Poll: Emilia Romagna Grand Prix 2022, Imola - Race 4

[CaptainRAVE]

Am I the only one who thinks the porpoising looks ridiculous? It seemed more extreme in Imola, perhaps because of the wet weather setup. For the pinnacle of motorsport it just doesn’t look right to me, that’s without the consideration for the drivers health that surely it can’t be good for. Usually I watch F1 cars and can only dream of driving them, but this lot look like an absolute nightmare.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

Painful to watch for any Hamilton fans. I can see why Russell is beating him though. George's experience of driving an imperfect car for the last few seasons is clearly paying off. Lewis has absolutely no confidence in it. Gasly was able to out brake him every time in his defence along the straights.

Great drive from the young brits today. I think we're in for a decent fight between Merc and McLaren for P3 this season, with different track and conditions favouring each car.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

Am I the only one who thinks the porpoising looks ridiculous? It seemed more extreme in Imola, perhaps because of the wet weather setup. For the pinnacle of motorsport it just doesn’t look right to me, that’s without the consideration for the drivers health that surely it can’t be good for. Usually I watch F1 cars and can only dream of driving them, but this lot look like an absolute nightmare.

It does, but not all cars are doing it. It was clear this weekend that in difficult conditions the cars that don't porpoise had a clear advantage.

 

[Mr Jack]

Am I the only one who thinks the porpoising looks ridiculous?

It does, and - as Russell says - it's also a health and safety issues for the drivers. I think they'll solve (or at least massively reduce it) by mid-season, but it does show how the ridiculously reduced level of on-track testing and the extremely restrictive suspension rules have combined to make unexpected problems.

 

[Journey]

It does, and - as Russell says - it's also a health and safety issues for the drivers. I think they'll solve (or at least massively reduce it) by mid-season, but it does show how the ridiculously reduced level of on-track testing and the extremely restrictive suspension rules have combined to make unexpected problems.

I don't understand why they don't increase the testing inline with as a % of the number of laps that will be completed over the total season length. Season have more races than ever, and testing is as low as it has ever been, its frankly stupid given they are supposed to be developing the pinnacle of motorsports driving machines, yet they are hobbled into guessing using simulations.

 

[413x]

Am I the only one who thinks the porpoising looks ridiculous? It seemed more extreme in Imola, perhaps because of the wet weather setup. For the pinnacle of motorsport it just doesn’t look right to me, that’s without the consideration for the drivers health that surely it can’t be good for. Usually I watch F1 cars and can only dream of driving them, but this lot look like an absolute nightmare.

Reminds me of my first driving lesson. Bunny hopping on the clutch bite!

Absolutely more noticeable here

 

[GravyMonster]

It does, and - as Russell says - it's also a health and safety issues for the drivers. I think they'll solve (or at least massively reduce it) by mid-season, but it does show how the ridiculously reduced level of on-track testing and the extremely restrictive suspension rules have combined to make unexpected problems.

It's not just the restrictions on on-track testing. The wind tunnels can only run up to a certain speed (about 100mph IIRC) for energy conservation, and at a max size of 60% to save costs, and don't have the ability to recreate the porpoising issue.

 

[MooMoo444]

Probably the most uneventful race in a long while. No idea how anyone could vote that highly.

 

[Cleisthenes]

By the sound of it, I'm glad I wasn't able to catch this one!

 

[Kenai]

Painful to watch for any Hamilton fans.

It was pretty painful viewing for anyone really, it doesn't get much more tedious than that as a racing spectacle

 

[Slam62]

It was pretty painful viewing for anyone really, it doesn't get much more tedious than that as a racing spectacle

Yeah, apart from the few laps of Leclerc chasing Perez nothing really happened.

 

[Jono8]

It was pretty painful viewing for anyone really, it doesn't get much more tedious than that as a racing spectacle

Yeh, it was a pretty boring race. Its a good job sainz and ric came together at the start / leclerc span , otherwise it would have even mega dull.

The Ocon, Albon, Gasly, Ham train was painful to watch. Half the race, and they all stayed within the same gap of each other unable to overtake (but Muh new regs..!). That must have been as tedious for the drivers as it was for us.

