comparatively clean (Alonso/Gasly and Gasly/Norris). Shame for Norris crashing out and a credit for George getting up to 5th (pushing his hard tyres and holding out for the VSC/SC).

    The last laps after the restart were top notch, again mostly clean racing and a well fought for podium.

  17. First 10 and last 10 laps were good, middle bit had some midfield fun at least. 7/10.

    Max and Charles were awesome again, their teammates less so. Russel did well with a calculated gamble that paid off, kudos to him. Hamilton invisible. Vettel highly entertaining.

  18. A 4 would do, and what a terrible track to be honest!

  19. I’d give it a 5 cause the middle part was just too dull to be true. If Ferrari doesn’t find straight speed, it will be tough for Charles to win wheel to wheel battles against Verstappen this year

  20. Lame track, lame race, lame venue.

  21. Drop this and give us a German GP.

  22. Pjotr (@pietkoster)
    8th May 2022, 22:44

    The biggest race event ever, on television it maybe looks dull but the real fans are at the circuit having fun. This is how you save a sport. 10 points.

    1. What? The real fans on their fake boats?

      Right, they’re the real fans, not the ones who have religiously watched the sport for the last four decades.

      1. Pjotr (@pietkoster)
        9th May 2022, 1:22

        No not the souls who watch the race. The real fans are the (new) sponsors and people who want to invest big in F1. People with serious money. Future is more important than the past.

  23. Gone with a 4.

    Even the 5Live commentators were laughing at how dull it was before the SC happened and they had been doing their best to big it up all through Friday and Saturday.

    Not that any of this will matter.
    Liberty will declare it a phenomenal success with almost 100% positive feedback from all F1 fans around the world.

    1. Even the 5Live commentators were laughing at how dull it was

      Good moment to mention: I feel that a big part of fans’ perception of the race is being moulded by how the commentators perceive it. I watched the Dutch coverage, saw some good midfield battles, Vettel who found his mojo in Miami and of course the mood generally was good ‘cause Verstappen was doing a good job (have to add: they’re not watching everything through orange tinted glasses – fortunately). If 5live general vibe was ‘it’s dull’, I can understand many of the comments here a lot better.

  24. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    8th May 2022, 22:53

    We also have to talk about the celebrities. It’s like a flea market there.

  25. I have it a 2. The circuit has all the character of another South Florida product, the Island Boys (look the, up if you want to both laugh and cringe all at once). It might have been fine for an exhibition, but for a race? What a joke. The race itself had maybe 5 combined minutes of tension and 10-20 seconds of actual excitement.

    I am not opposed to a race in South Florida and I even thought the pool and beach looked like a fun addition but literally everything else screamed clout chasing in the worst possible way. It was sad and frustrating to watch.

  26. Not a classic by far, but I quite enjoyed some of the scraps. For whatever reason, the final hairpin-esque corner caught out a lot of drivers, which set up a few battles on the S/F straight. Perhaps something with the surface? People mocked the ‘mistake generator’ comment earlier in the race weekend, but that’s a valid strategy to create a difference in speed that can otherwise only come about through DRS or tyres. Ironically the corners meant to serve that function, the ones under the overpass, didn’t result in anything of the sort.

    Not a big fan of the VSC into full SC decision. The difference has pretty big strategy implications, and preferably the race director moves from a local yellow to either of the two.

    6/10 seems about right.

  27. Race a 5 but pre-race broadcast was cringeworthy. I couldn’t care less what “famous” people think about F1. Unfortunately, the world is full of pathetic losers that have the mindset, oh look, these “famous” people like F1 just like me, so I have this in common with them.

    Also watched the W race with my wife as the time of day was US time. She was outraged as the Audi she owned and the Mercedes she now owns perform the same or better than those W cars. The message F1 is sending is women can’t drive faster cars and can’t race to a number of laps, like the men do in F1.

    1. If that’s the message then I guess everyone in any category below F1 is doomed…

  28. A lot of people hating the race because they are stuffy traditionalists. I’m sure as heck glad we beat the Brits for our independence so we could have a different opinion, but they’ve always stared down their pointy little noses at us, from literature to sport to anything they could to keep trying to tell us they’re better.

    When looking at other races, people vote higher at tracks that have been in F1 longer. They make up their mind about a track by looking at a layout & they rarely sway from that position. They love Monaco for nostalgia then hate any other track with similar characteristics that isn’t in Europe. It’s this kind of absolute nonsense that I sure hope disappears from “World Championship” sports and quickly. Y’all are like people into garage bands who get signed, then they hate that band specifically and only for the reason: “They got signed”. It’s ridiculous.

    This race was absolutely average. A very 7. All the doom & gloomers who didn’t get their constant red flags are crying in their tea, right now whilst maintaining their negative position on the race. Drivers who made mistakes suffered a loss at almost every mistake but they didn’t hit walls or cause huge crashes. Not even Lando touched the wall, if I remember correctly. This is exactly what everyone has been wanting or arguing about, the difference between huge run-offs vs. sand traps. What we saw today is what happens when there’s a perfect balance between the two. You got what you wanted and you hate it because it’s in America. Good Lord this patriotism is sickening and this coming from a person who finds American patriotism over the top!

    1. So many words, so little sensical content.

      1. ThreePurpleSectors (@)
        9th May 2022, 0:09

        @mxmxd, Word! The very definition of talking a lot but ain’t saying nothing!

    2. Yes I hated it. As I did Indianapolis. But COTA is one of my favourite ‘new’ tracks and always look forward to it. Nothing to do with being in the US. It’s just the quality of the track and the racing it allows.

    3. I’m not sure much of that is very true. I must say I am genuinely surprised by the negativity in the voting. I thought this was a solid Grand prix. Pretty much everything one would expect from Formula One.

