Well, from this obvious safety perspective, there should be something that closes the DRS flap in corners. Can't believe no one in F1 has thought of that. Even Jim Hall with the Chaparral 2C in 1965 designed that into the car.

And what's with all the trackside fires? How are they going to run a full race tomorrow, if they have to stop every few laps to put another out?

Get a water truck out there and wet down the grass. Not rocket science.

Well that was an interesting qualifying session . Congrats to the pole winner . Hadjar/Bearman/Albon great results . Hopefully Racing Bulls can fix whatever belt issues that Hadjar has .

Interesting qualifying, it’s going to be great competitive season!

Yeah as for the grass fires, what the hell, what if it happens in the race? Get trucks spraying day and night until the race…

Horner on Hadjar’s belt issue: yeah he had a nut problem, and I don’t mean a wheel nut :-)

Just have it slam shut any time the brakes are applied.

That has to be really really painful under 5G braking. :eek:

Interesting qualifying. And yea, the grass fires need a fix.

I would have thought the same, but apparently Doohan was still flat out when he turned in.

Seems like with all the cars GPS'd out, there should be an automatic feature that only allows DRS to be deployed within the designated DRS zone on straightaways. I mean, they use some form of GPS to determine if the trailing car is more or less than a second behind the car in front (to enable DRS in the trailing car). They use that same feature to allow the trailing driver only to deploy DRS once they hit the DRs zone. How hard is it to use that same technology to close DRS at the end of the DRS zone, which would only be on straightaways and not in corners. I can't believe no one in all of F1 realized using DRS in a corner would be a problem.

Le Mans prototypes are using track position to control the hybrid releases.
Absolutely could do it for DRS.

Kind of a boring race but at least no grass fires ! Max controlled the entire race , McLaren with faster cars really never challenged . I would have thought McLaren would have gambled on pit strategy to maybe get a car in front .

Yuki did ok but not spectacular . Great to see Antonelli/Albon/Bearman and Hadjar get points . Sainz still needs more seat time to get used to the Williams . Ferrari not sure they are happy with their pace .

I am surprised Ocon was quite a bit behind his rookie teammate . Same for Lawson . Doohan survived the entire race but I fear the hatchet is coming .

It was the first time sine some older Monaco race that the top 6 qualifier positions finished in the same order.

They were all running flat out, so not just an economy run to preserve the tires. With no big mistakes, the finishing order was maintained.

I’m thinking NOR should have just slotted in behind VER after the pit stop and just hammered on him for the rest of the race. McLaren gave NOR an advantage (or RB gave VER a disadvantage) with their pit stops, either way NOR was even at pit exit but 2 seconds behind almost immediately by running through the verge and over the asphalt in the way. Seems he just was not with car after that agricultural run.

It was an ok race.

Poor strategy by McLaren though.

Piastri in cool down room said something after the podium guys saw the video play back of highlights: Was that all for the race?

As if it was a boring race. The Sky guys were quick to say how good a race it was in their view.

Please bring back Damon Hill. Jacques Villieneuve sounded like he was eating poutine every time he spoke and looked (on Sunday) like he was going out for a walk in the woods.

JacV needs a stylist and a radio voice but he does provide insight that others haven't.
It was the most boring race in years.

I thought it was boring overall, but it's suzuka and watching the top 3 give it full beans had some redeeming value.

Did you see Doohan after the race? He could not get out of his car without help from a team member and Ocon.. I think his bell go rung (50G the day before) and he still managed to make a few passes, nice grit. I am surprised (and glad) Flav has not replaced him yet. I Hope he gets ONE decent race before Colapinto takes over.

Had to feel for Yuki, did such a good job until the botched quali attempt... Tight field this year!

Also, I really like Sainz in general, but how long does he need to get on top of the Williams? Albon is looking good right now !

^^^ Don't forget Albon has been with Williams for four years now . I would expect him to out perform Carlos short term . Maybe long term .

Carlos was at Ferrari for four years so he has to unlearn that chassis and learn this chassis . Give it a few more races and Carlos should be closer or equal to Alex .

It was boring because despite McLaren having 2 cars (vs 1 for Red Bull) at the pointy end of the field, they did nothing strategy wise to try to better Red Bull. They just did processional, follow-the-leader strategy. That way, RBR only had to cover one strategy with Max, as opposed to two differing approaches. And, McLaren didn't even try to seap the two cars to let a potentially faster Oscar try to catch Max during the last 20 or so laps. McLaren's strategy was not innovative at all.

Interview with Max after the race, he was pushing for the entire race only the last 5 laps did he think that he had it covered