87 replies to this topic

[Risil]

An eventful Grand Prix at Mugello is over and confined to the history books with other one-offs like Pescara, Monsanto Park and, er, Dallas. A lot of hot and cold air was blown at the idea of racing F1 cars at such a fast, flowing and slightly dangerous track before the weekend got underway. We all built our own expectations, and many of us fortified a hill labelled "F1 cars can't overtake" or "F1 needs to race on PROPER CIRCUITS", fully expecting to die on it.

 

Well... what did you think? Was it how you thought? Were you right? Were you wrong?

 

Would you like F1 to come back?

 

Are you looking forward to Imola?

[Massa]

I'm not looking forward Imola, that track have nothing special.

Mugello, we have to race there each year. I wish next year we come back and with rain all weekend, that track could be awesome in the rain.

[noikeee]

I.... don't know? It was a weird one.

 

I was expecting fewer passes and definitely fewer crashes. It was still a bit "big wall of dirty air" in the final laps right at the end, but I enjoyed it. The back part of the circuit with the downhill and then the climb through the Arrabiatas corners is mental and worth the ticket price alone, now that I was already expecting.

[Anuity]

I hope F1 comes back.
The track looks fantastic and you really feel the speed looking the cars running on it.


I would easily take it over 7-8 races from the normal calendar.

[SophieB]

On the positive side, like the flow of the track very much and easier to overtake than predicted.

On the negative, the crashes just created a bad feeling in me, like a lot of the grid just aren’t at the standard they need to be. I hesitated to call it a negative for the track because maybe it’s more the lower standards are cloaked more effectively with tracks that have endless run off. 
 

Maybe the track did what it needed to do - pull back the curtain and let a bit of daylight in on everything. 
 

I would like F1 to come back, and yes, I’m excited about Imola!

[Red5ive]

Autosport armchair experts:

 

before the weekend - great track but going to be a boring race as you obviously cant overtake.

 

after the race - knew it was going to be a great race on a great track. Keep it on the calendar.

[thegamer23]

It's hard to rate a race that lost so many of their protagonists so early in the race.

Could have been much better, for sure, with Verstappen & co racing on track!

We've seen that overtaking is possible there.

I'd love to see it again next year, with proper crowd & maybe a tighter championship battle! 
 

Imola could be a slightly better track in terms of racing, it's a more stop & go track, quite different than Mugello. 

Edited by thegamer23, 13 September 2020 - 16:59.

[P123]

The race itself was too disjointed due to the red flags.

 

But the actual racing and passing was a positive surprise.

[PayasYouRace]

It was better than I expected. The racing wasn't necessarily that great, though overtaking was possible. But the cars just looked spectacular and they and the drivers looked genuinely challenged by the track. In some cases perhaps a bit to challenged. I'd vote to have it return if given the option.

[William Hunt]

amazing track, wish they were keeping it on the calendar, a real drivers circuit with great scenaery, punishing when you make a mistake and challenging to drive

[smitten]

It was a fun event, but the red-flags made it too much of a lottery for my liking.  I can take randomness from reliability/racing incidents etc, but never enjoy that introduced by stoppages or SCs.  YMMV, and it doesn't mean I can't enjoy the drama of such an event occasionally.

[SilverArrow31]

Fantastic track... way better than feared, wish it could stay on the calender but I would not sacrifice Monza for it. I am a huge advocate for ONE race per country, can we move the whole track to France? Haha

Its kind of a mix between Barcelona and the Hungaring, with the best of both tracks.

Edited by SilverArrow31, 13 September 2020 - 17:05.

[Jordan44]

Need to come back here, happily trade this track for half the crap on the traditional calendar

[Massa_f1]

It was better than I expected. Plus I enjoyed watching F1 cars go around this track even with the usual Merc 1-2. Can't say the same for a lot of other tracks normally on the calendar.

[dissident]

Overtaking was too easy if anything (DRS was a tad too much). 

 

And it's refreshing to see the drivers being punished for their mistakes.

 

The only thing I didn't like (aside from the ridiculous driving standards) was the camera placement. 

[Atreiu]

It was better but also a lot more chaotic. The race could have been much more interesting without the restart crash.

Edited by Atreiu, 13 September 2020 - 17:23.

[Calum]

I believed those who said it was a narrow motorcycle track that was thrilling but will be crap for racing.

