2022 French Grand Prix

FLRacingFan

FLRacingFan

Team Owner
Joined
Feb 9, 2013
Messages
39,791
Points
1,033
Location
Florida
Quite likely the last French GP for the foreseeable future, at least at Paul Ricard.



 
Leclerc takes pole again, alongside Verstappen. Sainz has arguably been quicker this weekend but has to start at the back after taking a fourth PU. Magnussen made Q3 again but also took a fourth PU.
 
Paul Ricard is usually a race where you hold your nose for two hours. It's flat, featureless, boring, and usually a waste of time. However, this entire season has been such a dog fight that maybe the new cars can put on a good race here too.

Disappointed Mercedes has apparently not closed the gap any. They seem stuck at 0.5 to 0.75 seconds back.
 
As aesthetically poor and nauseating as the track is, I think it would be regarded better if it just had grass or even turf on the borders of the track. It races okay, certainly not the best but certainly not the worst. But it’s donezo before long anyways. Too bad, France deserves a GP. They should just give them all an extra PU and run the full Le Mans circuit and see who doesn’t grenade the car. Now that’d be fun.
 
FLRacingFan said:
As aesthetically poor and nauseating as the track is, I think it would be regarded better if it just had grass or even turf on the borders of the track. It races okay, certainly not the best but certainly not the worst. But it’s donezo before long anyways. Too bad, France deserves a GP. They should just give them all an extra PU and run the full Le Mans circuit and see who doesn’t grenade the car. Now that’d be fun.
Click to expand...
Paul Ricard was build in the 70s as one of the safest race tracks in the world. Back than it was one of the few tracks that had gravel traps.

It was reconfigured as a "high tech test track" in the 2000s, which is why there are so many different layouts and these gigantic tarmac/wolfram runoff areas.
I guess it makes sense for a test track but doesn't look great for an F1 race track.

I wonder what's gonna be the over/under for track limit warnings tomorrow?
 
FLRacingFan said:
As aesthetically poor and nauseating as the track is, I think it would be regarded better if it just had grass or even turf on the borders of the track. Too bad, France deserves a GP.
Click to expand...
Magny Cours is another flat and featureless place. I don't know that there is a decent track left in France except maybe Dijon.
 
Doc Austin said:
Magny Cours is another flat and featureless place. I don't know that there is a decent track left in France except maybe Dijon.
Click to expand...
Agreed, I don’t think anyone wants to go back to Magny Cours. A return to Dijon would be nice, but I’m not sure how much work it needs to become Grade 1. A Le Mans race probably isn’t realistic unless they make the Bugatti circuit better somehow.

They’ve discussed a Nice street race this year, but that sounds more like a bargaining chip against Monaco than anything else.
 
I'm glad F1 is leaving this track.... I cannot believe they still let them race here with the HUGE gaps in the backstretch wall where a car could easily collide head-on into a barrier at 200mph+. You can see one example here-

1658604183746.png
 
Red Bull is walking away with this championship because they got everything right. It's just a bonus for them that everyone else has it so wrong.
 
Congrats to Max, and shout-out to Lewis and George Russell on their podium finishes. Russell caught Perez sleeping on that restart. That was slick.

That was a really weird race. I dozed off for a minute as my BP medicine kicked in and was jolted awake by Crofty shouting about Charles sitting against the wall. Then Ferrari inexplicably decided to pit my man Sainz out of third place with just a handful of laps to go. I was like

what-are-we-doing-whats-going-on.gif


I'm not sure what happened with Charles, but man, Sainz got robbed of a potential podium finish. I've been rooting for him for all of maybe two or three weeks and am already tired of his team's silly decisions.
 
I don’t know how many more ways you can describe Ferrari’s evergreen troubles. No clutch gene. No one who’s got “that dawg in him”. Great car, questionable reliability, poor pit stops, poor strategy, unforced driver errors. More often than not they can take a perfectly good car and bottle a great result. Frustrating to watch year after year. Everyone who drives for them seems borderline emo by the time their tenure ends.

Definitely can think of many tracks this venue should stay ahead of. Signes is a great high-commitment corner and the whole last sector has flowing corners where you can take different lines. I guess you just can’t get enough gaudy street courses and Middle Eastern tracks with 15,000 fans.
 
West said:
I hate this track, every part of it looks like the rest of it.
Click to expand...
and here I thought I was the only one. Glad to see there
are a few others. The history of the track is more interesting
than the racing the track produces. I wont miss this place
if its scratched.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom