There were lots of incidents in FP1 and especially FP2. Something seems off with the track; I don’t know if there are issues with the pavement, but the cars seem to have some grip issues. I think Saturday may end up being more of the same, with some FP3 incidents, maybe even causing some cars to not be ready for qualifying. And who knows, maybe an incident in qualifying causing some drivers to not get a good lap qualifying.

Williams is sure spending a lot of money keeping Latifi in a car. With Mazepin gone, Latifi seems to be the new crash/spin king.


-rb

The way I look at it , the track conditions are the same for everyone . Drivers will adapt with the help of their engineers . If grip levels aren't at a premium then drivers with " good touch " can rise to the top . I am no fan of crash fests so hopefully we will get a good qualy session today and a solid race tomorrow .

The location is a "best we could do' situation. F1 wanted in the worst way to stage this race in Miami along the beaches. The City of Miami was having none of it - the expense, the disruption, the complaints from property owners, etc. They tried many times and eventually gave up. So they built another parking lot grand prix. :rolleyes:

Yesterday in FP 1 and 2 they were talking about resurfacing that had to be done in at least one area where the pavement was coming apart. The company used some sort of glue and tried a fix. No telling if it worked.

Checo and Lando are both unhappy with the track. Poor off line grip and very bumpy.

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/12607266/miami-gp-lando-norris-and-sergio-perez-criticise-miami-track-punishing-conditions

I sure hope the pace Haas showed in FP3 is there for qualifying. Mick was 6th and Kmag 8th . What happened to Mercs FP2 pace ? Wow they are way off . Would love to see Albon qualify well .

several places on that track are
single file only
so what happens during qualifying
when traffic is backed up and cars
can't get a good run?
hopefully it doesn't turn out that way
but I'm skeptical

Disappointed in the Haas pace ☹️but at least Mick out qualified his teammate . Great effort by Bottas should be interesting with him starting next to Hammy . Congratulations to the front row they are blistering fast .

Haha. Murrica. So fake and plastic.

Catered by TGI Fridays and Golden Corral.

Got to love it 🤣

This is F1/Liberty Media itself who came up with this. The fake marina, fake beach, etc. is all on them. So many awesome permanent circuits in the US but it's all about getting non-motorsport fans and Netflix viewers in the seats. The longtime hardcore fans have been priced out and abandoned.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1651960055.jpg

George Russell was having some big troubles in qualifying today, and couldn’t make it out of Q2. But they were showing some good top end pace.

From what I saw, the Red Bulls were hitting the highest top speeds, with Checo reaching 336kph and Max reaching 337kph. The best that others cars were doing was about 7-8kph less.

I really figured that Latifi would have “practiced himself” out of qualifying, didn’t expect Ocon to do that. But maybe Latifi is holding back to disrupt the race tomorrow. SOMEBODY is gonna spin and crash at Turn 14.


-rb

Happy with the qualifying results. The start is going to be very interesting. I was surprised to see Mick qualify better than Kevin.

Danica Patrick did a nice job with the post-qualifying interviews.

Too bad the drivers say the surface is no good. I’ve not seen much on tv yet but from all I’ve heard this will not be good.

I don't think F1 drivers ever like the surface. They can't complain about the car and nothing is their fault so it must be the track.

Glad for Bottas
 

Qualified up there with the big boys, I wish him the best.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1652010683.jpg

If what the drivers are saying about the track surface is accurate I fear this will be a follow the leader single file race . If there is minimal traction offline passing will be very difficult . I hope I am wrong .

Agree Curt, it's a different spectator crowd at street circuits.
At the Long Beach grand prix the big crowds are here to party and drink beer all day.
I like Long Beach but the spectators are a different crowd from the race fans I see at our local amateur races. People don't drink beer all day at our races. lol
The Miami track has that terrible uphill kink/chicane, not worthy of F1.
F1 should be at at Road America. :)

Holy scheiss. I came across an article that mentioned how the tickets for "Luxury Row" (the "marina") were $9500!!!


Long Beach is the most "fun" race I've ever been to. You could be a total non-race fan and still enjoy the day. I don't think half the people in the restaurants along Shoreline Drive and in the Hyatt bar even care there are races going on. Then there's the convention center with the "Lifestyle Expo", now Acura has their hospitality area beyond the hairpin, etc.

That kink/chicane in Miami (and the subsequent lead onto the back straight) is absolutely terrible. It looks like you're getting lost in an urban construction zone like Boston's Big Dig.

But yeah, the track most befitting F1 in the U.S. is perhaps Road America. Too bad Elkhart Lake's in Wisconsin.

pre-race on. just barfed my breakfast. not sure i can last until the race

Road America would be a great track for F1.

So would:

Watkins Glen (again!)
Laguna Seca
VIR

The problem with any of these tracks is the ability of the surrounding infrastructure and community to support an F1 crowd. Bringing 150k people to a small rural area just doesn’t work. There isn’t enough dining, lodging, parking, traffic capacity, etc.


-rb

From what I can see, the resellers (Ticketmaster, Stubhub, etc.) bought all the tickets and the event was sold out the first day. Good for Liberty Media because they can say they have a sell-out. Since I'm only a couple hours away, some buddies and I wanted to go. We've been monitoring prices for months. At one point, even Friday practice seats started at $900. Raceday? $1800-$5000 each. We finally gave up planning. Friday morning, those $900 seats were down to $100. Of course there are tons of unsold tickets for today right now and they're down a bit but still $600 and up. :rolleyes: I get it, they are after a different customer these days.

Brundle's pitwalk right now is an absolute train wreck. Wow!

