SS454
9th October 2022, 17:53
After hours of waiting for the race to resume, teams, drivers, commentators all suggested it was very unlikely to be restarted so I went to bed. Less than 20 mins later, the race is restarted. Bugger.
I really wish the WORLD wide sport of F1 didn't always cater to Europe (IE: the Brits). Starting the race to be the most convenient to Britain's time zone meant they only had a 3 hour window of daylight. They don't seem to care about the fans at the track that paid good money, or the fans in other countries or continents that had to stay up past 12 am to watch the race. But they didn't want the Brits to have to get up before 6 am on a weekend once in a 22 race schedule?
Canada's TSN coverage was horrible. In the entire rain delay there was no commercial breaks notice. In a 28 lap race there was 3 commercial brakes.
The TV director needs to be fired and kicked out of television. There was plenty of action going on through the grid. Russell making passes, Alonso's flying through the field and the highlight of the race side by side finish vs Vettel. Nope, got to see none of it. But we did get to see 15 laps of Hamilton chasing Ocon.
Formula 1 seems to be scared of full wet tires. We almost never see them anymore. The precedent being set is that unless its only a damp track with a light drizzle, then the race will be delayed, red flagged, or cancelled. Safety is absolutely top priority, and visibility definitely was trash, so it's hard to argue what the drivers are saying. Unfortunately I think the new ground effect cars make the kick up spray much worse than before. We watched the safety car rip around in lakes and rivers on the track and there was virtually no kick up, but the enormous vacuum from the ground effects just suck all that water into the air and make visibility terrible. Anyone that has been watching F1 for a long time will remember races went on in much worse conditions, full wet tires were commonly used. F1 need to find a solution. Also maybe it is time for Pirelli to develop different wet tires since they have used the same tread pattern since they rejoined in F1.
The FIA and Formula 1 did not learn from Spa. Sure they came up with a better point structure for partial races, but have zero solutions for races actually being ran. The fact that a race can still have 1 or 2 laps, and be canceled without a way to run the race the next day, or later in the evening (maybe these tracks should have lights?). The people that travel, make hotel accommodations, and pay huge bucks for tickets deserve to watch a race run.
I wont go through all the teams, but a few points.
Sainz crashing out on lap 1, could have happened to anyone in those conditions, but it didn't. It happened to Sainz. Ferrari drivers crashing out on their own is not a rare occurrence unfortunately.
Leclerc wanting to pit with 20ish minutes to go. Why not?? At that point alone he would have easily been 1 second a lap faster than anyone, probably more. Alonso showed with fresh tires vs worn tires he was 4 seconds faster. I can't see how Leclerc doesn't make up the 22 seconds he'd lose from pitting in 20 mins. Championship was long gone, so why not try and see what happens?
George Russell is becoming a bigger complainer than Hamilton. Slamming the team for making a bad decision to pit for inters, when the inters were clearly faster by around 5 seconds a lap! Dude should go back to Williams where he can have the illusion of being some marvel driver competing against Latifi.
Latifi got points!! Big big kudos to him.
Vettel had a fantastic result in his final Suzuka race. We all loved that.
Gasly and the tractor. I'm sorry but I'm putting 90% of the blame on Gasly and his team. In no circumstances should he have ever been going that fast through the crash scene that he was part of! He knew exactly where the wreck was since that's where he had a board stick to his face. Not to mention the team should have a responsibility to tell him that a tractor and/or people are on track and to slow down heavily. Instead he goes through in 5th gear, claims he slowed down and was following his delta. This is an FIA/F1 problem, they are not clear enough in forcing drivers to slow down. To me, it is like someone got in a crash on the highway, went home and got in their other car, then choose to speed through the incident they were involved in, while there is emergency vehicles and people working, and then putting the blame on THEM if they crashed into the ambulance. That's nonsense. Some awful drivers in the world are capable of going past emergency or construction workers on the side of the road without issue all the time, I think some of the very best drivers in the world are capable of doing it at slow controlled speeds too. People want to reference Bianchi's crash in 2014. Hate to say it, but he was going to fast which caused his crash. Had he been going through at slow SC speeds, he never would have spun off like that.
