2024 Chinese GP

[Juzh]

Verstappen taking the piss with the 13s in 10 laps

[AR3-GP]

The tarmac is a joke here. It looked like they were still driving in the wet today.

[dialtone]

You can’t judge this incident via picture but if you insist… he’s behind in this picture, so by rule he needs to stay in his lane as Sainz is entitled to the space as long as he leaves enough for Alonso.

Alonso’s follow up, which is the important part after having established that he’s behind, is to force Sainz off track with contact, which he caused by diving in a corner he could never make in that position.

Easy penalty, as easy as the one Sainz deserves for pushing out, with contact, Leclerc later on.

On the other hand ALO was passed very cleanly by Sainz in a nice fight that didn’t involve pushing Alonso wide or off track in any corner, in fact Sainz was the outside car for most of that fight.

Racing incidents are a different thing and don’t involve dive bombing.

If contact happens while the inside car is on the kerb, it's generally not a divebomb, unless the car runs insanely wide afterwards or it's a hairpin corner. A divebomb is where the inside driver misjudges his braking point and goes wide of the apex. Fernando definitely hit the apex - they only went wide because of the contact. And if the contact is because Sainz closed the door, then Fernando can't be judged at fault for running him wide, because the running wide was caused by the contact causing loss of grip (for both drivers).

Let's see what the stewards say, but to me, your interpretation is completely wrong. It's a completely legitimate move by Alonso. Sainz closed the door.

The small contact they had a few corners before that was more on Alonso. He didn't hit the apex there.

EDIT: Also, I'm not just judging by the image. The image i posted for show-and-tell, but i watched the incident several times. And i can't see Fernando being predominantly to blame for the 2nd contact.

EDIT 2: After watching it again, Fernando might actually have not hit the apex completely, but still just enough to it not being a divebomb. I still think that they wouldn't have gone wide if there hadn't been contact, and therefore I'm still gonna call racing incident. But maybe Fernando is not as innocent as i thought.

Well, I appreciate the honesty, stewards will choose what they want. Ultimately Carlos finished the race where he should have, and got lucky to escape a penalty.

[RedNEO]

This is why the only “racing” we normally have is drs derp derp passes on straights. Because people want to penalise the only entertainment we had all race. It’s totally bizarre!

[CaribouBread]

10 sec penalty and 3 penalty points for Alonso, the penalty points seem a bit excessive to me but looks like its the new protocol with penalty points.

[RedNEO]

10 sec penalty and 3 penalty points for Alonso, the penalty points seem a bit excessive to me but looks like its the new protocol with penalty points.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLlqeYXXYAA ... =4096x4096

Racing is dead. F1 should rename itself scalextrics drs championship.

[Tvetovnato]

This track is a properly good one. Fantastic combinations offering so many options when battling, and actually when driving alone too compared to other tracks. Great to see it back!

Kind of expected result, no-brainer that RB would win, the only unknown was the balance between the rest, which was at least a bit interesting. Norris needs to tidy up though, too many mistakes when it matters still.

[Chuckjr]

Anyone who thinks Ferrari is within a second of Red Bull is smoking crack. I keep seeing people posting the Ferrari is within .3 or so of the Red Bull. Ok. Keep telling yourself that.

Ferrari had a hard time passing Fred with DRS. There’s reality for you.

Like I wrote weeks ago, it will be 2026 before any other team is a championship contender. Max will be a 5x champ by then.

CS is a dam fool if he does not take the Red Bull seat should it be offered. He may not win any championships, but he will win races. There’s a lot to be said for that. Having a trophy case with a good grab of wins is a lot better than a trophy case full of what could have been…at some point these guys need to be practical about their career. Just my 2 cents.

[chrisc90]

Interesting Q1.

[Cs98]

Wow, Hamilton 18th in a car that should be easily in the top 10.

[chrisc90]

Wow, Hamilton 18th in a car that should be easily in the top 10.

I’ll wait for the excuses claiming we changed the setup and it went in the wrong direction after the sprint

[renault rs26]

Wow, Hamilton 18th in a car that should be easily in the top 10.

And Perez just half a tenth ahead of knockout in p15.

[AMG.Tzan]

Verstapen fans waiting in the wings ready to slay Hamilton after embarrassing themselves in Sprint Shootout…

Still doesn’t change the fact that you lost pole while having a car over 1 second quicker than anyone…

[TFSA]

10 sec penalty and 3 penalty points for Alonso, the penalty points seem a bit excessive to me but looks like its the new protocol with penalty points.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLlqeYXXYAA ... =4096x4096

Too bad they didn't state the reasoning for their decision. I really don't get the logic here. He's alongside, he's on the kurb, he had - at best - minor understeer, and the collission happens way before they run wide.

I actually think the stewarding of 2022 and 2023 was decent (not great, but decent) - but some of their rulings this year has left me baffled, and we're not even 5 races in.

[AMG.Tzan]

Wow, Hamilton 18th in a car that should be easily in the top 10.

I’ll wait for the excuses claiming we changed the setup and it went in the wrong direction after the sprint

“Excuses” said the guy who was talking about temps being an issue yesterday when his forgot how to drive while having a car over 1 second faster as we saw in the Sprint…