F1 2024 - Round 3: Melbourne

Frank Bullitt

Alonso had a problem with his throttle, his team radio was all talk about it around the time of the crash.

They’ll have telemetry for it.

JeffKenna

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121932834#Comment_121932834

No joke - I fell asleep about lap twenty and dreamt that Gasly won. Very tight last lap with 3 cars racing, Alonso was one of them...can't remember the third.

klose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121916133#Comment_121916133

Nevermind

Widdensushi

Well done sainz,, proves how pointless our appendix is....

Burkie1203

20 sec penalty for Fernando

flazio

Alonso handed a 20 second penalty. Demoted to P8.

FIA president isn't there so the penalty will stick this time.

dulpit

This is probably the killer bit of info that caused Alonso to get the penalty... Aston Martin aren't appealing it, so that's that.

https://twitter.com/ChrisMedlandF1/status/1771823252404338861?t=YIRrL1t2RcgkbtKpkJ9o4A&s=19

LIGHTNING

And George that's why you will never be up there with the best. Far too many mistakes like this one.

Spudman_20000

Alonso doing himself no favours for a seat next year, always seems to have that streak in him. Hard to think of another driver who has burned more bridges. Lucky he didn't get DQ'd with that stunt.

quokula

Not as much wheel to wheel racing as the last few races but that’s always the case in Melbourne, still a decent enough race and great to see Sainz come back like that. He’d be comfortably leading the championship right now if not for the appendicitis, and when you take away the Verstappen factor it’s clear that the Red Bull is a good bit off the Ferrari and McLaren right now, depending on circuit characteristics.

I have absolutely no idea how Alonso got a penalty for going deliberately slowly when Magnussen didn’t (for this particular thing) in the last race. The only difference is that Kevin had more competent drivers behind him. Particularly when the stewards highlight the “high speed” nature of that point of the track which is laughable compared to the areas where Magnussen was doing it which were higher speed and also more closely surrounded by walls.

Itssoeasy

watched it a couple of hours after which meant I could fast forward to the actual race. The max retirement made it way more interesting. Great that sainz got the win when he can’t be fully fit. Him getting out of the car at the end showed he’s still sore. Rough day for the mercs. Hamiltons engine just cut out.

mun1

So Max started the race with the brakes on at lights out and still led into the first corner. That’s mad !

dulpit

Anyone see the clip of Russell's crash from the cockpit? Don't think I've ever heard legit fear in a driver's voice before...

dulpit

Oh wait, it's on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/CyZmmMiKxXU?si=-IzABtrBsifk2OYu

ctrl-alt-delete

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121933882#Comment_121933882

I thought they should have red flagged it at the time considering his position.

gifted

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121933885#Comment_121933885

Jesus...he a dramatic litte thing isnt he....

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121934074#Comment_121934074

He's in the middle of a fast part of the track and he can't safely get out of car. How else would you expect him to behave?

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121934051#Comment_121934051

I guess a red flag would have still had the cars needing to go past him at similar speeds to vsc?

JustAPoorDreamer

Just watching the highlights now. Oh thus is exciting abd such a surprise. Can not wait to see who wins. Go on Carlos.

JustAPoorDreamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121932863#Comment_121932863

Good delighted. Hope he gets 0 points.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121934268#Comment_121934268

Harsh much? 4th was decent for him anyway.

flazio

Re: Russell's crash. I was trying to find a video of a similar incident on it's own but no luck. So all I can do is direct you to 3:45 in this video to show you exactly why George Russell is panicking.

https://youtu.be/4Z80qFqqwuc?si=TZUTL-1w8tS2OZGA

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121934051#Comment_121934051

In the event of a red flag the cars all drive back to the pits anyway, so since it was already the last lap a VSC was effectively the same thing as a red flag from a safety point of view.

ctrl-alt-delete

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121935728#Comment_121935728

Suppose it is more the semantics of it.

We see VSC's for a wide range of incidents, whereas the red flag normally indicates something significant.

I suppose also in this day and age the steering wheel and communications means the other cars probably knew the situation.

cj maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121933882#Comment_121933882

I can understand why . Years ago I was in a car that rolled onto its roof just after a blind corner . Luckily it was a rally car so cages kept us safe . Still I got to F out as soon as I could

Captain_Crash

Tbf im normally the first to call Russell a little rat over the radio but on this instance you can hear the fear in his voice! Yeah a red flag wasn’t needed in the end as a VSC was called so cars were passing at the same rate they would have been but I’d hazard a guess that wasn’t in George’s thinking in those few moments!

robinwing

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121934074#Comment_121934074

Alex Zanardi , Lorenzo Bandini , Nikki Lauda to name but 3 F1 drivers who got hit and it didn't end well , you wouild sh*t yourself in the same situation , so would all of us

JustAPoorDreamer

https://youtu.be/JrYE391RVjo?si=pEqP_b_Chc5It2c_

This is very good. It's fhe detailed reason why Alonso got his penalty which considering it only cost him two points and 3 penalty was not really that bad. Maybe it should have been more considering he caused Russell to crash and end up in such a dangerous position on the track. I wonder will Alonso apologise to Russell at all.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121936576#Comment_121936576

Strongly disagree with this. The steward's own report states that Alonso lifted slightly and pressed the brakes so lightly that they weren't primarily what was slowing the car down. It also specifically puts the blame on Russell's crash on dirty air, not on the fact he had to take evasive action or anything (because he didn't). It also acknowledges that they had no evidence that the move was intended to cause Russell problems.

They basically boil it down to him taking the corner more slowly than the previous lap, which they consider "erratic" and "potentially dangerous" entirely because it was not as fast as he'd previously taken the corner and for no other real reason. The slow down was not extreme and Russell was not close enough to need to do anything to avoid him. There was some amount of mental gymnastics in the steward's report over the multiple paragraphs they used to try and justify their conclusion - if it was something against the rules like moving in the braking zone or weaving or actual brake testing it wouldn't have needed such a lengthy explanation to try and explain why they were applying a vaguely worded article in such a strange manner.

Russell crashed all on his own by misjudging the corner and the amount of downforce he had - that's on him not Alonso. Of course Alonso won't apologise given that it wasn't his fault, and the fact that Russell's mistake ended up leaving himself in a dangerous position is irrelevant to any penalty (even if Alonso did something wrong it would be irrelevant)

As Alonso himself has noted it's a perfectly valid defensive technique that drivers have used forever, taking a slower entry to protect themselves when exiting into the following straight. And if taking a corner more slowly than your ultimate pace is illegal now then where is Magnussen's 1,000 second penalty for the previous race?

To me this sets a dangerous precedent that nobody can drive defensively anymore as it implies it is erratic and dangerous to do anything other than the exact normal approach you would take when there are no other cars around.

Mitch Connor

They said braking wasn't the primary slow down. It was lifting off plus down shifting, which I think elwas also called out as unu in where he did it. Plus then accelerating again, and then braking again.