2022 Japanese GP: Very post race quick analysis
I really wish the WORLD wide sport of F1 didn't always cater to Europe (IE: the Brits). Starting the race to be the most convenient to Britain's time zone meant they only had a 3 hour window of daylight. They don't seem to care about the fans at the track that paid good money, or the fans in other countries or continents that had to stay up past 12 am to watch the race. But they didn't want the Brits to have to get up before 6 am on a weekend once in a 22 race schedule?
Canada's TSN coverage was horrible. In the entire rain delay there was no commercial breaks notice. In a 28 lap race there was 3 commercial brakes.
The TV director needs to be fired and kicked out of television. There was plenty of action going on through the grid. Russell making passes, Alonso's flying through the field and the highlight of the race side by side finish vs Vettel. Nope, got to see none of it. But we did get to see 15 laps of Hamilton chasing Ocon.
Formula 1 seems to be scared of full wet tires. We almost never see them anymore. The precedent being set is that unless its only a damp track with a light drizzle, then the race will be delayed, red flagged, or cancelled. Safety is absolutely top priority, and visibility definitely was trash, so it's hard to argue what the drivers are saying. Unfortunately I think the new ground effect cars make the kick up spray much worse than before. We watched the safety car rip around in lakes and rivers on the track and there was virtually no kick up, but the enormous vacuum from the ground effects just suck all that water into the air and make visibility terrible. Anyone that has been watching F1 for a long time will remember races went on in much worse conditions, full wet tires were commonly used. F1 need to find a solution. Also maybe it is time for Pirelli to develop different wet tires since they have used the same tread pattern since they rejoined in F1.
The FIA and Formula 1 did not learn from Spa. Sure they came up with a better point structure for partial races, but have zero solutions for races actually being ran. The fact that a race can still have 1 or 2 laps, and be canceled without a way to run the race the next day, or later in the evening (maybe these tracks should have lights?). The people that travel, make hotel accommodations, and pay huge bucks for tickets deserve to watch a race run.
I wont go through all the teams, but a few points.
Sainz crashing out on lap 1, could have happened to anyone in those conditions, but it didn't. It happened to Sainz. Ferrari drivers crashing out on their own is not a rare occurrence unfortunately.
Leclerc wanting to pit with 20ish minutes to go. Why not?? At that point alone he would have easily been 1 second a lap faster than anyone, probably more. Alonso showed with fresh tires vs worn tires he was 4 seconds faster. I can't see how Leclerc doesn't make up the 22 seconds he'd lose from pitting in 20 mins. Championship was long gone, so why not try and see what happens?
George Russell is becoming a bigger complainer than Hamilton. Slamming the team for making a bad decision to pit for inters, when the inters were clearly faster by around 5 seconds a lap! Dude should go back to Williams where he can have the illusion of being some marvel driver competing against Latifi.
Latifi got points!! Big big kudos to him.
Vettel had a fantastic result in his final Suzuka race. We all loved that.
Gasly and the tractor. I'm sorry but I'm putting 90% of the blame on Gasly and his team. In no circumstances should he have ever been going that fast through the crash scene that he was part of! He knew exactly where the wreck was since that's where he had a board stick to his face. Not to mention the team should have a responsibility to tell him that a tractor and/or people are on track and to slow down heavily. Instead he goes through in 5th gear, claims he slowed down and was following his delta. This is an FIA/F1 problem, they are not clear enough in forcing drivers to slow down. To me, it is like someone got in a crash on the highway, went home and got in their other car, then choose to speed through the incident they were involved in, while there is emergency vehicles and people working, and then putting the blame on THEM if they crashed into the ambulance. That's nonsense. Some awful drivers in the world are capable of going past emergency or construction workers on the side of the road without issue all the time, I think some of the very best drivers in the world are capable of doing it at slow controlled speeds too. People want to reference Bianchi's crash in 2014. Hate to say it, but he was going to fast which caused his crash. Had he been going through at slow SC speeds, he never would have spun off like that.
2022 Japanese GP: Very post race quick analysis