Brundle critical of sprint racing: 'It's too much of a lottery'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Lewis Hamilton saw his best Grand Prix of the season ultimately end in disqualification. His Mercedes' bottom plate had more wear than allowed, and that meant his second place - just behind Max Verstappen on the track - did not go into the books. Martin Brundle, analyst at Sky Sports, sympathised with the Mercedes driver, as it was well and truly difficult at the Circuit of the Americas to find the right set-up for the car with only one practice session.
Brundle can well remember how Michael Schumacher lost his victory in the 1994 Belgian Grand Prix because the board under his car was too worn. Incidentally, Jos Verstappen moved up to third in the rankings as a result, scoring his second podium in a row with his Benetton.
"At a bumpy track like Austin, and with only one practice session, setting a ride height for the duration of the event is quite a challenge with regard to performance, driver and car tolerance, and of course plank-wear legality, especially with a full fuel tank," stated Brundle, who went on to ask the question: should more cars have been checked for excessive floor wear?
Brundle wants more checks of the cars
"The next big question however is that if 50 per cent of the tested cars failed, then shouldn't all the finishers have been checked? The answer must surely be yes. It must be said that the FIA checks pre and post-race are beyond comprehensive. The published list includes over 50 separate and detailed checks mostly on all classified finishers and a few on randomly selected cars."
The fact that Formula 1 was also running a sprint race in Austin, in particular, made it possible for the board to wear down even more. As for the 'sprint race' phenomenon, Brundle no longer appears so enthusiastic about it in its current form. He cites that with only one practice session, teams come out pretty unprepared. This could result in some teams missing the right set-up, finding out in the sprint and then deciding to start from the pits. This is because in that case, they can make the necessary adjustments.
At the US Grand Prix, both Haas cars and the Aston Martins started from the pits. "This is not ideal or necessary, and while I don't like us to keep messing with the format, we must make some changes for next season and beyond. It's too much of a lottery which has far-reaching consequences, as we would find out several hours after the Sunday GP."