Formula One ( F1 )

Bottas and Russell getting a lot of internet troll stick for the pile-up.

https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/2020_formula_1_sporting_regulations_-_iss_11_-_2020-08-25.pdf

39.13 When the clerk of the course decides it is safe to call in the safety car the message "SAFETY CAR IN THIS LAP" will be sent to all teams via the official messaging system and the car's orange lights will be extinguished. This will be the signal to the teams and drivers that it will be entering the pit lane at the end of that lap.
At this point the first car in line behind the safety car may dictate the pace and, if necessary, fall more than ten car lengths behind it.
In order to avoid the likelihood of accidents before the safety car returns to the pits, from the point at which the lights on the car are turned out drivers must proceed at a pace which involves no erratic acceleration or braking nor any other manoeuvre which is likely to endanger other drivers or impede the restart.

The TV graphics and commentators were saying Safety Car In This Lap, but the lights didn't turn off until the last corner. Regardless of how Bottas would want to lead the restart, he wasn't in control until his only choice was "as late as possible".

I think with a pit straight that drops and rises, the rollhoop cameras give an impression that the driver can see further up the field than they actually can. From Russell's onboard, it looked more like he lifted rather than braking and he got out of the way to give the driver behind as much space as possible... I think K-Mag and Latifi weren't paying attention.

I'd be interested to hear more of what each race engineer was saying to their driver from when the "peleton" exited the last corner up to when all hell broke loose. I know in Indy, drivers have spotters on the radio rather than engineers.

27.1 The driver must drive the car alone and unaided.

Would the race engineer warning that the cars ahead were not yet racing fall foul of this regulation, or be a reasonable action to prevent an incident?

There's a pretty good breakdown of the crash on r/formula1. Looks at each drivers view/action they took

Carnage! Looked a bit to me like Bottas did a dummy restart because Hamilton nailed it and backed off. The midfield bunch did the same but had to hit the brakes. The backmarkers though were strung out quite a long way and I think by the time they’d realised everyone had hit the brakes they’d had their foot in for a few seconds and were just going too fast to stop in time.

Albon was on fresh softs. I think if there had been another couple of laps he might have caught Bottas. He also needs to be in those sorts of battles to get his experience and confidence up.

Looked a bit to me like Bottas did a dummy restart because Hamilton nailed it and backed off.

He'd have been penalised if that was the case. Very against the rules.

From Russell's onboard, it looked more like he lifted rather than braking and he got out of the way to give the driver behind as much space as possible... I think K-Mag and Latifi weren't paying attention.

I imagine lifting in an F1 car from going full throttle at those speeds is probably still enough for 1G or so of deceleration. Latifi & Magnussen both managed to slow down in time but Giovonazzi ploughed into them right? Given Latifi/Magnussen were reacting to Russell and Giovonazzi to those Latifi/Magnussen, those reaction times pile up and someone's not going to make it in time.

Haven't had a proper look through all the drivers but initially I thought it was Russell leaving too big a gap then trying to catch that up, and slowing once he got there. Though there's a lot of chat about Ricciardo & Kyvat doing the same.

Regardless, I think Bottas is probably the last person to be blamed as he looked to be pretty consistent regarding his speed and shot off at the last possible moment. Surely that was a predictable behaviour given the length of the start/finish straight.

Edit: This gif is pretty good: https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/ise4i0/all_onboards_radios_on_engines_on_no_commentators/

Still think if anyone's to blame, it's Russell. I'd guess this incident is likely going to lead to some re-thinking about safety car line positioning. Makes sense to put it at the end of the final corner IMO (if the straight is long enough that draft passes on the leader are likely on the restart).

26 seconds point in that gif. Is that Russell in the first Williams, second row on the right in the gif? He speeds up to close the gap (or mis-reads the restart) and hits the brakes. HAAS on his rear left hits the brakes too but not as hard. Second Williams veers left last minute to avoid and goes round them. Raikonnen right behind the Williams can't see ahead and comes ploughing in etc etc.

Yep, though it's Giovonazzi who hits the Williams, Raikkonnen in between Grosjean and Vettel at the back.

There's definitely a lot to unpick there, never even noticed Latifi and Magnussen very nearly coming together on the final corner until now either.

