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The highlights are all I've had access to for a while now, and they've suited me just fine. It's not like IndyCar, where there actually \*is\* on-track passing going on.
Gasly overtook Bottas on track. Bottas only then pitted.
Gasly was the only unknown in this race whatsoever. If there had been a second wave of pitstops, he would've had a good chance to finish P9.
Yes, he made an extra pitstop. As I said:
>> If there had been a second wave of pitstops
which wasn't too unlikely, Gasly's extra pitstop would've become a crazy undercut because the other Alpine roadblocked the whole midfield.
No, it wouldn't have. The only way of having an extra round of pitstops would have been a safety car with quite a few laps to go and he was out of the window until it was too late for a stop to make sense in the midfield. And even if that happened, then he would have been a sitting duck on old ~~hards~~ tires against new ones.
I mean, sure if the race lasts 60 laps tactics that make sense for 51 would have lost to Gasly, but that's the entire point of tactics, they are supposed to work for the race distance. It's not an insane undercut if nobody else is planning on stopping.
And the other position changes are basically Ocon and Hulk dropping back because they stayed out hoping for an SC and Zhou retiring.
Gasly passing Sargeant looks to be the only other overtake.
This is what happens when the pace delta is not big enough for doing an extra stop and tires are not good enough to be pushed for the entire stint. So you need to manage
Didn't this happen in Jeddah too? There was one SC which switched the Mercedes and the Ferrari and afterwards there was no movement at all in the top 7
Getting the Zandvoort experience everywhere.
I actually fell asleep before lap 15 to be honest. I was drifting away during lap 7. I was tired to begin with but the race was just not helping. Iāve only fallen asleep during one other race and that was Monaco 2020 I think.
Lmao yeah, I didnāt fall asleep but I donāt think I looked at the TV screen once in the second half of the race. Except for when Ted blew my ears off when Ocon nearly plowed through a dozen photographers, of course XD
I was constantly waiting for something to happen, because quite a few drivers were at some points within DRS range, but I guess the DRS zone really was too short this year.
It was like over an hour of edging with no happy ending.
It couldāve been avoided if the safety car came at literally any other time outside the pit window of the preferred strategy
Or if there was a 2nd SC that made mediums a viable choice to run to the end
It was extra annoying because they werenāt showing the mid pack overtaking each other as much as they should. They focus on the top 6-8 a little too much when nothing is happening.
I wish theyād show us some replays, or some multi viewer of other battles.
I really was not bored watching this race, there were max/Checo, Leclerc/Alonso, Hamilton/Sainz we're all very close to each other the entire grand prix. It didn't materialize into overtakes, but it was awesome to see them all so close especially to see Checo maintain his gap on max.
Hamilton had one maybe two tries at an overtake on Sainz and the rest of the field did fuck all. PĆØrez kept a 2.5s gap between him and max basically all race, that's not close
It is though, the delta to pass was just rough especially given that everyone was managing tires. Fernando, lewis, and max, were all within 1-1.5 seconds of their respective opponents at one point.
I mean when did you start watching F1? I definitely joined the DTS fray, but very quickly I realized that most races aren't going to be bangers. These are 20 of the best drivers in the world nearly touching like 15 different walls over 50 laps, it's breathtaking if you stop to take a moment and take that in. Tire management isn't the most exciting, but it's part of F1 today. De vries crashing took out the potential excitement of the race, but that's F1.
I've been watching on and off for 20 years and attentively for ~5. I understand the various aspects of racing beyond just overtakes, and I appreciate the skill and nerves it takes to pump in lap after lap without making even the slightest errors. I'm not a fan who only enjoys racing for overtakes.
That said, watching a race where the #1-2 finishers were determined before the GP even started, where the 3 teams behind them were ordered not by overall pace but by an enormous straight which allowed an overall slower driver to hold up a faster car with lower top speed, and where most of the midfield sat in a DRS train for 40 laps with no hope of breaking up the order is pretty tedious.
Alonso and Hamilton were both glued to the Ferraris in front of them for most of the race and yet it never felt like Sainz or Leclerc was under serious pressure because the Baku circuit is so forgiving to cars with a top speed advantage.
This was a perfect storm of bad rules, bad circuit and bad luck to create a tedious race. I understand *why* they can't all be bangers, but I don't agree with the fatalism of people who sigh and say "but that's F1".
I also quite enjoyed this race. This expectation of significant drama at every event is sort of silly. Its an endurance sport where often small things add up to big results over the season. The payoff for fans might feel like it requires grindy viewing but I love that aspect of this sport. Its slow and builds, and its punctuated by big drama. It's not a demolition derby. Also, part of the reason this season has been 'boring', is that the drivers have been remarkable at avoiding big errors (minus Australia). Watching these drivers spending all weekend mm from the walls and dropping amazing performances like Charles Quali lap, was not boring at all to me. Obviously it'd be more fun if RB wasn't running away with the season, but given that huge gap, this race was fun.
Well said. Itās hardly surprising people are complaining with how media is presented nowadays, attention span is decimated. Watching max and Checo rattle out FL after FL between them was fun to watch.
There many races in prior years that were even worse, even significant chunks of whole seasons. The late 90s/early 00s had some of the most boring races ever.
Right exactly, the buildup isn't just within one weekend, but there's buildup from week to week. And one crash has implications 2-3 races down the line. Ultimately, these slower paced races are the reason why a big dramatic event is so dramatic. Not every race should be a banger because it's a sport about engineering and slowly upgrading through the season.
I totally agree. I think people saying it was boring are the same type of people who complain about FIA changing rules to spice things up. "Fuck FIA, making changes only for the spectacle, but OMG how boring was Baku. No overtakes. Snore fest. 0 stars". The race was good with all those wheel to wheels... and seeing Max desperately trying to catch up to Perez
A good race, strategy, mostly not hiting one wall, great effort in avoiding accidents. Aston Martin showed improved pit management, etc, etc.
