Anyone who had points on Sunday had them handed to them on a plate. You get points for racing, not for qualifying. They did not race! I know there is the Monaco arguement whereby qualifying often determines the race result but even then the drivers have to be fully focused for the duration of the race and not put the car in to the barriers.
Qualifying is more difficult than racing, and racing is more difficult that qualifying. They both require different skill sets. Qualifying is about being on the limit for one lap, going for that perfect lap without any mistakes. Your reward for that is starting on pole, which is why I dislike the Sprint Qualifying format. The race is about managing the car for 300km, and working as a team to perform the best you can. In those conditions, where George managed to get his Williams in to second place, I do not see any reason why he would of not being able to keep it up near the front. If Qual had been dry, he would of not been up there, and if the race had been dry, he would probably have struggled to keep it in the top eight. If they had managed to start the race, anything could of happened but sadly we will never know.
For me, that is the most frustrating thing about the race not being a race. All these un answered questions. Would Max of won? What could George do? Would Lewis be able to go wheel to wheel with Max? What would Lando do from the back? Who would go to inters first, would anyone try slicks. Would there be a safety car, who would win and lose from it.
As a fan of F1, we all lost yesterday, but the FIA did everything it could to get the race going, except let the cars drive under VSC for a few laps.
They extended the time limit, waited for a gap in the weather, tried to clear the track as best they could, but until they sent the drivers out on track, and got feedback how do they know what the conditions on track are going to be. Sadly the gap they were expecting did not come, and the problem with F1 cars is you cant wait for the gap before telling everyone your going racing, as by the time everyone's ready, the gap in the weather is gone. We have seen that in the past, sadly this time, they sent them out, and the gap did not appear.
I feel calling it a farce is a little unfair on Masi, I am not sure he was laughing much about the situation he found himself in. Don't send the drivers out and get kicked for not trying, send the drivers out and get kicked that the race started and people got points for not racing. Their is already some noises being made about
not running F1 in the rain similar to Nascar, which I am sure we can all agree is something we don't want. Is there a similar word to Farce, but which does not reference the comedy part of it?
Call me naive, but I believe that the only reason Masi sent them out, was to try and get them racing, and it was nothing to do with the financial side of F1.
I think this event was the perfect storm. This weather on any other track would of probably been manageable. At the initial start, my understanding was that it was only the spray that was the issue, the grip was there. On the second start, I think all the drivers, including Max said it would un-driveable.
This will probably never happen again for 20-30 years.
What would of happened with the penalties applied at Spa if the race had been abandoned? Would they carry over to Zandvoort, or have they already being applied and therefore would not of applied? Would that of been fair?
I have no problem with points being awarded for this weekend, and don't think it will taint the championship any more then Lewis being more at fault for Max retiring at Silverstone, or Bottas taking Lando and Max out, or the new qualifying sprint race, or the fastest lap times getting a point or DRS making it to easy for the fast cars to overtake
I do get that money is important in Sport these days, and the F1 rule book was not quite prepared for a day like today, but there is still a lot more racing to go this season, and I will finish this far to long post with a Murray Walker quote, I always misquote
Murray Walker said:
IF is a very long word in Formula One; in fact, IF is F1 spelled backwards.
