By far the best F1 race of the season was seen on Sunday.
There was no cheering either until birthday hero Esteban Ocon’s rotten Alpine forced the jury to resort to a virtual safety car in round 43.
At the same time, the Mersu drivers dived into the pit to get new tires.
After that, there were 18 rounds of full drama. The Silver Arrows started clocking lap times two seconds faster than Carlos Sainz, who slowed down in the lead. Besides that, everyone had to be excited about what McLaren’s Lando Norris would come up with.
The fight just culminated in Norris and Russell’s twist.
– I’m speechless. Behind is the extreme physical strain, where it was difficult to maintain concentration. Carlos did a great job driving so slowly that we couldn’t resort to an alternative strategy, George Russell admitted for Sky Sports.
– The race victory was about half a car’s length away. If I could have passed Norris when I had the chance, I certainly would have been able to pass Carlos as well.
Jossing is the salt of sport. Russell crashed his Mersun into the Marina Bay security fence and left the city-state without points.
Max Verstappen, who drove all night throughout the weekend, rose to fifth thanks to the crash, and is once again one step closer to one of the most dominant world championships in F1 history.
Formula One has suffered from the boredom of Red Bull’s dominance this season. The number of viewers of the games has collapsed, especially in the sport’s dominant areas in Germany and Britain, because there is no more exciting track combat.
Exactly what Russell and Norris offered us on Sunday.
The story continues after the picture
Carlos Sainz served up an excellent F1 show with his slowdown. PDO
Now both the commercial rights holder Liberty Media and the official host of the series, Fia, are feverishly thinking about how F1 could guarantee a replay of the last half hour in Singapore.
The key word here is precisely Red Bull and keeping it out of the top brass.
In Singapore, the biggest credit for that goes to the team itself, because it obviously hadn’t done its homework properly. The RB19 skated on the track, and at no point during the weekend did its tires bite into the asphalt.
And when the engineers fixed one problem, somewhere else another even worse one appeared.
– You can’t drive this, Verstappen already cursed on Saturday.
Red Bull’s simulators had not revealed how much more grip the new part of the track had. At the same time, the team had to raise the ride height of the RB19 exceptionally high due to the bouncy of the street track.
The end result was a horrible hybrid that didn’t work under any circumstances. The situation would be different if the Singapore GP was run again next weekend. Now also Red Bull could adjust their cars much better.
At this point, the institutions of two different sports cultures also collide. In America (Liberty Media) it is common to try to curb the superiority of the winners. Based on it, for example, the salary caps and reservation systems of the ball leagues have been born, which from European (Fia) from a point of view appear as a restriction of free competition.
Red Bull will probably secure the manufacturers’ world championship this coming weekend, so it will also get the biggest slice of the season’s prize money.
At the same time, its superiority has guaranteed it complete peace of mind around the car of 2024. It is very likely that its dominance will not end until a complete overhaul of the rules in 2026 – if even then.
In theory, the umbrella organization could plan rule changes, the purpose of which would only be to slow down the pace of the leading team. History remembers, for example, the superiority of Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost at the wheel of Williams (1992–1993).
It ended with the umbrella organization’s policy banning the active suspension developed by Williams.
The story continues after the picture
Michael Schumacher’s championship streak ended with Bridgestone’s defeat in the tire war. PDO
Michael Schumacher’s winning streak was ended by a rather stupid and dangerous rule change. In the 2005 games, it was no longer allowed to change tires, which hit Ferrari, who was driving on Bridgestone, particularly hard.
The Japanese brand did not know how to make tires as durable as Michelin. Fernando Alonso thanked and celebrated his first world championship.
Mersu’s dominance ended with a rule change that regulated the downforce produced by the bottom plate.
– The 2020 car is the best we’ve ever had. Towards the end of the season, the rules changed regarding base plate cuts, and they were only meant to stop usToto Wolff recalled last week.
– At that time, the goal of the rule change was only to modify the power relations on the track.
There is an alternative this time as well. Indeed, some F1 experts suspect that Red Bull is not confiscating its entire speed reserve from its car at the moment either.
By keeping the games even seemingly even, it tries to avoid being the eyesore of the umbrella organization.
The story continues after the picture
Mersu boss Toto Wolff reminded in Singapore that Silver Arrow’s reign was also ended by a cabinet decision. PDO
On Sunday, the team’s tactics went awry at the very beginning. Thanks to Logan Sargeant’s driving mistake, the safety car that came onto the track came far too early for Red Bull.
Because of that, Verstappen finally had to come to the pits, even though the race laps were running at full speed.
He lost about 28 seconds compared to the optimal tactics.
Checkered flag winner Carlos Sainz the lead over the Dutchman was 21.4 seconds long.