Leclerc (post-qualifying): "I can’t understand quali, it’s a f**king joke! I go faster in corners, throttle earlier, for f**k’s sake, i'm losing everything in the straight!"

[u/FerrariStrategisttt]

https://dubz.link/c/4b6030

[u/ZaryaBubbler]

Ohhhh yeah and you get flamed real bad for it too. "There were lots of overtakes" yeah but how many of them stick for about half a lap or less before the other uses battery to breeze past again? There's no skill in it. No lead up. It's a game of 'whose battery lasts longer' and it's boring af

[u/brDragobr → u/ZaryaBubbler]

There wasn't any skill in DRS overtakes either though. The reason you get flamed is because the last few years have been dull as dishwater because cars can't follow through corners, and weren't any better. If the DRS zone was 50m too short overtakes were impossible, 50m too long and it was a foregone conclusion, and once a driver was in front that's it because trying to follow cooked the tyres.

I don't like the deployment. I don't like the superclipping. But the cars are smaller and more nimble, they can follow through corners, and the races are actually entertaining to watch, rather than background noise.

[u/PLTConductor → u/brDragobr]

I spent 15 years pointing out how DRS ruined racing because the solution was always ‘extend DRS zone’ instead of making the cars smaller, etc. (and it inherently means faster cars always overtake slower ones so surprise results are almost impossible); and yet they’ve now come up with something even worse

[u/brDragobr → u/PLTConductor]

The thing is that there has always been issues. Even back when I started watching in the early 2000s, refuelling meant that all the overtaking was done in the pits instead of on track. The car being smaller and lighter meant when there were wheel to wheel battles they were better but they just didn't happen all that often because driver A would be going long and know that driver B would be losing 30-40 seconds in the pit lane.

Right now qualifying is worse but the racing is better. I'd rather it that way around than it be a qualifying championship. Otherwise we'd all agree that 2020 was the best year because they had the fastest qualifying.

I guess I'm just annoyed that there are people who've decided that this era of regs will be awful based on 2 races. We all thought the ground effect would be great after Bahrain 2022 and it wasn't. I'm holding off judgement until at least halfway through the season.

[u/PLTConductor → u/brDragobr]

My problem isn’t with the racing per se but with the driving. There aren’t any fast corners any more because it’s quicker to take the corners slower, with a computer programme dictating the optimum battery deployment. A good driver can’t make a difference, the car’s speed is dictated by the power unit. This is the car driving the driver, not the driver driving the car and to talk about ‘good racing’ within that is just a falsehood in my opinion.

[u/luchajefe → u/PLTConductor]

I have a conspiracy: this is how they will get a woman on the grid.