2022 Japanese GP: Very post race quick analysis

I generally agree with you. A point about the broadcast video - that is controlled by F1 with a world feed to everyone. Yes, not everyone cares about seeing non-stop Hamilton coverage. He has been a darling of the British press since the beginning of his F1 career and the race coverage demonstrates it.

If the US market can get up early to watch a race there is zero reason what the Europeans can't be inconvenienced a few times during a season.

Racing in the rain can really show who has the best car control which can negate power advantages. F1/FIA do need to look at ways to control the spray. There may only be a limited amount they can do with the diffuser but off the tires could be addressed. Also, why can't F1 have machinery to blow away the rivers running across the track, if they are so intent on avoiding running with the rivers? F1 already transports a huge amount of equipment and vehicles to the races so why not vehicles to address that?

 

Great review as per usual. Fully agree with Ocon as well. He drove a fantastic race.

Regarding the tyres/spray...The tyres are clearly capable of driving in the rain but it seems spray is the main complaint. I'm sorry F1 drivers, but in the past in much more dangerous cars in much worse conditions drivers drove no problem, dealt with the spray as well. Yes you won't see ****. They didn't either...and didn't have a HALO to protect their head.

I agree that NASCAR style blower trucks can easily help, and have looked at those units, I can't see how F1 can't afford to take a couple of them to races with likely rain. Seems to me they can attach to just any pick up truck really. I'm not really for that but hey ho...so long we can go racing right?

When they finally got underway it seems to me they could've started easily 45 minutes, an hour, before that even. There was still a bit of rain but nothing intense at all. Let the cars lap behind the SC for 10 laps to clear the track somewhat and get going. That extra hour of doing absolutely nothing was so, so stupid.

 

Dont you think the ground effect contributes to more spray?

 

Yes to a certain degree, but up until mid 2000s or so we had massive spray as well (those big wide wings contributed a lot of up draft).

 

I figured the floor and diffuser

 

The larger the tyres are, the more spray they provoke.

There was a study published a few years back, by Pirelli, I think. .

If a remember correctly, it was saying that a F1 car could lift up to 60 litres of water per second, although it's not constant, of course.

 

Yes I understand its obvious. But look at the shape of the water in the air from the aero at speed it definitely contributes

 

I have to agree with the declining TV coverage. I'm really getting sick of puss gut Crofty laughing at his own comments.

 

I keep saying it but put crofty and Buxton (they can have damon Hill and Herbert for free as well) on the same team for the netflix enthusiasts and have brundle, chandhok and Palmer on the proper channels.

 

The Track Dryers at Indy belong to IMS...that said in the face of the contanst rain in Japan the IRL would have gone home and come back tomorrow, to mayb 20% of the fans..

 

Rosberg, Button...absolutely, but they don't do it full time anyways, so can come in when they like.

Put the simpletons in their own box and weld the door shut...

 

The most interesting thing for me in this race was Charles walking over to look at Checo's tire tread after the race. Then he looked at Max's rears. Then he went over to his rear and touched it. Then he went and inspected his fronts. You can just see his frustration. He did an amazing job staying out on those tires compared the RedBulls.

It's also very interesting that the team did NOT pit him. It's another tactical mistake by Ferrari.

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I don't know how much a difference pitting would've made, given how fast he went through his tyres. Alonso had a fantastic stint on his tyres but would Leclerc have finished higher than he did? It also would've opened the door for Max to pit as well, do the fastest lap, and seal the championship...He had the gap to do that with 2 laps to go anyways but didn't want/need to take the risk, so with Lec pitting at any point Max could've very easily done it...

The error began with deciding to stick with the dry setup despite Ferrari's own admission that it would only be partially dry during the race.

 

I would have put the emphasis on the race win for LeC.

I understand the odds of that were very low, but they were basically zero if he doesn't pit (I guess Max could've crashed out).

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Yeah, I get what you mean...IMO the setup was a gamble, staying out was in all probabily the slightly better hope. Damned if you do, damned if you don't type scenario.

 

In addition to the safety issues (including rain) I find it amazing that no one seemed to understand the full points for yesterday. The broadcast guys were not clear, and just today on Tuesday I read another bit of reasoning, that it was hitting the 3 hour mark that meant the checkered flag came out when it did, NOT at 3 hours plus 1 lap. Some of the onboard videos at the finish line, the drivers clearly don't know that the race is over since they need to know 100% for sure.

I think it was Canada a few years ago some celebrity flag waver showed the checker flag one lap too soon, so that was the finish, you can't reverse a flag being shown, but in Japan 2022, I guess the solution is for race control to issue a message to be clear if we're racing to 2 hours plus one lap, a set number of laps, or the 3 hours and NOT plus a lap rules. And then from there maybe we can understand the full points, half points, or less situation.

 

HAM on board video, right after SAI went off during lap 1, the Rolex sign that I assume Gasly picked up is standing upright on the Ferrari and this is how close HAM came to it.
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Somebody bothered to read attentively the sporting rules during the race, and found they were open to interpretation.

The sting was in the detail apparently. " ...if the race isn't resumed ..." But it was, hence full points. Don't ask me ....

 

I don't see what all the whining is about. The Halo was a direct result of a previous "one off" crash with a tractor. There was a time when men were men. The old F1 drivers of old would have got out of their F1 cars and raced tractors if that's what it took. We are so privileged today.

 

Just the FIA writing things the FIA way...intention is X, but the way it's written, it precides other situations that everyone knew about since day dot...that's what caused the confusion. None of the teams read the new rule (put in after Belgium), none of the commentators...I think reading stupid rules like this, with the previous very well known rules in the back of your head, you almost gloss over it, as you know the intention of the rule but don't pay attention to specific wording that contradicts other (existing!) rules. Add on top of that the confusing new rules they put in of % of laps completed = points, you get **** shows like this.

I'm just glad that it wasn't the final race of the season and it was decided like this. 4 races left to go with Ferrari having almost no hope in winning the title even if Max stayed home as off today...

It's like the time limit rule as well, everyone thought it was time limit + 1 lap, but the race was flagged...but that's because for the 2 hours race time limit, that means it's 2 hours + 1 lap, but the event time limit, is 3 hours and the flag drops there and then.

The mind boggles.