 

Glad I went in with low race expectations. F3, F2 and F1 were very entertaining in their own ways.

 

We HAVE to go back next year. 

Edited by Calum, 13 September 2020 - 17:21.

[MasterOfCoin]

The crashes sucked all the hype from the race.......

[Ruusperi]

They should have raced here every year since 1974. Hugely disappointed if it's not in the next year's calendar. Especially the feeder series, F3 and F2, provided wonderful racing. F1 remains a question mark, because half of the grid was eliminated before the race even began properly.

Edited by Ruusperi, 13 September 2020 - 17:29.

[DutchQuicksilver]

Not a race track for modern day F1 cars. The only nice parts are the scenery and gravel traps instead of parking area size run offs.

[ARTGP]

Not a race track for modern day F1 cars. The only nice parts are the scenery and gravel traps instead of parking area size run offs.

 

What I saw in Mugello, despite it's limitations, was incredibly promising. Multiple driving lines is something I've not seen for some time (Malaysia?) Drivers could take the inside or the outside line in the final corner (very important, and unlike Suzuka...) and into turn 1 (also unlike Suzuka), which just made it easier to lineup an overtaking opportunity or complete and overtaking opportunity

 

Even though there was no opportunity to overtake in the twistier bits, Mugello has the perfect penultimate and 1st corners for F1 racing. Give the drivers a challenge in the twisties, and then make it easy to get close for the slipstream out of the final corner.

Edited by ARTGP, 13 September 2020 - 17:32.

[YoungGun]

What a race! Not a boring moment. I think they should consider dropping the Australian GP or scheduling the race later in F1 calendar to find room for Mugello to be the season opener. 

[Spillage]

It was better than I expected. A bit whacky with all the red flags but I expected overtaking to be virtually impossible and it clearly wasn't.

I wouldn't mind seeing F1 return, providing some kind of improvements can be made to allow for speedier recovery of broken cars.

[Peter Perfect]

I suspect we may see a few safety cars tomorrow with drivers overcooking it trying to stay close to the car in front before the long straight. Combine that with the high tyre deg. and closeness of the midfield and I think we may see a a few surprises.

 

 

I'll be honest, there were a few more surprises than I thought there'd be.

[F1Gui]

I thought it was exciting but the safety cars and red flags probably played a big part in that otherwise it may have been a little predictable. The track and scenery were nice to look at and sometimes its just nice to have a change. I would definitely have this track over monaco, singapore, abu dhabi, russia and all the other boring tracks.

[genius83]

I think Mugello delivered what we expected from the start, apart from the crashes especially the safety car restart crash the race was as good as it could get. On the other hand because of those 2 big crashes taking out many drivers from the midfield we are saved from more midfield shenanigans if those drivers were racing to whole distance which could result in more safety cars and red flag interventions.

 

And I also thinks that this sort of racing is what we see in the next few races apart from Sochi. Portimao, Nurburgring and Imola all will have safety cars and red flag interventions and then the Bahrain Outer will be a real crazy race too.

[SkidmarksLeadToTheCrash]

Far and away the most entertaining race in a long while.

[Dutchrudder]

This race needed the red flag/safety car madness because as much as there were a few overtakes, the field was spreading significantly once they resettled after the restarts.

[Seano]

Nice track but the current F1 cars are a just little too fast for it.

 

With a small amount of money spent on it, (just to encourage the drivers to respect track track limits and to facilitate the quicker removal of cars from the gravel traps), it could become an absolute gem.

 

Seano

[Hellenic tifosi]

This race needed the red flag/safety car madness because as much as there were a few overtakes, the field was spreading significantly once they resettled after the restarts.

However, without the red flags and SC, we would have witnessed some serious tyre offsets and comebacks.

[ArrowsLivery]

The track is excellent. The current F1 formula is anything but. I turned off the race after about lap ~25.

[absinthedude]

The crashes were a shame and the one in the midfield/back needs to be investigated. But overall....lovely flowing track, gravel works, overtaking was indeed possible. Let's go back again. Remove crap like Albert Park, Montmelo, Hocken-chop, Yas Marina....and go to places like this. 

[KWSN - DSM]

I need an option

 

Great track, just a shame the drivers ruined the race by forgetting what they do for a living making race an overall disappointment.

