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F1 2022

i'd normally say racing incident as it was the very last bit of the line but when your closest rival in the f1 championship is just behind and you closed down the corner it came across as a bit of cynical

the bulls lucky to get away with that
 

Wolff sends warning to McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has conceded that he does not believe his team can sustain power supply for all of their customers, so they may have to lose at least one of them. Currently, Mercedes manufacture power units for Aston Martin, McLaren and Williams as well as serving the works team, meaning that they make a minimum of 24 engines every year. This inevitably becomes more when teams end up needing more than three engines per driver depending on damage or reliability issues and, with inflation continuing to rise, the Silver Arrows will begin to lose money.

This is partly due to the fact that there is a cap of 12 million euros on how much a supplier can charge a customer. “Unfortunately, the business of leasing engines is not compelling and interesting because the FIA has put in a certain limit that you can charge to your customers, in order to protect the smaller teams,” Wolff told the Financial Times. The Austrian did not elaborate on which team Mercedes may decide to drop, but he affirms that he would like to downsize. “I’d rather have six [client cars], push the development further down the line and then make two engines less, because you need to produce two less plus two spares for every team,” added Wolff. “In an ideal world, I would maybe see us plus two [customers], so actually downsize a bit,”
 

F1 schism with FIA deepens after controversial decisions in Monaco

Formula One’s owners are understood to be deeply dissatisfied with the sport’s governing body the FIA. After another weekend where the FIA’s performance was publicly criticised at Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix, there are indications of an increasing schism between F1 and the FIA and in particular its new president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. Sources fear that the governing body is damaging the sport just as it is enjoying a surge in popularity. The FIA was criticised after Monaco when the race director, Eduardo Freitas, delayed the start because of rain. Lewis Hamilton was among several drivers who insisted they could have at least begun the race before the rain became too heavy and that the FIA was too conservative in its concern that the drivers had not done any wet running until that point. “I don’t know the reason for them not sending us out at the get-go,” he said. “We are Formula One drivers, [the weather] is not a good enough reason.”

The events were the latest in what is now a series of FIA decisions that is increasingly infuriating F1 and its teams. Ben Sulayem took over in December from Jean Todt and under his stewardship a fractious relationship with the sport has developed. He presided over the FIA failure to ban Russian drivers from competing in FIA events, allowing them to continue to race under a neutral flag, when F1 had acted swiftly and decisively to sever all ties with the Russian GP. The FIA was made to look farcical shortly afterwards when individual national racing bodies such as Britain’s Motorsport UK issued their own ban on Russian teams, competitors or officials participating in events in the UK. Equally the FIA report into the controversy of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was felt by many to be deeply unsatisfying and a failure to genuinely address what had happened at the race that cost Hamilton a likely eighth title.

More recently Ben Sulayem opposed the unanimous agreement by F1 and all the teams to increase the number of sprint races next year to six. His stance was known to have been received with considerable annoyance by both teams and F1. The recent clampdown on drivers not being allowed to wear jewellery under their race suits which has centred around Hamilton has resulted in very public stand off, with the driver refusing to remove his piercings. It is considered to be a pointless interference. Its enforcement is believed to be being pushed by Ben Sulayem. Hamilton refused to attend Ben Sulayem’s first FIA gala in December a decision for which the president said there would be “no forgiveness”.

In Miami Esteban Ocon was scathing in his assessment of the governing body after he and Carlos Sanz both suffered heavy crashes at turn 14 and endured bad neck pain. His requests that the concrete barrier be replaced by the more forgiving Tecpro material he said were ignored by the FIA, despite the Tecpro units being readily available. Fernando Alonso was equally damning of the FIA stewards after he received a penalty in Miami. “We believe that it was very unfair and it was just incompetence from the stewards, they were not very professional,” said Alonso on revealing that when he and his Alpine team went to present evidence to the stewards after the race they had packed up and were not even in the room.

This litany of poor publicity comes at a time when more people than ever are watching F1 and the sport wants to make it as accessible as possible with the focus very much on the track. Senior figures within F1 consider much of what the FIA has done as a needless distraction and are asking questions about whether the governing body’s role should be downsized, fully aware that the FIA is almost entirely reliant on the income it receives from F1.
 

Binotto wants ‘clarification’ after Ferrari’s failed protest

Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto has questions for the FIA after Max Verstappen “quite evidently” crossed the line at the pit exit in Monaco but escaped without penalty. Ferrari protested the Red Bulls after the Monaco Grand Prix, claiming both race winner Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen had crossed the line at the pit exit as they made their way back onto the track after pit-stops. The protest was dismissed by the stewards, with the reason being the wording of the race director’s notes did not fully align with the wording of the Sporting Code.

Binotto is perplexed.
Full video of Verstappen’s incident with the pit exit line.
Would you say this is a penalty? pic.twitter.com/pGG5I5lRqK
— Ferrari News (@FanaticsFerrari) May 29, 2022
“I would also like to ask the FIA for some clarification,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport. “Verstappen crossing the yellow line is quite evident. When this has happened in the past, a five-second penalty was awarded. We don’t understand the passivity shown today.” But while Red Bull’s 1-3 finish stood, Binotto conceded Ferrari have themselves to blame for losing the win.

Charles Leclerc had been cruising to the win, Carlos Sainz acting as a buffer between him and the Red Bulls, when Ferrari botched his strategy. They called him in for intermediate tyres and three laps later for slicks, the latter a double-stack that meant Leclerc fell to fourth place. The Italian team boss admitted mistakes were made.

Sunday’s result meant Verstappen extended his lead over Leclerc to nine points in the Drivers’ standings while Red Bull have a 36-point buffer over Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship. “It will serve as a lesson,” Binotto concluded. “We want to make up for it as soon as possible. We know the car is fine, the drivers are in good shape, but there are no smiles in the team – we are all disappointed. But without pointing the finger at anyone, this team wants to grow.”

“Leclerc’s disappointment,” Binotto said, “is also our disappointment. "When you start first and second and lose the race in this way, sorry, it means there was some error, basically. Charles is right. If a driver finishes fourth something didn’t work out. There is some choice to review.” He added: “We did something wrong, on at least a couple of occasions. We will analyse them. We underestimated the speed of the intermediate tyres. We should have stopped Charles a lap earlier or not stopped him at all. Leave him out, protect the position and send him directly on the dry tyres.”

[I don't understand the stewards decision when they claim "the race director’s notes did not fully align with the wording of the Sporting Code" (they can call it the sporting code but the FIA call them the sporting regulations. That is because regulations refer to sets of rules that have legal connotations and can't just be fucked about with by stewards). The sporting regulations are the rules and clearly override anything the race direct says. This rule is objective not subjective, it says clearly that dirvers exiting the pits must not cross the line, this was clarified in 2020 (iirc) where it was stated that drivers exiting the pits must stay to the right of the line. It is black and white surely]
 
Checo has his contract extended to 2024, he's earned it on his performance last season and this season.

 
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