2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Feel bad for Mick and Zhou. They got screwed over by the red flag from Sainz.

I think they both had a great chance to be in Q3. Just goes to show how experience pays to know how to extract the most from the tires after a lap.

The team that surprised me the most was Alpha Tauri. They are further off the mark than I expected and McLarens recovery has happened quickly.
 
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Ricciardo had an engine issue, Valtteri had an issue, and Norris had a brake issue that hindered their sessions.
 
not gonna lie, but that Italian cheer for LeClerc gave me goose bumps.
 
Max going Kimi. I know what I am doing . Max to the lead.

Lot of action for just 21 laps. Red Bull has crazy speed.

Good job Max.
 
Max blew by LeClerc like the Ferrari was dragging an anchor. If they can keep that advantage, there will be no stopping them.

Sadly my DVR cut off the last three laps so I missed the pass for the lead. I saw it on Youtube, and it was rather eye opening. If Red Bulls keep blowing other cars off like this on the straights, I'm sure there will be cheating allegations from somewhere. The advantage is just too big.

Mercedes is just not very good at the moment. The car looks fabulous but just isn't fast. The porposing seems to be getting worse because it's beating the crap out of it's drivers.

I'de be ok with a few more sprints. It was nice to have practice and qualifying, then a practice session and sprint today, and the full GP is tomorrow. That's three days in a row of GP racing.

Kiante said:
Pierre, you could have left a bit more space there.

Racing incident it is.
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That was as close to 50/50 as you can get IMHO. It looked like they kind or merged into each other.
Kiante said:
Black and white flag for warming up tires?

Eh.
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I think a lot of things went on in the background over the winter we are not privy to. The driving up and down the field is much better. There has not been a lot of chopping, blocking or swerving, and drivers are not running each other wide either. I think they told the drivers to clean it up and didn't make that public. They didn't need to change the rules. They just needed to enforce the existing ones, and that's what I suspect they were doing with Kevin.

The biggest difference in drivers is what Max is doing. Last year he would pull a dirty trick any time he had the chance, but this year he's been squeaky clean and fair. Max is a lot like Michael Schumacher in that he's so good he doesn't need dirty tricks. The car is good enough now that all he has to do is keep his nose clean and drive it.

I hope this is a new Max because he's been brilliant this whole season. Of course, he's attacking instead of defending, and we'll see how he does when someone tries to overtake him. I'm hopeful he continues to race fairly.
 
I forgot to add that we are so used to seeing dirty driving that we wonder what the officials are up to when they actually enforce the rules. They have let so much slide for so many years that people can be forgiven for thinking there are no rules at all.

However, I do hope they keep a lid on the dirty tricks because clean racing is better racing. If you look at how good the races have been this year, I think a lot of that has to do with the lack of dirty tricks.

And yeah, they are going to get it wrong a few times simply because they are the FIA, but it will all settle down once everyone knows what's expected from them and what the consequences are for not honoring that. I like the direction F1 is going now. Once the teams kill off the porposing it's hard to imagine how good this season will get.
 
That was awfully racy for Imola. Great recovery drives from Checo and Sainz, and Bottas is perfect for a midfield team. The Red Bulls looked much better on the tires than they had before this weekend, Leclerc was falling into the clutches of Checo pretty rapidly as well after being passed by Max.

Great Saturday crowd from the Tifosi too.
 
FLRacingFan said:
That was awfully racy for Imola. Great recovery drives from Checo and Sainz, and Bottas is perfect for a midfield team. The Red Bulls looked much better on the tires than they had before this weekend, Leclerc was falling into the clutches of Checo pretty rapidly as well after being passed by Max.

Great Saturday crowd from the Tifosi too.
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This RB13 seems a bit more tailored for Checo, it seems like this car understeers a bit more. It plays right into Checo's driving style more and it looks like it. Checo has been awfully impressive, a good mix of of world class tire conservation and excellent speed to boot in race trim.
 
FLRacingFan said:
That was awfully racy for Imola.
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The new cars are great.
FLRacingFan said:
Great recovery drives from Checo and Sainz, and Bottas is perfect for a midfield team.
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Checo probably got more out of that car than it actually had. We all though Votas was going to career hell stepping way down to Alfa, but they actually have a decent car and Valteri is giving it solid rides.

FLRacingFan said:
The Red Bulls looked much better on the tires than they had before this weekend, Leclerc was falling into the clutches of Checo pretty rapidly as well after being passed by Max.
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They have this tire deg thing figured out to almost the last lap.

The Mercedes thing is a bit of a mystery. I can't imagine how they got it so wrong, but they may already have the answer and don't know it. Mercedes was fastest at Barcelona with a more conventional sidepod. That was the last thing that actually worked, so I am surprised they don't try it again in P1. They don't have a lot to lose right now so they may as well roll the dice.

Alpine has it totally figured out, and claims they can switch the porposing on and off. Alfa suffered horrendous porposing, but fixed it. Ferrari just lives with it, but at least they are fast. Every other team on the grid has it figured out, so it's only a matter of time before Mercedes does.
 
Wish we could’ve seen what Russell’s first lap looked like. 12th to 6th and looking for more now.
 
Cooldown room coming back is very good.

Didn’t expect double points for Aston. McLaren making so much progress in one month is very impressive. I do wonder what could’ve been for Bottas if it weren’t for that terrible pit stop.
 
donthaveanickname said:
At least Charles' mistake is gonna make the championship closer again.
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It's got to be gut wrenching to see that many points disappear in one weekend. Some people were saying the championship was as good as over, but today was a lesson in how fast a championship can turn around, and how quickly things can go bad.

The big story for me is how lost Mercedes continues to be. Almost every other team on the grid has found the solution to porposing, so what's up here? I've been firmly in the "it's too early to panic" camp here, but it's looking like it might be time to panic. Mercedes have a third or fourth place car and are losing ground every race. The points deficit is going to get totally out of hand if they can't turn it around. Lewis is seventh and George dropped two places in the championship this weekend. Mercedes has to get busy.

Max is down 27 points now, which was about the same as Lewis was behind going into Silverstone last year, and we saw how quickly that turned around. It's not over and there is plenty of time for it to go either way. There is even time for Mercedes to pull themselves back into the fight, but pretty soon they could be so buried in the points there will be no digging their way out.
 
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