2022 - Race 12 France

[F1nKS]

Last race before summer break. Another track that is Meh.

The interesting part will be the implementation of the new porpoising rules of the FIA - what will be the impact?

[airshifter]

The new stuff and the directive have been pushed back to Spa. I really don't know why, but it somewhat makes sense being they are still figuring out what to try to change mid season. Personally I think the flexi floor thing is just a scape goat of a cry from Toto. Nobody really knows for sure who it doing what, but trying to bring in new regs and tests might hurt some teams more than others. I'm shocked myself that they write such vague regs. This is Formula 1 and every team will exploit any loophole they can find, that is the nature of the beast. If they write regs that can't be easily manipulated, then it won't happen.

France is a boring track to me, it just lacks character. All those runoff areas having the lines just makes it more obvious how forgiving those areas are now. You run wide, you re-enter. At least they are putting their foot down with track limits, but it still won't improve the track.

Being a smoother track, it will be interesting to see if Merc can get into the fight at the front on pace alone. It would be great to have more cars battling up front.

[Bagwan]

I can't imagine having to write the regs for the series , given that the exploitation of any loophole is worth so much .
But , that said , I find it crazy to change mid-season for any reason but the most extreme .

Porpoising is a choice .
The choice to run too close to the deck is for speed , and it's not safe .
But , it's a choice .


Teams are getting used to the new formula now , and working things out .
Merc has a new floor they are excited about .
Haas is in the points . Alpine is feeling fast , and even team Willy is happy to put two upgraded cars on track this weekend .

Mind you , Aston seems still stressed about being slow , it appears , but then , they never should have painted it green .


This isn't my favourite track , but staying within the lines could make for a few penalties at the front , especially , so "keeping it on the island" may pay dividends for the mid-field .

[airshifter]

Nyck De Vries will drive the W13 in FP1, this race having been chosen by Lewis for one of the young driver sessions. It will be interesting to see how he does with the car seemingly improved. Last time out he beat Latifi when he was driving the Williams.

Weather is supposed to be dry but very hot. It might tax some power units or tires, and could shake things up for the race.

[Bagwan]

Think Nyck will beat not so quick Nic this weekend ?

[airshifter]

Think Nyck will beat not so quick Nic this weekend ?

I sure hope so. If not then maybe he doesn't get along with the Merc, or Nic is tearing up the track in a Williams.

At least they picked a good track to do it at. I'd imagine they let testing drivers push a bit more then there are no close walls or barriers to run into.

[F1nKS]

A lot of hype for Mercedes going into qualifying about how they would be challenging RB and Ferrari in France...Mercedes are what they are the 3rd best team this year.

Ferrari is looking very tough. Too bad Sainz had to start at the back of the grid. He looked fastest.

Haas was surprisingly fast; bad luck for Mick on track limits.

[airshifter]

Things are looking good for Ferrari, but they have to battle 2 RBs with the strategy calls. I think they have the pace to keep Leclerc up front, but at the same time if the RB is quick enough to make a DRS pass, they might be quick in the wrong areas of the track to matter. I expect Max to make a charge within the first 10 laps or so to find out.

Great work by Ferrari today to use Sainz for the tow. I don't know that it was needed in the end, but they are thinking on their feet at least. Let's hope they can make the right calls on the race as it unfolds.

Good job by Lando to split the Mercs, and unexpected. He's really getting what he can out of the car. Fairly solid of Yuki as well, and a good showing.

[Tazio]

McClerc!!!

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[Tazio]

McRrari,!!!!

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[Zico]

Thats sad... but is it too early to say its over?

[Sulland]

Where did the "lollipop person" go?
They are still very much needed, too many unsafe releases.

And it is not logic that the driver gets the penalty when the team messes up!!?

[F1nKS]

At this rate, Mercedes might have a chance to catch Ferrari for #2.

[Bagwan]

It looked to me that Georgie really got away with one there .
Checo left him room , but George had no room for the Mexican around the second apex .
Then , he had the audacity to suggest he should give the place back after being the guy who pushed him off .

[Mia 01]

A sad day for Ferrari and Charles but he was under great pressure from Max. Mercedes seems to have a bit better race pace this afternoon.

[airshifter]

Not the most exciting race, but some twists and turns that made it interesting at least.

It's a shame that Leclerc lost the car from the lead. It looks like they were very closely matched, and with fresh tires on both it might have gotten more dicey. But once Charles went off, Max was in cruise mode for the most part, and got a fairly easy win. But at least we got a few laps of Max trying to get him on track, and I think laps that we would have never seen in the old spec cars. The RB could stay there and apply pressure, even if not enough to make a pass. Following cars have a much better chance at making it work in 2022.

Merc had a really good race as well. With Lewis jumping Checo at the start, there wasn't much real chance of getting it back without a mistake. At the end there Checo was doing great defending against George, but that jump after the VSC was well timed and very well done. I think he was already in Checo's head with the VSC delta games earlier, and ended up getting it almost perfect. Well done by both Merc drivers.

Checo really didn't have a great weekend, and all things considered it was decent damage control after his bad practice sessions. He did well in qually, but really it wasn't representative of his weekend.


George was still trying to say he was right on the dive with Checo in the cool down room was funny. I guess even after the team told him to just get on with it, he saw it as winning the corner, but we all know if Checo had even tried to stay on track that would have gotten messy.

Hard to say whether Ferrari got it right or wrong with Carlos, but I'm leaning towards wrong. But on the flip side, if those mediums fell off the cliff or failed we would be wondering why they didn't pit. So they might have had to really push their luck to get that many laps on those medium tires.


Both Alpines and both McLarens in the top 10 as well. I didn't think Ocon would get back in the points, but it came his way towards the end.


Still not my favorite track, but not a bad race for France.

[F1nKS]

Not the most exciting race, but some twists and turns that made it interesting at least.

Still not my favorite track, but not a bad race for France.

It unfortunate that Leclerc crashed out - it looked like there could have been a great battle at the end between Charles and Max. An exciting finish might have given France a better reputation.

I was disappointed with Haas. I really thought they would fight through to the points with what looked like the pace they had in qualifying.

Gasly continue to show this year why he will never be in a Red Bull.

Albon continue to put the Williams where they don't belong (P13) - or is it Latifi underachieving always?

Ricciardo actually had a decent weekend, at least he was hanging with his teammate and delivered some points.

[airshifter]

Yeah, the fight at the front might have been good. RB thought they had less graining and could go the distance so they rolled the dice for the undercut. We will never know if it would have worked until the end of the race. The cars overall seemed fairly level on performance, with strengths in differing parts of the track.

Haas just faded, it got away from them after early promise. And I think Yuki had a shot at points considering his qually and Gasly's finishing position. But that contact tossed his race fairly quick. I'm glad Albon is back, and I think he is getting better as well, and has long term potential. Danny Ric had a decent weekend, but it still baffles me how he hasn't come to grips with the car the way Lando has.