F1 2022-Round 12: France

He was likeable the first year and a bit. Then he started buying into his own hype and began to gradually become an arsè

I backed a merc double podium on Wednesday.

Russel gone down slightly in estimation, I thought that was a very immature move into the chicane and then to start on about it over the radio as if it was Perez in the wrong.

Ferrari, there are no words.

Once again, the time penalties for causing an incident are a joke.

Stroll is an absolute pig.

Silly questions for sky as usual "does it feel like a normal win or does it feel slightly less when you know that your main competitor wasn't there battling with you right to the end?" Cast your minds back lads, Jesus christ.....

It turns out there’s a pretty good excuse for the restart as the FIA have admitted there was an error in the VSC system which gave incorrect information, he was told it was ending at one corner and sped up out of that before the ending changed to a different corner so he had to slow right back down at which point it ended while his momentum was in completely the wrong direction.

Russell (and everyone) did get the wrong information too, but depending on where on the track they happened to be at the time it incorrectly ended some suffered worse than others. I did notice some changes in gaps through the field from that safety car.

So Perez will have reason to feel robbed there, doubly so with the way Russell had earlier pushed him off the track and then repeatedly went outside track limits himself while defending.

He should never have really been in among the Mercedes to begin with though, his pace was very poor relative to Max this weekend.

Only of Checos quick reaction from Russells stupid lunge he could easily ended up with another hole in the side of the car like in Austria

Usually when VSC is ending the drivers are given a 10-15 second warning. When watching it live it seemed like an absolute age before the green flag came out.

Yeah was clarified in one of the interviews that LeClerc couldn't get the car into reverse after he hit the wall because he felt the throttle wouldn't fully release.

The crash was on him

I wonder was he doing something on the wheel, he seems very wide and very slow.

Gutted for Leclerc, Max will be very hard to catch if he wasnt already.

Sainz had a great drive today, shame the tyre's or that strategy messed up his race.

I wonder if there is any truth in the rumour that Perez is running a new floor that will be legal in Spa, whereas Verstappen still has the old flexy one? Perez form has mysteriously dipped and he was well off Max's pace this weekend.

Really want Leclerc to win a WDC but I think Max has had it wrapped up for a number of weeks now. He's shown a level of consistency the past 3 years that wouldn't have given me any hope for Leclerc even before today. Barring something competely unforseen he's going to win the title by over a ton. I think the excitement in the rest of the season is essentially just watching Ferrari. They're always exciting to watch, except of course, if you're a fan of team. I think it'll also be interesting to see if Lewis can win a race to keep his streak going.

The whole Ferrari situation is just baffling though. Across other sports we see similarly mismanaged teams, but there is generally some sort of warped logic that they seem to be applying. With Ferrari there just seems to be none. It has to be highly embarrassing at this stage and tbh, Binotto should be getting his marching orders over the summer break. He's the man ultimately responsible and there doesn't even seem to be a gradual improvement in their race strategy. It's in stark contrast to their main rivals RB who seem to absolutely nail their strategy week in week out.

Max is pretty much at the stage where he doesn’t need to win any more races to secure the championship, unless RBs reliability problems come back in a major way the title is done and dusted, which is a shame.

When everything works, Ferrari have a beast of a car and 2 excellent drivers, so it’s crazy that we’re just about at the summer break and they’re all but out of it. I cannot understand how their strategists are routinely so bad.

You’d feel for Leclerc too, he had a genuine chance of competing this year. Would expect Mercedes to be right back in it too next year so he may never have a better chance.

The replay I saw from Russell's onboard didn't really show it like that though, Russell had slowed early in the VSC then tried to get the jump on Perez but the VSC didn't end and Russell had to slow down again. When the green flag eventually was shown Russell reacted well but Perez was way off line and looked very slow to react.

I would argue Ferrari was more competitive against Mercedes in 2017 and 2018 than it is now against Red Bull. The car is less reliable too.

And in reality, neither was actually competitive because some aspects of the team are fatally flawed in both periods

I think it needs to be at least a 10 second stop go penalty, Russell took Checo out of the race in Austria but Russell still finished 4th and the same with Ocon taking out Tsunoda yesterday. A 5 second penalty just isn't enough

Maybe make them take the penalty the following lap or something rather than let them gain time before taking the penalty. I don't know but the penalties need to be harsher for ending another drivers race

Is LeClerc *a bit* like Massa, can be very quick but always the risk of binning it, Think Charles is much much better than Massa but its a similar driving style? When young drivers come in and have mega pace but then crash a lot, you think they are still learning the ropes and with more experience they will keep the speed and iron out the crashes. Massa was always quick, but had a lot of race ending crashes and was too wild with other drivers. Dont think he ever really went past this phase.

Charles needs to start learning the risks not to take, not always driving over the limit and keep the pace without the accidents if he ever wants to be WC.

--------------

Great race from Sainz, Russell and Alonso. Sainz is showing amazing racecraft and is being let down by the team ( >unsafe release).

Russell had a punchy race and mugged a podium off Perez. I didn't like the "I'm totally innocent" radio chatter from him in the last two races tho' First the " Nothing I could do he (Perez) just turned into me" in Austria... Mate you were on the inside and u let your car wash out that it tagged Perez as he was going past u on the outside (Russell rightly got penalty for this) and then France goes for a super lunge up the inside and only just made it less than half way alongside Perez before contact and he wants Perez to give him the place!!!! DUDE u never even made it halfway alongside, then u hit Checo and u want him to give u the place DREAM ON!!!! Think his team were right to tell him u were not past Perez, get your head down and pass him legit on track. He must be picking up Hamilton's bad habits. 😁

Perez has 163 points this season

Red bull lead the constructors by 82

I'd say Red Bull are very happy with Checo, does enough to get them into a great position in the constructors and to help max, doesn't do quite enough to challenge max.

Yeah it's a pity it's working out this way. Ferrari are such a terrible team given the resources they have.

But the car is generally very competitive and Leclerc is a top driver so we could have some really good individual races this season with good battles for the lead. They just won't really matter to the result of the championship.

Not defending Ferrari but the two big mistakes last weekend were driver errors. Sainz left the pit when the light was still red and LeClerc admitted his mistake during the race.

I disagree. Sainz started on hards, lap 18 was too early to switch to medium. IMO he should have stayed out and gained track position. Likely that the Mercs, Norris and Alonso would have got past him again on track but the Ferrari is strong enough to defend to such an extent that he could have worn out their tyres in the effort of getting past him. Pit for mediums later and just steam roll them to the podium.

Surprised no-one picked up on this on the day.

I noticed at the time,

A bit sad considering we have our own Silver arrows with a very similar name,

Go Luas!

I still find it crazy when I think about Ferrari. Take out Schumachers 5 years of dominance, and they have only won 1 title since 1979. Granted they have mostly been there or thereabouts in more recent years, but its not exactly a measure of success.