Guenther Steiner meets NASCAR.
What's not to like.

Womp womp, 4th down to 17th in 3 laps of green running

I'll give YouTube TV credit today, it "knew" that the race was running long and kept extending the recording time until I turned it off. I loved the race until the godawful Green/White/Checker never stopped. Not having the race stop at every "Stage" was a nice change, but for fuck's sake, put a fucking limit on this retarded WWE bullshit.

quote:

Mentioned in commentary, track limits not enforced, except through the esses. 4 already penalized for it.

And it's also the track limits that everyone except F1 uses around COTA because no other series has the downforce of an F1 car.

I actually didn't mind the green/white/checker vs ending behind the pace car. Though the leader had a massive gap by the end.

My main issue other than being a purist (ie: it's the Indy 500 not Indianapolis 505) is the unlimited retries. A few years ago it was "You idiots have 3 tries" instead of unlimited. What also made it unbearable was while they were thinking about how this works, the had Xfinity Races at Road America which is 4 miles long and took forever, just like today.

Good point, with a 2 min lap, the 'overtime' does drag on.
Bummer Kimi & Jenson ended up so far down.

Saw speculation of plans to improve pitbox design to help drivers better center box and avoid some of the penalties we've seen recently. Most of that centered on them having a centerline extending out beyond the box far enough for them to see clearly.

WTF is the FIA actually on about with THIS idea? Sure perhaps some part of the line in the box helps with aim from a ways out, but still is invisible to them once they get remotely close to their box.

Maybe there's a rule about lines beyond the box, or concern with traction on paint, but even a fool in MS can see neither of those should be an actual issue.

I'm actually a bit surprised that F1 doesn't already mandate a sensor system that detects the starting box for the driver in the cockpit, something akin to what the track-mounted staging box and indicators in drag racing does. It could be built into the track, or even onboard-mounted on the car itself with a simple indicator in the cockpit. A car-mounted setup seems like it would be a relatively cheap solution to implement.

The centerline isn't a bad idea. With them being seating centrally, gives a good L/R reference as you approach, assuming you're coming in fairly straight on.

Would be interesting to see some of the helmet cams on grid approach to get an idea of their view as they situate in the box.
IIRC, one of the comments was that the wheel brows make the perpendicular yellow line tougher to see.

quote:

Originally posted by monoblok:
I'm actually a bit surprised that F1 doesn't already mandate a sensor system that detects the starting box for the driver in the cockpit, something akin to what the track-mounted staging box and indicators in drag racing does. It could be built into the track, or even onboard-mounted on the car itself with a simple indicator in the cockpit. A car-mounted setup seems like it would be a relatively cheap solution to implement.

Unless you overrun the box, engaging reverse is always a risky/difficult proposition [according to the commentary, at least] with the potential for gearbox damage and/or other driver risk with a car moving backwards.

They should just make the start box a little wider.
The fore/aft line is all that really counts anyway, as long as it's position is close.
Being too much to either side just takes the car off the rubbered in area and would give a disadvantage, so the drivers have an incentive to be positioned correctly.

Or take inspiration from that Subaru commercial with the dogs. Right on their halo.

Just finished FP1.
Not sure how Alfa is already seeming to fall apart. They were decent in Bahrain & just nowhere in Saudi, and looking the same in FP1

That was one fugly race. Surprised at how well M-B did, even Russell before his car kaput.

First half was exciting, 2nd half meh, closing laps were bonkers, end was dumb.

Hell, there were fewer yellow flags in the IndyCar race at Texas than the "pinnacle of motor sports." Gasly got lucky and avoided penalty points for taking out his teammate, and Sainz went into little bitch mode crying that it's unfair he's getting penalized for pitting Alonzo like he was with the Highway Patrol.

quote:

Originally posted by DanH:
Hell, there were fewer yellow flags in the IndyCar race at Texas than the "pinnacle of motor sports." Gasly got lucky and avoided penalty points for taking out his teammate, and Sainz went into little bitch mode crying that it's unfair he's getting penalized for pitting Alonzo like he was with the Highway Patrol.

LOL! That is what my 13-year-old son said while we watched: “He just pitted him!!”

Over yet?

Finally

While contemplating the rationale behind a 4-week gap early in a season with so many races piled on each other, I had forgotten that cancelling China was what led to this, not intentional planning.

However, it does present an interesting opportunity for teams that I was initially wondering if was intentional for purposes of the competition.

Unlike fall break where they are (theoretically) banned from any work on the cars/program this really is a 4 week run with no interference from race prep and travel and no work restrictions. Leaves all sorts of time for teams to really get after their development, especially those trying to close up the gap to RB or just in their own fight.

It may not have been intentional, but given the mix of team performances this year seems to have come at a really opportune time for us as fans.