Formula One Emilia Romagna Grand Prix | Driver of the Day: Vote Now

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Who is your RaceDepartment Driver of the Day?


  • Total voters
    730
After a thrilling race, voting has opened for the RaceDepartment Emilia Romagna Grand Prix 'Driver of the Day'.

After a close start to the season, expectations were high as the teams headed to Imola, and the classic circuit certainly delivered excitement.

As expected, the start of the race was affected by wet weather, with low grip making the opening laps challenging for the drivers. As the cars got up to speed and conditions improved, we saw some more adventurous driving, which delivered great overtakes, produced numerous collisions and even a red flag. Despite changing conditions and an interrupted race, today's winner took a very dominant victory.

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There are however, plenty of good candidates for Driver of the Day up and down the grid, with some very impressive performances in the midfield. Some chaos for the regular front runners also allowed for some drivers to finish further up the order than expected. Today's race reaffirmed that this year should provide some fantastic battles in both the drivers and constructors championships, in what has undoubtedly been one of the closest starts to a year in recent memory.

Make sure to cast your vote for your winner, and reflect on a thrilling few weeks for F1 in 2021.

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About author
Charlie Lockwood
23. Motorsport and Sim Racing enthusiast.

Comments

Yep. You could also put them to the back of grid. Job done. Giving laps back is borderline cheating. A massive, undeserved gift at the minimum. Hamilton was annoyingly lucky today. Again.
Well if the leader just lapped a car and than a safety car happens the driver in front will basically be a lap in front of the car he was maybe just a few seconds in front of. It would completely ruin races for all drivers that got lapped. Look at Le Mans with its 4 safety cars that just split the field randomly to see why it would be a bad idea
 
Max because his start was great from 3rd to 1st with bad weather and wet track the first corner. Stay his head cool after yesterday.

what I found strange that when Lewis made a mistake and was off track in Torsa.. that he went backwards on track and wasn't punished for this? does anyone know this? I should see it again .. Norris but also Leclerc couple of times track limits over the white line. And I expected more from Perez today.
But what a race hope we see more realy enjoy this season. Max and Lewis are a high level racing at this moment.

And the redbull is not the fastest car the merc is not bad
The backing up happened under yellow flags, which is allowed
 
Premium
Both of the arguments you two present are just unlucky situations from a stradegy point of view, there're millions of ways a race incident can screw your race up. But they still boil down to either pure luck or unluck.
An incident that somebody else has, shouldn't disadvantage you. (Which would be the case for Stroll in my example) The rulebook should (and does) enable an even playing field in exceptional cases like red flags or safety car periods. And yes, a driver you dislike might be advantaged, such be life.
 
Premium
what I found strange that when Lewis made a mistake and was off track in Torsa.. that he went backwards on track and wasn't punished for this?
The only 2 times the Sporting Regulations mention the word reverse are 'No reverse engineering' (the Racing Point rule) and a car may not be reversed in the pitlane under its own power (28.3).
Lewis didnt create a dangerous situation with his reversing either, so there should be no penalty.
 
Well if the leader just lapped a car and than a safety car happens the driver in front will basically be a lap in front of the car he was maybe just a few seconds in front of. It would completely ruin races for all drivers that got lapped. Look at Le Mans with its 4 safety cars that just split the field randomly to see why it would be a bad idea
ACO screws up Le Mans safety cars every year, especially if french cars are involved. And you cant compare Le Mans and F1 anyway.

Yes I see your point, but it dosent change my stance. If you get lapped, tough, you werent fast enough. Not even close. The guy in front wasnt lapped and you were? You got punished for being slow, tough. The other guy got 'lucky' because he was marginally faster. He wasnt 'rewarded' for being slightly faster, the lapped guy got 'punished' for being slower. There's a marked difference. It sucks being the guy that got lapped, but he got lapped for a reason, he put himself in the situation. And so did Hamilton.
 
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The only 2 times the Sporting Regulations mention the word reverse are 'No reverse engineering' (the Racing Point rule) and a car may not be reversed in the pitlane under its own power (28.3).
Lewis didnt create a dangerous situation with his reversing either, so there should be no penalty.

Ok strange situation. What I say before a lot of times he have extreme luck. Wing... first corner With the start.

Off track Torsa corner not and broken part of the car And he have p2.
 
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An incident that somebody else has, shouldn't disadvantage you. (Which would be the case for Stroll in my example) The rulebook should (and does) enable an even playing field in exceptional cases like red flags or safety car periods. And yes, a driver you dislike might be advantaged, such be life.
I never said I disliked him. But several drivers I do like were disadvantaged because the rules favour the guy making the mistake. And this I find unfair. Lucky or unlucky? Such be life. Unfairness? Well...no.
 
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The Russian input to the Haas Team doesn't seem to be helping. I wonder if there is a lap speed that is so slow you need to pull your cars off the track? Maybe the 107% rule should be applied to the race.
Haas did not develop a "real" car for 2021 to fully focus on the the new rules in 2022 and regarding the 107% rule, if you would apply it to the race, even Mazapin wouldn't have had a problem with it if you calculate by the fastest lap.
 
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ACO screws up Le Mans safety cars every year, especially if french cars are involved. And you cant compare Le Mans and F1 anyway.

