Post by WillsyPost by ~misfit~Post by Dan the ManPost by larkimI'm all for drivers showing their abilities in different weather conditions, but when it's a lottery in terms of changing weather, safety car deployment times, micro-errors which either result in a DNF or no issue at all, etc etc it doesn't really inspire me in relation to F1.
Yes, it's breathless and keeps you glued to watching, but it's like a tabloid version of F1.
A full wet race, start to finish, or even a wet start with a drying line that remains so to the end of the race, shows off a driver's skills in terms of being able to cope with mixed conditions, but when the timing of whether you are on the right tyres or not is so highly dependent on a myriad of safety car deployments etc, it just overall leaves me cold.
Am I the only one?
Well, it wasn't the usual Merc parade ... but it was true that the best car didn't win.
That's why I didn't enjoy it, it was TOO much of a lottery. That dragstrip skid pad just off the
track on a corner - who thought that was a good idea at a track where the last two F1 races have
been wet?
What's the issue? All you have to do is not put your wheels on the wet patch.
Bottas and Hamilton didn't manage to do that. Kvyat (presumably learning from
their mistakes, and others that made the same error on that part of the track)
did.
A wet race forces you to change your driving style, which is why it's such
a lottery - some of the fast (dry) drivers will not be so good in the wet,
or perhaps they'll push just a little bit too much (e.g. Vettel last year at
the same track, who is a great wet driver but pushed just a little too much).
Also, the pit crews really get tested and it makes for a very interesting
afternoon indeed.
I say stick sprinklers on certain parts of every track and let the fun ensue!
:-)
I have no issue with a wet race, or a wet race drying throughout.
It was the inconsistency on Sunday that turned me off a little, especially
combined with SC timings, which meant that some drivers were genuinely
lucky with their final position.
Others have only themselves to blame (e.g. Hamilton, Bottas, Leclerc) and
should be expected to do better than they did in those conditions, and
demonstrate their skills at driving a car in less than ideal circumstances
I'm not going to say that it wasn't exciting - it was, undoubtedly.
But it was more akin to a football cup final being won by a goal scored
by a freak gust of wind blowing the ball in, or a Tour de France result
being settled due to a freak hailstorm and mud-slide ;-)
I want sporting events be solely decided on sporting grounds, not
fortuitous timings.
Verstappen deserved the win for a conservative drive benefitting from some
good timing, some luck and his main competitor leaving the track. Nothing
wrong with most of that.
But if every event had the same climate conditions and safety car occurences
it wouldn't give legitimacy to whoever won overall as being the best driver
and car combination; it would be who could throw a dice and get six most
often.