Jaxson:

 

Then they bring it home P2 and 3 on the starting grid.

 

Yeah, less than 3/10, now its RBR are a mile ahead...

they learnt from Abu Dhabi

red flag, who has new softs

Bit of an out there race, another solid win by RBR

Red Flags are a farce that's for sure, makes me think its to add to the show and ignore the result

Safety car upends a race so they brought in VSC to maintain the race positions, it does add a cheap pitstop advantage

Red Flag suspends the race but it doesn't. If there is debris then a VSC will do at a more reduced speed and on one line on the track, cars doing say 50kph, 2 laps and its clear. Safety issue for the marshals? Nah. Every day billions of people walk near cars doing 50 kph. Red Flags are a waste of entertainment time. Or they start the cars the same distance apart on a rolling start

Has to be a better way. I watched it recorded, so while I did watch some of the red flag period I wasnt locked into a bore fest  

All about creating the restarts as action blasts and feels a bit artificial.  Focus for the Netflix style action perspective.
In this case it's less safe starting that way than a traditional safety car process, just ask the Alpine drivers how it went for them.

How was the debrief at Alpine last night!!!!!!.......Gasley and Orcon already have a long history. Classic they were interviewing Otmar Szafnauer while the replays were showing the 2 drivers destroying each others car he was like W.T.F!!!!!! oh man. 

I was fine with the red flags and restarts.  Traditionally the incidents would have led to quite a significant time behind the safety car due to the volume of debris and material left by the various crashes and fans have berated the FIA for undue time spent behind a safety car... in this case, the red flag allowed for only the lap they where on to be lost and for the trackside teams to clean up quite quickly.  Sure the total time was longer due to the restart procedure but across all the incidents, only 3 maybe 4 laps where lost where as normally that would have been maybe 10? perhaps more?... Perhaps a rolling start with the safety car pulling in to the pits at the end but that would also have likely led to carnage too given the proximity of the cars in to turn 1.

Benoire:

 

I was fine with the red flags and restarts.  Traditionally the incidents would have led to quite a significant time behind the safety car due to the volume of debris and material left by the various crashes and fans have berated the FIA for undue time spent behind a safety car... in this case, the red flag allowed for only the lap they where on to be lost and for the trackside teams to clean up quite quickly.  Sure the total time was longer due to the restart procedure but across all the incidents, only 3 maybe 4 laps where lost where as normally that would have been maybe 10? perhaps more?... Perhaps a rolling start with the safety car pulling in to the pits at the end but that would also have likely led to carnage too given the proximity of the cars in to turn 1.

 

My issue was the freebie side of it. SC or VSC yes anyone can grab a cheaper pitstop, that's life, but when many get a zero cost pitstop, lets play with wings etc and then we run rinse and repeat of standing start carnage, not for me. Red Flag,  don't touch the car, that gives a correct freeze frame, and a rolling start helps mitigate turn 1 antics . Then the only issue is lost time and that's ok, as debris isn't normally a long issue

This is "just" my opinion

When Max/RBR got a win, this thread is quiet, so when I recorded, a huge hint. When Max/RBR dont win the thread is busy.

I don't quite get that

Jaxson: Yeah we saw several teams trying for the cheaper pit stop under the slower safety car, gambling a bit with position drops, but then full burned when everyone gets a full stop for absolute free.

As someone alluded to earlier maybe its only about the show. Maybe they could regulate a red flag every 18 laps  :-)

Just watching the post race feed. Chequered Flag. I thought it was a joke but its more of a joke. 3 Red Flags at Albert Park?  

Masi got fired, by making his decision on the spot. Now, we have multi red flags. Max, Lewis and Fernando did not want it. They were happy where they were (earned it) and did not want turn 1 mayhem. Perhaps FIA can regulate that after 33% of laps there is a mandatory Red Flag? A bit like kids playgrounds, these days you need NASA certified protection rubber for the kids.

Other sports, they have rules, white lines, multi refs and so on. F1 has more money and technology but they still cannot get it right. Monaco, allow for a 4 hour race....

tdgeek:

 

This is "just" my opinion

 

When Max/RBR got a win, this thread is quiet, so when I recorded, a huge hint. When Max/RBR dont win the thread is busy.

 

I don't quite get that

 

I'm not sure the point you are trying to make here, tdgeek?  Are you suggesting Verstappen and RBR are not getting their due from the Geekzone F1 fans?

The entire RBR organisation is streets ahead of the rest of the F1 paddock at the moment, a situation I don't see changing in the immediate future, despite the hype of various types surrounding Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin.  If any of those latter three teams can get over the top of the RBR cars in the next handful of races, it will because RBR have stuffed something up or had a reliability problem.

In a "fair" race where everyone manages to race to their current potential to the end, Verstappen and Perez are currently unbeatable.  Maybe that's why the thread is a bit quiet atm?

But, not why I'm here today.  Perhaps I'm drawing a bit of a long bow (Lawson is still the official RBR F1 reserve driver though!) but a historic win for Liam in the Super Formula at Fuji yesterday.  First rookie ever to win in their debut start in the category since SF started in 1996.

Not much else to say, still wondering if Marko made the right call putting de Vries into the AT instead of Lawson though, in the Dutchman's defence, the AT seems to have gone backwards so far this season.

If you want to watch the second Super Formula race at Fuji today at 5:30pm NZ time, there is an app called "SFGo".  Apparently the races are free to watch this weekend but I am unable to confirm that at this stage.  I have signed up for the free account option, which gives you access to race highlights, but haven't been able to find those for yesterday's race.  Perhaps the highlights only become available after the entire race weekend is concluded.

Price is approx NZ$17.50 a month to get the live feeds on the app, and there is a 30% discount if you subscribe to the whole season up front.  Only one race a month though, so seems pricey to me compared to the F1 app.  App isn't available to d/l to my Nvidia Shield, hoping to cast today's race to the TV from my Android phone once it starts, but also a bit of an unknown as to whether this will work either.