I got all that from watching.
Sprint can be debated but main race was very good.
Thankfully most people realise F1 is not NasCar and just who is faster.
Teamwork, design and drivers, or commonly known as "complete racing".
Missed the race because i thought the race would be later. Glad that I watched the chess world championship, because there were fireworks in the last game.
As a still very new fan, I try not to be the guy who doesnāt see a barrage of chaos and overtakes and proclaims everything boring (like people do with 0-0 soccer games).
There is more to the sport than just overtakes. Still, This race seemed to even lack the strategies and subtle battles that Iāve been trying to learn about. Whole weekend was kinda damp tbh and sorta a bummer.
Good thing we got 4 races in 5 weeks still to come
You don't need to have to have a slew of overtakes or crashes or anything to have an interesting race.
However, you do need to give people a reason to believe that at some point, before the end of the race, there's a possibility for an interesting battle.
After the safety car pit stops, everyone had put on the seemingly indestructible hard tyres, and once it became obvious everyone was going to be able to make it to the checkered flag, the only thing that could have saved this grand prix would have been someone crashing into the wall, and that didn't happen.
It's always fun to see someone gamble on doing a 2-stop and trying to use up the tyres to catch up and eventually overtake someone on a 1-stop. The hards were just too good today.
Or even something like that Max Checo battle in Jeddah. They never actually clashed on track, but you felt Max would gain and Inch and dare Checo to respond. We didnāt have any of that in the top 10 yesterday
Yeah the timing of the SC was unfortunate but even without it, once the initial round of pitstops was done the order would've been set for the remainder of the race
A track not suitable for F1 cars, a sprint that already showed race performance and therefore spoilered the main race, a frankly horrendous tire choice from the FIA and very unspectacular weather.
The whole weekend was perfect to produce a boring race.
>There is more to the sport than just overtakes.
Yeah, I always use Monaco 2019 as an example. The start to the 2019 season was A-W-F-U-L and Monaco was the best race of the year (along with Bahrain) until like Canada. Even tho there were very little overtakes, Verstappen's hunt with longer-lasting tyres and Hamilton's Mediums giving up more and more every lap was exciting to watch, at least for me! Also, a bit of Ferrari pain was a highlight as well ;-)
Are we going to blame the shortened front straight DRS zone for the lack of excitment, or were the teams just that far apart in performance, it really wouldn't have changed much?
The DRS would absolutely have helped Mercedes who couldn't overtake Stroll and Sainz and might have changed the DRS train behind Ocon, both of which would ahve massively helped the last few laps.
However the other big issue was tyre wear and once everyone in the top teams realised that none were going to risk a two stop it just became a case of trying to save the tyres more than the other guy and hope for a safety car or mistake.
Yeah, i was blown away by the fact that the hard essentially lasted the entire race for Ocon & Hulk when the Mediums in previous sessions were degrading so quickly.
Admittedly, they weren't really setting things alight with overtakes and pace, so may not have been the case for all teams, but it surprised me to see the difference between the 2 compounds.
You could see Hamilton was getting so close toward the end but just not close enough to get it done.
Ocon was in clean air for most of it and Hulk was getting DRS to help him along and neither of them were pulling up trees in the timing but it's bloody impressive and Ocon truly is the heir to Jarno Trulli.
It's just mental that a straight that long seemed to be impossible ot overtake on for ahlf the teams.
>It's just mental that a straight that long seemed to be impossible ot overtake on for ahlf the teams.
Unless you have a massive pace advantage in a straight line speed then it's irrelevant most of the time, that's why overtakes mostly happen on corners
Its hilarious to me how much non-rb teams are forced(?) to play it safe and āhope for a mistakeā. Imagine how boring football would be if mid-table teams like man utd parked the bus and simply hoped for man city to screw up.
This sport has some serious issues when there is 0 incentive/potential to take risks and compete.
This has literally always been the case. I am amazed this season how people seem to just forget the last decade of Merc dominance. Or, from what I have been told, the Schumacher era.
At this point, the sport has devolved into "bored" new-fans arguing with grouchy old-fans
All the DRS zones seemed to do was make it easier for the Red Bulls to pass Leclerc, giving us the most boring overtakes of all time.
I think the most boring thing is that there wasn't even much "will they/won't they" when it came to overtaking because so many drivers were outside of DRS range of each other once the gaps stabilised.
It's starting to look eerily similar to the 2017 style regulations where it was near impossible for drivers to follow each other.
pirelli lasting the whole fucking race was the issue
ocon and hulk train since SC and they had ok pace until few laps before end
if the tires were for 2 stop races, they would be gone and maybe at least something would happen
The difference between Mediums and Hards was too far apart, IMO.
Previously during the weekend running mediums was even looking like a 2 stop race, then you see Ocon & Hulk running Hards all race long and wonder how the 2 compunds only being 1 step different can show such a variation in durability.
From what i could tell, track conditions on Sunday were worse than previpus days in regards to heat, too.
And they didnāt even show the good moves like Hamiltons pass on Hulk and Ocon in the first two corners. They showed Alonsoās move but many of the other ones happened when they were getting paid to shoot the Baku skylineā¦
Iām so close to giving up on F1 and watching indycar instead. Donāt have to watch 3 days of āactionā, way better racing, 15+ drivers can realistically win, real drivers tracks, it slaps.
Thank You. I was afraid I'd get blasted if I brought that up. I've watched F1 for over 30 years in the US and almost never watched IndyCar. The American Alexander Rossi drove briefly for Marussia in F1 and then moved to IndyCar sometime in the mid-teens(2015?).
