F1 race director handled Australian GP “perfectly” – Alesi

30 comments on “F1 race director handled Australian GP “perfectly” – Alesi”

1. 

   Nick T.
   7th April 2023, 1:15

   Perfectly!

   More red flags in one race than 2004-2009 combined, but it was handled perfectly.
   1. 

      Simon
      7th April 2023, 3:08

      Yes. 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺…

      Alesi’s paddock pass would be rescinded if he’d said otherwise…
2. 

   Nick T.
   7th April 2023, 1:20

   BTW, I am sick of hearing that the red flags were based on spectacle. It was based on what he thinks is SOP based on Masi. You can argue the standing restarts were decided for spectacle. But F1 has gotten to a place where they believe no car can be parked off the race track in a safe enough place to warrant not throwing a VSC/SC or RF. And that’s an even bigger problem.
   1. 

      Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
      7th April 2023, 5:45

      You can argue the standing restarts were decided for spectacle. But F1 has gotten to a place where they believe no car can be parked off the race track in a safe enough place to warrant not throwing a VSC/SC or RF.

      I can only speak for myself, but I didn’t have a problem with the Red Flag being used to stop the race so the track can be cleaned and the crash barriers repaired. Maybe it was slightly over-cautious, but often the Race Director has just seconds to make a decision, and this was the decision, and you can’t roll back that decision. So I don’t have a problem with the decision to Red Flag the race. I’d much rather have the race stopped, have the problems with the track fixed or made safe, than for someone to be killed or injured.
      I’m not so sure about whether changing tyres and doing repairs to cars without some form of penalty is right or wrong, because if you go into the pits while racing then you usually loose your place, so it is quite generous to be able to do what effectively is a pitstop without some form of penalty.
      My dissatisfaction with what happened at Melbourne is the Restart. It didn’t have to be a standing start, there were other options.
      The simple fact we are talking about the race rather than the race result indicates there was a problem with the race.
      1. 

         SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
         7th April 2023, 7:58

         I mean, the idea that a decision had to be made in mere seconds is incorrect. They could have easily put out the safety car first, take their time to evaluate if a red flag was actually needed and then decide. The immediate red flag is something that should probably only be done if the track is completely obstructed, or if there’s a major incident the likes of Grosjean’s car exploding or Zhou’s incident at Silverstone.
         1. 

            Jere (@jerejj)
            7th April 2023, 10:42

            @sjaakfoo Indeed
3. 

   GT Racer (@gt-racer)
   7th April 2023, 1:26

   I am hearing that as of now for Baku the weekend schedule will be.

   Friday.
   * 60 minute practice session,
   * Qualifying for the GP using the usual format.

   Saturday.
   * Sprint race Qualifying using a single lap format. They are thinking of running it in reverse championship order to increase chances of mixing up the grid for the sprint. There will be a 5 minute break after 5 cars run in order to allow broadcasters to take commercial breaks.
   * Sprint race.

   Sunday.
   * Grand Prix.
   1. 

      GT Racer (@gt-racer)
      7th April 2023, 1:46

      And yes despite agreeing with the proposal (Thanks to getting some incentives and other assurances) teams are expecting that format on that circuit to result in a lot of damaged cars.

      Thats the thing with a lot of the ‘Teams agreed to’ narrative with regard to certain recent changes of the weekend format or approach to restarts etc…

      Yes most of them did agree to these things. However in many cases it was only after they were given something they wanted in return for them agreeing to it.

      Paddock is sorely missing straight talkers like Niki Lauda in the current era. It’s all become so stage managed and everything everyone says goes through multiple layers of PR people now.

      And with cameras following everyone and been in some of the meetings now there’s a lot of stuff been said for the benefit of the show or just to try and twist public opinion.
      1. 

         Crawliin-from-the-wreckage (@davedai)
         7th April 2023, 3:00

         Was hearing that also @gt-racer all except that the drivers weren’t happy with the one lap dash . Guess that’s resolved.
   2. 

      RandomMallard
      7th April 2023, 8:09

      @gt-racer I don’t know if I’ll be playing the devil’s advocate here, but I quite like this format, and think it’s an improvement on the other (normal/previous?) sprint weekend schedule.

      It at least keeps everything related to the sprint separate from everything related to the GP, and at least the GP grid will be set from the results of a regular qualifying session as with every other race. Plus the idea of using a different qualifying format such as Single Lap Qualifying for the sprint is not an awful idea, and I’d much rather they experimented with it in an already-irregular sprint weekend rather than during a normal weekend.

      Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t particularly like sprints, but I do think this format, if it does turn out to be used in Baku, would be an improvement on the current one.
      1. 

         F1 frog (@f1frog)
         7th April 2023, 9:16

         I think this format looks a lot more exciting than the previous format which is terrible. Mainly because of the one-shot qualifying idea; that would be a good way of mixing up the grid in a way that really rewards driver skill. But, as far as I can see, it is still littered with flaws. I am confused as to why sending them in reverse championship order mixes up the grid; I would have thought it would be the other way around considering the track improvements as on a Saturday morning, the big teams typically don’t go out initially in that practice session because the track is dirty and they want the smaller teams to clean it for them. But also I don’t want to see the top drivers having no chance of going any faster than the back of the grid because that would be too artificial, and it would be more interesting to watch if every driver is expected to go onto provisional pole as there would be more intrigue with every qualifying lap. Maybe the only way to counter this problem would be to make it two-shot qualifying, where the sequence of drivers is repeated because on the second attempts, the track would be more rubbered in and the advantage of going last would be far less.

         The other real problem with this format is how to encourage participation. If they are running in reverse championship order, the teams near the bottom of the championship know they have to do a lap in the worst conditions, so are at risk of crashing and will be at the back of the grid anyway. So what is the point of even trying? And then in the sprint race, they have to be in the top eight for the race to have any worth at all, so surely it is better to save the mileage of the engine and other parts. And even for the title contenders, the small amount of points awarded is surely to make them less inclined to really go for it when there is such a high risk of crashing in this race and qualifying session.

         The only way to really counter this would be to award more points, and to more of the grid, but then you get the situation of it just being a two-race weekend with both awarded significant points, which devalues the Grand Prix. So while this format looks more exciting than the current one which is just terrible, I still don’t see how it can work. Perhaps it is best to stick with the format of qualifying session to decide the grid followed be one Grand Prix. After all, it has worked perfectly for seventy years.
         1. 

            S
            7th April 2023, 10:36

            Most of what you describe is, in actual fact, a problem with the points system – not the event format.
            Currently 50% of the results of a GP and 60% of the results of a sprint mean absolutely nothing.

            A small alteration to the F1 points system so that every finishing position score points, and there can never be any excuse not to participate to the fullest in every competitive session.
            Yes, it really is that simple.

            As for the running order – I’d prefer it to be a random draw.
            Have the drivers pull a number out of a hat at the beginning of the session. No way to cheat that system, and nobody can claim any kind of unfair advantage/disadvantage.
            The fastest cars and teams already have enough perks – they don’t need the most favourable track conditions handed to them on a plate as well.
         2. 

            GT Racer (@gt-racer)
            7th April 2023, 12:22

            @f1frog @cairnsfella @jerejj My mistake. I meant to say championship order as in Max out first & Leclerc out last.

            There may also be some extra stuff done with the TV presentation for the single lap session as they are very aware that when the format was last used in F1 most found it to be dull which is why they moved away from it.

            There is also a concern that this format will be poor for those at the track on Saturday given how they will now be seeing far less of the cars on track than usual.

            Again going back to when the single lap format was used previously one of the biggest complaints from fans in the stands was how only seeing 1 car on a hot lap every 90+ seconds was quite dull. Was felt that was why Saturday attendance dropped during those 3 years as did TV ratings for qualifying.

            This format isn’t finalised just yet so it could still be changed. It’s just that this is what was generally agreed last weekend with more discussions to be had that may see some tweaks.
            1. 

               Jere (@jerejj)
               8th April 2023, 5:19

               @gt-racer De Vries is last in the driver standings, but good & valid points.
               We’ll see how things play out.
            2. 

               BasCB (@bascb)
               8th April 2023, 10:27

               Well, from what was reported today, it seems you were bang on there @gt-racer! I guess we are going to find out how this works out then.

               I must say I am curious to see how they crack the boring part of one lap qualifying (yeah, it was tedious, most people never bothered to tune in / show up for the first half, because ony a few cared enough, especially since it was alway lap out of the pitlane, hotlap, inlap and then a while waiting for the next guy to go). Would also be interesting to see how this affects the ability to get heat in tyres, since you cannot go for a second hotlap (and to me it was very annoying to see how it was terribly for any driver running into an issue or making a mistake on their one hot lap, especially since some were better at running one lap than others – DC always seemed more likely to falter, for example).
   3. 

      EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
      7th April 2023, 8:39

      @gt-racer

      * Sprint race Qualifying using a single lap format. They are thinking of running it in reverse championship order to increase chances of mixing up the grid for the sprint.

