Giovinazzi hopes to end âterribly unluckyâ run after tear-off wrecks Imola race
Antonio Giovinazzi is hoping for a change in fortune this weekend after an errant helmet tear-off cost him a points finish at Imola.
Alfa Romeoâs new reserve driver Ilott to run in Friday practice
Callum Ilott will make his first of several appearances in a practice session for Alfa Romeo at this weekendâs Portuguese Grand Prix.
âQ3 tyre ruleâ will be dropped for Sprint Qualifying race weekends
Formula 1âs official tyre supplier Pirelli has revealed further details of how the sportâs new Sprint Qualifying regulations will work.
âHumbleâ Seidl unlocking potential in McLarenâs staff â Brown
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown says he is impressed by the team principal Andreas Seidlâs performance in the role as the team continued their recent gains into 2021.
Portimao adds second DRS zone on back straight
A second DRS zone has been added to Autodromo do Algarve for this weekendâs Portuguese Grand Prix.
Official:
Canadian GP cancelled, F1 will race at Istanbul instead
Formula 1 has confirmed the Canadian Grand Prix has been cancelled for a second season as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic.
@zia1288
Bhai, sprint races is a stupid idea as it will not change any thing rather it will destroy what little bit of excitement we have currently in the normal GP races. The reasons are so many that I can't even describe them in simple words as it includes:
Rules for Sprint races
Parc Ferme Conditions
Engine usage
Tyres Allocations
Point Awarding
Crash Damage Fear
Qualifying Session Timing
So, lets see what are the details for each of these reasons.
Rules for Sprint Races:
Sprint Races will be held on a trial base for 3 GPs this season which are Silverstone, Monza and most probably Brazil. The races will be held with a distance of 100 Kms which will be close to 17 or 18 laps for both Silverstone and Monza while Brazil will have 23 or 24 laps. These races will decide the grid for the main race i.e. British GP, Italian GP and Brazilian GP respectively.
During these laps the teams will gather enough live race data that their strategy for the main race could become foolproof as they already know which tyres work for how long and what is degradation on each of them. This could easily led to a processional main GP race which is a bad thing for the fans also, as these races will set the grid for the main race the fastest car will be at the front and the slowest car will be at the back which means chances of overtaking during the races will be minimum as cars are sorted on their race pace and not one lap pace.
Parc Ferme Conditions
These are rules which comes into effect from the start of qualifying session and these rules prohibit major changes on the F1 cars by any team without taking a penalty. As the qualifying session for Sprint races will be held on the evening of Friday after the first practice session, the parc ferme conditions will be in effect from then and the second practice session will be run with cars under parc ferme condition, so any problem could led to a penalty which will hamper the teams and drivers in the sprint race and also in the main race.
Engine usage
Teams are allowed 3 Power Units per season without any penalty, so they de tune their power units to increase their life but with sprint races they have to use them for another 100 km with max power and it could hurt their power unit as any failure would increase the chance of penalty in the future.
Tyres Allocation
Sprint races will be using the same tyres allocation that a normal race weekend is using, which is 13 sets dry and 7 sets of wet for each car. But this allocation means that teams will be gaining the maximum data on tyre behavior during the racing conditions in the 100 km sprint race and using that data for the main race to have best strategy for themselves which in return will remove the excitement factor of having 1 or 2 pitstops strategy decision from the main GP race.
Point Awarding
These races are point carrying races and the winner of these races will get championship points which make these a headache for the teams as slightest mistake could hurt their championship standings and this will result in a boring race to avoid getting caught in some unfortunate situation.
Crash damage fear
Just like Point awarding and Engine Usage this will also play a huge role in the outcome of these races as teams like Mercedes and RedBull will try to avoid getting involved in a serious crash damage situation which could hurt their championships battle. The same will be for the midfield and back markers teams too especially back marker teams who are low on cash and would not want to get a huge repair bill with no gain to show.
Qualifying Session Timing
This is the thing which will effect us viewers more then the teams as the difference in broadcasting time will led to less viewers for the qualifying session on friday then their is on saturday. In qualifying lower mid field and back marker teams get a bit more broadcasting time then they get during the race, and this helps them show their sponsors to viewers who are watching it on Saturday but when the session will be held on Friday their will be less viewers and the sponsors on these cars will get less exposure then normal.
