The F1 thread

TimmyO

stickyfiddle said:

They must be *really* confident this is a good option because you'd never come up with it without data strongly telling you to. Those gills are definitely there for aero reasons. AND it's a proper Ferrari red and not the stupid PMI nonsense.

I really hope they can fight at the front this year. It's been too long.

As long as that fight is slightly behind the McLarens I'd be happy with that :-) 

Cols

Gazetta Della Sport are reporting that the axe will officially fall on Michael Masi today.

 (Link for those of you who can read Italian)

https://www.gazzetta.it/Formula-1/17-02-2022/f1-fia-cambia-direzione-gara-arriva-freitas-posto-masi_amp.shtml#moveAfter

stickyfiddle

Yep, Masi is gone

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/fia-removes-masi-announces-new-virtual-f1-race-control-system/8254024/

stickyfiddle

Full FIA statement:  https://www.fia.com/news/fia-president-mohammed-ben-sulayem-opens-way-new-step-forward-formula-1-refereeing

Firstly, to assist the race director in the decision-making process, a Virtual Race Control Room will be created. Alike the Video Assistance Referee (VAR) in football, it will be positioned in one of the FIA Offices as a backup outside the circuit. In real-time connection with the FIA F1 race director, it will help to apply the sporting regulations using the most modern technological tools.

Secondly, direct radio communications during the race, currently broadcast live by all TVs, will be removed in order to protect the race director from any pressure and allow him to take decisions peacefully. It will still be possible to ask questions to the race director, according to a well-defined and non-intrusive process.

Thirdly, unlapping procedures behind safety car will be reassessed by the F1 Sporting Advisory Committee and presented to the next F1 Commission prior to the start of the season.

And finally, I would like to inform you that a new race management team will be put in place starting in Barcelona for the test session.

Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas will act alternatively as Race Director, assisted by Herbie Blash as permanent senior advisor. Michael Masi, who accomplished a very challenging job for three years as Formula 1 race director following Charlie Whiting, will be offered a new position within the FIA.

Full vid statement: 

Exactly what they should be doing imo. I assume the rejig of unlapping will set the procedure in stone so everyone knows exactly what happens. Presumably: If track is cleared on Lap X, then all lapped cars to overtake on lap X+1, and SC in on lap X+2. Or maybe give them discretion to not let them unlap and have SC in on X+1. 

stickyfiddle

TimmyO said:

stickyfiddle said:

They must be *really* confident this is a good option because you'd never come up with it without data strongly telling you to. Those gills are definitely there for aero reasons. AND it's a proper Ferrari red and not the stupid PMI nonsense.

I really hope they can fight at the front this year. It's been too long.

As long as that fight is slightly behind the McLarens I'd be happy with that :-) 

If we can have both of them fighting with Merc for wins all year I'll be very happy. I wouldn't mind at all which of the 6 of them took the title, though I'd like Lewis to get one more.

Cols

FIA President’s statement:

” Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas will act alternatively as Race Director, assisted by Herbie Blash as permanent senior advisor. 

Michael Masi, who accomplished a very challenging job for three years as Formula 1 race director following Charlie Whiting, will be offered a new position within the FIA.”

stickyfiddle

Basically an admission that Masi fucked up massively, while it wasn't necessary his fault the position was cleared untenable and structural changes are needed. The Maxolytes will refuse to believe it though.

stickyfiddle

stickyfiddle said:

My god. It's full of stars...

But let's have some more Ferrari because the FIA have totally stolen thrower thunder!

Cols

Ferrari have taken an interesting approach with their nose design.

The main nose profile which runs down to attach to the wing is separate from the structural part of the nose, which is the part homologated for passing the mandatory FIA crash test.  This would give Ferrari considerable flexibility to rapidly introduce new aerodynamics to the front without having to undergo crash tests.

TimmyO

stickyfiddle said:

stickyfiddle said:

My god. It's full of stars...

But let's have some more Ferrari because the FIA have totally stolen thrower thunder!

That colour looks ace.

When this happens it usually means it doesn't show up well on TV and gets changed by race 4 :-) 

Fretwired

Masi “ Toto, this his is just not right!”

Toto “It’s called a P45 Michael”

HAL9000

"Secondly, direct radio communications during the race, currently broadcast live by all TVs, will be removed in order to protect the race director from any pressure and allow him to take decisions peacefully.

