2022 - Race 11 Austria

[F1nKS]

Quick turnaround in Austria. Not one of my favorite tracks.

Interestingly during their look at establishing a porpoising limitation found that some teams floors flexed more in certain areas. They have said they will be taking a harder look and will require teams to submit drawings and FEM results showing that the deflections meet FIA requirements. The implication though they didn't name teams was it was RBR and Ferrari and this will bring the field closer together.

[F1nKS]

There are also rumors of bad blood between the Sainz/Leclerc garages.

“Part of the Ferrari staff allegedly refused, at least initially, to attend the podium ceremony and photo op. If true, as I fear, this is not a good sign.

“A little healthy rivalry inside the garage is fine, it is fine for each mechanic and each technician to cheer for ‘his’ driver, but the common interest must be to aim to win.”

Leclerc may have told the media he was okay with the team’s decisions but the cameras caught him receiving a visual telling off from Mattia Binotto in which the Ferrari boss wagged his finger at his driver.

[The Black Knight]

There are also rumors of bad blood between the Sainz/Leclerc garages.

I think LeClerc will leave Ferrari. He was primed to take thr championship this year and Ferrari have done everything in their power to mess it up. They'll always leave you down Ferrari.

[airshifter]

I find the new technical directive as boggling as the changes they have made in past years. If the governing body sets a regulation and testing procedure that is met, then they really shouldn't change that regulation or testing procedure on short notice. In F1 teams exploit the edges of compliance and find grey areas all the time, and that should be anticipated and accounted for when they write the regs and procedures from the start. Similar to how they handled the DAS situation, if they feel that current regs and procedures allowed it, then they shouldn't change the reg or procedure until the following year. Otherwise the investment that was made by the team(s) is wasted, when the fault lies with vague regulations.

As for Ferrari, they really haven't been all together properly since the Schumacher years. They tend to waffle and not make decisions, allowing the divide within the team. There is a point whether it be a single race or deciding on a #1 driver where they have to put their foot down and do the right thing for the team first. Allowing divides within the team is never going to foster the type of team mentality they need. I'm sure Leclerc is frustrated, but really where is he going to go? And to some extent, if you don't start behind your team mate, then passing won't be an issue.

[Bagwan]

I don't like these sprint race weekends .
For me , it takes away from the anticipation of the Sunday race .
And it diminishes qually , too , as you may not start first , even if you get pole .


That said , I did enjoy young Mick and Lewis jousting like equals out there for a while .


But , that's not enough for me to like this new format .
Qualifying on Saturday is enough for me , as it sets up the finale .

Disco sucked , and so do sprint races .

[Kenneth]

I feel like F2 style sprint would be better. Top 10 from quali reversed, then featured race Q starting order.

[airshifter]

Interesting weekend so far.

I'm not sure how they missed Perez going off in Q2, and it really seems like they paid too much attention to turns 9 and 10 vs the entire track. I'm fine with enforcing track limits, but don't see why they don't enforce them everywhere instead of often watching select corners. At least they did try to put it right and move Gasly into P10 for the Sprint start. Really amazed that both Mercs went off, and hard to imagine it was just both of them pushing too hard, but that seems to be the case. The aborted laps by Lewis were an indication something wasn't right but I didn't see him pushing to the point of going off before setting even a slower time.

Checo did good in the sprint today, and at least the reds mixed it up some. Completely amazed that the Haas cars managed to make it so hard for Lewis, and Kevin managed to stay ahead through the sprint. Still a good recovery from Lewis considering the contact at race start, and the car looks to at least be capable of giving them solid third best car performance. With Perez back in the mix, no telling what will happen up front. Bummer for Alonso but it's F1 and these things happen.


I'm still not really a fan of the Sprint thing myself.

[Tazio]

No, no 'noda!
https://youtu.be/h90xTmUZoOw


Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[N. Jones]

I'm surprised that Max had such difficulty today although I have to admit that the Ferrari's were fighting each other in the sprint so that may have made a difference. Lots of battles on track make for a good race so I have no complaints.

[airshifter]

Another interesting race, both on pace and strategies up front.

Checo out in short order, and after that Sprint comeback it's even more disappointing. I did think the penalty for George was harsh personally, as Checo didn't open up and leave more room for him, and there was plenty of room to be had. I'm not sure I can be upset about the penalty as they were harsh the entire race, but Perez pushed the issue on the opening lap when he didn't need to.

Tire deg started swaying things towards the reds fairly quickly, and Max had nothing for Leclerc in short order. I'm surprised at RB making the first pit call so early, but maybe they were just trying to force a Ferrari reaction that might swing their way by luck of SC/VSC or something. Though Max did what he could at the end he was a siting duck for both red cars, right up until that engine went bang just as Carlos was in the position to pass. And when it went, it went in old school send parts flying fashion fairly quickly.

I'm not sure if anyone else noticed, but the closest marshal with a fire extinguisher moved towards the car, put the extinguisher down, and walked back towards the stand. I would think more urgency towards the fire would have been in order. Thankfully they got the wheel chocked and things under control. That could have been much uglier, and I don't think it was far from that point. Glad Carlos is ok but gutted that Ferrari keep having these reliability issues.

Overall a lot of on track action really, as the strategy calls and penalties, along with some cars with poor qually and Sprint livened things up. At one point there were five (FIVE!) cars battling on a small section of track. We could have never seen that in the old formulas, and it shows how well these cars can follow closely while racing. Solid drives by both Merc drivers and George managed to recover from his penalty. Mick gets the best of KMag and both Haas cars had a great race. Alpine drivers both in the points, and Alonso had to work hard to bring things back into the fight. Both McLarens in the points as well and Danny Ric doing overall better than he has been lately.


Lots of cars on the edge of penalties for track limits, but for the most part they at least seemed to be consistent with all of them. Now we just need consistency race to race.

A well deserved victory for Charles, and also a well deserved DOTD for Mick.