2022 - Race 2 Saudi Arabia

[F1nKS]

Fun race. Sorry for Perez to get so unlucky with Latifi. Good hard racing to finish up the race between Max and Charles.

Latifi and Stroll....sigh

[N. Jones]

Yeah I feel for Latifi but it is beyond obvious that Stroll has to go.

[airshifter]

Overall a fantastic race weekend, other than Mick giving us a scare.


Well done to Perez for finally getting the maiden pole. It's been a long time coming, and he did it in his usual fashion. Just smooth driving through the whole lap, not a lot of drama, corrections, etc. In that respect I think Perez is similar to the way Button drove.... And well done by Sergio to retain the lead through the safety car. I don't think anyone was really pushing too hard, as it seemed everyone was happy to just manage the gaps. My guess it they would have pushed when it was time to decide who would blink first among the leaders and go for the undercut. As it turns out it was Perez, and then he was promptly screwed when the SC came out and everyone else got the freebie.

Lewis and KMag got screwed with the SC timing as well, but all things considered both did well to consolidate decent finishes, though KMag got lucky with the pit closing timing when the later problems came around. I can only think that Merc were rolling the dice hoping for the safety car, and by the time they second guessed Lewis had gone past the pit entry.

I'm still a bit confused at to why race control didn't sort out the Perez/Sainz order before the restart. If the TV coverage did, it seems that the video stewards at the race could have done the same. All they needed was that one clip to see who hit the line first. If they knew Sainz should have been first before the race restarted, they essentially screwed him with the new thought of "let the driver give the place back voluntarily or face penalty" in this case. It did seem that Perez backed out and let him by, but not until after the restart as directed by RB. Strange either way if you ask me.


Good dicing though the field for much of the race. Ocon showing what a bonehead he is as usual, though in all fairness Fred could have just quit pushing the issue as well. It only really hurt both of them in the end, but it was fun to watch. Without a doubt the cars can follow much closer and set up passes better, but the DRS does allow some pass to be repassed situations. I was surprised the the Haas could even get by Lewis with the Merc struggling, but it does show the the front of the midfield isn't far from the middle of the midfield, and that isn't far from the back of the frontrunners either.

Great racing at the front as well, though I would liked to have seen that last battle play out without any interruptions. I though for sure Leclerc was going to come out on top for a while there, but Max prevailed in the end. I have to wonder if Sainz and Perez knew to not push the issue too hard, or if they same dice might have played out with Perez at the front if not for the SC. Either way it ended up being some good racing and fun to watch.


I hope Merc gets up into the fight sooner rather than later, it would be great to have more cars up front. But as it stands Ferrari are looking strong, and that RB reliability in the first race has really hurt them.

[lmmjvss]

Best part of F1 2022 is the amount of pointless discussion on "See? Lewis without the best car is just a good driver, not the GOAT" haha
People seem to forget Schumacher before the V8s and Vettel before the V6s. They were the GOATs too... But ONLY BECAUSE of their cars... Or did they just unlearned how to drive? haha :P #GoLeclerc

[Zico]

Best part of F1 2022 is the amount of pointless discussion on "See? Lewis without the best car is just a good driver, not the GOAT" haha
People seem to forget Schumacher before the V8s and Vettel before the V6s. They were the GOATs too... But ONLY BECAUSE of their cars... Or did they just unlearned how to drive? haha :P #GoLeclerc

I'm not seeing much discussion about that at all tbh.
Yes, while it is the car that has massively skewed a lot of drivers stats over the years, I don't think anyone here would dare suggest that Schumacher and Lewis were/are not great drivers.

Of course all the GOAT talk is just nonsense for many reasons but none of their diehard fans brought it up, so lets not go there, lets just enjoy this much apreciated new era where the new cars can now follow close enough to be able to give us what we have been crying out for... for so many decades.

[denkimi]

That DRS makes for some retarded racing.

Indeed. It's just way too much. Drivers have to back off on the first straight because when they overtake someone they will get passed again immediately on the next straight.

The drs effect is too overpowered like it is now.

[Bagwan]

That DRS makes for some retarded racing.

I was hoping that the new aero package would be enough to convince them to rid the series of the dopey DRS issue .

They already had enough reason to get rid of it when they saw that the dumb situation where neither Max nor Lewis wanted to cross the line first caused them to touch last year .
It made a new braking zone before the braking zone , at the DRS line .

It has real potential to be really bad .

[truefan72]

I was hoping that the new aero package would be enough to convince them to rid the series of the dopey DRS issue .

They already had enough reason to get rid of it when they saw that the dumb situation where neither Max nor Lewis wanted to cross the line first caused them to touch last year .
It made a new braking zone before the braking zone , at the DRS line .

It has real potential to be really bad .

Why are you so hung up on the potential of it being bad when what we got yesterday was exciting. It just didn't work out for LeClerc yesterday. One more lap and he probably would have gotten him back.
This year was very different from last year. Max has matured a little since then and racing between the two was entertaining. For as long as DRS has been around folks have been complaining, and yet...it has produced fantastic races and finishes.

[Bagwan]

Why are you so hung up on the potential of it being bad when what we got yesterday was exciting. It just didn't work out for LeClerc yesterday. One more lap and he probably would have gotten him back.
This year was very different from last year. Max has matured a little since then and racing between the two was entertaining. For as long as DRS has been around folks have been complaining, and yet...it has produced fantastic races and finishes.

When they touched last year , it was extremely lucky that Lewis didn't fly over Max in a wheel touching scenario .
I don't want to see that .

DRS was designed because they could not follow closely with the aero designs they were running .
They can race each other now , so it's existence is redundant and not necessary .
And , in my opinion , it is dangerous as hell to add another braking zone before a DRS line .

[The Black Knight]

When they touched last year , it was extremely lucky that Lewis didn't fly over Max in a wheel touching scenario .
I don't want to see that .

DRS was designed because they could not follow closely with the aero designs they were running .
They can race each other now , so it's existence is redundant and not necessary .
And , in my opinion , it is dangerous as hell to add another braking zone before a DRS line .

Agreed the new rules were designed so as we could get rid of DRS. If they are now claiming the new rules work but that DRS is still necessary then the new rules are a failure.

They should at the very minimum do a couple of races without DRS. LeClerc deserved to win on Sunday. DRS gave Verstappen the victory. Get rid of it.

Congratulations to Latifi on binning it for the second time in three races. Useless. I'll say it before and I'll say it again, there needs to be quality control in F1. I've lost count of the number of times Latifi has crashed and caused red flags. F1 isn't a finishing school. Three crashes like that in a season and it should be a case of license revoked as they clearly aren't ready or capable for F1.