Yes I see your point, but it dosent change my stance. If you get lapped, tough, you werent fast enough. Not even close. The guy in front wasnt lapped and you were? You got punished for being slow, tough. The other guy got 'lucky' because he was marginally faster. He wasnt 'rewarded' for being slightly faster, the lapped guy got 'punished' for being slower. There's a marked difference. It sucks being the guy that got lapped, but he got lapped for a reason, he put himself in the situation. And so did Hamilton.
Well do you want to see racing or not? And btw, I'm 100% sure that Hamilton would have actually profited from this rule in the long-term. As @Ricoow said, you would get punished for strategy calls. Just because Hamilton won because of it doesn't make it a bad rule lmao
 
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Lapped cars unlap in a FCY, that has been a rule for a long while and nobody complained until today but today it's different because it's Hamilton :rolleyes:
Nobody cared because lapped cars are usually miles away from points, but its still a gift. People (other than me) started caring today because it happened to a guy driving a car miles faster than anyone but Verstappen. He went from a certain no points scoring position to 2nd because of a stupid rule favoring an otherwise expensive mistake.
 
Lando for sure... he had a very competitive car and did well with it... too bad there was this retstart because Charles who have maybe finished 2nd!!!

Bravo to Hamilton who whatever prowess he can pull, there will be racists who will always find he got it easy... last two races wasn't easy and he pulled very impressive driving!!! Stop with this nonsense that he is not one of the greatest driver... He is not my favourite driver but at least I am not as stupid as to say he is a mediocre driver who only won with luck... BULL!
 
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These people that get angry with Hamilton's luck are absolutely haters. He made a mistake, stayed calm, literally drive in reverse gear like if he was driving a tractor, and managed to get the second position. Verstappen was lucky as well then because his mistake at the last restart could cost him the race easily... And luck is something that just hard workers get from the perspective of those that are not. Anyway, my vote was for Lando this time.
 
Well do you want to see racing or not? And btw, I'm 100% sure that Hamilton would have actually profited from this rule in the long-term. As @Ricoow said, you would get punished for strategy calls. Just because Hamilton won because of it doesn't make it a bad rule lmao
If I just wanted to see racing I wouldnt care two cents. But I want the racing to be fair.

Getting punished for strategy calls is fair and has been ever since racing was invented. regardless of how unlucky it is. Hamilton wasnt punished for his mistake, he was 'rewarded' by the FIA because of a rule introduced to clear the front of traffic for restarts, but as a sideeffect it massively benefits lapped cars.

Bottom line; lapped cars shouldnt be rewarded for being slow/making mistakes. Its like rewarding kids for doing stupid things.
 
Lando for sure... he had a very competitive car and did well with it... too bad there was this retstart because Charles who have maybe finished 2nd!!!

Bravo to Hamilton who whatever prowess he can pull, there will be racists who will always find he got it easy... last two races wasn't easy and he pulled very impressive driving!!! Stop with this nonsense that he is not one of the greatest driver... He is not my favourite driver but at least I am not as stupid as to say he is a mediocre driver who only won with luck... BULL!

I am not a racist Lewis is a great driver but more than manny times the luck is on his side, normaly the race is over for him or he broke his wing after the start. P2 is luck for him. But what a good race it was.
 
These people that get angry with Hamilton's luck are absolutely haters. He made a mistake, stayed calm, literally drive in reverse gear like if he was driving a tractor, and managed to get the second position. Verstappen was lucky as well then because his mistake at the last restart could cost him the race easily... And luck is something that just hard workers get from the perspective of those that are not. Anyway, my vote was for Lando this time.
I dont even know where to begin with this, other than its ignorant.

First off, being angry with Hamilton dosent make one a 'hater'. And second, who said anything about being angry at Hamilton? In my case I'm not angry with Hamilton, I'm angry with the rules he benefitted from. Lewis drove a very good race except for the mistake.
Verstappen was lucky. Had he not caught it it'd have compromised his race at the very least. Ruined it most likely. Difference is he did not have a FIA rule protecting him.
 
I think the rule of allowing lapped cars to unlap in FCY should be changed. I understand why they need to change their position on track so they don’t be in the way of faster cars, but why not move them back instead of having them unlap? Make sure the cars are in running order before FCY ends.
 
I dont even know where to begin with this, other than its ignorant.

First off, being angry with Hamilton dosent make one a 'hater'. And second, who said anything about being angry at Hamilton? In my case I'm not angry with Hamilton, I'm angry with the rules he benefitted from. Lewis drove a very good race except for the mistake.
Verstappen was lucky. Had he not caught it it'd have compromised his race at the very least. Ruined it most likely. Difference is he did not have a FIA rule protecting him.
He did have Charles Leclerc not having a functioning radio, so he didn't overtake him when he made the mistake because he thought it would be a standing start
 
He did have Charles Leclerc not having a functioning radio, so he didn't overtake him when he made the mistake because he thought it would be a standing start
That just makes it even more lucky.

I just watched the replay. Verstappen managed to get back on track and into position before Leclerc got by. Had Leclerc overtaken it'd have been a deliberate overtake under yellow and punishable regardless of start. In my book.
 

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Charlie Lockwood
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