[SonGoku]

It only needed a Magnussen SC and Gasly finishing first and it was the best race ever. So annoying that some people never can see a race for what it is regardless the result. I thought it was a great track with more overtaking than expected.

[P123]

The crashes were a shame and the one in the midfield/back needs to be investigated. But overall....lovely flowing track, gravel works, overtaking was indeed possible. Let's go back again. Remove crap like Albert Park, Montmelo, Hocken-chop, Yas Marina....and go to places like this. 

 

Will never understand the dislike of the new shortened Hockenheim.  It has always had good races.  Old Hockenhiem was a little boring.  Different, but boring.

[Clrnc]

The race wasn't great today but I love old school track like these. Please come back

[Baddoer]

No idea. Single race means nothing, once teams get used to the track it might turn into boredom. Suzuka is great track like this one, but racing can turn myself to sleep (especially as it is early in Europe).

Edited by Baddoer, 13 September 2020 - 18:19.

[YoungGun]

I need an option

 

Great track, just a shame the drivers ruined the race by forgetting what they do for a living making race an overall disappointment.

 

Kimi made me appreciate his "WTF" you talking about "5 second penalty" ... and Russel deserves to be in a competitive soon.    

Edited by YoungGun, 13 September 2020 - 18:18.

[Mat13]

I almost didn’t bother watching, so sure was I it was going to be awful.

Glad to be wrong!

[Joefane]

Better than Monza, that's for sure.

[messy]

Um, I think it was ok. Somehow though, the fact it’s not a custom-made for 21st century F2 tilkedrome should have made it a thrilling anomaly but the crashes and so on just made me uneasy and glad that everybody got out of it ok. I know not all of that can be blamed on the track but seeing Stroll’s car so badly damaged after quite an innocuous looking off was slightly alarming - I doubt it’d have looked like that had he made the same error at Yas Marina. People moan endlessly about the amount of run-offs even at circuits like Spa and Suzuka these days but maybe they need to be there.

The race though, disjointed as it was, saw more overtaking than I expected mainly because of how powerful the DRS was, and seeing them tackle such an old school circuit was nice.

[alonstar]

It was a mess, except for the boring front row 

Disappointed

[wj_gibson]

It’s a great circuit. If anything drops off the calendar (e.g. Mexico) then surely this has to be what replaces it.

[68targa]

This track has 'character' and challenges  that  few others have and the gravel defines track limits.Excellent. Should be repeated along with Imola and Monza. We all know that this will not happen thanks to F1/FIA having a blinkered view of which races they like to run. Three races in Italy, oh no can't have that, rather go to some anaemic concrete venue with zero character funded by governments with dubious human rights but lots of lucre!

[smitten]

It’s a great circuit. If anything drops off the calendar (e.g. Mexico) then surely this has to be what replaces it.

 

I'd prefer Brands, but each to their own.

[dweller23]

Great to see gravel traps, I know they didn't contribute to majority of retirements, but was nice to see 40% of the field not finishing the race.

[Fastcake]

I was not expecting much, but this was a much better racing track. As noted, the ability of the drivers to take different racing lines was great, and the run down from the last to first corners created a great overtaking opportunity. How much of that was helped by DRS and the powerful headwind is a question mark however. It was a very challenging race for the drivers which I did like to see, and in the absence of Singapore this year it's good to have a physical challenge.

 

The randomness with the two red flags and restart did leave me a little cold. A bit of chaos is fun, but it can leave a feeling the race is not as good a sporting event as it could have been.

[Marklar]

it was better than I expected tbh. more close battles than expected and a bit Baku-esque craziness. On top of the track being a entirely different challenge and the gravel traps I certainly would prefer it over the majority of the other tracks.

[Calum]

I'd prefer Brands, but each to their own.

 

On the subject of English tracks, some of Mugello reminded me a bit of Donington Park.

 

I sometimes wonder how that plan would have went for F1. Probably would have been hosting with Silverstone this year in the "COVID Calendar" if their Grade 1 upgrade was completed back in 2009.

[Augurk]

Better than expected. However the final few laps showed us what could've been if everything settled in before people started playing bumper carts. It was tough to follow another car of roughly equal speed. The powerful DRS zone did make it that cars with a bit of a speed differential could at least overtake. 

 

One thing is certain though: we need back gravel traps. So much better to let the track do the track limit policing than the obnoxious "time deleted" message.