Formula 1 Qatar GP - What a Demanding Race - Penalty Over Penalty

It was probably the best weekend so far for Oscar Piastri as a Formula 1 driver, winning the Sprint Race on Saturday and latter on Sunday finishing second at the end of the Race. My initial thoughts about how the race would end included a Mercedes at third but they had an incident that almost took out both cars of the race, Lando put his shit together and was able to keep the pace finishing third not far from Max and Piastri.

On this race, different than; others there was a BIG variant on the equation and it was the tires, FIA prohibit teams to do more than eighteen laps per set of tire, it didn't matter the type of compound they were running, this was due to safety measures, it seems that the layout of the circuit and temperature of the track was causing vibration on the tire this put drivers and cars on a more even scenario as now cars like the Red Bull that is very tire efficient could not run their tires for longer amount of laps this is probably one of the reasons why Max didn't finish the race with a big gap to Piastri as he usually does ending with over fifteen seconds or more over the second place also take in consideration that this eighteen laps was the total of laps the tire had done, example if you put on some use tires no matter the compound say you did two laps then you could only use those tires for sixteen laps changing the entire strategy, some drivers were force to do a four stop race. There are some fans that have the opinion that the more pit stops the more excitement and action, others think that this take away advantage from cars like the Red Bull so its some what "unfair" because they are been force to stop to change tires, I prefer the normal way to let drivers run their tires as long as they can because then you see who really knows how to manage their tires, in this occasion they had to only run them for eighteen laps because Pirelli might thought the tire would fail.

Source

This was a very demanding race for drivers and cars, from the top three even Piastri who is the youngest one you can tell how exhausted he was, Land if you look at the interview at the end of the race Lando was destroyed, Max also look exhausted but I bet the guy is a monster training out of the car so he could go through races like its nothing.

Source

It became very common to see drivers lifting their visor to get some fresh air, Russell, Lando, Piastri, Max they were all at some point seen lifting their visor during the race to get air, like other motor sports I think their helmets should have one of this venting tubes where they get some fresh air, usually the air you get through the helmet might be enough but during extreme conditions like Qatar on Sunday it was not.

The race was so demanding Logan Sargent could not finish because he was starting to feel bad, dehydration kicks in an all of the sudden you start to feel weak, loose a few pounds plus all the G-force your body is going through at three hundred kilometers per hour, even experience drivers like Fernando Alonso where asking the pit if they could do something about it, he literally said his seat was burning and if they could throw him water at the pit stop and latter on almost throw his race out the window after having a moment and going out the track it was very possible because he was just too exhausted. Russell at one point during the straight put both hands over the wheel and hold it with his wrists probably trying to get fresh air on this hands or face while doing over two hundred, I thought he might get a penalty for this, not that I was hope but I was like this could be consider risky driving.

Over all I don't feel there were big battles between drivers on the track but more on the pit stops also it look more like an endurance race towards the end how some drivers and cars where trying to hold to finish the race, there were no radio messages talking about car temperature concerns but for sure they were hot so Alonso could feel the heat of the car on his ass.

 

 

Source

I had high hopes for Mercedes running for a third place specially for Hamilton, I like to support drivers and not teams because most teams are full of shit at some point or another although Ferrari and Alpin/Renault are on my personal black list for life same goes for most of their drivers with a few exceptions like Sainz whou could not race this weekend due to a fuel leak, going back to Mercedes they had this unfortunate crash after the race start.

Source

Source

Hamilton was starting to the soft compound so he knew those tires would not last for too long after what happen to Russell on the Sprint Race, he took his best chance and it was to attack right from the start taking the outside line that was usually dirty and he could not control the car enough and leave enough space between him and his team mate, Hamilton front right tire impart with Russell front left causing the wheel rim to split in two having the tire fly away into the barriers. There was nothing Russell could do and to be honest I could not blame Hamilton for trying this since this was probably his only chance to jump to the front because after three or four laps at best the car would loose performance due to tire degradation because of the track layout, this was a race incident. At first both drivers were taking shots at each other over the radio but Hamilton latter on as the great champion he is took responsibility after watching the replay and publicly accept it was his fault but it was not intentional.

Source

Exceeding Track Limits, this was the theme of the weekend with tons of time deleted during qualifying for the Sprint Rance and Sunday Race, some drivers had a very hard time when it comes to penalties and to a degree its kind of childish knowing this and falling into the same error over and over and over again, for example Lando suffer from this during Quali and kept things tight during the race but then there are drivers like Stroll, Albon, Perez and Gasly that make it look like they just don't care at all, Perez and Gasly accumulate fifteen seconds in penalties if not more because who knows if after they race the FIA on the final report sprinkle a few more penalties, when this happens drivers and fans get frustrated, some think its because FIA are a bunch of a-holes but it really comes to the driver, stay on the fucking track.

Over all I enjoy the race because of all the things that starting happen towards the end after multiple pit stops, the amount of tires they had available with enough laps to go, drivers feeling weak due to the conditions, it was said at the end of the transmission that Ocon threw up inside his helmet, not sure if that's true but what I thought it was going to be a boring race end up been very entertaining.