By design. It’s to manipulate racing.
F1 is completely enshittified and I fear MotoGP will be soon.
While I’d much rather see drivers go flat out all the time, I don’t think this will be a problem.
There were always reasons for drivers not to push as hard as they can - be it the super delicate pirellis, or saving fuel when refueling was a thing. WEC also has long stretches of lift and coast, and it doesn’t really impact the racing.
Ultimately, a casual fan will see that one car is going faster and another is going slower. It doesn’t really matter why. As they watch more, they’ll organically learn more about the constraints the drivers operate under.
Commentators are also generally pretty good at explaining why things are happening. “Going a little slower on the straights recovers more electrical energy to let you go faster later in the lap” seems like something simple enough for viewers to understand.
I fail to understand why F1 uses hybrid motors and synthetic petrol to save a few hundred liters…then burns kilotonnes of fuel to fly everyone around. Maybe they can explain that.
To drive technological innovation, right? What’s developed for racing ends up on the road.
Hamilton said: “If you look at Barcelona, for example, we’re doing 600 metres lift and coast on a qualifying lap. That’s not what racing is about. Here (in Bahrain), we’re not having to do that because there’s lots of braking zones.”
Wow that’s kinda fucking lame imo
There was a time in F1 when passing meant drafting and outbreaking on the track and it was exciting.
Now “passing” is the result of an AI-derived strategy in real time based on flaps and pitstops.
Spa and the straight at Baku will be interesting.
No it won’t, that’s his point.
Yeah I was being kind of sarcastic, doesn’t really translate well into text though!
I suppose he doesn’t have to do LiCo at all, but doing it is just the faster way around.
This kind of stuff has been in F1 for a very very long in some form and shape.
It’s true, but not on qualifying laps
Even in qually. Especially tyre deg, where on some tracks pushing too hard in sector 1 cost them dearly in sector 3.
The root of all evil seems to be the limited amount of battery. I wonder if the FIA will make a last minute change to allow for a larger capacity battery.
Where do they put it though?
Narrator - they did.
