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I'm curious if you can think of an incident where the tarmac was safer? I understand that gravel traps considered dangerous but I can't think of many accidents with cars where the gravel trap caused the injury. The worst is the car flipping but often that is better as the energy is dissipated, where with tarmac the car is simply going to fly into the tire wall. Its an honest question, as I'm not sure what the answer is too, as both gravel and tarmac have big issues and aren't good at slowing cars down.

I'm also not asking for a complete return of gravel traps, but just a few feet of something on corner exit where drivers find a big advantage by going off track.

As I said earlier, we can't expect penalties because we don't get it now. Its been a problem since 2003 and there hasn't been a consistent penalty over more than 3 race period, so its not going to start now. Its obvious when it happens but no one seems to care whose in a leadership position.

Wow, Mercedes showed up to the second test week with a basically all new car. We'll see how much quicker it is over the next few days. https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merc ... 0/4343980/

stubeck wrote:I'm curious if you can think of an incident where the tarmac was safer? I understand that gravel traps considered dangerous but I can't think of many accidents with cars where the gravel trap caused the injury. The worst is the car flipping but often that is better as the energy is dissipated, where with tarmac the car is simply going to fly into the tire wall. Its an honest question, as I'm not sure what the answer is too, as both gravel and tarmac have big issues and aren't good at slowing cars down.

I'm also not asking for a complete return of gravel traps, but just a few feet of something on corner exit where drivers find a big advantage by going off track.

As I said earlier, we can't expect penalties because we don't get it now. Its been a problem since 2003 and there hasn't been a consistent penalty over more than 3 race period, so its not going to start now. Its obvious when it happens but no one seems to care whose in a leadership position.

I'm with you on a compromise where there's a penalizing surface immediately off track. As for the safety of gravel vs tarmac, I think cars flipping is less of an issue than cars sometimes having a tendency to skip over gravel like a stone skipping over water, rendering brakes nearly useless. Tarmac at least allows the cars ample room and grip to decelerate, assuming the brakes are working!

Good to see Williams getting some useful running in. Maybe the cars is not as bad as people seem to want it to be. McLaren looks fast. What’s up with the Merc?

This whole off track excursion thing, I thought, was conclusively resolved at the Japanese Grand Prix in 1989. If the driver goes off course they have to stop turn their car, turn around, go back against traffic, turn around again and properly drive through the corner within the track limits.

According to the stewards ruling after the race, that is how the rules had always been applied.

I think off track excursions in short are always going to be a problem and something to argue about.

SeanMAIN wrote:Good to see Williams getting some useful running in. Maybe the cars is not as bad as people seem to want it to be. McLaren looks fast. What’s up with the Merc?

Lando set the quickest time on the C4 tires, so not bad from McLaren. Mercedes stopped on track at some point, and probably spent the rest of the day evaluating the updated aero, and may have also done a few race simulations. Should see quicker times from them tomorrow.

CTurbert wrote:

stubeck wrote:I'm curious if you can think of an incident where the tarmac was safer? I understand that gravel traps considered dangerous but I can't think of many accidents with cars where the gravel trap caused the injury. The worst is the car flipping but often that is better as the energy is dissipated, where with tarmac the car is simply going to fly into the tire wall. Its an honest question, as I'm not sure what the answer is too, as both gravel and tarmac have big issues and aren't good at slowing cars down.

I'm also not asking for a complete return of gravel traps, but just a few feet of something on corner exit where drivers find a big advantage by going off track.

As I said earlier, we can't expect penalties because we don't get it now. Its been a problem since 2003 and there hasn't been a consistent penalty over more than 3 race period, so its not going to start now. Its obvious when it happens but no one seems to care whose in a leadership position.

I'm with you on a compromise where there's a penalizing surface immediately off track. As for the safety of gravel vs tarmac, I think cars flipping is less of an issue than cars sometimes having a tendency to skip over gravel like a stone skipping over water, rendering brakes nearly useless. Tarmac at least allows the cars ample room and grip to decelerate, assuming the brakes are working!

Yeah, I guess I should make sure to clarify my statements. My main issue is on corner exit. There it isn't a safety issue that many can argue, so adding a few feet of grass or gravel to keep cars on track is something more people can agree to.

SeanMAIN wrote:Good to see Williams getting some useful running in. Maybe the cars is not as bad as people seem to want it to be. McLaren looks fast. What’s up with the Merc?

I'm not sure where people were coming from with their complaints about the Williams. They were delayed with finishing their car, but any comments about the speed of said car are quite ridiculous when it hadn't even run at that time!

I don't know whats going on with Merc, as they were very happy to publicize Hamilton's glowing comments on the shakedown run, unless of course that was all BS!