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4 different winners after 8 races. That didn't seem very likely after pre-season testing.

Max's bid for the title doesn't seem to be in question. But the constructor's title is under threat for Red Bull. That might be an interesting battle until the end of the season.

This was the worst result for Red Bull since their double retirement in the first race of 2022.

This is one of the worst stewards decisions for a long time.

Meanwhile at the 2002 Malaysian GP, Montoya got a drive through for "taking out" Schmacher

Also BAR got 2 race ban for that illegal fuel tank in 2005 when a DQ would have been sufficient.

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2012: An Exciting end to the race ruined by a red flag and the ability for a free tyre change

2024: An exciting whole race ruined by a red flag and the ability for a free tyre change

Sadly though I can't see a solution, any crash that's big enough to bring out a red will probably shed debris all over the track, so they all will have to change their tyres for safety reasons

Compettive races come second to sending them all out with punctures because we want to see an exciting race

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RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

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You know they have enough time between during the red flag to check the pressures and examine the tyres for damage? Today's red flag was more than 30 minutes.

My opinion, unless there is force majeure (i.e. a puncture or damage), that is the only reason to change tyres, and you can only change the tyre that's damaged (not all 4).

If your tyres are 60 laps old with 15 laps to go, you can't complain about them being unsafe during a red flag period if you were going to run them for the rest of the race anyway.

Change the red flag rules so instead of going to the grid on a restart from a red, have a rolling start, but allow 1 lap for them to go past the pits and give everyone an opportunity to change tyres.

How about a 3-5 place grid drop if you change tyres during a red flag. That dangles a bit of a carrot. Depending on the track and tyre age that could entice people to stay on the same set, whilst others will go for it.

Or a more raddical idea. The people that change tyres line up behind those that don't. So if Albon and Ricciardo in 11th and 12th don't change tyres with 15 laps to go and all those ahead do, then they have to start behind them. Albon and Ricciardo effectivley start from the front row at the restart.

A lot of drivers share our opinion in the post-race interviews. They hated having to go slowly, they hated not having strategy to try something. Apart from Charles, everyone seemed to have a miserable time, luke-warm at best.

I know a lot of people will disagree with this, but bring back refuelling.

People say that it only leads to overtaking during pitstops. But is that any worse than predictable and boring DRS "passes"? My best memories come from pit strategies, like this when Häkkinen took the lead from The Michael after pitting simultaneously in Barcelona 2000. And about the danger: I don't think a couple of loose nozzles and small fires were ever such a big danger. They have fire-proof overalls after all.

I for one was never against refuelling. The argument against it was that all the teams converged on stratergy and raced till the first pit stop.........so kind of like now with the "undercut"? It adds another variant where things could go wrong and actually opens up more of a possibility where teams could go for a three stopper. Would a balls to the wall 10 lap stint on hards be faster than a 25 lap stint on mediums? Bring it back I say. We have had a decade and a half of essentially the same racing anyway.

The racing in the refueling time really weren´t much better. Bringing that back won´t fix the problems.

There's also the added hassle of having to haul the race-refuelling rigs all around the world.

And the money spent on them would be better used in making improvements to the car. Cost cap remember.

Just ban tire changes under red. Lead them out behind the safety car after the red flag. If anyone thinks they have a puncture they can come straight back in.

Agreed, and maybe for certain races which are known to be a process, force teams to use all 3 compounds of tires.

Nothing wrong with that, as they can't compromise safety. But a simple tweak is, if you're changing tires under red, then it has to be with an identical compound.

I've been watching old races season reviews for a while, always alternating one 90's/early 2000's to one from 2010's and is quite funny because most of the races in the refuelling era had only the pit stops on the highlights and an occasional crash/failure

but I guess the main key element yesterday was having to nurse the tires and by doing that the chance of reliability issues or crashes were minimal

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Been advocating for that ever since the 2011 red flag ruined the best grand prix race ever.

That's a good observation because IIRC Stroll's puncture and Sargeant's impact with the wall only happened after they pitted for fresh tires and actually started pushing.

Refuelling is such a bad idea and literally the worst reaction to a dull race you could think of

At least now (some) races like Imola and Miami build to a climax with cars on fresher tyres towards the end of a race burning off more fuel and getting racier, back then it was all over at the final stops then the drivers were straight into conservation mode.
And don't tell me races were more flat out back then, that's a huge fallacy.
It was try hard on the first lap to make places (though the lack of overtaking oppurtunities meant this lead to more first turn accidents as drivers were more desperate) then immediately go into fuel saving mode to try and eek out an extra lap or two over your opponent

Then when your rival pits, 2 qualifying laps flat out to try and overcut them, then back into fuel saving mode when the stops are over
Basically the only action was cars 30+ seconds apart on track hotlapping. Not what I want to see in a race tbh

Another factor why it was poor was it completely took tyres out of the equation.
Fresh tyres? High fuel load
Lower fuel load for pushing? Destroyed tyres from carrying around the heavier fuel load means you can't race

Also Pit stops under 2 seconds are just cool as hell to watch, 8/9 seconds while they refuel, not so much

Refueling was sold on the sport with the idea that each team might pick a different strategy with some trying to go 1 stop, others 2 or 3 and the overtaking that would bring between different cars with different fuel weights.
Didn't happen, everyone worked out the optimal strategy and did the exact same thing
(And, I'd argue, a light 3 stopping car passing a heavy 1 stopping car is just as artificial as a DRS overtake as the heavier car wouldn't be able to defend at all)

If you want to see refueling then Indycar still runs with it, and it blights 60/70% of their races as their much racier machines are run around lifting off trying to save fuel.
Luckily they get more caution periods over there, so the races that see the fuel strategies thrown out due to caution periods at the wrong time end up being barnstormers (Like Indy just gone......no need to fuel save there!)

Basically it's a massive overreaction because of a unique circumstance that happened at the worlds worst racetrack for overtaking at the best of times, lets not consign us to dull races every single time just because of one bad race at a terrible track.

Just install sprinkers or something. Job done

_________________
RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley