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The 2021 F1 Season.

Ridiculous decision to award half points for this race, it should just be declared an unfinished race. The points that have been awarded might have a direct bearing on the eventual winner of the world title.
It doesn't look good. But every team signed up to the rules and has to go with the result of those rules being implemented.
 
So far I've avoided all spoilers for the Belgian GP but Channel 4 have just said race highlights have been pushed back to 8pm due to rain. I know rain can cause a race to be red-flagged for some time but I'm now wondering whether there was a crash, bang wallop - or crashes, bangs and wallops - in the mix as well. I guess I'll just have to go dark once again and wait till 8 o'clock. Oh well...

Fwiw, I went to page 1 of this thread to create a post to make sure I stayed spoiler-free as it were.
 
The next race is next weekend in the Netherlands. Followed by the Italian GP the weekend after that.

To make that happen the teams need to get all their equipment there, the regulatory authorities need to get all their equipment there, etc.

And back to back races are already very tiring for everyone involved (except probably the drivers!) without losing a day in the process for a delayed race.
 
If I had paid to go to Spa and they ran that farce of a race and 2 laps behind a safety car mean I don't get my money back. Well I would be very pissed off.
 
Awarding any points at all for following the safety car around for three laps is just utter bollocks. You could do that in a Tesla on auto. Totally crap decision IMO.

PS Result for Russell/Williams though!
 
Ah, I just saw the 'race'. Oh well.

And yeah, clocking up the minimum race distance for the sake of it isn't cool.
 
Wow, what a weekend. I had two friends at Spa this weekend, one as an accredited photographer and one as a VER fan camping for the weekend (he is Dutch). Can't wait to chat to them on Tuesday to get their perspectives.

Fantastic qualifying, top driving by all the drivers to keep it on the track and get fast times in but RUS - what a star, I have always been a Williams fan and although the wet is a great leveller and they clearly gambled on a high grip wet setup but was in the 8th fastest car. Just stunning. Real shame from NOR but ultimately down to the driver, a probably pole lost there sadly.

What a shame about the race and I am really struggling to see even with hindsight to know how this situation could be improved. Probably the only option would have been taking a brave pill and let them have at it with the safety car start and hope that the cars at speed could have cleared the track enough for a few laps at racing speeds. I get the feeling that Martin Brundle wanted them to have a go.

I feel the right decision was ultimately made not to run but agree it does not sit right to award a full race albeit with half points. I mean MAZ to get fastest lap "officially" FFS. That said I am super happy for RUS to get a podium after the bad luck he has suffered.

Looks like RUS is Merc headed next year, that's gonna be fun to see how HAM manages against a non broken driver
 
I just watched the SKY interview with Race Director, Michael Masi, and it strikes me that they should have asked him why was the race was red-flagged after two laps and not one.

The live data feed on weather may well have shown that some actual racing could have taken place, but it looked pretty obvious as soon as the cars were on track that that wasn't going to happen. There was no second-guessing about it, so why wasn't the race red-flagged after one lap if not sooner on the first lap? Sadly, it seems as though running the cars behind the safety car for two complete laps was done simply in order to register the minimum race distance and so fulfill contractual obligations.

 
I love F1 I really do, but every few years it has a habit of shooting itself in the foot and yesterday was one of those events. I was happy with proceedings up until they 'stopped the clock' that was introduced so events didn't get suspended indefinitely... not much point having it if it can simply be 'stopped'. Then sending the cars back out when the conditions were worse than when they had initially red flagged it did smack (as Lewis said) of commercial cynicism as it certainly wasn't possible to go racing. To my mind they'd have been better letting the clock run down and in the meantime talking to the teams about the feasibility of running the race on Monday morning. Yes I know there is another race next weekend, but it's only in Zandvoort which is not a million miles away. Oh, and the fans there should get their money back... they didn't see a race. Imagine going to a football match and only seeing the warm up kick about... there'd be a riot!!
 
All very disappointing.

I hope that they do offer a free race at some point, as Lewis has requested.

Comparing Fuji to Spa is a non starter, one has large run off areas and no dangerous corners, the other is a very dangerous track in heavy rain.

At no point did the drivers think that the race was safe to start during the heavy rain. So just saying that they should have gone ahead and tried to clear the track is a non starter. The rain was falling fast enough to mean that the track would always have put up too much spray and there were areas where there would always be dangerous aquaplaning (i.e. unpredictable due to rain rate, drainage, speed of entry etc).

To run the race on Monday would require a few changes:

1. Monday would need to have been planned in advance as a test / spare race day (need safety team, marshals, film crews, FIA, circuit operators, teams and hopefully fans).
2. The following weekend would not be another race event.
3. What ever FIA rules that need to be changed to allow this, would need to have been changed.

Some other possible options are:

1. Given that Spa is an outlier circuit (weather and dangerous track) it needs more and better planning to make it viable on more occasions.
2. We just accept that one in 40 races (made up number!) at Spa need to be cancelled, and that a race is re organised on a weekend allocated for possible delayed race.
3. Or we accept that the race is just lost from that calendar year.
 


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