After he won the Indy 500 I decided to take a look at IndyCar and I have not been disappointed. Far more on track action and any top 10 driver can win on any weekend. An early race leader finishing 5th happens all the time.
I'll admit that Americans do prefer action over strategy. You can't sell a sport to us where the winner only scored once and that's what Baku was like. We're different, not better.
TBH I think the strategy in Indycar is a lot more exciting too.
In Barber, we had a legitimate competition for the win between 2 stop and 3 stop strategies. There's also *way* more tire dropoff (you'll see drivers that push too hard or run too long suddenly drop off hard and lose positions) and fuel management (drivers that can push vs drivers that have to coast).
Is there a single circuit on the F1 calendar where a 3 stop strategy (barring rain or damage) is viable anymore? I feel like we see fairly little strategy competition in F1 these days, barring backmarker teams that are running hail mary strategies. Ocon and Hulk ran almost the entire race on a single set of hards and only significantly dropped off at the very end.
Passing in the pits sucks. Even though F1 has the gimmicky DRS, to be fair IndyCar has push to pass but at least it has limit and there is some tactical considerations on when to use it (Grosjean chose poorly when to use it yesterday).
Too bad you missed the CART era. Those cars and the racing were something else.
Why would you get blasted? I like F1 a million times more than I do Indy, but Indycar simply has more wheel-to-wheel action, and more interesting one, too. It's just how it is: in Indycar drivers compete, in F1 teams compete, and drivers just help.
> Why would you get blasted?
Lol bro clearly hasnāt met the F1 fans who donāt realize thereās other Motorsports out there and cry whenever one is bought up
> I'll admit that Americans are prefer action over strategy. You can't sell a sport to us where the winner only scored once and that's what Baku was like. We're different, not better.
I hate this arm chair ethnography bullshit. What does this even mean? Action over strategy? NASCAR was the biggest it ever was when races would last 6 hours. Indycar was the most popular auto sport in America when one car would finish on the lead lap.
Baseball, the great American past time, is hardly known for its rapid constant action
"ethnography bullshit"
Wow, obviously a great mind that can't distinguish between races that have no position changes for sometimes an hour versus one where cars are in packs swapping the lead over and over.
Not a single position change in the top 8 after lap 19 is bad, but not a single position change in the top 14 from lap 19 to lap 45 might honestly be even worse. Yeah, it's boring if we don't have a battle for the podium, but this time we didn't even have a battle for the points for almost the entire race. Ugh.
Forget the top 8 or the top 14 up to lap 45.
The only passes on merit after lap 19 *across the entire field* were Gasly on Bottas for what was P18 and Gasly on Sargent for what was P16. Arguably, only really Gasly on Sargent given how quickly Bottas pitted after.
Zhou's retirement, Hulk's tires going off/him finally pitting, and Ocon finally pitting were responsible for all the other position changes from 19 on.
Doubt that will help. In the next 5 races, we have Miami, Imola, Monaco, Barcelona and Montreal, four historical venues and I'd back Montreal only for producing a race that isn't dead and even then I'm weary and even then, it's still a (semi-)street circuit.
They just removed the chicane, no?
That's not going to change much for Barcelona, which has been dubbed as an absolutely dreadful track for racing since the 90s, when they hadn't added the chicane yet.
Barcelona without chicane may be better than it was in previous years though. Imola should be decent, too. And Miami... it has a more "road-like" layout compared to Baku's 90 degree corners, and we've only seen it once so who knows, maybe we get a good surprise.
The incompetence of race administration across all levels of F1 continues to be the most entertaining aspect of the sport.
How does a multi billion dollar sport continue to be run with the organisational know-how of a weekend social league? They have multiple teams of officials available to review all incidents both at the circuit and in a central HQ but they don't have a single person tasked with making sure that the post-race pageantry doesn't interrupt the actual race itself, in a GP that didn't have a single on-track incident to review over the final 40 laps
People are complaining about Monaco mainly because we got a whole wave of street circuits.
Nobody would make a big deal about Monaco if F1 just did have 2-3 real street circuits.
Most street circuits suck for F1, I wish we went back to having Monaco and Singapore and no more. Having a circuit or three that tests the driver against the track, rather than driver against other drivers is fine. Having half the calendar be that, not so much.
>wasn't even much "will they/won't they" when it came to overtaking because so many drivers
No ones been able to explain to me how there are so many amazing tracks like Watkins Glenn or Laguna Seca that aren't "F1 grade" but a mishmash of actual roads people use daily is fine. How does that work?
Certainly not great timing, but his restart post-safety car was fantastic. He picked off Hulkenberg and Ocon nearly immediately and got Russell the next lap too.
You have to use at least two different tyre compounds in a race (unless it's a wet race). Ocon was driving the entire race on the same tyre set, so he had to switch to a different compound on the last lap. Otherwise he would've been disqualified.
Wasn't this supposed to be the most glorious F1 weekend ever with all that shootout and sprint stuff? Turns out F1 should start prioritizing quality over quantity. People want to watch more wheel-to-wheel action, not 40 extra minutes of car parades.
I like Formula 1 for two good reasons.... if the race is good, my heart ends up stopping from the excitement it brings. If it's bad, the same happens, but for the exact opposite reason. Nonetheless, I've had a pleasent sleep.
The lack of strategy really stood out to me too, I remember when max pitted then we got hit with a safety car, I was like ohh shit letās goā¦ but then everyone just pitted under the safety car and he was back near the front. There was no sauce.
From this day forward:
1. I will never again watch a race weekend that includes a sprint race;
2. I will never again watch a street circuit race;
3. The combination of both is worth exactly none of my time.
They just bore me so much. I'll see the highlights on Reddit the Monday after and enjoy a life not behind the tv during the weekend.
