F1 2022 Discussion Thread

[GrandSlamFinale]

After many weeks and months of waiting, we finally have an F1 discussion thread on MN!

Anyone who wants to join is welcome - regardless of how long you've been watching the sport or who you support. My only request is that we keep it respectful even when criticising our favourite driver's rivals.

We're in Barcelona this weekend for round 6 of what has been a thriller of a championship so far. I'm really excited to see how the race unfolds today, if overtaking will prove as difficult as it historically has here, if the Mercs have done a step forward in race pace, how RB and Ferrari will play around with strategy and tyres.

@ChecoPerez a genuine set of questions as I’m curious about what Max fans really believe about Silverstone.

1. What should Lewis have done differently at Silverstone?
2. If it was the reverse position with Lewis 33 points ahead and Max on the inside, do you really believe Max would do what you said in response to 1 or would he have “rammed” Lewis? Remember Senna said if you don’t go for the gap you are no longer a racing driver.
3. If Lewis was on the outside would he have opened the steering and avoided collision or followed Max’s line and crashed?

Note: I believe Lewis should have given the place back in AD.

I am an F1 fan first foremost. I remember Schumacher and Hill literally driving to a standstill. Senna etc. tough hard racing is nothing new. Last year Max stepped over the line too many times. This year Max has driven so much more cleanly than last year and deserves the credit.

@Princessglittery woah, wait a minute.... who said I'm a max fan???

@Princessglittery and absolutely, Max is more cleaner this season! Last season was abysmal at times and I surprised he didn't get more serious penalties at times!

@ChecoPerez i obviously missed the irony in your response about RBS spending and assumed you were a Max fan.

@Princessglittery nope, not a max fan. Think my username gives it away though lol! Also a Danny Ric fan.... more so the latter

The whole point of Hamilton reporting back to his team each time Max exceeded track limits was that Max had received a black & white flag (warning) for exceeding track limits. If he did it again, there would have been a 5 second penalty applied. There was a gap of less than 5 seconds between 1st and 2nd at the time and it could have resulted in Lewis winning the race, even if he crossed the line in 2nd.

Didn't help when Lewis was also shown a B&W flag for doing the same thing but there was more of a gap between 2nd and 3rd so Charles couldn't report back to his team about Lewis...from my understanding of the issue.

Bit unfair on Fernando to have a 30 second penalty for the loose wing mirror when others (Sergio and George I think) didn’t get penalties for loose bodywork on their wings. I know Haas have been made to pit in previous races so another example of the FIA not being consistent.

We need to talk about George.

He is getting a scary amount of hate online after the Sainz incident. Yes he locked up and caused the accident, yes he apologized afterwards, but I'm getting seriously worried about the amount of hate he is getting on social media. It's like everyone forgets the death threats to Latifi last year plus the hate Hamilton has got. It's out of control.

I'm not referencing Mumsnet in this btw, it's Twitter/Facebook/Reddit etc.

I've not seen anything particularly hateful towards George on Twitter. Just had another look and I didn't see anything, any you can share? There's lots of people rightly commenting that George has been the catalyst for a lot of crashes recently and there's a lot of people upset he cut Sainz's race short bit I've not seen them nasty. But you're right, no driver deserves abuse. F1 Twitter is a nasty place at times.

I've never been a great fan of George. I think he's super keen- too keen and possibly over confident in his passing abilities. He's been involved in a lot of shunts, luckily for George he's getting to drive away from most of them.

Sadly these days anyone can become a target for abuse.

What people have to remember is the Mercedes has not been close to RB and F until more recent races and George has less experience of starting near the front.

Sorry rubbish at linking stuff on my phone. George is doing an "ask me anything" on reddit. Have a look at the posts on that in the F1 sub, so many "why do you deliberately take out other drivers" etc. And the stuff in the F1 sub is mild, one sub even has a flair called "Fuck George Russell" etc. Seen far worse on twitter. The thing that's very frustrating is all driver's make mistakes but George is being hated so much more than Bottas or Grosjean in comparison. Is it the Mercedes effect? A lot of it is "he never apologises" but he literally did as soon as he got out the car to Sainz.

Nothing George has done this year (and yes he had made some errors and got cross on the radio) is worse than Max in previous years, or young Lewis etc. Yet the hate is so over the top. Yes he is a bit of a hot head and has made some errors not being used to being up front, but it's so unwarranted.

I sort of hate what F1 has become over the past few years, I would blame Drive to Survive bringing in a lot of fans who don't understand that sport very well, but it's probably far more complex than that.

That was a bit of a ramble sorry!

I think the problem is its no longer a sport. Its entertainment with celebrities, not sportsmen. Which is shame.

@Sulusu I think DtS has a lot to answer for. You are right George may have made a few mistakes but as you say compared to Max and many others he is no worse.

Think the three of you above have hit the nail on the head. DTS has definitely changed the fan base and its a double edged sword. It's great to see the sport flourishing but a lot of fans new to the sport don't appreciate it beyond picking a driver they like.

DTS has definitely pushed F1 more towards being entertainment. Whiles I've enjoyed following the various stories this season, there have been times where it's all started to feel a little choreographed. Audi being annoyed, the Piastri reactions, Red Bull and their various cheating methods 😉 in fact, Horner is a perfect example of it.

So today's the day we might finally find out the conclusion of the cost cap breach.

Alonso’s penalty for the wing mirror issue has been overturned on the basis that Haas didn’t post their protest within the permitted timeframe for doing so. (Haas apparently say that the race director told them they had an hour from the end of the race to do it when they actually only had 30 mins.) It’s still concerning how inconsistent the application of the rules have been by the FIA.

I agree the FIA and more importantly the stewards are not being consistent about loose bodywork.

RB have agreed to plead guilty for overspending the cost cap by $2.2 million and have been fined $7 million and 10% reduction in wind tunnel time in 2023. Not sure if it’s a deterrent, if I were Mercedes or Ferrari I’d think I might risk it to catch up with RB as $2.2m on development makes a huge difference.

Does anyone know if the fine has to come out of the 2023 cost cap?

I just saw the outcome of the cost cap breach. What a waste of time! Doesn't seem much of a punishment to be fined. So they went over by $2.2million and will have to pay $7 million fine....so they bought themselves 2 WDC and a constructors championship for $9.2 million

I don’t think so - according to the BBC story on it, the fine isn’t a reduction in their permitted spend for next year.

Utterly pointless. The only teams a fine is going to affect are the small ones. The rich ones will have no problem paying that.

@burblish thanks - just seen this on BBC website.

Even more reason for other teams to take a calculated risk as the precedent is set.

Seeing on twitter people saying that a 10% reduction in aero is huge.
It really isn’t when the car is already a bloody rocket ship and the overspends run into the next years development.
And Horner has the cheek to say they are owed an apology.
I can’t stand that man.

I had hoped the 7 mill was going to come off next year's spend as opposed to basically spending more this year again. Makes no sense. Heard toto saying yesterday thebthe tind tunnel reduction may reduce them by quarter sec a lap but like said above they have an absolute rocket ship. What's to stop the bigger teams overspending . At least take the 7 mill from next years budget

The penalty is a joke and since when did an offender get to negotiate their penalty?

So much for Horner's denials that they had overspent. That awful man would not know the truth if it bit him