F1 (Formula 1) Racing Topic

[iacas]

Wolff says Mercedes W13 is ‘not worthy of a world champion’ after Hamilton finishes 13th at Imola | Formula 1®

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Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff offered a stark assessment of the eight-time constructors’ champions performance, after their world champion’s struggles at Emilia Romagna.

Suck it, Mercedes.

[iacas]

Russell Reveals He’s Battling Back And Chest Pains From Mercedes’ Bouncing

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Drivers spend months physically and mentally preparing and training for the enormous task that is racing in F1. However, the one consequence of the new ground effect cars is putting an even bigger toll on their health...

 

[Pretzel]

That's not a consequence of the new ground effect cars, it's just a consequence of Mercedes' shitty aero and suspension. If they managed the porpoising like most other teams already have they wouldn't have this issue injuring their drivers.

[Bucki1968]

I'm looking forward to the Miami race. It's always interesting on a new track. Not to mention...I'll be there!😜

[Bucki1968]

Red Bull starting to dominate after Spain. Still hoping for some respectability for Haas. Not sure if I'm all that impressed with Mick Shumacher. 

[iacas]

16 minutes ago, Bucki1968 said:

Red Bull starting to dominate after Spain. Still hoping for some respectability for Haas. Not sure if I'm all that impressed with Mick Shumacher. 

Max's DRS wouldn't open, or he'd have passed Russell earlier… and for all we know, strategy may have changed. Good win given his early spin into the gravel, though.

Checo can't be all that happy with the mandated strategy, though. He seemed at least a little pissed.

[iacas]

This is Indy car but stuff like this could happen in F1.

[Pretzel]

Egress from a flipped car was one of the biggest arguments against the implementation of the Halo in Formula 1, and it actually happened in 2018 to Nico Hulkenburg with the additional complication of the flipped car catching fire. The marshals were luckily able to extinguish the fire and right the car for him to escape safely, but he was entirely unable to escape on his own before that happened.

The other main issue with flipped cars in F1 is that the entire chassis can become electrified and dangerous for marshals to touch with the large hybrid elements of the car. There are indicators lights for marshal safety to show whether the electrical cut-off has been activated and the car is properly neutralized, but in the event of an urgent extraction it would be a choice between risking marshal safety or risking the life of the driver inside the car.  As much as we'd all like to pretend to play the hero in such a scenario, the reality of the situation is that there's no good answer as to what the right thing to do there is other than attempting to ensure marshals are equipped to safely attempt extractions even on electrically live vehicles.

The counter argument to this is that rollover crashes such as this didn't have all that much better of an outcome in years before the introduction of the aeroscreen and halo devices. In many cases drivers were still trapped even without the halo/aeroscreen simply because the gap to escape, created by the angle between front and top-rear of the crash structure, was too small or presented at an angle that made egress from the vehicle impossible for drivers. In other cases drivers could be at risk if the top of the crash structure became damaged and allowed a rolled vehicle to sit lower and potentially compress the driver into the car.

Thankfully, however, rollover crashes like this are rare and most would agree that the safety improvements are worth the potential risks. Since the introduction of the halo there have been three crashes that I believe best highlight the advantages of the halo (and similar designs) and would have almost certainly resulted in either fatalities or life-changing levels of injury had the halo not be in place. The first is the 2020 crash of Romain Grosjean, where analysis afterwards showed that the only thing preventing the barrier from flattening or removing the driver's head was the halo itself. The second is the 2021 entanglement of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton at Monza, where Max's rear tire would have fallen directly on top of Lewis Hamilton's head and forced his helmet down into the steering column, potentially crushing it. The final is the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix when Fernando Alonso's entire car landed directly upon Charles LeClerc's halo before continuing to slide forwards off the other side of the vehicle, an incident which without the halo would have certainly resulted in a direct strike to the helmet of a driver by the body of another car.