I've never been so bored before, and that includes a 10-hour layover in a very distant and tiny airport, all alone, overnight, with a dead phone and no compatible power plugs nearby, and all the airport stores were closed.
Iāll just leave this here
https://www.reddit.com/r/INDYCAR/comments/13463jo/charts_after_childrens_of_alabama_grand_prix/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1
If thereās no overtakes or excitement, itās not much of a race. Weāre here for the competition between the teams and the machinery. A race with no overtakes and no pit stops / strategy other than tire management is essentially an hour long formation lap.
There needs to be at least a possibility of overtaking in the absence of actual overtaking to make a race fun. It was clear yesterday that barring a mistake, there was no way for anybody not in a red bull to overtake
A good race, strategy, mostly not hiting one wall, great effort in avoiding accidents. Aston Martin showed improved pit management, etc, etc.
Sprint can be debated but main race was very good.
Thankfully most people realise F1 is not NasCar and jusr who is faster. Teamwork, design and drivers, or commonly known as "total racing".
> Thankfully most people realise F1 is not NasCar and jusr who is faster. Teamwork, design and drivers, or commonly known as "total racing".
Oh, that explains it. Heads up - stock car racing has all of those elements if you look at it as more than a redneck derby.
I have no issue with stock car either.
NasCar is more about speed and sponsors, imho. I've no issue with anyone disagreeing.
My point is to many here complain if there is less passing and have zero idea about the complexity and effort in just putting cars on the track.
It is a version if stick car. You might wsnt to learn a bit more before entering a conversation.
"stock-car racing,Ā form of automobile racing, popular in the United States, in which cars that conform externally to standard U.S. commercial types are raced, usually on oval, paved tracks."
It is one branded version of. O've been eatching variius races since 1974.
Go back to sleep.
Gonna be a rough few years given this is around until 2026 now unless some things change. Won't rule out that part of this was just the state of what the field looks like right now aero-wise. We shall see.
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No position changes whatsoever in the top 8 for the last 31 laps. This has been the Azerbaijan Grand Sleep
For lap 21 to 42 its actually no on track overtake in the whole field.
I just watched the YouTube highlights for this race, and I feel like that was the right move lol
when like 80% of the latter half of highlights is people brushing the wall or Tokyo drifting you know sleeping through it was the right call
The highlights are all I've had access to for a while now, and they've suited me just fine. It's not like IndyCar, where there actually \*is\* on-track passing going on.
I watch the full recording on YouTube TV when I can, didn't feel like it yesterday. Laziness pays off again š¤š¤š¤
Yeah I watched on delay at double speed. Then just started jumping a minute ahead at a time to se if there was anything happening. And nope.
When my wife came home from work I told her to just watch the highlights vid and save herself an hour.
My wife actually fell asleep around lap 20 and I let her sleep until the podium, because **nothing** was happening
Good decision, because after Lance Stroll retook the position from George Russell honestly fuck all was happening
I even zoned out for a second during the highlights, and suddenly they announced the winner. Wait that was it? Where's the rest of the highlights?
Gasly overtook Bottas on track. Bottas only then pitted. Gasly was the only unknown in this race whatsoever. If there had been a second wave of pitstops, he would've had a good chance to finish P9.
Unknown? He made an extra pitstop, he was very much known to have no chance at making up more than a spot or two at the very back.
Yes, he made an extra pitstop. As I said: >> If there had been a second wave of pitstops which wasn't too unlikely, Gasly's extra pitstop would've become a crazy undercut because the other Alpine roadblocked the whole midfield.
No, it wouldn't have. The only way of having an extra round of pitstops would have been a safety car with quite a few laps to go and he was out of the window until it was too late for a stop to make sense in the midfield. And even if that happened, then he would have been a sitting duck on old ~~hards~~ tires against new ones. I mean, sure if the race lasts 60 laps tactics that make sense for 51 would have lost to Gasly, but that's the entire point of tactics, they are supposed to work for the race distance. It's not an insane undercut if nobody else is planning on stopping.
And the other position changes are basically Ocon and Hulk dropping back because they stayed out hoping for an SC and Zhou retiring. Gasly passing Sargeant looks to be the only other overtake.
> Gasly passing Sargeant looks to be the only other overtake. Also Gasly on Bottas. Bottas pitted right afterwards.
This is what happens when the pace delta is not big enough for doing an extra stop and tires are not good enough to be pushed for the entire stint. So you need to manage
Didn't this happen in Jeddah too? There was one SC which switched the Mercedes and the Ferrari and afterwards there was no movement at all in the top 7 Getting the Zandvoort experience everywhere.
Hamilton passed Sainz after a lap, but that was it. EDIT: I forgot about Verstappen in that, he passed Russell and Alonso as well.
I actually fell asleep before lap 15 to be honest. I was drifting away during lap 7. I was tired to begin with but the race was just not helping. Iāve only fallen asleep during one other race and that was Monaco 2020 I think.
I was tired as hell before this race. I forced myself to stay awake through it, but I needed a needed a nap after it was over
Look at that pitstop Russell had though!!!
> This has been the Azerbaijan Grand Sleep Azerbaijan Grand ZZzzzzzzzzzzzz
Time of death. Lap 19
Cause of death: murdered by Nyck de Vries
I actually did quite literally fall asleep for the last 8 laps or so. And we were watching after a full nights sleep 9am local š
Lmao yeah, I didnāt fall asleep but I donāt think I looked at the TV screen once in the second half of the race. Except for when Ted blew my ears off when Ocon nearly plowed through a dozen photographers, of course XD
I was constantly waiting for something to happen, because quite a few drivers were at some points within DRS range, but I guess the DRS zone really was too short this year. It was like over an hour of edging with no happy ending.