2022 F1 Thread
 

Man, Aston Martin really screwed up. They cooled the fuel too much???? So now, instead of starting in their qualifying positions on the grid, both cars are going to start from pit lane.

Someone’s head needs to roll for that massive screwup.


-rb

For that sort of money it would be worth flying to Milan for a long weekend and watching the Monza race

It was pretty funny to see him pick random nobodies to talk to.

In my view, many of the “American Celebrities” were pretty damn rude.

The best interview was with Zak Brown, Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi, and Zak telling Mario that he will help check off something on Mario’s bucket list by letting Mario drive a McLaren F1 car at COTA this fall.


-rb

That guy he thought was Mahomes was way too tall to be the real Patrick.

I had to laugh at that interview, I wonder did someone off camera tell Martin that was not Mahomes ? This grid walk is a train wreck !!!

https://www.sportingnews.com/au/amp/formula-1/news/martin-brundle-paolo-banchero-patrick-mahomes-f1-miami-duke-chiefs/wato2iijvor3p2io1qqk9zoe

“Whatever”

What a prick that guy is…

I think Martin Brundle has someone feeding names to him through his earpiece, so he doesn’t choose all of the people to interview. I think that the person talking through the earpiece mis-identified that guy as Patrick Mahomes.


-rb

Problem ($) too is ensuring the track meets FIA standards and whatever ransom Liberty requires to run an F1 race.

2022 F1 Thread
 

Great race with some passing and the cars behind following closely. The new aero rules seem to work. George beats Lewis again.

It was nice to see faces, and no masks anywhere.

The grid walk has always been the most cringe-inducing part of the broadcast no matter who does it IMO. Shoving a mic in random unprepared team members/celebs pie holes and trying to make small talk is far from gripping entertainment.

Yikes did they pump formaldehyde into Willy T before the interviews ? Horrible monotone barely breathing interview . But I enjoyed the race 😁

Not to be outdone by her sister, Serena, Venus Williams was unbelievably rude to Martin. Just let us all know that she was there for Hamilton (shocker that) and then turned away. Then turned back as if to say, 'what you are still here?' followed by 'what was the question?'. This is after Serena's nonsense last year in Austin. The two of them just need to go away. Both have been propped up by media and sports announcers that they believe they are entitled.

Last spring in a tune up tournament in Italy, Venus got upset with the chair umpire regarding the serve time clock. He said, no problem you have plenty of time. She got mad and said something about not being able to control God, as if God tells the wind when to blow. Then she turned on her heel like a 5 year old and wagged a finger, meanwhile she was 41 years old.

I thought after Austin last year F1 told these A S S hats that if they were on the grid there was no refusal. That was pretty much directed to Serena Williams. Today she just turned her back on Martin and walked in another direction.

They should amend the rule to add 'no publicists, body guards, or other strap hangers' on the grid. That may help, at least to reduce the number of people.


+1 on Fitti, Mario, and Zak. Class acts all. I liked how Martin put the screws to Zak to get the others a drive at Austin.

David Beckham was also very generous and acted like a gentleman.



Before the race one of the announcers was talking about how F1/Liberty wanted to provide 'quality racing with world class entertainment'. Well, there is where this began going downhill. This event was all about the show and schmooz. Sort of reminds me of Kentucky Derby and how much that has become an event for corporate and celebrity attendance.

Thoughts on Danica Patrick anyone?

Her quali interviews were pretty poor, only to be outdone by Willie T.

A bit better pre-race. However, she had no idea that F1 has been at US tracks other than Austin.

And Lewis blamed it on the strategy the team gave him. They literally asked him during the SC what he wanted to do. He deferred to them. Then around the time when GR passed him then gave it back, he said something about poor strategy cost him.

Meanwhile, George called his own strategy and dang near got 4th from the back. If he hadn't had to pass his teammate twice he may have gotten Checo

I liked her post-qualifying interviews of the top three. Her questions were concise, which is like hens teeth in racing interviews. I did not see the Ribbs interviews, but cannot see that being a good idea.

I don’t know why they insist on interviewing celebrities. None of those clowns has even half a clue about racing, why should we give a **** what they think?

With the kind of money that’s thrown at Formula One and all of the perfection demanded elsewhere in the paddock, the worst part of the whole show is the talking heads with the microphones. They are not up to the standard of the rest of the broadcast. That needs to change, I think.

125 mill spent in Vegas for venue space could have done better at one of the real road courses in America. I suppose it’s really more about the spectacle.

I'm happy that F1 is attracting more people, but I am not sure I like this "new coke" flavor... All these new races on "blah" city tracks in oil producing middle east countries (is this Qatar, or Saudi arabia, or..no clue), and now a street festival slash "spring break party" in Miami, it's starting to feel more like WWE wrestling than F1 to me... guess I'm old... Didn't know 2/3 of the celebrities and didn't really care...

OK race, decent track I guess, but I miss old school dedicated tracks, I am not a fan of those "made up" city things with no history and lots of walls - no offense meant to Indycar but it seems they are more the kind of cars built for these, F1s brush a wall and they are gone - feels like watching caged tigers... Shoot, I'd have really enjoyed seeing F1s at Sebring (after a major resurfacing - LOL)!!!

Can't wait for a dose of old style tracks, Spa, Suzuka, etc... This flashy new F1 with its fake marinas and rude/clueless celebrity VIPS all over is not quite engaging me as much, maybe it works for the "Drive to survive" generation (I guess Monaco falls under a similar category but at least it has decades of history and generally guests there seem pretty clued in). Oddly I don't mind Baku because of its varying width and that old tower, last new track I thought was interesting- go figure. Not a bad race, takes all kinds, but I can't quite put my finger on it - too much Miami flash I guess (the cop escort to the podium? please -gag)..