Unsure what to think about yesterday's race, remove the Michael Bay sections and you're left with mostly DRS drive by overtaking which were hardly thrilling.

Either way the Halo earned its keep yesterday. In a bid to stop wheels flying off and causing untold damage there were some scary wraparound moments with drivers wheels heading into their own cockpit.

Unsure what to think about yesterday's race, remove the Michael Bay sections and you're left with mostly DRS drive by overtaking which were hardly thrilling.

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/144360/?offset=7025#comment15382108

;)

Anyone watching Sochi?

Against my better judgement, it's probably the least interesting track on the calendar IMO

Not short of action so far (says I, knowing literally nothing about f1).

It's a safe bet for safety cars and relatively dull racing if the previous years are anything to go by!

Ha, maybe I’ve picked poorly for my first race to watch in about a decade 🤣

To be fair, one could argue that most F1 races are a safe bet for relatively dull racing and no safety cars so maybe it's not so bad!

Hopefully watching Hamilton try and gain 10 places should be interesting.

Raikonnen gone from 16 to 11 already too.

Looked like the stewards have decided to run the NASCAR playbook.

Not sure if it's what you're referring to, but they've went back on their decision to give Hamilton 2 points on his license and instead fine the team. Thought the original decision was pretty odd considering the clear radio comms with Hamilton asking if it was fine and his engineer saying yes.

More the fact that there seems to be an effort to handicap racers who are winning too much. It's hardly in the FIA's interest, or in the interest of the commercial rights holders, if Hamilton wins the F1 driver's championship too early. Last race of the season showdown would suit them just fine. Similar to the entirely spurious safety car sessions in NASCAR if someone's too far in front in a race.

Personally I think that's a good thing as long as it doesn't go too far. I mean I'd say that's one of the main drivers for switching up the regs every few years.

Going back to the early 2010s there was a lot of that sort of stuff to try to prevent Red Bull running away (flexi-wings and exhaust-blown diffusers spring to mind). Getting rid of quali modes, personally I see it as a negative thing (having cars/engines that have a disparity between quali/race performance is quite a nice thing for mixing up the racing on Sunday) and do agree with Hamilton et al that it was done to "clip their wings".

Not sure if you're going down the route of suggesting that Hamilton's Monza & Sochi penalties were for the same reason. Monza is a pretty clear error on Mercedes' part. I still don't fully understand the 2 penalties for Sochi but I'm sure Merc would happily be openly critical if the stewards were in the wrong there.

I mean this stuff happened in the Ferrari-Schumacher era with switching up the pit-stop rules and the points scoring system to try to keep them in check so it's nothing new really.

Edit: Had a quick look at the multiple penalties, turns out he did 2 practice starts at the same spot. Makes sense I guess. To be honest the only mystery to me was why Merc said it was fine, or why Hamilton asked if it was okay in the first place.

Edit2: Apparently his engineer thought he meant move down the end of the pitlane (where the red/green light is), not the end of the pit exit. Makes a bit more sense now.

Looks like we might have a Schumacher-Raikkonen pairing at Alfa Romeo next year:

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breaking-ferrari-juniors-mick-schumacher-and-callum-ilott-to-make-f1-weekend.4jpo4HktVAxStHlhKQ2R46.html

Honda pulling out of F1 at the end of 2021. Wonder where that leaves Redbull and Alpha Tauri. Can't be too many decent customer options around... cap in hand to Renault maybe?

Honda withdrawing end of 2021

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/54383259

Respectable move by Honda if it is as they say to focus on becoming carbon neutral. Hope Domenicali remains focused on the zero carbon goal for 2030.

Leaves RB up shit creek with some tricky decisions to make.

Leaves RB F1 up shit creek with some tricky decisions to make.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall for the Horner-Abiteboul meetings over the coming weeks.

3 manufacturers in the sport with one utterly dominating, better hope 2022 levels the playing field a bit and does something to encourage more teams to join. Wouldn't be surprised to see Red Bull & Alpha Tauri pull out at this point either to be honest.

Might be worth revisiting those 3-car team ideas that have been talked about in the past.

Red Bull also aren't yet signed up for F1 after 2021 afaik...

But Honda pulling out is a shame.

Having said that, it maybe wouldn't surprise me if Red Bull took on the Honda engine development themselves. It's basically developed for their car after all.