2022 - Race 8 Baku

[truefan72]

Lol. Sky asking what happened to Perez pace. Easy…RBR curbed his performance and purposely had 2 slow stops, then told him that they want to hold station. SMH that is what happened


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[Tazio]

'tifi

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[F1nKS]

This was the most boring race of the year so far. Ferrari reliability is just ending the drama of having a competitive season.

Hamilton looked very bad off. If he is really that bad off, don't see how he can race next week. Back problems are tricky.

Gasly and Vettel each had a nice finish.

It is interesting that Mercedes's solution to their porpoising problem is for them to want the FIA to change the rules and mandate a ride height.

[N. Jones]

Yup. RBR are messing with Perez. They held him for 2 seconds for no reason in the pits. Shameful


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Everyone knows Max is #1 at RB. Christian can say he doesn't care who wins the title all he wants, he knows who the powers at RB want to win.

[F1nKS]

Everyone knows Max is #1 at RB. Christian can say he doesn't care who wins the title all he wants, he knows who the powers at RB want to win.

I don't know why anybody is so put off. Perez had a chance to make his 1st place stick, but couldn't with his tire degradation. Perez did not have the grip to hold of Max either.

Regardless RBR's position is not any different than what has been Mercedes when Hamilton was winning championships.

[airshifter]

A mostly boring race at the front. Other than Checo getting Lecerc into turn one and then Max getting Checo after tires, there wasn't really much going on until the Ferrari's retired.

The midfield was a bit more fun to watch as the various strategies due to the VSC periods played out. Some clean racing and nothing really unexpected but at least some action to keep it from being too boring. The mind games at McLaren ae real, with first Daniel saying he had pace then later in the race Lando trying to push the same issue, even though he never got that close. Good to see both cars in the points though, and for a change Ricciardo comes out on top.

Gutted for Yuki, he was having a strong race until that flap broke. That's the first time I remember seeing such a thing, and I was shocked at how stable the wing still seemed to be when they showed that first shot. It looked as though the left side was already gone when DRS was open. Though always a hard call, probably a good thing they made him come in to fix it but it sure sucked to pull that second car for the team out of the points.

All things considered, a weekend that ended up with decent points for Merc, and pulling them closer to Ferrari. If the trend continues, they might still be in for a shot at 2nd in the WDC points. Once again George manages to get on the podium and stay in front of Lewis. Seb doing his thing and bringing home Baku points, and both Alpines took advantage of the massive straight line speed and some decent defending to keep both cars up there in the top ten. I thought KMag might have a shot at a point until things went south for him as well.



On to Canada

[denkimi]

I'm surprised Jos hasn't said anything yet.

Jos wasn't there. He was rallying in belgium.

[The Black Knight]

A boring race from start to finish. Worst Baku race yet and people seem to think the rule changes have worked? The rules changes haven't worked all they have done is move the ability to overtake from certain parts of the track to others. DRS is still needed to overtake so the rules are a failure.

As for the discussions around rule changes to fix the pospoising, I get RBR's point that teams shouldn't be punished for doing a good job, however, I can't help but feel F1 owes Mercedes one, after all, they banned altering engine modes mid season a couple of years back to deliberately reign in Mercedes and Mercedes could have kicked up a lot more stink than they did about it. Now Mercedes needs the favour returned.

[airshifter]

F1 doesn't owe Merc anything. They've won 8 consecutive WCC's, and there have been plenty of changes during seasons that impacted them and other teams as well. Is RB owed a favor due to the pit stop changes? Is Renault owes favors because the mass damper ban hurt them?

Merc and every other team on the grid understand how to quit beating the drivers to death, it's as simply as raising ride height. But Merc have chosen to try to stay in the hunt by trashing their drivers, and I'm assuming the drivers are getting paid enough to tolerate it. They aren't alone, but in the end it's no fault but the teams that let it ride. Being only 8 races in, it's kind of early to start crying for rules changes.


As for the rules being a failure, I don't agree. Much more extended close racing through the field, and overtakes still aren't usually easy unless it's the setup differences combined with DRS. But at least now a driver can follow in the wake and keep applying pressure without major issue, and do it for much longer usually.

[The Black Knight]

F1 doesn't owe Merc anything. They've won 8 consecutive WCC's, and there have been plenty of changes during seasons that impacted them and other teams as well. Is RB owed a favor due to the pit stop changes? Is Renault owes favors because the mass damper ban hurt them?

Merc and every other team on the grid understand how to quit beating the drivers to death, it's as simply as raising ride height. But Merc have chosen to try to stay in the hunt by trashing their drivers, and I'm assuming the drivers are getting paid enough to tolerate it. They aren't alone, but in the end it's no fault but the teams that let it ride. Being only 8 races in, it's kind of early to start crying for rules changes.


As for the rules being a failure, I don't agree. Much more extended close racing through the field, and overtakes still aren't usually easy unless it's the setup differences combined with DRS. But at least now a driver can follow in the wake and keep applying pressure without major issue, and do it for much longer usually.

RBR aren't owed a thing by the sport. The pit stops were a genuine safety concern and absolutely had to be done. And you'll notice far less balls up in pit stops since they came in.

On the other hand, Mercedes were robbed point blank in Abu Dhabi of a drivers championship last year and after years of investing in engine qualifying mode they were told mid season they could not use it anymore and there were zero safety concerns with it. It was nothing other than a blatant attempt to real in a team that had done a better job. Yes, Renault is owed one by the sport. The mass damper ban mid season was ridiculous. I think Mercedes are definitely owed one. Even the wind tunnel rules were designed to hurt them more than others.

As for the current rule changes, they are not a success while DRS is still needed. In fact, it looks harder to overtake now without DRS than it used to be because the cars have less drag. Being able to follow close is no use if you've no drag to get you by.