2019 French Grand Prix - Le Castellet, June 21-23

[LM10]

It happens in plenty of sports.

Look at Football and VAR. After years of wrong decisions from human officials we now have Video reviews, and the outcome?............loads of complaining

Both Rugby codes have video reviews and still fans, players, coaches and commentators find reasons to moan.

People in football complain for a reason. There have been many questionable and simply wrong decisions in various leagues even though VAR was in use. It left you scratching your head asking what’s going on in the background.

Do you think that in sports everything is fine and officials always decide like they should? That there are no influences whatsoever? If yes, you’re living in a dream world.

[sosic2121]

While you are right, I don't see a problem with that. It's dangerous sport. Hardest part should be finding the limit without going over it.
I also believe 2m grass trap is good solution.

For example, if in Canada there was tarmac, Vettel wouldn't lose his place or advantage. After all, he did make mistake, he should pay some price.

I don't quite agree - a lot of that asphalt is also for motoGP safety; and in Canada, had there been asphalt and a bollard/boards that give a slow path back to the track, maybe the unsafe situation would have been avoided. I don't want to see that happening, like grass there much more, but, if drivers are going to abuse stuff (Perez 'but I followed the rules, went around the bollard' ... yes, but fast enough to overtake three drivers off track), well, then gravel I suppose? But what about Norris being pushed off by Ricciardo - he'd not have been 10th, then 9th, but 'out of it'. So, it's not that simple as 'just put grass/gravel'.

I understand that grass is a problem for motogp.

I don't want grass all the way to the wall, just 2m, so driver that makes mistake should pay for it.
For example Hamilton made a small mistake yesterday(can't exactly remember and can't find a video), and those mistakes go unpunished on these circuits. If there was a grass trap, maybe he would lose his lead to Bottas that had a flawless race. This is hypothetical comment!

Also, if driver A pushes driver B onto grass on corner exit, imo that should be a penalty.

And about Nor Ric.
If there was some grass, Ric wouldn't be able to return to the track and run Nor off.

[Ringleheim]

The amount of runoff at Paul Ricard now is absolutely ridiculous.

This crap needs to go. Circuits should be self-penalizing. You go off the track, you go on grass, and you might lose control. If you lose control you might hit something hard and it's going to hurt.

The sport is so overly safe now; it all goes straight back to May 1, 1994. The day real F1 racing started to become a part of history.

Such a boring race with boring cars and boring drivers on a boring track.

And with about 4,735 people in attendance by the look of it!

[carisi2k]

At least Daniel brightened up the day.

May I ask why didn't norris get done for 5 seconds since he went off the circuit. If the stewards want to be consistent then regardless of how he ended up there he should have received the 5 second penalty.

Daniel never short circuited the track and so the vettel rule shouldn't apply since vettel cut a corner and it could just be said that daniel took a wide line. The stewards haven't been consistent with this rule because if they were then Lewis should have received a 5 second penalty at monaco 2 times (2016 and 2019). If we keep going by the rule book then we are just going to see more boring F1 races.

[ENGINE TUNER]

At least Daniel brightened up the day.

May I ask why didn't norris get done for 5 seconds since he went off the circuit. If the stewards want to be consistent then regardless of how he ended up there he should have received the 5 second penalty.

Daniel never short circuited the track and so the vettel rule shouldn't apply since vettel cut a corner and it could just be said that daniel took a wide line. The stewards haven't been consistent with this rule because if they were then Lewis should have received a 5 second penalty at monaco 2 times (2016 and 2019). If we keep going by the rule book then we are just going to see more boring F1 races.

Wow, so much nonsense in 1 post, BRAVO, never thought it could be done

[Schuttelberg]

This is the first race I have missed since I began watching in 1994. Obviously, I've missed a few races live but always caught up with the tapes and avoided spoilers. I just watched the cricket yesterday, had no inclination to watch or record and just saw the results at night. Didn't miss anything clearly. Clear sign that the sport is broken.

[izzy]

At least Daniel brightened up the day.

May I ask why didn't norris get done for 5 seconds since he went off the circuit. If the stewards want to be consistent then regardless of how he ended up there he should have received the 5 second penalty.

of course you can ask . It's not illegal to go off the circuit

it's only illegal to gain a lasting advantage going off the circuit, like, you know, overtaking someone

or to rejoin unsafely forcing another car off

[NathanOlder]

This is the first race I have missed since I began watching in 1994. Obviously, I've missed a few races live but always caught up with the tapes and avoided spoilers. I just watched the cricket yesterday, had no inclination to watch or record and just saw the results at night. Didn't miss anything clearly. Clear sign that the sport is broken.