I understand the reasoning, but ultimately this is how we knew that things weren’t being done by the book isn’t it? Now any shenanigans/negotiations will be happening behind closed doors. I don’t see how this helps.

Cols

I believe this means the teams will no longer have a batphone for calling the race director directly.  If they want to raise anything they’ll have to talk to one of his lieutenants.

It’s a bit of a fig leaf for maintaining the defence that Masi’s errors were a result of constant hectoring by legions of team members while trying to direct the race.  In other words - “it was the fault of the teams, not ours”.

In any case, Masi’s not out of a job; he’ll be offered another position within the FIA.  Hopefully one which makes best use of his creative streak.

Haych

Cols said:

In any case, Masi’s not out of a job; he’ll be offered another position within the FIA.  Hopefully one which makes best use of his creative streak.

I reckon there will be a lot of people in the FIA needing tea and coffee quite regularly. 

danishbacon

Cols said:

It’s a bit of a fig leaf for maintaining the defence that Masi’s errors were a result of constant hectoring by legions of team members while trying to direct the race.  In other words - “it was the fault of the teams, not ours”.

In any case, Masi’s not out of a job; he’ll be offered another position within the FIA.  Hopefully one which makes best use of his creative streak.

Re; your first point quoted, I think indeed there was a big element of influence/social engineering happening from all sides of the paddock at, often high pressure and high stakes situations. One might say that the responsibility lies solely with the FIA for allowing it to happen in the first place but it's my understanding that there wasn't a written protocol for this kind of communication/that Charles Whiting would not allow it? As the saying goes, it takes two to tango. You can't, on one hand expect to be able to influence the call in one situation (earlier in the race was it not Toto begging Masi not to send out a SC?), I can easily see the guy being 'fair' and thinking he was simply throwing a bone to both sides at different times. Let's not forget, these guys are highly skilled negotiators and people people.


As for the second point, I think during the F2 cleanup after the grid crash, the race director showed his capacity to lead and attention to detail:

Boromedic

Ermmmm, the guy literally changed the rules of the safety car restart and how to deal with lapped cars, in effect deciding the winner of the race as he knew Lewis was a sitting duck on older tyres. There has never been a precedent set in the sport where this has happened before, so whatever his motives, Masi decided the winner.

This is an over reach of his authority and it's more artificial than anything else. To compare it to team leaders trying to influence the director is kinda ludicrous to me. The guy fixed the race and brought the sport into disrepute, how he was not fired or suspended before an enquiry is beyond me. 

danishbacon

Boromedic said:

Ermmmm, the guy literally changed the rules of the safety car restart and how to deal with lapped cars, in effect deciding the winner of the race as he knew Lewis was a sitting duck on older tyres. There has never been a precedent set in the sport where this has happened before, so whatever his motives, Masi decided the winner.

This is an over reach of his authority and it's more artificial than anything else. To compare it to team leaders trying to influence the director is kinda ludicrous to me. The guy fixed the race and brought the sport into disrepute, how he was not fired or suspended before an enquiry is beyond me. 

Absolutely. Agreed that it was an overreach and a change of rules. I didn't mean to imply that the fault lied predominantly with the team leaders. What I am saying is, a couple of forces on either side pushing against something malleable might eventually get it to give in. It's not a comparison or weighting of who did worse. Nothing happened in isolation and one might even look at the entire last half of the season for examples of where what team got treated with an advantage over the other. Rules were not clear and not implemented fairly every time. The buck stops with the FIA and Masi.





I think the FIA are right to put a protocol in place to try and neutralise race-control a bit more.

Boromedic

I think that decisions fell mostly on the side of RB and Max over the course of the season, with a few landing on others sides on occasion. The FIA willingly trying to exert influence over the show after years of Merc dominance, last season will always have a cloud of doubt over it for me. 

Emiel

The new Merc looks by far the most complex one so far (not unsurprisingly). Extremely narrow bodywork round the engine. The Aston Martin and McLaren, while sporting the same engine, look incredibly bulky there in comparison.

markr76

Emiel said:

The new Merc looks by far the most complex one so far (not unsurprisingly). Extremely narrow bodywork round the engine. The Aston Martin and McLaren, while sporting the same engine, look incredibly bulky there in comparison.

It’s nice seeing the car built. I saw it in bits and partly assembled earlier in the week. But we had a teams event earlier at 0830. So it was the first time I saw it also. Including the livery. All I knew was it would be silver again.