I just hope Lewis can have a race without being screwed over by events out of his control next race. Merc's slow Pitstop and Ocon's unsafe release basically destroyed his race. If he had a good Pitstop, he likey would have finished at least 8th or 9th.

I still think Merc were way too conservative with strategy. Should have just brought Hamilton in early for slicks/as soon as they saw Ric was OK on them. They had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Would it have mattered if he finished 13th or last/dnf? I doubt being stuck behind gasly for 30 laps even helped them get much data/feedback either.

 

[Jono8]

Probably planning his next t-shirt photoshoot while driving the car.

Its kind of sad to be honest seeing how poorly he is performing. Previous greats even in bad cars managed to wrangle it around the track and stay competitive.

Hamilton has just checked out. Probably saw that Russell is the new poster boy in merc and started making alternate plans.

Wonder if hes looking for a move to Ferrari, afterall, that has been one of his long term aims as a driver for many years.

I think Hamilton's "poor" performance against Russell has been wildly over exaggerated. In qualy they are two for two, and Ham's race pace was definitely better in the 1st and 3rd race. In the second race he was trying a bonkers setup for Merc that didn't work so his qualy and race were compromised.He has been hit with a massive load of bad luck so far this season. In almost every race, events out of his control have gone George's way and ***** over Lewis.

I would only say he was "poor" in Imola but I imagine mentally he may have just packed it in yesterday after the pitstop was slow and Ocon's unsafe release just virtually put an end to his race.

 

[this_is_gav]

I don't understand why they don't increase the testing inline with as a % of the number of laps that will be completed over the total season length. Season have more races than ever, and testing is as low as it has ever been, its frankly stupid given they are supposed to be developing the pinnacle of motorsports driving machines, yet they are hobbled into guessing using simulations.

If they increased testing the teams would primarily use it as a means to improve lap time. The problems like porpoising would come a distant second, unless finding silver bullet to solve porpoising also showed an improvement of lap time. Those who don't have such problems would only be further ahead than those who do, which is one of the reasons why testing was restricted in the first place, alongside skyrocketing costs.

Plus, with 23 races, that means 69 hours of practice sessions where they can test parts and setups, so the increase in number of races correlates exactly with how much testing a team can do.

 

[Mr Jack]

Plus, with 23 races, that means 69 hours of practice sessions where they can test parts and setups, so the increase in number of races correlates exactly with how much testing a team can do.

With the shortened practice sessions, there's not a lot of time in these sessions to test new parts. They need to use them to dial in the setup to the track, particularly this year.

 

[this_is_gav]

With the shortened practice sessions, there's not a lot of time in these sessions to test new parts. They need to use them to dial in the setup to the track, particularly this year.

Well that's up to the team to manage. The time is there if they want to use it.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

I don't understand why they don't increase the testing inline with as a % of the number of laps that will be completed over the total season length. Season have more races than ever, and testing is as low as it has ever been, its frankly stupid given they are supposed to be developing the pinnacle of motorsports driving machines, yet they are hobbled into guessing using simulations.

Don't forget, Mercedes wasted a week of track testing by bringing out a dummy car for the first test. Bet they're regretting missing that extra month of development they could have spent working on the propoising if they'd known about it at Barcelona.

 

[Kenai]

Don't forget, Mercedes wasted a week of track testing by bringing out a dummy car for the first test. Bet they're regretting missing that extra month of development they could have spent working on the propoising if they'd known about it at Barcelona.

They did know about the porpoising at Barcelona

 

[Entai]

Don't forget, Mercedes wasted a week of track testing by bringing out a dummy car for the first test. Bet they're regretting missing that extra month of development they could have spent working on the propoising if they'd known about it at Barcelona.

They did know about the porpoiseing in Barcelona.

And it was 99% the exact same car as used now.

The sidepods used in Barca were purely cosmetic cover ups.

They could put those straight back on now, but they will make zero difference to how the car performs, as they are purely cosmetic and have zero influence over the aero and the way the car drives.

 

[Mr Jack]

They could put those straight back on now, but they will make zero difference to how the car performs, as they are purely cosmetic and have zero influence over the aero and the way the car drives.

Of course they influence the aero, don't be daft. But I agree that they probably made no difference to the porpoising issue; that's about weight distribution, suspension setup, and the underbody.