I think its more likely you are broken watching cricket over F1

was a dull race though


p.s We need the Austrian thread up and running, Only 4 days to Practice! And that race will 100% be better than this, always good racing at the A1 Ring

[FrukostScones]

people forget that this track was modernised as test track.
the runoff wasn't done for F1 purposes.

[cooken]

This crap needs to go. Circuits should be self-penalizing. You go off the track, you go on grass, and you might lose control. If you lose control you might hit something hard and it's going to hurt.

The sport is so overly safe now; it all goes straight back to May 1, 1994. The day real F1 racing started to become a part of history.

Wow. So essentially F1 stopped being "real" when it stopped maiming and killing people is that it? Nice opinion. Have fun living in the past with your "real F1 racing", whatever that is.

[wesley123]

May I ask why didn't norris get done for 5 seconds since he went off the circuit. If the stewards want to be consistent then regardless of how he ended up there he should have received the 5 second penalty.

1. He didn't really gain an advantage, did he?
2. He had issues with his differential and power steering. This makes the whole driving an F1 car thing a whole lot harder.

Daniel never short circuited the track and so the vettel rule shouldn't apply since vettel cut a corner and it could just be said that daniel took a wide line.

You have no clue what you are talking about. The penalty was for rejoining the track unsafely, you can rejoin a track without cutting it, like Ricciardo did.

The stewards haven't been consistent with this rule because if they were then Lewis should have received a 5 second penalty at monaco 2 times (2016 and 2019).

Not really, I suggest you actually take a look at the incidents. Neither of those came even remotely close to rejoining the track unsafely. This "look he did the same thing if you cut two full seconds somewhere in the incident" gets really tiresome.

If we keep going by the rule book then we are just going to see more boring F1 races.

People who complain about a race being boring will complain about it being boring regardless of what happens.

[devra]

people forget that this track was modernised as test track.
the runoff wasn't done for F1 purposes.

Exactly. And that this track is still mostly used as a test track for private customers or teams, and if it's so popular and booked more than 300 days a year, that's also because you don't lose 30min or more in the gravels everytime you make a mistake. Circuits are hosting the best drivers of this world for 3 days but keep in mind that 90% of their business is made of people like you and me who certainly want to enjoy their driving time as much as possible.

It happens in plenty of sports.

Look at Football and VAR. After years of wrong decisions from human officials we now have Video reviews, and the outcome?............loads of complaining

Both Rugby codes have video reviews and still fans, players, coaches and commentators find reasons to moan.

Reminds me what we hear quite often in football since the VAR is in use: "Yeah but he was just a little bit offside so it's like he's not", or things like that. People will always complain even facing clear evidences. I even read some people saying that Kimi should be penalized for not moving to the left to let Ricciardo pass...

[toraabe]

But they might be a lot better through T12 and T15 this year; I guess Ferrari would still be the fastest in S2, though despite Bottas feeling the track itself would be better without the chicane in mistral, I bet the Mercedes engineers are quite happy to have it there this year (and maybe it also helps Haas, Ferrari keep those tyres warmed up?)

Funnily enough, Mercedes was faster than Ferrari through S2 (2 tenths), by a greater margin than S3 (1 tenth).

Whoever was faster in each sector last year - it has zero influence and meaning on/for 2019.

Hopefully they will get rid of it pretty soon, and also that they will use the old line at "La Verriere" so they can go flat out all the way from start finish down to La Chichane Then the track will be a low downforce track and the last secion before start finich will be more challenging

[oT v1]

Agreed that the race didn’t have many highlights but for me it’s still more exciting than vettel’s ‘death by a thousand aero advantage cuts’ that was 2011/2013.

HAM is marching on to 91, imagine the pain that some fans had during Schumi’s years. I think a lot of people just need to enjoy watching a record breaking era. It’s no 2010 or 2012 but sometimes these seasons are going to happen, and IT WILL be looked back on and revered as Hamilton mastery (just like Schumi/senna/fangio ‘golden years’)

Step up Ferrari, Renault, RB!!

[TAG]

This is the first race I have missed since I began watching in 1994. Obviously, I've missed a few races live but always caught up with the tapes and avoided spoilers. I just watched the cricket yesterday, had no inclination to watch or record and just saw the results at night. Didn't miss anything clearly. Clear sign that the sport is broken.

Or that someone's favorite team or favorite driver isn't winning. If you've never missed a race since 1994 you would clearly know that many races since have been processional. There are many things wrong with the sport none of which couldn't be fixed by FiA leaving regulations alone for a few years. But people demanding that they fix what's broken because one team/driver is winning too much is what's making the FiA change the rules ever two or three years now and the same team keeps coming out on top.

Maybe what's broken is the favorite teams?