  29. This race was only saved by the safetycar. Apart from that, not really special. The track does not live up to the hype.

  30. 3. Maybe it’s just after last year’s dramatics, but I’m finding the Verstappen-Leclerc rivalry all a little passionless at this point. Max’s move past Sainz at the start was the highpoint, which kind of says it all. Unless you count Gasly wandering around the track, looking at his sat nav for directions and taking out Norris in the process.

    1. I disagree, leclerc couldn’t defend from such extra speed, it was like verstappen vs hamilton in brazil, true verstappen tried everything at the limit of the rules then, but it was also towards the end of the championship, still lots to go here.

  31. It wasn’t the most thrilling grand prix in memory but certainly not the worst. Had a genuine fight for the lead and some interesting strategies which paid off (namely George Russell). Things are looking pretty grim for McLaren again after after high of Norris’ podium in Imola. And things are looking a little more positive for Mercedes. Gave it a 7.

  32. EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
    9th May 2022, 1:17

    A veritable sea of opinions for my own humble view to be lost amongst.

    Not that there is much to say.

    I have seen worse races by a mile. But take away the safety car and the peripheral razzmatazz and you are really left with very little at all.

    Having said that, such are the fine margins of F1 nowadays, if they could improve the surface so that drivers could exploit the limits of the track it could be a totally different prospect, allowing much greater use of a number of real potential overtaking spots around the circuit.

  33. Like so many races these days, the first few laps were exciting, the middle was boring and thanks to a late safety car the end was interesting.

  34. lame. Crap track, crap race. Give me Indycar any day for racing in USA

  35. Track: 4/10
    Race: 5/10
    Coverage: 5/10

    The track is uninspiring and you’d be forgiven for not knowing it was in Miami if you saw the coverage, which just looked like it’s held in an anonymous stadium car park, which of course it is. For all the time and money spent, that’s disappointing. But I suspect F1 consider it a success. The real test will be if the fans return next year.

    The race wasn’t the worst but was pretty dull for a long time. I was surprised there weren’t more driver mistakes given all the earlier talk about lack of grip off-line. Though at least it didn’t turn into a Safety Car Grand Prix.

    Camera direction was pretty poor at times. Not for the first race this season. Does anyone else miss the old F1 Digital+ coverage from years ago? Its production style was quite different, though it’s hard to explain how. Though F1 Digital+ wasn’t perfect either.

  36. Only watched the highlights. Gave it 7. Before the safety car a 5/6. Seen better and seen a lot worse.

    Circuit was OK. About as good/bad as expected. There were quite a lot of mistakes by drivers and it seems very tricky off the racing line. The last twisty section, turns 11 to 16 needs to be revisited.

    It’s not a great circuit and take away all of the razzmatazz and celebrities it might be quite a mediocre venue. It’s no worse than some others and I don’t suppose it’s leaving the calendar soon.

  37. Result is a 7 great start but till the SC quit dull then it get more pressing. TV coverage is 3 is really bad and the coolroom the drivers needed that Max was thirsty and was spend. All three drivers were hot and needed those drinks and some rest.

    Celebrities i don’t have any problems with only that interviewer that was really bad they need to do that much beter.

    The track need a beter asfalt as this was really bad. So overal i gave it a 5

  38. I’ve seen a pass for the lead, a battle for the victory towards the end, multiple overtakes or close battles in the field incl some wheel banging and also some good strategies.

    I don’t get it, the race wasn’t bad at all. Is this the new generation of F1 fans? Can’t watch something for 30 seconds without action? Please go and watch F&F9 or so…

    Only thing awful was the TV coverage. They missed a lot!

    1. Exactly. Either people are new to f1 or they have a short memory.
      In the 2000s, this would have been a solid ‘7’. I swear that half of the races were processional with ZERO on track battles.

      1. I mostly agree with you, though there have been a lot of changes since then that should’ve improved the “show” but which have been offset by dubious car and tyre regulations.

        I still think the 2000s-era F1 cars were more exciting to watch despite them being slower than modern F1 cars. They were much lighter, nimbler and shorter. They also were much less reliable (at least in the V10 era), occasionally leading to some unusual results. So modern cars are less interesting in that regard.

        Also the modern day over-reliance on DRS has meant you no longer see desperate moves by faster drivers impatiently trying to progress through the field. DRS overtaking is often now completely mundane and basically expected once a faster driver gets within 1 second of the car ahead. I think this is particularly disappointing with the new era of ground-effect cars. In the past it would be up to the driver behind to wait for the driver ahead to make a small mistake.

        Ayrton Senna’s famous quote “If you no longer go for a gap that exists, you’re no longer a racing driver” comes to mind. Modern F1 drivers aren’t looking for gaps so much any more.

        Plus once a driver gets DRS it’s unrealistic for the car ahead to defend their position. The driver behind has no real challenge and so it’s fairly rare that a DRS overtake fails due to a mistake. In the end it just looks like overtaking someone on the motorway.

    2. You may be right, though given all the hype from F1 themselves about the new cars, and having them run on a brand-new track, F1 fans today are probably right to expect more.

  39. I refuse to join the chorus that it’s the track’s fault, because it’s not – it’s the cars. It’s always been the cars, it’s still the cars, and will likely always be the cars that are the problem.
    F1 isn’t about the racing, it’s about the show and the marketing.

    Despite that, I still want racing, and this wasn’t very good.
    So 3.

  40. Good to see Toto’s been on here to vote 9/10.

    1. Wow, true, didn’t notice but 1% voted 9, so makes sense, he maybe convinced another person in merc! As for me I voted 8 but that was excessive, should’ve been a 7,5, was pretty dull indeed till before SC and they missed so many overtakes, which in any case were most likely drs passes, cars can follow pretty well now (3 tenths), so drs leaves no chance to defend.

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