2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix - Imola, April 22 - 24

[TimW]

Thinking totally outside the box......Do away with qualifying and sprints all together. Saturday practice, Sunday line the cars up in reverse order of current standings, and watch them scrap. Putting the fastest cars at the front of the grid is like giving Bolt a 10yd head start in the 100m. Trouble is they need to stretch out the racing weekend for the advertising dosh. Money is a major obstacle to good racing.

2028: Latifi breaks Hamilton's record for the number of poles....

[Ascari67]

Thinking totally outside the box......Do away with qualifying and sprints all together. Saturday practice, Sunday line the cars up in reverse order of current standings, and watch them scrap. Putting the fastest cars at the front of the grid is like giving Bolt a 10yd head start in the 100m. Trouble is they need to stretch out the racing weekend for the advertising dosh. Money is a major obstacle to good racing.

2028: Latifi breaks Hamilton's record for the number of poles....

But think of the racing we'd get every Sunday.

[Sevach]

Sainz is putting himself in a big hole, Ferrari will place Leclerc as number 1 and it will be fair.
Also, i don't think there's a light at the end of the tunnel for Merc.

[dialtone]

Sprint quali is a terrible format, I hope this is the last year to do it...



The telemetry really doesn't have much worth discussing, LEC tyres weren't up to temperature until S2 and there's a huge massive lift from VER. LEC took this lap fairly easy in some critical corners, probably looking to bring the car home rather than set a laptime too aggressively.

[Magicsenna_41]

Wow, have popcorn out for this fight between Charles and Max.
Thats was a kind of message after the red flag out of the pitlane.
Lets see how Ferrari fans will deal with that

[Big Tea]

Sainz is putting himself in a big hole, Ferrari will place Leclerc as number 1 and it will be fair.
Also, i don't think there's a light at the end of the tunnel for Merc.

I think Merc defiantly see a light in the tunnel.
I think they also know its a train coming their way. Even if they get sorted by next race, which is not going to happen, they are waaaay behind Ferrari, and in real terms Red Bull too. They best they can hope for this year is a constructors title, assisted by unreliability at Red Bull and Sainz at Ferrari

[chrstphrln]

Wow, have popcorn out for this fight between Charles and Max.
Thats was a kind of message after the red flag out of the pitlane.
Lets see how Ferrari fans will deal with that

As a Ferrarista I can deal with that very good.
I am always concerned when rain comes in.
Leclerc and Sainz remind me of Prost, Berger and some other pilots of the past who are not really a racing raingod...
I guess it needs a Schumacher in the red car to save my nerves.

[proteus]

Thinking totally outside the box......Do away with qualifying and sprints all together. Saturday practice, Sunday line the cars up in reverse order of current standings, and watch them scrap. Putting the fastest cars at the front of the grid is like giving Bolt a 10yd head start in the 100m. Trouble is they need to stretch out the racing weekend for the advertising dosh. Money is a major obstacle to good racing.

Just why?

[silver]

Sainz is putting himself in a big hole, Ferrari will place Leclerc as number 1 and it will be fair.
Also, i don't think there's a light at the end of the tunnel for Merc.

I think Merc defiantly see a light in the tunnel.
I think they also know its a train coming their way. Even if they get sorted by next race, which is not going to happen, they are waaaay behind Ferrari, and in real terms Red Bull too. They best they can hope for this year is a constructors title, assisted by unreliability at Red Bull and Sainz at Ferrari

Mercedes need to worry about the fast recovering McLarens even in an optimistic scenario. Besides, even when both Mercedes finishing in points, they are down on what a single Ferrari or Red Bull can achieve. It's not a very optimistic scenario. Instead of thinking about this year, they should focus on next year and use the track time to iron out problems. If that means experimenting radically and lose out on occasions, so be it. Any one of the titles this year is a pipe dream.

[ENGINE TUNER]

Thinking totally outside the box......Do away with qualifying and sprints all together. Saturday practice, Sunday line the cars up in reverse order of current standings, and watch them scrap. Putting the fastest cars at the front of the grid is like giving Bolt a 10yd head start in the 100m. Trouble is they need to stretch out the racing weekend for the advertising dosh. Money is a major obstacle to good racing.

Reverse grid sprint race combined with low fuel qualy as it is now to set the grid for Sunday.

[Spoutnik]

Sainz is putting himself in a big hole, Ferrari will place Leclerc as number 1 and it will be fair.
Also, i don't think there's a light at the end of the tunnel for Merc.

I think Merc defiantly see a light in the tunnel.
I think they also know its a train coming their way. Even if they get sorted by next race, which is not going to happen, they are waaaay behind Ferrari, and in real terms Red Bull too. They best they can hope for this year is a constructors title, assisted by unreliability at Red Bull and Sainz at Ferrari

Mercedes need to worry about the fast recovering McLarens even in an optimistic scenario. Besides, even when both Mercedes finishing in points, they are down on what a single Ferrari or Red Bull can achieve. It's not a very optimistic scenario. Instead of thinking about this year, they should focus on next year and use the track time to iron out problems. If that means experimenting radically and lose out on occasions, so be it. Any one of the titles this year is a pipe dream.

Even the AM looked faster than them, so it's not only about the PU

[Spoutnik]

Sainz is putting himself in a big hole, Ferrari will place Leclerc as number 1 and it will be fair.

He's lucky it's a sprint race week end.
Max will probably slow Leclerc down and help him to be closer for Sunday.

[Magicsenna_41]

The RD was to hectic with the use of red flag today imo.
Has Red Bull again massive top speed advantage here? any guess?

[dialtone]

The RD was to hectic with the use of red flag today imo.
Has Red Bull again massive top speed advantage here? any guess?

No they don't, it's all just tyre warmup, Ferrari is gentler on the tyres, LEC was 0.7s faster than his previous attempt and just 0.5s behind VER on his red flagged lap through S1. In Q1 with 3 consecutive laps Ferrari went progressively improving especially thanks to S2 and S3. Ferrari would have likely put the car in front if:

1) Session was immediately red flagged when bottas parked (VER wouldn't have finished the lap like Sainz had in Australia)
2) Session wasn't red flagged after Bottas: Lec would have finished his lap and probably put in another one like in Q1

[Chuckjr]

Merc has managed to build an absolute dog $hit of a car. Turd pods can’t be polished because ya can’t polish a turd. My god how the mighty have fallen.

Can’t believe the resurgence of Macca. Highly impressed. Norris is a superb driver. If I were the team I’d encourage him to be more optimistic. He’s better than he realizes.

Leclerc looks outstanding. Relaxed. He knows he’s in a fast car and he’s driving within his and the cars limits. He’s simply a better driver than Carlos, and arguably the best driver in the field.

Carlos is throwing his season away. Should Charles win the title, it won’t bode well for Carlos next year as we know Ferrari will favor the champion. The crash today from Carlos may prove much more costly to his career than he maybe realizes. He better get down on it during the sprint.

Fred is still pulling more out of his car than the car deserves. He’s done it his entire career. He’s a joy to watch. Seems the new floor is working which is a good sign for updates to come...I hope he can find a win this season.

Red Bull is being Red Bull. Stable car and continual updates that work. Great drivers. Have they fixed their fuel line issues? Guess we will know by the end of the weekend.

I’m still convinced Perez fundamentally understands this years car better than Max, but Max seems slightly faster naturally and seems to be more relaxed under pressure.

Highly impressed with Haas. They are doing a great job. Happy for the team and their speed right out of the box this year. It seems to be legit as they are consistently fast.

What would cause the Williams brake assembly to explode like that?