2025 Spanish Grand Prix - Barcelona-Catalunya May 30 - June 1

[MormegilRS]

Long time lurker, first time poster.

Do we know why Tsunoda ran only 8 laps on his first set of mediums? Seems weird to run such a short stint on the best tyres you have.

[Seanspeed]

What a complete joke the FIA and Formula One has become. Ban Verstappen minimum two races. This is the trademark of a multiple world champion? Verstappen is a disgrace to the sport and the FIA is protecting him. FIA's Double Standards.

To suggest that the FIA plays favoritism with Verstappen requires some insane levels of blindness. lol

I think it's just the stewards of the day being inconsistent as always.

But yes, he should have been DQ'd. Drivers make mistakes and misjudge things and cause collisions that deserve a 10 second penalty, but any driver who intentionally rams another driver, especially so blatantly and in anger, needs a giant hammer coming down on them immediately because that cannot be tolerated. Racing is too dangerous to treat this incident no differently than a typical racing accident.

Max definitely still has that childish temper tantrum nature about him. Thought maybe age and being a father would temper him a bit on that, but nope. Being raised by Jos will have its consequences, I guess.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-m ... /10729467/

It's not a black and white situation. The FIA has both been lenient and overly harsh with Verstappen.

There's a lot I agree with in the article. Heck, I was complaining about Verstappen not being punished hard enough even back when he started and was doing things like diving to the inside in the braking zone to prevent being overtaken. But there's a bigger problem that I've talked about a ton in terms of the kinds of behaviors Verstappen doing not being cracked down on in general. It's not just Max. The stewards and rules are consistently lacking and inconsistent in their application. It almost feels like a dice roll sometimes whether somebody(Max or not) will get properly punished for doing certain things.

And it cant be ignored that the FIA have been very harsh on Max when it comes to his off-track stuff. We cant separate this as something totally different if we're arguing that there's a conspiracy that the FIA is deliberately and unfairly lenient on Max. At least if you want to pretend the 'FIA' is the same body in all these situations. And if we recognize it's not, then that changes things quite a lot, doesn't it? And it's not necessarily the 'FIA' who we should be pointing fingers at.

[avantman]

Long time lurker, first time poster.

Do we know why Tsunoda ran only 8 laps on his first set of mediums? Seems weird to run such a short stint on the best tyres you have.

He was stuck in traffic and what looked like DRS train, Albon pitted ahead of him and they reacted to get a breath of clear air and free track. He immediately went like 3 seconds faster.
They also had a luxury to throw medium away relatively early because he had 3 sets of brand new soft.

[basti313]

But yes, he should have been DQ'd. Drivers make mistakes and misjudge things and cause collisions that deserve a 10 second penalty, but any driver who intentionally rams another driver, especially so blatantly and in anger, needs a giant hammer coming down on them immediately because that cannot be tolerated. Racing is too dangerous to treat this incident no differently than a typical racing accident.

That is an opinion, not a fact.
I still can not see where you take the "dangerous" from. Is it just to state it is dangerous or is there any real background? I fail to see the real background as the cars were not even damaged, albeit far, far away from danger.
Interestingly the dangerous part was the touch on the straight...that could have ended bad. But the tire bumping...even with complete misjudgment and a T bone in this corner it would not have given one of the two a scratch.

The stewards judged this more harsh than the Vettel incident, right?

Being raised by Jos will have its consequences, I guess.

Yes. These are the people you better are not "friends" with. Lando took long to learn it, maybe even has not learned it at all if he still enjoys flying with Max.

The stewards and rules are consistently lacking and inconsistent in their application. It almost feels like a dice roll sometimes whether somebody(Max or not) will get properly punished for doing certain things.

I still think it is the stupid rules of engagement they have. F1 is the only racing series on this planet, where you are allowed to drive others off the track. With that stupid rule who is allowed to drive someone else off the track, they will never come to reasonable grounds.
The tire bumping...as mentioned, check the Vettel case and tell me where the inconsistency is...I think it is consistent and fine.

[pob]

The stewards judged this more harsh than the Vettel incident, right?

No, Vettel got a 10 second stop-go penalty.

[chrisc90]

Shared them in the discord so might aswell copy the links here aswell for the Max/Charles 'inchident' on the straight at the safety car restart.

[basti313]

The stewards judged this more harsh than the Vettel incident, right?

No, Vettel got a 10 second stop-go penalty.

Thanks!
Looked it up, he also got 3 pen points.

Maybe the stewards got it wrong as I did...

[DDopey]

Shared them in the discord so might aswell copy the links here aswell for the Max/Charles 'inchident' on the straight at the safety car restart.

I was actually quite pissed at Max after the incident. But this ping ponging by other drivers of Max does give some nuance.

