中国大奖赛 (Chinese GP)

[Andy B]

With Ricciardo so close behind Max without whinging I cannot justify Max's problem! If the slower car in front was stopping him from passing I could understand it but it was not so I hope he's not going to spoil his exciting racing by whinging when he's struggling a bit.

[Monty]

According to Steve Matchett on NBC, you start to feel the wash around 1.3 to 1.6 seconds back. I think Max's real problem was that his tires were older or at least in worse condition than Romain's. He has a reputation for being hard on his tires when he is in full attack mode; which he was for most of this race.Whatever. It's not reasonable to expect Charlie to order a car to move over when you can't even get close to it. Just Max being the spoiled, entitled, immature child that he is.

Max was causing me another session of high blood pressure while shouting at the TV screen!! As said ^^^ the wash from cars is 'noticeable' at anything up to a 2second gap but mainly on very fast straights; not in corners, certainly not in a series of corners. Another fact is that two cars create more than twice the wash. Ricciardo was following Grosjean and Verstappen and keeping right on the tail of the whinging brat. I do not agree with all the praise being heaped on Verstappen, at best he was brave (bordering on reckless) and very lucky. The fact that he couldn't shake-off Ricciardo shows how equally matched they are. The reason that he got in front of Ricciardo earlier is because he chucked the car up the inside of Ricciardo knowing that Mr Nice Guy wouldn't shut the door. I think we are going to see him cause a lot more accidents this year but, even worse, I fear we are going to hear a lot more radio traffic with him whinging ("Hamilton is 40seconds ahead of me and he is causing me to get understeer - tell Charlie to get him to pull over....")

[Scott]

I'm with you Monty...MV is going to create more drama and danger than we need.  Both are good for F1, but not at the expense of the other drivers.

[Alianora La Canta]

According to Steve Matchett on NBC, you start to feel the wash around 1.3 to 1.6 seconds back. I think Max's real problem was that his tires were older or at least in worse condition than Romain's. He has a reputation for being hard on his tires when he is in full attack mode; which he was for most of this race.Whatever. It's not reasonable to expect Charlie to order a car to move over when you can't even get close to it. Just Max being the spoiled, entitled, immature child that he is.

I suppose it depends on the 'spirit' of the blue flag rules.  If a backmarker 1.6 seconds up the road really is interfering with a car trying to lap them, then it is a legitimate complaint.

On the other hand, if a blue flag is seen as a safety feature indicating a faster car you're not competing with is approaching so keep clear, then Max is just whining.

In F1, blue flags are supposed to be used when - and only when - a car is in lapping range, so that imminent lapping is allowed through without resistance, but the race is otherwise unaffected. Had the gap been, say, 1 second (DRS range), then a blue flag would have been legitimate. Beyond that, it doesn't matter how much backwash there is - if the following car cannot immediately overtake given a plausible level of co-operation from the car they are trying to lap, then there is no call for a blue flag.

In other series, blue flags are strictly advisory, so nobody is expected to artificially jump out of the way of another car.

I would also add that in all cases, marshals have absolute discretion to decide if a blue flag is legitimate or not (within the scope of any advice given in training - Herbie Blash does that job for F1 marshals nowadays). So if a marshal decides that two cars aren't close enough for a blue flag to reasonably enable a lapped move/be useful advice to the potentially-lapped driver, the marshal is perfectly free to give their wrist a rest until a more appropriate situation presents itself. And if a marshal thinks a blue flag is merited, nobody can gainsay it - even that time in 2001 that one Monaco marshal kept blue-flagging Enrique Bernoldi even though everyone else realised that David Coulthard was behind him on merit and had been for the previous 42 laps...

[John S]

I'm with you Monty...MV is going to create more drama and danger than we need.  Both are good for F1, but not at the expense of the other drivers.

My thoughts too.

Hell he even used his favoured trick of moving under braking to give the Honey Badger a real problem a few corners from the end of the race. Are we heading for Vettel over Webber team sanctioned bullying again or will Danny Ric start to make life as hard for Max as he makes it for him?   

[Scott]

Marko appears to love those who behave entitled, so I suspect he will continue to support MV and all his little tantrums and dangerous driving.

[Jericoke]

Marko appears to love those who behave entitled, so I suspect he will continue to support MV and all his little tantrums and dangerous driving.

So Vettel seems more mellow at Maranello because there's no reward for being a brat?  Certainly puts a different set of optics on his behaviour at RBR if he was encouraged to be the villain.

[Scott]

No, I think Vettel is not behaving like a spoiled brat because there is nobody around at Ferrari who would spoil him.  He's probably been yelled at a few times at Maranello.

[Dare]

Maybe Max has played too many F1 games growing up where there's no
consequences for reckless driving.

[Irisado]

It was a strange race.  It offered flickers of excitement, but it didn't all quite come together.  An impressive drive from Hamilton to beat Vettel.  Mercedes and Ferrari remain evenly matched, and while Red Bull did get that third spot on the podium, that was down to a lacklustre performance from Raikkonen and Bottas.

The rest of the finishing positions were decided by who could get their tyres working and who could not.  I was disappointed for Alonso, who should have finished in the points had his car not broken down, and for Giovinazzi, who I think has received too much criticism from some quarters.  The cars are harder to drive this year and need to be pushed harder in the races too, so the rookies will make more mistakes than during the 'cruise to protect the tyres' period, and he'd never seen the track before.  He has clearly got pace, so I hope he will return to Formula 1 in the near future.

[Andy B]

 "and for Giovinazzi, who I think has received too much criticism from some quarters."

I think the criticism was justified as he wrecked the car two days running and was his opportunity to shine and maybe put himself in the running for a more permanent roll but he blew it.

[Dare]

A crash in wet conditions can happen to anybody.He
probably blew a chance for a ride this year

[Andy B]

A crash in wet conditions can happen to anybody.He
probably blew a chance for a ride this year

You're right Dare it could but two days running and in the same place was abusing the privilege of getting the drive.

[Dare]

Maybe it's the Max Factor..Other up and coming drivers see being reckless has
rewards and figure let's go for it.

[Andy B]

Maybe it's the Max Factor..Other up and coming drivers see being reckless has
rewards and figure let's go for it.

That could very well be true although I doubt Sauber without a major sponsor would agree, does anyone know the cost of a front wing let alone the damage done on race day?