      Just for the slow old folk such as me (or maybe just me), wouldn’t running the single lap in actual championship order provide a greater chance of mixing up the grid i.e. with the lower orders running last on a potentially improving circuit?

      Im gussing I have missed, or misread something.
   4. 

      Jere (@jerejj)
      7th April 2023, 10:45

      @gt-racer Interesting, although I would’ve expected reserve running order from previous-race results like 2003-05 rather than current driver standings.
      Either way, the one-shot format from those seasons would be a nice mix-up & most importantly, no pointless practice running under parc ferme restrictions.
   5. 

      PeterG
      7th April 2023, 14:43

      @gt-racer

      * Sprint race Qualifying using a single lap format.

      Are they intentionally trying to find ways to make fans not watch?

      We had the one lap qualifying in the past and it was awful. It just lacked all of the building of tension and end of session excitement that the qualifying formats that came before/after had. It was a truly awful spectacle which hardly any fans who were around at the time liked & as you detail less people watched qualifying with that terrible format.

      I also remember attending a couple races in that period and it was a horrid format for the fans at the track as you were seeing significantly less track action over the qualifying hour or so. Rather than seeing many cars on track throughout the session all pushing for multiple laps you only saw 1 every few minutes and it was simply not a fun thing to go and see compared to the other qualifying formats, Was really quite boring actually.

      Plus with track evolution & changeable weather conditions it was very unfair to drivers who had the worst of the conditions. But if the only aim is to mix up the grid rather than have a proper qualifying session then I guess they won’t care about any unfairness because the integrity of the sport is been tossed aside with many of the Liberty ‘For Netflix’ changes.
4. 

   Jim from US (@jimfromus)
   7th April 2023, 1:41

   Alesi went on to say that Ferrari’s strategy in every race last year was also perfect and that Mercedes’ pit crew doesn’t need to improve at all.
5. 

   Crawliin-from-the-wreckage (@davedai)
   7th April 2023, 3:17

   Terribly sad about Lucy Foyt.

   The hits keep coming for AJ.

   Foyt who turned 88 in January, had a pacemaker installed in early March. He missed the IndyCar season-opening race but spent last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway with his two-car race team.
   Lucy Foyt was not feeling well when he returned home and hospitalized .
   Looks like another remarkable comeback from AJ required.
6. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   7th April 2023, 6:30

   Applied regulations perfectly & correctly? Yeah, right.
   Nothing in the rules requires red-flagging within the last five laps.
   As pointed out many times, red-flagging for some debris & especially gravel is excessive based on many more severe past incidents handled with SC, so no justification other than entertainment, which isn’t a justifiable reason by definition.
   Overall, Alesi couldn’t be more wrong.
   1. 

      Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
      7th April 2023, 8:18

      I agree. I think someone (I wonder who?) is trying to find people in the media to put out this line. They know it was a disaster and they’re trying to mitigate the damage.
   2. 

      F1 frog (@f1frog)
      7th April 2023, 9:30

      I don’t understand the first red flag, because it was completely unnecessary but also was bad for the entertainment of the race because it put everyone on the same strategy for the rest of the race. It also removed the rare excitement of having someone able to hold off a Red Bull for a bit because when both Hamilton and Verstappen had DRS, that advantage was cancelled out and we had a genuine race for position, but after George Russell was just removed from the battle, Verstappen had an easy DRS pass and then an easy victory, no longer needing to think about Russell on an alternate strategy behind. It also was completely unfair that Russell and Sainz lost so many positions for their strategy call because the red flag for gravel on the track was totally unexpected because it was pointless and ridiculous.

      There are only two justifications for the first red flag. Firstly, the idea that perhaps it was genuinely considered worth all the obvious reasons why it would make it less entertaining, just for the second standing start. The second is that the FIA was genuinely worried about the gravel on the track. Neither of these justifications are very encouraging at all.

      But the second red flag was obviously done entirely for entertainment reasons, and for me it is just wrong that an entire 55 lap Grand Prix can be considered worth nothing more than setting the grid for a 2-lap sprint which is worth all the points. It may be more interesting than finishing under the safety car but, in the sake of sporting fairness, it is not. And the third red flag was probably unnecessary as well because they could have just finished the race behind the safety car, meaning that we wouldn’t have needed that long and confusing wait for one pointless lap, and also meaning that we wouldn’t have had the unfair situation where the Aston Martins were given back their positions and Hulkenberg and Tsunoda lost their great starts because the start had never happened, but Sainz still had his penalty and the Alpines still retired because the start simultaneously had happened.

      The whole thing was a complete shambles.
      1. 

