Ad-free F1 pod: Do the racing guidelines need tweaking?
Added 2024-10-23 14:30:15 +0000 UTCFormula 1's new-for-2024 racing guidelines were thrust back into the spotlight in Austin, inevitably leading to a flood of questions from you, The Race Members' Club.
Those questions kick off the latest episode of The Race F1 Podcast with Edd Straw, Scott Mitchell-Malm and Josh Suttill.
They cover what the rules actually say, where you can find them, whether they're fit for purpose and why Max Verstappen is so good at skirting so close to the edge of them.
Other topics include whether Franco Colapinto is world champion material, what his performances say about Alex Albon and whether age is catching up to Lewis Hamilton.
Comments
Which made me think...a fun Edd Straw ranked list might be to see your rankings for next year's grid of most to least likely to win a(nother) WDC at some point in their careers, factoring in not only talent but also age, contract situation, team strength, Newey factor, etc. for example, perhaps Sainz is higher than expected given he's a great driver that also has a Williams contract that frees him up in time to know which teams smashed the 26 engine regs
Vin Narayan
2024-10-26 01:49:46 +0000 UTCLove the Race content, best F1 coverage I've found yet and I'm happy to support it! and now the dreaded "but". As well intentioned feedback, it would be great to have fewer "it's impossible to say" style responses for blue sky questions like the Colapinto one in this episode. We know this sport is anything but predictable, and any question that was possible to say for sure would likely be a boring one by definition. The caveats are important, but once the asterisk is in place it's much more fun to hear your expert opinions. Yes the odds are long for Franco (as they are for any one driver at the highest levels) but even knowing what odds you'd put your money on, or whether you think his chances are better/worse than the median driver on the grid, would be an entertaining way to take in your insights.
Vin Narayan
2024-10-26 01:39:46 +0000 UTCEnjoyed this one, especially Scott's run through of the regulations. This reminds me of Saudi 2021 where for all the issues with Michael Massey, they applied the rulebook to Verstappen in both directions. When he overtook Hamilton off the track in T2 he was forced to give the place back due to gaining an advantage. When Hamilton tried to overtake around the outside in T1 Red Bull offered the place back to Hamilton as it was obvious he was about to push Lewis off because he was going into the corner with too much speed (and Hamilton just about stayed within track limits.) But we now see a more refined pushing up against the rulebook as noted in Austin, which is why the rules need a second look. To keep it simple, I feel that as soon as 2 or more cars are "overlapping" to use the term in Stephen's example, then those 2 cars each have the right to a "lane" within track limits (either natural or artificial.) For example the famous Schumacher Barrichello incident in 2010 would have actually cleared this bar because Barrichello was forced outside the white line of the track, even though it was on the straight. But the stewards would still have to apply an element of judgement because the move was both risky on Barrichello's part and overly dangerous on Schumacher's. Schumacher was closing the space off which is his right as the defending car, but once Barrichello was alongside, this creates an overlap where I believe the car overlapping and the car being overlapped both deserve room. And arguably you could say that any car not respecting the right to room in an overlap situation also then loses the ability to have a penalty applied to their opposition, because they are the ones denying their opponent room and/or forcing their opponent off track. This is what they used to do in football where offsides gave attackers the advantage to encourage more attacking in games. Playing by these rules in the case of Austin, Norris would have broken the general track limits rules of going off and gaining an advantage, which needs to be there in an era where not all circuits have natural track limits. But Verstappen would also have been deemed to be unfairly gaining an advantage as his actions deprived Norris of a lane that he was entitled to. I think this should be judged a racing incident, because by forcing Lando off the track when he earned the right to be there, Max should lose the entitlement to his opponent needing to stay within track limits. When Lando was overtaking Max on the inside in Austria, the second Max knew Lando was running him off the track, he floored the throttle. In contrast, Lando gave the place back a lap earlier. Much like in Brazil and Saudi 2021, carrying too much speed to make the corner is something the stewards can judge with all the telemetary, in addition to human judgement about the situation at the time.
Steve D
2024-10-25 12:07:41 +0000 UTCI competitively raced sailboats in college and afterward via a very intense yacht club racing program. The rules for who is entitled to room at a mark of the course are quite clear and very well policed. It is even more heavily enforced at the Olympic level. It all comes down to what is called an "overlap" and when the overlap occurs. It would take a while to describe all this here but I would invite anyone interested (including the podcast hosts) to reference this sport's efforts to have fair play. https://www.sailing.org/tools/documents/WSRRS20212024FinalwithChgsandCorrecns201113-%5B26798%5D.pdf
Stephen K
2024-10-24 17:54:21 +0000 UTCBen Anderson is my spirit animal
Simon Emms
2024-10-23 21:34:01 +0000 UTCNow now
The Race
2024-10-23 21:33:10 +0000 UTCAt the risk of getting accused of going all Ben Anderson, the way Colapinto has seized his unexpected opportunity reminds me of how Damon Hill seized his opportunity in 1993.
Simon Emms
2024-10-23 15:18:54 +0000 UTCThey need scrapping absolute joke. All my enjoyment of the race on Sunday was reduced to frustration when the racing was made null by the penalty enforced on Lando.
Kieron Holden
2024-10-23 14:43:07 +0000 UTC
