Welcome to Sunday’s edition of the RaceFans round-up.
Comment of the day
Yesterday’s riveting qualifying has left Dave optimistic about today’s race:
Fantastic qualifying session. Really impressed with the job George is doing with Mercedes. Oscar showing a calm head and solid pace. Lando making another mistake when the pressure is on. Max phenomenal again.
Four different constructors in the top four. The stage is set for a great grand prix. David
James Vowles: 'With Alex, we hold a responsibility towards the result. We were a little bit too early and gave him a clean lap but cost him the opportunity to get to Q3. It was just a few milliseconds that separated him from Q3 and that’s an effect you can get from air circulation and other cars going round.'
Gabriel Bortoleto: 'On my second attempt, I picked up a plastic bag, which forced me to pit so it could be removed. Then on the third attempt, I got a bit too optimistic with the tow from Max (Verstappen), missed the braking point, and ended up spinning.'
Charles Leclerc: 'I’m not pleased with P4. I am satisfied with my driving and I have understood how to maximise the car’s potential, but unfortunately, this is the most we can extract from it at the moment. We just don’t have enough grip to carry the kind of speed our competitors are carrying through certain corners, and we have to analyse that.'
Andrew Shovlin, trackside engineering director: 'Overall, we're left with a sense we could have achieved a bit more but in many ways it's a healthy sense of frustration. We've improved a long way since last year and we'll keep pushing.'
Ayao Komatsu: 'Unfortunately we underperformed in qualifying, I don’t feel we maximised our potential. It’s actually quite tricky to get the performance out of the soft tires and I think as a team we’ve still got a lot to learn.'
'The Briton crossed the line (second) but was promoted to the top spot after Richard Verschoor, who crossed the line in (first), was given a five-second penalty for forcing another driver off the track.'
For the second day in a row a driver has received a formal warning for crossing the painted area before the pit entrance, in violation of the race director's instructions, followed by a reprimand for doing the same on a later lap. Today it's Jack Doohan, yesterday it was Liam Lawson.
Does anyone else get the feeling that F1 are showing anything, literally anything, other than Hamilton on track.. Hamilton’s starting a lap after a struggling session.. let’s see how it’s going.. no… let’s watch Bortoletto.. or Piastri onboard on an in-lap. Been all season
Stefan Wilson’s point is interesting, although I haven’t noticed a particular focus on Hamilton.
However, one thing I’ve noticed happening quite recurrently is that often flying laps for midfield drivers don’t get fully shown.
Instead, drivers & other people in garages/pit lanes with the focus switching to a driver on the flying lap about halfway into that lap or even beyond, like with Albon yesterday when he was driving alone on the track.
This thing happens both in qualifying & practice sessions.
In general, it often seems that the people running the feed are not actually interested in F1, only in those that hang around it’s periphery.
The amount of things that the fans want to see, that are only broadcast in replay or, often, not at all because there is a person in the crowd just realising that there is a camera pointing at them is very frustrating.
The last thing I want to see during qualifying is the crowd or a development driver in the pit garage.
That being said, today’s coverage is much better at showing what is happening up and down the field, rather than focusing just on the few guys at the front. If you can watch a race broadcast from the 1990s, for example, you’ll see what I mean – backmarkers only ever appeared on screen when being lapped, and even retirements from midfield runners wouldn’t be shown or commented on.
Surprising that Stefan Wilson, of all people, is objecting to people running at the back getting TV time.
Jere (@jerejj)
20th April 2025, 6:45
Stefan Wilson’s point is interesting, although I haven’t noticed a particular focus on Hamilton.
However, one thing I’ve noticed happening quite recurrently is that often flying laps for midfield drivers don’t get fully shown.
Instead, drivers & other people in garages/pit lanes with the focus switching to a driver on the flying lap about halfway into that lap or even beyond, like with Albon yesterday when he was driving alone on the track.
This thing happens both in qualifying & practice sessions.
Sham (@sham)
20th April 2025, 7:38
In general, it often seems that the people running the feed are not actually interested in F1, only in those that hang around it’s periphery.
The amount of things that the fans want to see, that are only broadcast in replay or, often, not at all because there is a person in the crowd just realising that there is a camera pointing at them is very frustrating.
The last thing I want to see during qualifying is the crowd or a development driver in the pit garage.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
20th April 2025, 10:06
That being said, today’s coverage is much better at showing what is happening up and down the field, rather than focusing just on the few guys at the front. If you can watch a race broadcast from the 1990s, for example, you’ll see what I mean – backmarkers only ever appeared on screen when being lapped, and even retirements from midfield runners wouldn’t be shown or commented on.
Surprising that Stefan Wilson, of all people, is objecting to people running at the back getting TV time.
S Arkazam
20th April 2025, 10:56
I’d rather see people having fun on the bleachers than reading sour comments on Twitter and other social media. :P