         Jere (@jerejj)
         7th April 2023, 10:48

         @f1frog Very well-put & even COTD-worthy.
7. 

   F1 frog (@f1frog)
   7th April 2023, 9:50

   Perhaps April 7th, 1968 is the most famous date in motor racing history, apart from May 1st, 1994. The day that the world lost a driver who was the undisputed best in the world by some margin, and in my opinion the greatest racing driver of all time. Jim Clark had such a huge performance advantage over any other driver of his era, including some extremely big names like Graham Hill, John Surtees and Dan Gurney, and yet he did it despite driving so smoothly that he was able to make parts of his car last a lot longer than anyone else. Therefore, he played a part in making sure his Lotus was the fastest car on the grid. A lot of this was due to him perfecting the style of trail-braking previously used by Stirling Moss. Jim Clark, more than any other driver in history, was practically never beaten on pure pace at his peak.

   In my opinion, the two strongest season performances in F1 history were both by Jim Clark, with his two world championship seasons in 1963 and 1965. In the first, 1963, he won seven out of ten races, with his other three races including retiring from the lead in Monaco, being narrowly beaten into second by Surtees on the Nurburgring due to engine glitches and losing a lap in Watkins Glen due to problems with the battery but showing race-winning speed thereafter in his fight back to third. He also led every lap in five of his wins. And legend has it that, in the first four races of that season, Clark used the same set of tyres each time. So his extraordinary win in Spa-Francorchamps by five minutes in torrential rain, while holding the gear stick in place with one hand, was done on used tyres, and his dominant performance in the wet in Reims was done on tyres that had already done three races. But this might not be true.

   Jim Clark’s 1965 season was probably even better, because this time he won six races and retired from three others which he might have won, but this time it was not in a dominant car like in 1963. Graham Hill actually claimed four pole positions to Clark’s six, but in race conditions Clark was unstoppable. It also included his excellent victory in Silverstone, turning off the engine around corners to save fuel due to a leak while Hill chased him down. During the season, Clark also won the Indy 500, the Tasman Series, and Formula 2, while he was competitive in the British Saloon Car Championship having won the year before.

   Clark would also have won the 1962, 1964 and 1967 championships had he not had such terrible reliability, while in the last-named season he was teammate to Graham Hill and beat him, not comfortably, but showing clearly that it was not just that he had had a dominant car in previous years. And in 1966 he raced with a 2-litre engine while most teams used 3 litres, but still claimed pole in Monaco and on the Nurburgring and almost won, entirely on merit, in Zandvoort until a late pitstop. He later took a more fortunate win in Watkins Glen when other retired ahead of him.

   I think Clark was the complete driver. Maybe Senna was slightly faster, Prost was slightly smoother and Fangio slightly more consistent, but Clark was very close on all three accounts and overall, greater than any of them, in my opinion. Just two championships does not do him justice.
   1. 

      Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
      8th April 2023, 1:07

      Well said, @f1frog. Thank you for the wonderful recap.
8. 

   GT Racer (@gt-racer)
   7th April 2023, 12:32

   On the red flags I’ll just say this.

   Neither of the first 2 would have happened if we hadn’t lost Charlie Whiting.

   And if they were heading other categories or if they were heading F1 under prior ownerships none of the race directors F1 has had after Charlie would be using so many red flags either.

   I’ll leave it there.
   1. 

      BasCB (@bascb)
      8th April 2023, 10:30

      Good point. The first one was probably mostly just to get that extra standing start? Or to avoid seeing many laps under SC? The second had the sole purpose of giving a boost of “excitement” for the end of the race instead of simply running to the flag behind the SC.

      Both could have been dealt with under SC.
9. 

   Ancient1 (@ancient1)
   11th April 2023, 8:33

   Absolutely staggered at some of the comments made by armchair experts who have never raced or been a track marshal/senior marshal @ motor racing, incl F1. John Alesi [driver] & I [marshal]have.
   Go do your bit, THEN comment.
10. 

    Matteo (@m-bagattini)
    11th April 2023, 9:29

    @gt-racer I agree. But also, times they are a-changing and we should adapt. I think we’re pointing the finger in the wrong direction: red flags aren’t inherently bad, they are bad because of the current procedure: a couple of changes can make things much better:

    * We need to get rid of free pit-stops under red flag. Maybe only allow switch to from slick to inter/full wet or from inter to full wet, if we need a safety net.
    * We need to make the restart procedure simpler: lowering the warning to 5 minutes may help
    * We need to make the restart procedure more predictable: if race is wet, it’s rolling start. If we’re close to the end, rolling start. Otherwise, standing start

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