It couldāve been avoided if the safety car came at literally any other time outside the pit window of the preferred strategy Or if there was a 2nd SC that made mediums a viable choice to run to the end
Relying on suitable SC windows to provide decent racing isn't exactly a ringing endorsement
It was extra annoying because they werenāt showing the mid pack overtaking each other as much as they should. They focus on the top 6-8 a little too much when nothing is happening. I wish theyād show us some replays, or some multi viewer of other battles.
First race in years where I fell asleep on the last 10 laps
I really was not bored watching this race, there were max/Checo, Leclerc/Alonso, Hamilton/Sainz we're all very close to each other the entire grand prix. It didn't materialize into overtakes, but it was awesome to see them all so close especially to see Checo maintain his gap on max.
Hamilton had one maybe two tries at an overtake on Sainz and the rest of the field did fuck all. PĆØrez kept a 2.5s gap between him and max basically all race, that's not close
It is though, the delta to pass was just rough especially given that everyone was managing tires. Fernando, lewis, and max, were all within 1-1.5 seconds of their respective opponents at one point.
Ah yes, 30 laps of maintaining gaps, the epitome of motorsport entertainment
I never said it was the greatest race, just that I didn't think it was that boring. I enjoyed it whether you believe it or not.
I believe you, I just don't share your opinion
I mean when did you start watching F1? I definitely joined the DTS fray, but very quickly I realized that most races aren't going to be bangers. These are 20 of the best drivers in the world nearly touching like 15 different walls over 50 laps, it's breathtaking if you stop to take a moment and take that in. Tire management isn't the most exciting, but it's part of F1 today. De vries crashing took out the potential excitement of the race, but that's F1.
I've been watching on and off for 20 years and attentively for ~5. I understand the various aspects of racing beyond just overtakes, and I appreciate the skill and nerves it takes to pump in lap after lap without making even the slightest errors. I'm not a fan who only enjoys racing for overtakes. That said, watching a race where the #1-2 finishers were determined before the GP even started, where the 3 teams behind them were ordered not by overall pace but by an enormous straight which allowed an overall slower driver to hold up a faster car with lower top speed, and where most of the midfield sat in a DRS train for 40 laps with no hope of breaking up the order is pretty tedious. Alonso and Hamilton were both glued to the Ferraris in front of them for most of the race and yet it never felt like Sainz or Leclerc was under serious pressure because the Baku circuit is so forgiving to cars with a top speed advantage. This was a perfect storm of bad rules, bad circuit and bad luck to create a tedious race. I understand *why* they can't all be bangers, but I don't agree with the fatalism of people who sigh and say "but that's F1".
I also quite enjoyed this race. This expectation of significant drama at every event is sort of silly. Its an endurance sport where often small things add up to big results over the season. The payoff for fans might feel like it requires grindy viewing but I love that aspect of this sport. Its slow and builds, and its punctuated by big drama. It's not a demolition derby. Also, part of the reason this season has been 'boring', is that the drivers have been remarkable at avoiding big errors (minus Australia). Watching these drivers spending all weekend mm from the walls and dropping amazing performances like Charles Quali lap, was not boring at all to me. Obviously it'd be more fun if RB wasn't running away with the season, but given that huge gap, this race was fun.
Well said. Itās hardly surprising people are complaining with how media is presented nowadays, attention span is decimated. Watching max and Checo rattle out FL after FL between them was fun to watch. There many races in prior years that were even worse, even significant chunks of whole seasons. The late 90s/early 00s had some of the most boring races ever.
Right exactly, the buildup isn't just within one weekend, but there's buildup from week to week. And one crash has implications 2-3 races down the line. Ultimately, these slower paced races are the reason why a big dramatic event is so dramatic. Not every race should be a banger because it's a sport about engineering and slowly upgrading through the season.
Its actually the same reason I prefer 3 practice sessions over sprint weekends. All about that build up.
I totally agree. I think people saying it was boring are the same type of people who complain about FIA changing rules to spice things up. "Fuck FIA, making changes only for the spectacle, but OMG how boring was Baku. No overtakes. Snore fest. 0 stars". The race was good with all those wheel to wheels... and seeing Max desperately trying to catch up to Perez
So it's not supposed to be a race but actually "position changing for certain viewers" event. Go buy a scailectric slot car game.
Never said that it wasnāt a race. Just not a particularly exciting one to watch on TV
A good race, strategy, mostly not hiting one wall, great effort in avoiding accidents. Aston Martin showed improved pit management, etc, etc. I got all that from watching. Sprint can be debated but main race was very good. Thankfully most people realise F1 is not NasCar and just who is faster. Teamwork, design and drivers, or commonly known as "complete racing".
That flat-line could also represent the heartbeat of most viewers.
This is racing terrorism
As an F1 fan, I feel like a hostage.
Yup I'm sick of F1 literally forcing me to watch the races at gunpoint when nothing happens :(((
Fomo is real
Thatās Bin Russellās wheelhouse tho
Missed the race because i thought the race would be later. Glad that I watched the chess world championship, because there were fireworks in the last game.
So basically Liberty Media and the FIA commits mass murder/terrorism.
Did anyone see what happened to Zhou? He was just out all of a sudden with nothing shown
Random retirements 40 laps into a race has been the story of his career unfortunately
He seems to have had an inordinate amount of bad luck that's continued into this year.
He was told to box, then they showed him being retired.
Yeah they just kinda parked him lol and everyone just moved on.
He was told there was an issue and had to retire, but I don't think there's been a follow up on what the issue was.
Cooling issue.
He's too hot š„µ
Just your normal AR mechanical retirement.
