🇦🇿 F1'23: R4 - Emergency Services

It has been a while, and a few things have changed. Normally, we’d embed some Tweets for context, but Twitter 2.0 and Substack do not play well with each other, so that’s out.

This was originally going to be about the long pit strategies that pitlane starters Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon took, pitting as late as they could to try and salvage something from a poor situation - think Alex Albon in Australia 2022. But that didn’t really work out as both fell out of the points overall as both Haas and Alpine struggled in Baku.

The second choice option was going to be happy Fernando Alonso with maybe three-too-many Taylor Swift references shoehorned in as the original Anti-hero was giving advice on brake balances to his team mate over the radio.

Without context, you might think this was a coded cry for help from an Alonso who had been maybe taken hostage, given his past behaviour, but then something happened at the end of the race that again, should make F1, the FIA and race promoters properly assess whether their systems and processes are fit for purpose.

Ocon’s strategy was to pit as late as possible - or at least hope for a late safety car. That never came, so he approached the pit lane in the closing laps to make his mandatory tyre compound change. As he did so, there was a crowd of personnel who appeared to be putting up a barrier.

As an isolated incident, creating the environment for one of your drivers to get the Gouranga bonus in GTA isn’t maybe the spectacle you want a global television audience to see. As a pattern, this is bordering on unforgivable and needs a serious and urgent rethink.

At the simplest level, there must be a rule that states that the post-race party cannot be set up if at least one driver hasn’t pitted yet. Second of all, do you need 20-30 people in the pit lane while the race is still running?

This isn’t the first time - even this season - where something has gone wrong. Literally from the top of the head of recent incidents:

🎉 Melbourne 2023 had people on the track🚧 Suzuka 2022 had a support vehicle on track🏗️ Monza 2022 had a recovery vehicle on track⛔ Silverstone 2022 and protesters on track📸 Melbourne 2022 and Albon narrowly missing spectatorsI am certain this is a non-exhaustive list from the past couple of years. This sport is continually getting bigger - as a really small-time blogger, even I had five new people subscribe to this blog this week (and thank you all for your support) and there is a continued appetite to see, hear, want more from Formula 1 and everything associated around it. But as the series has grown, it feels increasingly like the processes aren’t able to meet the moment effectively.

Speaking at the end of the Grand Prix, Ocon said “I had to lift off... If I miss the braking point it's a big disaster, a crazy moment. It's definitely something that needs to be discussed”. This is almost British in its levels of understatement. Try to imagine the headlines had someone been hit at 80mph while being in the wrong place at the wrong time live on worldwide TV.

At the same time, there should be plenty of talking points as F1 moves on to a rather illogical double-header from Baku to Miami, going a casual 6,800 miles if you assume a stopover in Heathrow Airport along the way. On track, Red Bull Racing continue their 100% winning record, and Sergio Perez maintained his reputation as King of the streets. He’s the first two-time winner in Baku, and cut his teammate’s lead after winning the sprint too. There are just six points between him and Max Verstappen.

Elsewhere, Yuki Tsunoda got his second consecutive 10th-placed finish, collecting his second point of the season. Charles Leclerc has mastered the Ferrari over one-lap, and made a recovery with his - and his team’s - first podium of the season. McLaren are in danger of being cut adrift and Alpine may already be stranded.

This is a global sport, and every single one of the 10 teams demands the highest of standards. That standard should apply to every official body associated with the sport too. At some point, the racing should must take centre stage, especially when we have one team in a class of its own ahead of the chasing pack.

With the long break, Baku should have been a chance to celebrate the upgrades and was our first chance to see who had improved compared to everyone else. Instead, the sport’s organisers have become the story. Again.