2023 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 31 - April 02

[Shal_Leg16]

Watched the highlights again .
After the finish,
Horner - and well done
Max - yah …..win is win we take it…..etc

The tone and lac of satisfaction/joy in their voices ffs. Its that simple, max is like only 1 job to keep that car in 1 peace and on track thats all and its a guaranteed win.

Starting to feel its worse then the mercs domination in hybrid era.

I think the tone of everyone was bleek after the events of the last 3 laps. Took them over a hour to do 3 laps and a complete mess up of the restarts. Then they go out and do a parade behind the SC to take the chequered flag.

Im sure the morale between the pitwall and drivers (all) would have been different if the race finished in a normal circumstance.

I didn’t find the tone bleek or frustrated because of the incidents, rather doing something that was a mundane thing…aaandd well done. That’s it. Task complete sort of thing.

[chrisc90]

Watched the highlights again .
After the finish,
Horner - and well done
Max - yah …..win is win we take it…..etc

The tone and lac of satisfaction/joy in their voices ffs. Its that simple, max is like only 1 job to keep that car in 1 peace and on track thats all and its a guaranteed win.

Starting to feel its worse then the mercs domination in hybrid era.

I think the tone of everyone was bleek after the events of the last 3 laps. Took them over a hour to do 3 laps and a complete mess up of the restarts. Then they go out and do a parade behind the SC to take the chequered flag.

Im sure the morale between the pitwall and drivers (all) would have been different if the race finished in a normal circumstance.

I didn’t find the tone bleek or frustrated because of the incidents, rather doing something that was a mundane thing…aaandd well done. That’s it. Task complete sort of thing.

Do you not think that a lot of the drivers and teams must have thought the last 3 laps and hour and a half of time was just a complete waste of time?

It would be interesting to compare finishing teams radio from everyone else to see what the other messages were.

Alonso got "that is the chequred flag x2. Thats P3 mate, well done. Eventful race" To which Alonso replied "Fantastic race guys, well done everyone. Good team result"

Sainz simply got a "well done" nothing else aside from a automated 'Chequered flag" message.

Lewis simply got a "well done lewis" to which he was excited by saying a "mega job guys, what a appeasing result. thank you so much, so so proud of you all. lets keep pushing" - Granted he got a good result from the car which they havent really had a result like that in a long time.

Lance just got "chequered flag, chequered flag, That's P4 for you, well done P3 for Fernando."

Norris got "well done lando, strong finish there". To which he replied to "good job all weekend, got some points on the board"

Perez: "Recharge on, fail 84, P5 and the fastest lap", Perez wanted to turn the page and said good job everyone and to well done to Max. Roll on Baku" Christian told him "great job checo, great recovery P5, fastest lap from the back of the grid, thats decent points from where you started"

Not going to bother with anyone else. Literally nobody aside from Lewis sounded excited in the messages to/from the car on track to the pitwall. It seems wrong to single out Max/GP/Christian for the 1 or 2 messages you heard on the live broadcast when literally everyone else had similar.

Lets face it, you can bet your bottom dollar that none of the teams really were bothered about the last few laps of the race, especially a precession behind the SC to take the flag and the messages between themselves when they have stood in the pitlane and talked to each other at leisure for the last hour.

[Juzh]

Mega to pull 2 seconds in 6 corners and a straight and a half (at the finish line).

Yeah it's impressive, but is not a representative gap. Hamilton didn't push at all after being overtaken for a few laps until alo caught up. He was saving tyres and Ver wasn't in those few minutes.

[renault rs26]

Last Laps crapshoot aside, I don't understand all the complaints about stuff being boring. Max was on a 10s lead, a far cry from the 30s gaps that the MB heyday gave. There were overtakes for the lead, and many interesting overtakes and tense battles in the midfield. All cars were pretty much still on the lead lap before chaos ensued (max was just coming up on the backmarkers I think?), which is also a great sign that the whole pack is somewhat closer together. And, we saw mclaren back in action for points. Pretty decent session altogether.

I enjoyed most of the race. The red flag shenanigans ruined it for me though. Liberty Media needs to understand that they can't just appeal to the new DTS fans that are craving for drama all the time. You still have to take care of your purists. And the way to do that is to not interfere with the race as much as they are doing. I've just read on Twitter a stupid stat showing that there have been 19 red flags between 2000-2019 and 17 red flags since 2020. That is just ridiculous if true.

Maybe because we have red flags whenever is raining these days.

[AR3-GP]

Last Laps crapshoot aside, I don't understand all the complaints about stuff being boring. Max was on a 10s lead, a far cry from the 30s gaps that the MB heyday gave. There were overtakes for the lead, and many interesting overtakes and tense battles in the midfield. All cars were pretty much still on the lead lap before chaos ensued (max was just coming up on the backmarkers I think?), which is also a great sign that the whole pack is somewhat closer together. And, we saw mclaren back in action for points. Pretty decent session altogether.

I enjoyed most of the race. The red flag shenanigans ruined it for me though. Liberty Media needs to understand that they can't just appeal to the new DTS fans that are craving for drama all the time. You still have to take care of your purists. And the way to do that is to not interfere with the race as much as they are doing. I've just read on Twitter a stupid stat showing that there have been 19 red flags between 2000-2019 and 17 red flags since 2020. That is just ridiculous if true.

