2021 Belgian Grand Prix - Spa-Francorchamps, Aug 27 - 29

[Morteza]

[Red Rock Mutley]

To stave this, in, 2003 Alonso crashed on lap 54. They pulled out the safety car, but on lap 56 the race was red flagged. In official communication, race winner Fisichella officially completed 54 laps and NOT 56. So there's a very big argument that the FIA set precedent in the past regarding this and are now contradicting their own

I do remember that race. IIRC it took a while to sort out how many laps to count back, with many people in the paddock unsure if it was 1 or 2 laps.

I'm not sure if the rule has changed since then, but the current wording of 51.14 may be interpreted as a 2 lap countback dependant on how the word "before" connects to the other constructs in the sentence. Before the red-flag lap winds the count back 1 lap. At the end of the penultimate lap goes back another.

Of course, that very nicely ties in with the requirement to have more than 2 laps on the board

[edit for clarity]

[Mogster]

This is bonkers, watching the interviews the drivers are saying they knew the race wasn't happening even before the restart. It was common knowledge that the race was cancelled, the restart was literally just to classify the race...

How can this not be a situation of bringing the sport in to disrepute?

You could see the drivers knew the race was cancelled. They were just jumping in the cars, not keeping their boots dry, hardly tightening the belts properly. I posted about it when it was happening.

[Mogster]

This is bonkers, watching the interviews the drivers are saying they knew the race wasn't happening even before the restart. It was common knowledge that the race was cancelled, the restart was literally just to classify the race...

How can this not be a situation of bringing the sport in to disrepute?

You could see the drivers knew the race was cancelled. They were just jumping in the cars, not keeping their boots dry, hardly tightening the belts properly. I posted about it when it was happening.

I was surprised they didn’t do a few more, just to deal with this sort of eventuality.

[nacho]

MotoGp postoned races til monday some years ago, that should have been done today.

[Hoffman900]

MotoGp postoned races til monday some years ago, that should have been done today.

NASCAR and IRL do as well. NASCAR races almost weekly and the mobs are much further than 3 hours.

That said, NASCAR and their teams know how to deal with this, where F1 would be in uncharted waters in terms of the teams setting up / breaking down as well as the tv networks knowing how to manage it.

[TNTHead]

Half point races are scarse, only six times yet:
https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/3210 ... oint-races

[adrianjordan]

The biggest deal would have been Marshalls. Many of them would have to be in work tomorrow. Potentially the medical copter pilot and medical staff.

The logistics for the teams would have been quite simple, being able to actually safely run a race however....

They might as well put a rule in place stating that points are awarded for Qualifying results in the eventuality that the race cannot be run. Maybe make it 25% or 1/3 points or something like that.

Then a clause on tickets saying organisers accept no liability for the event being cancelled due to forces beyond their control etc (I have tickets to 4 different concerts within the next 6 months which all state this in relation to Covid).

Seems so simple.... So of course F1 can't get it right.

[Big Tea]

The biggest deal would have been Marshalls. Many of them would have to be in work tomorrow. Potentially the medical copter pilot and medical staff.

The logistics for the teams would have been quite simple, being able to actually safely run a race however....

They might as well put a rule in place stating that points are awarded for Qualifying results in the eventuality that the race cannot be run. Maybe make it 25% or 1/3 points or something like that.

Then a clause on tickets saying organisers accept no liability for the event being cancelled due to forces beyond their control etc (I have tickets to 4 different concerts within the next 6 months which all state this in relation to Covid).

Seems so simple.... So of course F1 can't get it right.

Also insurance. The event was covered for that day with these facilities and these people doing allocated jobs. It could take a long time to get an assessor to the track to ensure safety is the same on monday as some of the key personnel may not be there and even things like traffic patterns and cover at local hospitals, police, food etc would have to be taken into account. I think it was a non starter from the set off.

[Mogster]

MotoGp postoned races til monday some years ago, that should have been done today.

NASCAR and IRL do as well. NASCAR races almost weekly and the mobs are much further than 3 hours.

That said, NASCAR and their teams know how to deal with this, where F1 would be in uncharted waters in terms of the teams setting up / breaking down as well as the tv networks knowing how to manage it.

It’s quite common in the US, I can’t remember a European race being run on the following day though. I don’t think the US series use the number of volunteer marshals that European races do, I get the impression that the series rely on paid safety teams to manage the events.

In the end you can’t run a race without marshals and with the European system you can’t just expect people to be available.

[Morteza]

Gary Anderson has presented a solution
WHAT F1 MUST LEARN FROM THIS CONFUSING FARCE

After a lap or two under the safety car, the safety car should pull in but the yellow flags stay out. The leader dictates the pace with no overtaking and they can feel out the conditions and build the pace and clear off the worst of the water. We know how much water can be moved by these cars as the speed builds.

[RZS10]

That's not really a solution because the car at the front can just eff off into the distance with clear view, especially when visibility is a bigger issue than grip levels.

Has anyone figured out yet why Perez was allowed to drive around at the back of that farcical safety car parade?

[Schuttelberg]

I stand categorically corrected on my unnecessary critique of Lewis for the points awarded comment. He did mention that they should race the following day.

My apologies to him and his fans.

[Jolle]

MotoGp postoned races til monday some years ago, that should have been done today.

NASCAR and IRL do as well. NASCAR races almost weekly and the mobs are much further than 3 hours.

That said, NASCAR and their teams know how to deal with this, where F1 would be in uncharted waters in terms of the teams setting up / breaking down as well as the tv networks knowing how to manage it.

It’s quite common in the US, I can’t remember a European race being run on the following day though. I don’t think the US series use the number of volunteer marshals that European races do, I get the impression that the series rely on paid safety teams to manage the events.

In the end you can’t run a race without marshals and with the European system you can’t just expect people to be available.

My guess that an oval race has a lot less Marshalls involved compared to a race like Spa, where most are volunteers.

Plus, it’s a complicated organisation overall, to have everything delayed for a day, within a few hours is an impossibility on its own (hotels, transportation, security, marshals, crowd control, catering, etc etc. It’s a bit bigger then just a few teams.
MotoGP was possible few years back because marshals were flown in and there anyway for another day and everything around the circuit was quite low key, being a race in de desert (for big money). The conclusion in the end by the way was that it was the wrong call.

As for “they should just race”, what some members are saying, this track has a blind high speed corner, where, if you go off, you end up in the middle of the track, with spray, no way other drivers can avoid you.

[RZS10]

I firmly believe that Norris taking too many risks in actually worse conditions in quali which resulted in him stuffing the car into the barriers played a role in today's decision making.