Reflections On France

So of course I’m not happy about the collision; on the one hand, Vettel had locked up, but on the other hand Bottas came down on him. The rules generally are inconsistent — does the driver on the racing line have priority, or does the other car have to give the passing car room? — but overall the five second penalty was nothing.

Vettel’s recovery drive wasn’t so special when you realize that A) he pretty much kept his gap to the leaders from the back of the grid to him making 5th and B) all it does is emphasize the advantage that the top six have over the rest of the field. Make no mistake, that’s better than some years when the top x cars was 2 cars or 4 cars, but this series isn’t as neck-and-neck competitive as some are.

Everyone seemed to be surprised by the number of passes that happened today. Long straights with tight turns at the end of them are a recipie for passing for these cars and one can only hope that either future tracks play more into that or the formula is more suitably adjusted to permit otherwise close racing.

“Glamorous” Monaco

One thing that was tossed off in passing during the pre-race show for Monaco this year was the comment that “Monaco was losing its shine as Formula One’s crown jewel event”. To me, this is a ridiculous thing to say — for one, I’ve been watching F1 since the late ‘90s and even back then there was commentary that F1 cars had no business winding their way through that narrow cattlepath. Subsequent changes to both the track and the formula have done absolutely nothing to improve this state of affairs, and in fact at the front of the pack today all the passes were done under pit conditions — and even with that there wasn’t any change in position one to five from the beginning of the race to the end.

If Monaco is “glamorous” it is only so for the participants — for those of us watching on TV around the world, it is a boring processional race and always has been.