Antonelli meanwhile ended up behind Norris in P6. That did not last long. In the course of two laps he overtook both Norris and Hamilton to end up in P4 behind Leclerc. By this time Russell had overtook Leclerc and set off after Piastri who had opened up a 2 second gap.
The Mclaren performance looks promising and hopefully ending the one horse or rather wolf race at front. Piastri looked very comfortable holding onto the lead and preempted Russell by pitting first with the Mclaren pit crew executing a flawless pitstop to send him out with track position.
For the last 15 years Suzuka has never seen a safety car. But as has been proven in the starting races this season, records will be broken. What looked like a botched pass by Bearman saw him slide on to the grass before the Spoon curve and end up in the barriers and a 50G impact. Later it was determined that a battery deployment triggered the overtake on Colapinto with a closing speed differential of over 50kph forcing Bearman to take evasive action. Another critical safety issue to fix in the current battery era.
What was Bearman's loss turned out to be a godsend to Antonelli and Hamilton who had not pitted yet...giving them a free pitstop. Antonelli ended up in P1 but Hamilton was held up by Verstappen coming into the pits ending up in P4 behind Russell who he tried to harry after the safety car restart. But the Merc proved to be too strong and Hamilton ended up in a usual battle with his teammate who pulled of a close but clean pass. Piastri meanwhile ended up in P2 behind Antonelli who with clean air before him, promptly proceeded to build up a sizeable gap.
A common tactic employed by drivers was to get their opponent to overtake them on the straight after the 130R forcing battery deployment and the proceeding to retake the position on the main straight. The subsequent technical sections comprising of the esses, Degna till the Spoon curve reward a mechanically and aerodynamically sorted chassis than outright performance, where the Ferrari had an advantage helping Leclerc keep Russell behind him till the end to secure P3 for Ferrari. Oscar held onto P2 unable to challenge Antonelli and untroubled by the Ferrari behind him.
The Red Bulls were more competitive with Verstappen overtaking a few cars before ending up behind the Alpine of Gasly and unable to pass without losing the position on the repass. Maybe one option should be to allow only 80% battery deployment and 20% reserve to defend against a repass. But anyway, there is quite a distance for Red Bull to go before making this a four horse race.
Has the racing become better. After 3 races especially one on a drivers circuit like Suzuka, I would say no. F1 used to be about the drivers who could maximise grip on the corners, brake late into a corner and use tools like DRS etc to overtake or defend on straights. With corners now becoming battery harvesting opportunities this capability has become secondary. For drivers like Max Verstappen who differentiate themselves by having more of this craft, and viewers like me who tune in to watch humans like him perform superhuman overtakes and passes the current battery managed spectacle is kind of a damper. We don't tune in to see the yo yo ping pong battle. And that is what corporate animals like Toto Wolf and Stefano Domenicali simply don't understand. Welcome to corporate F1. It was good while it lasted.
No comments:
Post a Comment