Whilst I am looking forward to next year, I am hoping that we can have more consistent stewarding. None of this let them race one week and the next punish the driver. Max does have a strong case to complain about with regard to this. My view is to come down heavy on them right from the start, with zero tolerance. It is farcical that Max didn’t get punished for Brazil and did in the next race.
Great Britain and Italy really show that drivers sometimes need to back out to avoid collisions and Max needs to learn to do this, he is not the only driver to need to learn this. If Max had backed out then he would have easily won the championship earlier. Hard driving and controlled aggression are fine, fighting a losing battle are counterproductive rather, giving up and waiting for a better opportunity works better over the long term. I believe Lewis learnt this from having Button as a teammate, Lewis was the faster driver yet in one season Button beat him in the championship standings because of this. Since then, he does all he can to avoid needless contact, he doesn’t always succeed though, as Alex Albon discovered.
Team principals need to be gagged during the race I think and possible for much of each weekend, the Wolf Horner spats are getting tedious, I am sure Netflix love it, but I watch F1 for the racing, not the Soap Opera that Netflix and Liberty seem to want. I have seen a few different ideas mooted about how to better manage this communication, mine is to get each team to nominate one person for communication and limit it to a chat messenger type system to race control and Masi from the start of the warm-up lap. Only Race control is able to instigate spoken communication with the teams during the race.
I am also hoping we have 3 or 4 teams fighting for wins on a regular basis, we just need Ferrari and one other team to take a step closer to the top 2 and then we could have a great multiway battle reminiscent of some previous championships.
Fully agree with this, and also the team principal and multiple teams in contention thing.
Regarding the stewarding, I’m personally more in the “let them race” camp, but am happy to accept zero tolerance as long as it’s consistently applied.
Clearly Max’s driving style will cause accidents or his opponents to take avoiding action. If you don’t want that then the stewards need to do something. He’s very reminiscent of Schumacher in that way.
Personally for me the key issue is the track. If the white line could define the limit every week that would be great. If you cross over you are penalised.
The problem is that encourages Schumacher / Senna like driving…
Stuff your car down the inside & run wide, forcing your opponent into one of three actions:
1 Hold their line so accepting the collision and probably still ending up in the gravel trap
2 Avoiding the collision and run into the gravel trap on your own
3 Just getting out of the way of any driver who’s prepared to intentionally risk a collision.
Result: F1 demolition derby at 300kph!
(Don’t forget that Schumacher once forced someone (Barrichello if memory servers me correctly) off the track onto the grass on the start finish straight, almost pushing him into the pit wall.)
There needs to be consistent application of penalties for forcing another car off the track.
Tyre changes should not be allowed when safety car out or red flag to avoid luck playing a major role. Could also restart race with same time intervals as when it was stopped.
Red flag I agree. Should be a race suspension, not a free, take as long as you’d like, pit stop without any chance of losing track position.
Yellow I think is different, you still have the potential of losing track position, so while there can be luck involved, it’s also a bit of a strategic choice that makes races interesting. Who decides to go, and who stays out, drivers as a result being out of sync with their tires etc.
I don’t like your last idea. As @Matthewjb already said, restart with same intervals would turn a safety car into the current red flag situation as I described above. I think most people agree that that should change.
Someone else suggested that doing works under a red flag should mean that you start after everyone else. Essentially allowing to repear damage if really needed, but making it expensive as it would be during a race or even yellow.
My point was that, if under a yellow you knew everything would be reset, then everyone would immediately dive into the pits for a free stop. Which would potentially be carnage.
I think a proper penalty for doing work under the red flag seems sensible.
Possibly no pitting under yellow and distances maintained would also be good. Ie it has zero impact on the race rather than, say, deciding the World Championship
So good to see people exchanging sensible and balanced thoughts on this without any bashing.
Completely agree with everything you say. Lewis has learned his lessons but he was never an unfair driver. He’s always been great at positioning his car for an infight and that’s why he usually came out a winner.
Max‘s car has a very violent bidy language when he attacks. I wonder where this will end when he fights against other young drivers who still need to prove themselves in F1. I fear this may get very dangerous.
Still, Max and Red Bull are worthy champions. Like you, I hope for consistent stewardship moving forward. Great racing - yes.
Someone getting hurt - please not.
Yes it will interesting what happens when the new ‘Max’ turns up with a similar aggressive style.
I know F1 is all about engineering excellence but I sort of miss the days when engines would blow up and cars break down. I wonder how we get some of that uncertainty back?
I like pitting under yellow, it brings a bit of uncertainty and interesting strategic decisions. Without wanting to get into another argument about it, Abu Dhabi is an example, Hamilton chose to stay out (or actually his team, from the radio it’s clear Hamilton knew that was the wrong decision), Verstappen chose to pit, that could have been the reverse as well, they were strategic choices. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, nor have I heard many people complain about that fact, only about what happened after. Let’s in this thread pretend the yellow had happened 5 laps earlier and it was still Charlie Whiting in RC taking all the right decisions
Don’t you think Hamilton was every bit as aggressive when he came into F1? I would think the same thing might happen with Verstappen over time.
We won’t. That was in the days when you’d use a brand new engine, gearbox, etc. every race, tuned to be right on the edge. Currently you need to use them for a big part of the season, so they’re naturally tuned down to be quite far from their real capabilities.
Mercedes did the former with Hamilton’s additional engine, but was able to use Bottas (6!!! engines, where 3 is “allowed”) to test quite how far they could push it.
Re-fuelling was abolished so why not abolish tyre changes, other than dry to wet or visa versa, so drivers are battling on track, & not in the pits, for the entire Grand Prix? It would also cut tyre costs & waste.
On a serious note, I wonder if Mercedes underestimated the strength of the Red Bull challenge from the start of last season & neglected to develop their car, preferring to concentrate on the 2022 car, until they realised RB were more competitive than they thought they be? Would perhaps explain why the Mercedes improved noticeably towards the end of the season.
If this was the case, starting new car development before other teams, will they have a head start over RB when the new season commences?
This would take away the strategy element, which also makes things interesting. And as a result I suspect we’d have many more races which would just be a parade of cars.
Ultimately what makes the races interesting is when you have 3 or 4 serious contenders and don’t know who will win. When you have that over a season, it’s a great season.
Personally the last few seasons have been quite dull because it was pretty clear who would win.
Mercedes, Red Bull and, say, Ferrari all with a serious chance of winning would be great.
. Could be hundreds of drivers