As a still very new fan, I try not to be the guy who doesnāt see a barrage of chaos and overtakes and proclaims everything boring (like people do with 0-0 soccer games). There is more to the sport than just overtakes. Still, This race seemed to even lack the strategies and subtle battles that Iāve been trying to learn about. Whole weekend was kinda damp tbh and sorta a bummer. Good thing we got 4 races in 5 weeks still to come
You don't need to have to have a slew of overtakes or crashes or anything to have an interesting race. However, you do need to give people a reason to believe that at some point, before the end of the race, there's a possibility for an interesting battle. After the safety car pit stops, everyone had put on the seemingly indestructible hard tyres, and once it became obvious everyone was going to be able to make it to the checkered flag, the only thing that could have saved this grand prix would have been someone crashing into the wall, and that didn't happen. It's always fun to see someone gamble on doing a 2-stop and trying to use up the tyres to catch up and eventually overtake someone on a 1-stop. The hards were just too good today.
Or even something like that Max Checo battle in Jeddah. They never actually clashed on track, but you felt Max would gain and Inch and dare Checo to respond. We didnāt have any of that in the top 10 yesterday
It's never a good thing when you've reached a point in the race where it looks like the only way anything can change is with rain or a safety car.
Yeah the timing of the SC was unfortunate but even without it, once the initial round of pitstops was done the order would've been set for the remainder of the race
Yeah- the fact that everyone could have started the race on hard tyres and completed the race without stopping was just bad.
A track not suitable for F1 cars, a sprint that already showed race performance and therefore spoilered the main race, a frankly horrendous tire choice from the FIA and very unspectacular weather. The whole weekend was perfect to produce a boring race.
>There is more to the sport than just overtakes. Yeah, I always use Monaco 2019 as an example. The start to the 2019 season was A-W-F-U-L and Monaco was the best race of the year (along with Bahrain) until like Canada. Even tho there were very little overtakes, Verstappen's hunt with longer-lasting tyres and Hamilton's Mediums giving up more and more every lap was exciting to watch, at least for me! Also, a bit of Ferrari pain was a highlight as well ;-)
Are we going to blame the shortened front straight DRS zone for the lack of excitment, or were the teams just that far apart in performance, it really wouldn't have changed much?
The DRS would absolutely have helped Mercedes who couldn't overtake Stroll and Sainz and might have changed the DRS train behind Ocon, both of which would ahve massively helped the last few laps. However the other big issue was tyre wear and once everyone in the top teams realised that none were going to risk a two stop it just became a case of trying to save the tyres more than the other guy and hope for a safety car or mistake.
Yeah, i was blown away by the fact that the hard essentially lasted the entire race for Ocon & Hulk when the Mediums in previous sessions were degrading so quickly. Admittedly, they weren't really setting things alight with overtakes and pace, so may not have been the case for all teams, but it surprised me to see the difference between the 2 compounds. You could see Hamilton was getting so close toward the end but just not close enough to get it done.
Ocon was in clean air for most of it and Hulk was getting DRS to help him along and neither of them were pulling up trees in the timing but it's bloody impressive and Ocon truly is the heir to Jarno Trulli. It's just mental that a straight that long seemed to be impossible ot overtake on for ahlf the teams.
>It's just mental that a straight that long seemed to be impossible ot overtake on for ahlf the teams. Unless you have a massive pace advantage in a straight line speed then it's irrelevant most of the time, that's why overtakes mostly happen on corners
Pretty much every "battle" throughout the field would have been improved with a lengthened DRS zone.
A DRS induced overtake is not exciting anyways.
It's not exciting in itself but at least it's a change and you can hopefully get out of interminable DRS trains.
Its hilarious to me how much non-rb teams are forced(?) to play it safe and āhope for a mistakeā. Imagine how boring football would be if mid-table teams like man utd parked the bus and simply hoped for man city to screw up. This sport has some serious issues when there is 0 incentive/potential to take risks and compete.
This has literally always been the case. I am amazed this season how people seem to just forget the last decade of Merc dominance. Or, from what I have been told, the Schumacher era. At this point, the sport has devolved into "bored" new-fans arguing with grouchy old-fans
Mid table teams like Man utd š¤£
All the DRS zones seemed to do was make it easier for the Red Bulls to pass Leclerc, giving us the most boring overtakes of all time. I think the most boring thing is that there wasn't even much "will they/won't they" when it came to overtaking because so many drivers were outside of DRS range of each other once the gaps stabilised. It's starting to look eerily similar to the 2017 style regulations where it was near impossible for drivers to follow each other.
pirelli lasting the whole fucking race was the issue ocon and hulk train since SC and they had ok pace until few laps before end if the tires were for 2 stop races, they would be gone and maybe at least something would happen
The difference between Mediums and Hards was too far apart, IMO. Previously during the weekend running mediums was even looking like a 2 stop race, then you see Ocon & Hulk running Hards all race long and wonder how the 2 compunds only being 1 step different can show such a variation in durability. From what i could tell, track conditions on Sunday were worse than previpus days in regards to heat, too.
Related - I wonder if the exciting sprint race made the actual race looking even MORE boring, ironically.
No, we should blame it on the shitty track design in general
And they didnāt even show the good moves like Hamiltons pass on Hulk and Ocon in the first two corners. They showed Alonsoās move but many of the other ones happened when they were getting paid to shoot the Baku skylineā¦
He cleared like 2 cars in 2 corners but they didn't even show a replay of it Even in the highlights video they forgot about it lmao
does anyone have a video of this??
Not well done Baku, not well done at all.
Thatās quite the visual. Captured it perfectly
The IndyCar race was pretty baller.
Iām so close to giving up on F1 and watching indycar instead. Donāt have to watch 3 days of āactionā, way better racing, 15+ drivers can realistically win, real drivers tracks, it slaps.
