FRENCH GRAND PRIX 2022

This race was surprisingly dramatic for the French Grand Prix. Very typical Ferrari just throwing away everything, one with a mechanical failure and the other with just strategy nonsense. Max had a quiet race at front and they were talking to the start how Hamilton could challenge Max at front and, of course, that never happened.

The big story was Charles crashing from the lead and I don’t care what they say, I know it was not just Charles failure but a mechanical failure. Especially when you looked at what happened last race for Ferrari. Goodness. This race was exhausting.

Charles screaming “NOOOO” into his radio will haunt me forever. This should never have happened to him.

If I had to liken Ferrari to a movie, it would be Titanic. Grand, expensive, impressive, historic, but it ends the same way every time. Honestly, it’s too nice to call them Titanic.

Practice 1

- Nyck DeVries in the Mercedes test driving for Hamilton! Hamilton waiting around in the back off the garage, Ted complaining we’ve never seen this before hahaha

- Perez has a wind produced spin

- Curbs really giving people problems

Practice 2

- little schu almost goes into the barrier and it’s dramatic with a lot of dust coming up but he saves it

- Nyck DeVries is in the commentary box

- Pierre really upset about traffic, looked like an Alpine?

Free Practice 3

- Sainz will start with a 10 place grid penalty for new parts

- Both Sainz and Kevin will start at the back of the grid for engine penalties and new parts

- This bump at turn 5 is ridiculous

- Lil Schu got majorly in the way of Maxy and he was not happy

Qualifying

- Albon has a spin at the last minute in Q1 and ruins Hamilton’s lap and both Mercedes’ were at risk any way so here’s hoping

- Lil Schu got out of Q1 but then had the lap deleted and got into the bottom 5 for it

- Daniel also had a lap deleted but managed to stay in

- Out in Q1: Gasly, Stroll, Zhou, Lil Schu and Latifi

- Controversy about whether Lil Schu actually crossed the line to get his time deleted but the fia are sticking to it

- Out in q2: ricciardo, Ocon, Bottas, Seb and Albon

- Charles on pole!! Max in second and Perez in third! Then hamilton, Norris and Russell

Race

- ughhh they’re going on about Hamilton’s 300th race blahhhhh

- Charles KEEPS lead and max in second and ugh Hamilton gets into third

- Ughhhh Yuki spins and yellow flags it it was an Ocon hitting a curb and hitting Tsunoda, soooo typical

- Ok Sainz didn’t do anything on the start and by the end of the first lap he’s still in 19th

- Somehow Alonso raced his way up to top 5 on the opening corner honestly

- 5 second time penalty for Ocon for causing a collision hahaha

- First laps are all about when Max will pass Charles

- 8/53 second track limits warning for Perez

- 17/53 Max pits first and has a good stop

- So far this has been all about tire temps

- This race is exactly what I thought would happen so far, ie the commentators going on and on about Sainz racing his way up from the back

- 18/53 CHARLES CRASHES AT 100 mph AT LE BEAUSET AND HE IS IN THE BARRIER AND HE WAS LEADING THE RACE AND HE IS OUT OF THE RACE NOW, and it was 100% something wrong with the car and nobody knows for sure what the problem was yet but it sounds like the throttle jammed JUST LIKE WHAT HE STRUGGLED WITH AT THE END OF LAST RACE which means FERRARI HASNT FIXED THE PROBLEM

- This is the most heartbreaking, horrifying moment for Charles

- Max saw the crash and radioed in "is he ok?" And they tell him yes Charles is ok

- When they radio to Charles, he is yelling about the throttle and then like a full minute of him breathing super hard and the team asks several times if he is ok and he doesn’t respond and then he just screams "NOOOOOOOOOO"

- This is so horrible for Charles, you just can’t imagine

- Yuki also retires from ocon’s hit

- 21/53 safety car in and green flag

- 23/53 contact between Zhou and Lil Schu so brief yellow flag and under investigation and looks like Zhou just clipped Schumacher

- HA now as if things aren’t horrifying enough for Ferrari, Sainz also gets a 5 second time penalty for an unsafe release under the safety car hahahah

- Then they report the wrong penalty to Sainz as being a 5 second stop and go penalty when it’s only 5 seconds and he’s like it isn’t a stop and go and they’re like oh you’re right

- Yep 5 second time penalty for Zhou

- 32/53 Hamilton goes off track briefly

- 36/53 they give Stroll info and he’s like "yes yes yes leave me alone"

- 38/53 Kevin sort of hits Latifi while Latifi is trying to pass him and then it’s kind of ugly driving and then looks like eventually Kevin has to pit and retire

- 41/53 Sainz wants to stop to try and catch the top 3 but the team is like no and even Paul is like he’s never gonna catch them in time I’d be pits now, I don’t know what he’s thinking

- AND THEN Ferrari tells him to pit WHILE SAINZ is actually passing Perez and trying to pull over an overtake

- 42/53

- George Russell hits Perez on a corner and there’s contact and Perez gets back into the race without the going around the bollards

- THEN ON THE NEXT LAP they pit Sainz when he just did the overtake in Perez and now he’s back in 9th and Ferrari just threw away a third and everyone is like WHAT IS FERRARI DOING?? This is literally just SUCH A TYPICAL FERRARI RACE, literally no idea what they are doing as always

- They interview Charles and he says it was his mistake, taking full blame like he always does. Ugh it’s so painful because I know it wasn’t just him and this is truly devastating

- 49/53 Zhou stops at the side of the track to retire and it triggers a virtual safety car

- At the end of the safety car and at the restart, George gets past Perez for third!! A great pass

- George and Perez are going at it for the last laps and it’s super dramatic

- Possibly Seb hits lance in the last corner of the last lap? But it’s just a little contact, after this crazy race it just feels like yep add it to the list

- Maxy wins!! Hamilton in second ugh, and Russell in third and Perez close behind in fourth and Sainz in fifth with Ferrari throwing away fourth with their strategy

- Ughhhhh now they are going on about how it’s the first double Mercedes podium of this year and that is so exhausting

- Ok someone in the commentary box didn’t know their mic was on because as David Coulthard was asking Max a zillion long questions, you just heard someone say "STOP TALKING"

- AHA!! In the cooldown room, George was watching the replay of Charles crashing and Lewis was like "he did a mistake" and then the red Bull engineer who was in there with them (max wasn’t in there yet) said that Ferrari said over the radio that it was "throttle blockage" SEE I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT WASNT JUST A CHARLES MISTAKE, even though he took the full blame for it and said it was his mistake only, IT WAS FERRARI AGAIN AND WE ALL KNOW THIS

- Suspiciously after the Red Bull guy says what Ferrari really said, the sound completely went out CONSPIRACY

- For some reason, Lewis is laying down in the floor in the cooldown room, I mean what is going on. It’s hot outside but not that hot