F1 needs to be converting DTS fans into knowledgeable purist by educating the average person on how to appreciate a classic F1 race. People are more than capable of learning. You don't have to dumb down the sport into a 2 lap crash fest for tiktok.

[mzso]

People are always whining for something, and its polar opposite just as well. I'd rather see a few laps after a red flag than an SC finish. The chaos came from driver foolishness. Sainz, and in particular Gasly.

But of course Gasly didn't get penalty points. He's immune, because of being near a ban. A completely farcical system...

[langedweil]

I thought the atmosphere in the cool room was for once kinda amicable with Lewis and Max in there .. that's been a while.
Good to see ...

[Mr Alcatraz]

I thought the atmosphere in the cool room was for once kinda amicable with Lewis and Max in there .. that's been a while.
Good to see ...

Well I think "The Boss" achieved his expectations, if not exceeded them, Fred (The Wily Old Fox) was relieved, and 'stappen won the race, so he was happy. Plus it was a long day at the office for the Boyz. Well played by all three!

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[Sevach]

F1 needs to be converting DTS fans into knowledgeable purist by educating the average person on how to appreciate a classic F1 race. People are more than capable of learning. You don't have to dumb down the sport into a 2 lap crash fest for tiktok.

It's good business too, someone who likes drive to survive "drama" will move on to something else and be on/off with F1, fads/infatuation is something that wears off.

A hardcore fan can "suffer" through a lot.

[DGP123]

Agree. This new generation don’t have the time or dedication to invest themselves into F1. They are expecting instant and regular excitement to keep them interested, otherwise they move on to another sport or a new video on the socials. An intriguing tyre management phase is unfortunately mind boggling boring for these new fans. They want drama, action and crashes. Sadly, F1 is bowing to them with the entertainment driven red flags. I don’t see how it will change the path F1 is going.

[mclaren111]

I thought the atmosphere in the cool room was for once kinda amicable with Lewis and Max in there .. that's been a while.
Good to see ...

I prefer it the other way...

[basti313]

People are always whining for something, and its polar opposite just as well. I'd rather see a few laps after a red flag than an SC finish. The chaos came from driver foolishness. Sainz, and in particular Gasly.

But of course Gasly didn't get penalty points. He's immune, because of being near a ban. A completely farcical system...

I totally agree.
People are still whining about the finish in 2021...it would have been the only good solution there to stop the race with a red flag and restart it on new tires. One can only? argue about the standing start with 10 laps to go...this is a bit of nonsense. But the (first) red flag is fine. Should be the rule...10 laps to go a SC is a red flag with rolling start. But under the current rules it was fine.

If it needs the second red flag? No. Deploy SC, radio check the drivers and roll it to the end...there was no reason to red flag, the race could not be resumed, no car was upside down and the track was clear, at least clear enough to pass with a safety car.

For the drivers:
I do not get the discussion on Sainz. Why are we always discussing why it is a penalty if you simply drive against the rear wheel of an opponent. Especially if the only reason is that you go too hot into a corner.

Same with Gasly. We went through years of problems when in-team battles (Ros vs. Ham for example) were simply not judged by the stewards. Why do they keep up with this nonsense?

[Red Rock Mutley]

The only bit about the usage of the red flag that i could find in the regs is from the sporting regulations 57.1

57) SUSPENDING A SPRINT SESSION OR A RACE
57.1 If Competitors or officials are placed in immediate physical danger by cars running on the track, and the clerk of the course deems circumstances are such that the track cannot be negotiated safely, even behind the safety car, the sprint session or the race will be suspended.
Should it become necessary to suspend the sprint session or the race, the clerk of the course will order red flags to be shown at all marshal posts and the abort lights to be shown at the Line.

The only condition is the part in bold and apparently gives the race director the liberty to subjectively decide when it is the case.
...

It is baffling that Niels Wittich somehow believes that this was a situation in which the track could not "be negotiated safely" when the entire field had done just that on the previous two laps without any apparent issues or dangers posed to anyone.

What constitutes unsafe conditions is a subjective decision made in the heat of the moment. That's why the rules give the race director a free hand because it's counterproductive to constrain them. They need to follow their gut instinct based on their experience. If they fear sanctions or repercussions of calling a red flag then it will inevitably lead to fewer red flags being called. Let's be honest, those saying the race should not have been stopped are saying "it spoilt the show"..... which is the last reason that should be on the race directors mind.

[mendis]

Post race driver reaction (funny)

[mzso]

Agree. This new generation don’t have the time or dedication to invest themselves into F1. They are expecting instant and regular excitement to keep them interested, otherwise they move on to another sport or a new video on the socials. An intriguing tyre management phase is unfortunately mind boggling boring for these new fans. They want drama, action and crashes. Sadly, F1 is bowing to them with the entertainment driven red flags. I don’t see how it will change the path F1 is going.

Not so long ago no-one had to suffer tire management phases, because no-one got any info of it. No radio messages broadcast. The position of drivers scrolled sometimes through the bottom of the screen and that's about it.
So it is old fans that are disinterested in all this. Because they only had the action shown. But to be fair there used to be more entertainment on track and pits.