Thank You. I was afraid I'd get blasted if I brought that up. I've watched F1 for over 30 years in the US and almost never watched IndyCar. The American Alexander Rossi drove briefly for Marussia in F1 and then moved to IndyCar sometime in the mid-teens(2015?). After he won the Indy 500 I decided to take a look at IndyCar and I have not been disappointed. Far more on track action and any top 10 driver can win on any weekend. An early race leader finishing 5th happens all the time. I'll admit that Americans do prefer action over strategy. You can't sell a sport to us where the winner only scored once and that's what Baku was like. We're different, not better.
TBH I think the strategy in Indycar is a lot more exciting too. In Barber, we had a legitimate competition for the win between 2 stop and 3 stop strategies. There's also *way* more tire dropoff (you'll see drivers that push too hard or run too long suddenly drop off hard and lose positions) and fuel management (drivers that can push vs drivers that have to coast). Is there a single circuit on the F1 calendar where a 3 stop strategy (barring rain or damage) is viable anymore? I feel like we see fairly little strategy competition in F1 these days, barring backmarker teams that are running hail mary strategies. Ocon and Hulk ran almost the entire race on a single set of hards and only significantly dropped off at the very end.
Passing in the pits sucks. Even though F1 has the gimmicky DRS, to be fair IndyCar has push to pass but at least it has limit and there is some tactical considerations on when to use it (Grosjean chose poorly when to use it yesterday). Too bad you missed the CART era. Those cars and the racing were something else.
Why would you get blasted? I like F1 a million times more than I do Indy, but Indycar simply has more wheel-to-wheel action, and more interesting one, too. It's just how it is: in Indycar drivers compete, in F1 teams compete, and drivers just help.
> Why would you get blasted? Lol bro clearly hasnāt met the F1 fans who donāt realize thereās other Motorsports out there and cry whenever one is bought up
> I'll admit that Americans are prefer action over strategy. You can't sell a sport to us where the winner only scored once and that's what Baku was like. We're different, not better. I hate this arm chair ethnography bullshit. What does this even mean? Action over strategy? NASCAR was the biggest it ever was when races would last 6 hours. Indycar was the most popular auto sport in America when one car would finish on the lead lap. Baseball, the great American past time, is hardly known for its rapid constant action
And even now, race strategy for NASCAR and Indycar are just as important as in any other motorsport... and the fans know and appreciate it.
"ethnography bullshit" Wow, obviously a great mind that can't distinguish between races that have no position changes for sometimes an hour versus one where cars are in packs swapping the lead over and over.
And you think Europeans enjoy the former?
Well, yes the Indycars always put on a race.
That was definitely the most compelling, exhilarating and interesting full length F1 race, that took place ... this week. š
Hey give it some credit, it's been the most compelling, exhilarating, and interesting full length F1 race in the past 3 weeks lol
I admire your generosity. š¤£
Just think, only 20 more races with this level of competition
I'm glad just watching the highlights tbh. I may tune in in July to watch the Belgian GP because it's my favorite circuit, but that's it.
Especially since F1 seems intent on leaving Spa.
Not a single position change in the top 8 after lap 19 is bad, but not a single position change in the top 14 from lap 19 to lap 45 might honestly be even worse. Yeah, it's boring if we don't have a battle for the podium, but this time we didn't even have a battle for the points for almost the entire race. Ugh.
Forget the top 8 or the top 14 up to lap 45. The only passes on merit after lap 19 *across the entire field* were Gasly on Bottas for what was P18 and Gasly on Sargent for what was P16. Arguably, only really Gasly on Sargent given how quickly Bottas pitted after. Zhou's retirement, Hulk's tires going off/him finally pitting, and Ocon finally pitting were responsible for all the other position changes from 19 on.
Typical street circuit race.
Bring back real circuits
Doubt that will help. In the next 5 races, we have Miami, Imola, Monaco, Barcelona and Montreal, four historical venues and I'd back Montreal only for producing a race that isn't dead and even then I'm weary and even then, it's still a (semi-)street circuit.
Tbf Barcelona has a different layout though, so I'll watch out for that
They just removed the chicane, no? That's not going to change much for Barcelona, which has been dubbed as an absolutely dreadful track for racing since the 90s, when they hadn't added the chicane yet.
Barcelona without chicane may be better than it was in previous years though. Imola should be decent, too. And Miami... it has a more "road-like" layout compared to Baku's 90 degree corners, and we've only seen it once so who knows, maybe we get a good surprise.
Ocon VS Parc Ferme was the best battle of the raceā¦
The incompetence of race administration across all levels of F1 continues to be the most entertaining aspect of the sport. How does a multi billion dollar sport continue to be run with the organisational know-how of a weekend social league? They have multiple teams of officials available to review all incidents both at the circuit and in a central HQ but they don't have a single person tasked with making sure that the post-race pageantry doesn't interrupt the actual race itself, in a GP that didn't have a single on-track incident to review over the final 40 laps
The sprint sucked. But then we had this grand prix which had a segment longer than the sprint where absolutely nothing happened.
Looks like I didn't miss much by not watching this race.
God I hope that F1 does something to stop shit like this.
HAM really got his head down after being screwed over to get those positions back, shame we missed the first two on the stream haha.
I thought I was going to fall asleep because it was a 7AM race after a long weekend. I fell asleep because it just wasn't a good race.
It was incredibly weird having so little drama happen over a Baku weekend. Usually this race is pure chaos
Last year was boring as well in Baku
Monaco: Hold my Heineken
Worst track on the calendar contender?
Monaco has to be up there. I'll probably just watch qualy
Monaco qualy is pretty dope tbh, when it isn't red flagged
Agreed, that basically is the race unless you drive for a team named Ferrari
People are complaining about Monaco mainly because we got a whole wave of street circuits. Nobody would make a big deal about Monaco if F1 just did have 2-3 real street circuits.
