2023 F1 Support Races Thread - F2, F3, Academy *Spoilers*

[Sandpit Steve]

Petrus1983 said:

This will be an interesting 4 minutes of track time.

They’ve all been doing an out lap, prep lap and fast lap. Going to be close to the flag for a lot of them.

[Petrus1983]

Sandpit Steve said:

They’ve all been doing an out lap, prep lap and fast lap. Going to be close to the flag for a lot of them.

Harsh luck for Colapinto - and an expensive afternoon for others!

[Sandpit Steve]

Well that was sufficiently chaotic! Three cars in the wall at the end? Those doing just the one out lap benefitting from the madness.

[Sandpit Steve]

F2 qualifying in the rain is going to be fun.

[Sandpit Steve]

That’s harsh on Doohan, red flag just as he rounded the final corner. Bearman into the wall.

No times set, if they abandon the session they’ll go back to the practice session times.

[Sandpit Steve]

Well, we have a session, and the track is drying but not enough. 8m to go, and they’re coming in for new wet tyres for one last run.

[Sandpit Steve]

Martins into the wall. A handful of drivers improved their times, but that’s that.

[Petrus1983]

Sandpit Steve said:

Martins into the wall. A handful of drivers improved their times, but that’s that.

And he ends up starting 3rd.

[df76]

Petrus1983 said:

Sandpit Steve said:

Martins into the wall. A handful of drivers improved their times, but that’s that.

And he ends up starting 3rd.

Bit of a shame about the early end to qualifying, but fairly predictable I guess! You'd be upset if sat outside of the top 10.

[Catweazle]

It's like an ice rink out there.

[Sandpit Steve]

Looks like we might get a two lap sprint to end the F2 feature race.

[Sandpit Steve]

That was a great race to watch. Non-stop action from start to finish.

[JonChalk]

For all the things F1 does to improve the "show", the continued lack of action on drivers slow-queuing to get track position and tows makes an absolute fking mockery of "the show", as evidenced by F2 qualifying and the fact that without a tow, you'll be 2 secs off a towed time.

Fastest car & driver = fastest exult time.

Ditch group quali and do what numerous other race series do and do individual / shootout quali - that fastest = fastest and we don't get all the bks over slow out laps and stupid position jockeying.

[JonChalk]

Bearman with a bent car!

Just goes to show that the tow matters more than a car with the steering wheel pointing straight ...

[JonChalk]

A deserved win (& fastest lap) for Bearman - kept his head and managed tyres on restarts well, plus took his opportunity well.

[JonChalk]

Having successfully killed off W Series, FIA's replacement is seemingly designed to kill itself off as quickly as possible; there will be no live race broadcasts, even when supporting F1.

Highlights will "turn up" after the events - none yet from 3 races this weekend in Austria.

Way to go the FIA.... fkwits.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ChlGnrjr_E8

[vaud]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPK2Cj_BFP8

They have been up for 3 weeks, but I agree with your point.

Also no spectators...

[Sandpit Steve]

vaud said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPK2Cj_BFP8

They have been up for 3 weeks, but I agree with your point.

Also no spectators...

12m highlights of three races, and that’s all we will ever see of it. It’s a fundamental difference of focus.

The one thing that WS got right, was to get it in front of people, to encourage the next generation of girls into Karting.

F1 are throwing money at the Acadamy races themselves, which is great for those girls already in the funnel, but not encouraging the filling up of the future funnel. It’s a numbers game, and they need numbers. Big numbers.

The real key is what happens to the Acadamy graduates. Are F1 sponsoring the first few into Euro F3 next year?

There’s only one lady in FIA F3 at the moment, Sophia Floersch. She’s not the next lady F1 driver, and Jamie Chadwick isn’t either. There won’t be a lady F1 driver until there’s regularly a dozen FIA F3 drivers, and a handful of F2 drivers. That means feeding the funnel.

[vaud]

Sandpit Steve said:

12m highlights of three races, and that’s all we will ever see of it. It’s a fundamental difference of focus.

The one thing that WS got right, was to get it in front of people, to encourage the next generation of girls into Karting.

F1 are throwing money at the Acadamy races themselves, which is great for those girls already in the funnel, but not encouraging the filling up of the future funnel. It’s a numbers game, and they need numbers. Big numbers.

The real key is what happens to the Acadamy graduates. Are F1 sponsoring the first few into Euro F3 next year?

There’s only one lady in FIA F3 at the moment, Sophia Floersch. She’s not the next lady F1 driver, and Jamie Chadwick isn’t either. There won’t be a lady F1 driver until there’s regularly a dozen FIA F3 drivers, and a handful of F2 drivers. That means feeding the funnel.

Agreed. Shame they couldn't find some time at some of the F1 races for say a 20 min quali and 30 min race. I know there has to be buffers for TV schedules, etc but at least I could watch on NowTv.

[Sandpit Steve]

vaud said:

Agreed. Shame they couldn't find some time at some of the F1 races for say a 20 min quali and 30 min race. I know there has to be buffers for TV schedules, etc but at least I could watch on NowTv.

3x 30m races is good for seat time, which is really important at that stage. It’s just really annoying that very few young girls will be watching it. Even a couple of televised F1 support races, would make a massive difference. Only their last date of the season, in Austin, will be supporting F1.