[chrisc90]

Shared them in the discord so might aswell copy the links here aswell for the Max/Charles 'inchident' on the straight at the safety car restart.

I was actually quite pissed at Max after the incident. But this ping ponging by other drivers of Max does give some nuance.

I think looking at the clips, it’s more Charles who moves back across left into Max.
Max makes his error, which gives Charles the right to come alongside, on the onboard of Charles, his car nose is roughly in line with the right hand side grid boxes (on the left edge of the position). Once the grid is out of view he moves back over left - into Max

[ringo]

The touch with Charles is a non story. Touch on the straight, with no damage or compromised pace from either car.
Max was the slower car being overtaken and held his ground when the position was lost. In fact I would say he was pushing Charles into the marbles on the right side. Charles drove by and was merging onto the racing line not expecting Max to be holding firm when he had no reason to be there anyway.
It's nothing. The event didn't even last a millisecond. Had Max stayed on the left, he would have been able to defend from Russell.

[langedweil]

The touch with Charles is a non story. Touch on the straight, with no damage or compromised pace from either car.
Max was the slower car being overtaken and held his ground when the position was lost. In fact I would say he was pushing Charles into the marbles on the right side. Charles drove by and was merging onto the racing line not expecting Max to be holding firm when he had no reason to be there anyway.
It's nothing. The event didn't even last a millisecond. Had Max stayed on the left, he would have been able to defend from Russell.

And another beauty ..

[Farnborough]

The driver can't "merge" anywhere on a straight until clear of the car they are passing. Thats just the start of a crash

[Seanspeed]

But yes, he should have been DQ'd. Drivers make mistakes and misjudge things and cause collisions that deserve a 10 second penalty, but any driver who intentionally rams another driver, especially so blatantly and in anger, needs a giant hammer coming down on them immediately because that cannot be tolerated. Racing is too dangerous to treat this incident no differently than a typical racing accident.

That is an opinion, not a fact.
I still can not see where you take the "dangerous" from. Is it just to state it is dangerous or is there any real background? I fail to see the real background as the cars were not even damaged, albeit far, far away from danger.
Interestingly the dangerous part was the touch on the straight...that could have ended bad. But the tire bumping...even with complete misjudgment and a T bone in this corner it would not have given one of the two a scratch.

The stewards judged this more harsh than the Vettel incident, right?

Being raised by Jos will have its consequences, I guess.

Yes. These are the people you better are not "friends" with. Lando took long to learn it, maybe even has not learned it at all if he still enjoys flying with Max.

The stewards and rules are consistently lacking and inconsistent in their application. It almost feels like a dice roll sometimes whether somebody(Max or not) will get properly punished for doing certain things.

I still think it is the stupid rules of engagement they have. F1 is the only racing series on this planet, where you are allowed to drive others off the track. With that stupid rule who is allowed to drive someone else off the track, they will never come to reasonable grounds.
The tire bumping...as mentioned, check the Vettel case and tell me where the inconsistency is...I think it is consistent and fine.

It is not an 'opinion' that intentionally ramming other cars in racing is dangerous. Driving down the highway at 200mph is also dangerous even if you get away with it and nobody gets hurt. It's still dangerous and should not be tolerated at all. Or if you're gonna be picky about speeds, driving through a red light is dangerous even at low speeds and even if you get away with it. Again, should not be tolerated. In no world can any reasonable person defend that ramming other drivers in racing is not dangerous. And no, not even in NASCAR or whatever.

Everything else I largely I agree with. I've been a proponent of pushing that there should NEVER be an allowance for pushing others off-track ever, for any reason.

And no, we're not talking about some bumping. Like with Leclerc and Max - Leclerc wasn't looking to hit Max out of anger, he was trying to coerce Max to the left to give himself a better position and get himself off the marbles. That's something that happens regularly in racing, except Max decided not to give. Not saying it's Max's fault, just that it was a typical and understandable racing situation, not somebody trying to ram another driver. Intention matters a lot here.

[Seanspeed]

The driver can't "merge" anywhere on a straight until clear of the car they are passing. Thats just the start of a crash

Obviously true, but they are wrong that Leclerc was trying to 'merge'. Leclerc himself admitted he was trying to push Max left. He wasn't trying to hit him at all, it's just very typical in this situations that you can coerce a driver to the outside(for preservation instincts) in order to give yourself a better line into the next corner, and Leclerc also said he wanted to get off the marbles on the inside. Max is just a particularly stubborn driver. Not that it's his fault, he had no specific obligation to move over and Leclerc should know Max better, but still, the situation is not the same. Leclerc's intentions were relatively innocent. He was not at all trying to hit Max because of some toddler temper tantrum.