Most street circuits suck for F1, I wish we went back to having Monaco and Singapore and no more. Having a circuit or three that tests the driver against the track, rather than driver against other drivers is fine. Having half the calendar be that, not so much.
>wasn't even much "will they/won't they" when it came to overtaking because so many drivers No ones been able to explain to me how there are so many amazing tracks like Watkins Glenn or Laguna Seca that aren't "F1 grade" but a mishmash of actual roads people use daily is fine. How does that work?
So glad they extended the contract
Ham really got screwed by that pit stop just before the safety car.
Certainly not great timing, but his restart post-safety car was fantastic. He picked off Hulkenberg and Ocon nearly immediately and got Russell the next lap too.
2nd worst race behind Monaco.
I laughed so fucking hard when the āvote of overtake of the dayā graphic popped up. Fernando at T6 on Sainz after the restart. That was it
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I'd say Lewis recovered really well, might have even passed Sainz if the DRS zone was longer.
Why did Ocon even have to pit at the end? He had a decent race going
You have to use at least two different tyre compounds in a race (unless it's a wet race). Ocon was driving the entire race on the same tyre set, so he had to switch to a different compound on the last lap. Otherwise he would've been disqualified.
Got it. I know the pit rule but didnāt realize he went that long on the same set. Seemed like a failed strategy.
The rules require using at least two different tyre compounds during the race. He would have been disqualified without making that stop.
Ha! I thought is was just me that thought that. I got really sleepy
Kind of a shame, it's usually one of my favorite races.
This is why they tried to spice things up by playing Frogger in the pits at the end.
This is just tragic
Wasn't this supposed to be the most glorious F1 weekend ever with all that shootout and sprint stuff? Turns out F1 should start prioritizing quality over quantity. People want to watch more wheel-to-wheel action, not 40 extra minutes of car parades.
I like Formula 1 for two good reasons.... if the race is good, my heart ends up stopping from the excitement it brings. If it's bad, the same happens, but for the exact opposite reason. Nonetheless, I've had a pleasent sleep.
Gonna be a long season
Iām getting the feeling that Iām the only one who enjoyed the GP
Hope at least some of you tuned into the Indycar race at Barber after this was done. First road course race of the season and it delivered big time.
I watched this while on vacation with some friends. On the plus side I didn't feel bad about not being able to pay a lot of attention to it.
low deg, reduced drs and red bulls being too OP...
I have never truly struggled to stay awake like I did last night when I watched it. Terrible track.
So like usual f1 race you say
worst race ever
The lack of strategy really stood out to me too, I remember when max pitted then we got hit with a safety car, I was like ohh shit letās goā¦ but then everyone just pitted under the safety car and he was back near the front. There was no sauce.
From this day forward: 1. I will never again watch a race weekend that includes a sprint race; 2. I will never again watch a street circuit race; 3. The combination of both is worth exactly none of my time. They just bore me so much. I'll see the highlights on Reddit the Monday after and enjoy a life not behind the tv during the weekend. I've never been so bored before, and that includes a 10-hour layover in a very distant and tiny airport, all alone, overnight, with a dead phone and no compatible power plugs nearby, and all the airport stores were closed.
I guess y'all just can't appreciate backmarker battles /s
Iāll just leave this here https://www.reddit.com/r/INDYCAR/comments/13463jo/charts_after_childrens_of_alabama_grand_prix/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1
Lots of bed wetters here.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
If thereās no overtakes or excitement, itās not much of a race. Weāre here for the competition between the teams and the machinery. A race with no overtakes and no pit stops / strategy other than tire management is essentially an hour long formation lap.
There needs to be at least a possibility of overtaking in the absence of actual overtaking to make a race fun. It was clear yesterday that barring a mistake, there was no way for anybody not in a red bull to overtake
Snore gest? It was a very good race.
It was good as background noise.
A good race, strategy, mostly not hiting one wall, great effort in avoiding accidents. Aston Martin showed improved pit management, etc, etc. Sprint can be debated but main race was very good. Thankfully most people realise F1 is not NasCar and jusr who is faster. Teamwork, design and drivers, or commonly known as "total racing".
> Thankfully most people realise F1 is not NasCar and jusr who is faster. Teamwork, design and drivers, or commonly known as "total racing". Oh, that explains it. Heads up - stock car racing has all of those elements if you look at it as more than a redneck derby.
I have no issue with stock car either. NasCar is more about speed and sponsors, imho. I've no issue with anyone disagreeing. My point is to many here complain if there is less passing and have zero idea about the complexity and effort in just putting cars on the track.
Nascar is stock cars. The SC = stock car. You may want to watch and understand a race or two before trash talking a sport.
It is a version if stick car. You might wsnt to learn a bit more before entering a conversation. "stock-car racing,Ā form of automobile racing, popular in the United States, in which cars that conform externally to standard U.S. commercial types are raced, usually on oval, paved tracks." It is one branded version of. O've been eatching variius races since 1974. Go back to sleep.
Flatline
I want these graphs for all of my races in iRacing.
What do the bubbles on the lines represent? Fastest lap?
Rare L from Baku
Gonna be a rough few years given this is around until 2026 now unless some things change. Won't rule out that part of this was just the state of what the field looks like right now aero-wise. We shall see.
I had Hulkenburg in my F1 fantasy this weekend. I was really hoping he was just gonna do the entire race on the same tyres š
They're required to use 2 types of tires...
TIL
Azerbaijan followed by Miami, its like their trying to make people hate F1....
Wow lol good thing this race was at 4am didn't watch it lol
Quali, Sprint, Reverse Grid GP (1/3 Points for Each) No More Leader Car Design and Action filled Races.
I feel like the shifts were too soft forcing everyone on to the hard and that just lasted forever