There are certainly risks with the halo, but I personally believe that the benefits vastly outweigh the risks and thus far this has been borne out in the incidents we've seen since their introduction. It is only a matter of time, however, until the halo or aeroscreen ends up potentially impeding vehicle egress in a more dire scenario and the debate will re-open once more. Ultimately the truth of the matter is that racing at the highest level, with these speeds, is always a risky endeavor and it is virtually impossible to eliminate fatalities entirely no matter what safety precautions are taken. The best we can hope to accomplish is to prevent the largest number of injuries and fatalities as possible, and work to continuously shore up weak points such as equipment and training for trackside staff to more efficiently and effectively overcome challenges presented by designs with net-positive safety benefits, as well as continuing to innovate with designs that improve driver safety without turning the car into a sealed tomb.

[iacas]

Uhh, I wasn't expecting to read all of that today, but I wanted to say that I did read it all and I agree and/or thank you for typing that out.

I wondered when this happened, because it was a pretty big lockup for seemingly no real reason.

[iacas]

Brad Pitt’s Formula One Racing Movie Lands at Apple

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Apple Original Films has emerged as the highest bidder for Brad Pitt's movie about Formula One racing, with Joseph Kosinki directing.

 

[iacas]

FIA takes steps to reduce porpoising in the interests of safety

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Following the eighth round of this year’s FIA Formula One World Championship, during which the phenomenon of aerodynamic oscillations (“porpoising”) of the new generation of Formula 1 cars, and the effect of...

[Pretzel]

My biggest question for this race was why on earth would Ferrari put Sainz on hards when there were only 20 laps to go and the Ferrari already proved to be gentle on the tires this weekend. They knew they couldn't pass with the same hard tires unless they were both 30+ laps old, and yet they put Sainz on the same tires as what Verstappen had just taken. 

20 laps to go the only chance to pass is with mediums, and with 20 laps to go the mediums aren't likely to fade enough for Verstappen to make a pass back on Sainz. Even without the safety car reducing tire wear for the end of the race it was already foolish to do the change for hards instead of mediums, because the absolute worst-case with mediums is still a 2nd place finish (no chance of Hamilton overtaking) but the absolute best-case with hards was always going to be 2nd place.

Edited June 20, 2022 by Pretzel

[iacas]

Yes. Also, fairly telling that given 15 laps with DRS he couldn’t pass. Is the Red Bull just that fast in a straight line?

[Pretzel]

12 hours ago, iacas said:

Yes. Also, fairly telling that given 15 laps with DRS he couldn’t pass. Is the Red Bull just that fast in a straight line?

That and the Ferrari is one of the slower cars for straight line speed. The Ferrari was noticeably faster in sector 2 than the Red Bull so they needed Medium tires to gain more ground there to make a pass with the long DRS straight. Because Red Bull was faster in sector 1 Sainz couldn't get close enough before the final hairpin to make any attempts at a pass, either at the hairpin or at the end of the long straight.

Mediums he could have had a chance, might have been passed back at the very end if the tire wear was worse than it was for Leclerc, but he would have had a chance. Hard tires just meant the race was over right then and there. 

[Pretzel]

Found out why they didn’t put him on the mediums after looking more close - they had none left. His last set was used at the start of the race. Makes the decision make more sense with that information, but definitely unfortunate for Sainz to lose out on an opportunity based on how the team used their compounds through the practice sessions (teams all get the same allocation each weekend nowadays). A soft tire would have been unlikely to last the 20 laps without degrading enough to risk Hamilton and Russell catching up to Sainz. 

Edited June 20, 2022 by Pretzel

[iacas]

Good thread. 😉

[iacas]

This is a really cool way to see this type of stuff:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CgbhxpYjW_x/

I'd embed but I don't think reels embed yet.

[Pretzel]

That's definitely my favorite visualization of different laptimes I've seen before. Really highlights the strengths and weaknesses (slow corner vs straight line speed) of the two cars and the differing racing lines that different drivers take.