By bigryeguy98
To put it lightly, Jeddah was a disaster. Four safety cars and plenty of DNF’s and accidents plagued the debut race of F1 CRL Season Five. While the quality of racing wasn’t the best, it wasn’t all bad. Newcomer Say came away with the win after a hard-fought battle with Haas reserve fivesix2King and Aston Martin’s isiboy. Media team’s Bigryeguy98 asked the Team Principal’s their thoughts on the first race and where they go from here.
Absent Bigryeguy98 May Mean Poof for Title Hopes
-What is your opinion on how the first race went?
I was absent so I only really saw the aftermath in the discord. From what I saw it looked like a shitshow. I’m glad Alfa Romeo driver Say won the race, and it’s going to be a great title battle when I eventually return.
-What’s your opinion on re-removing safety cars from the league?
I disagreed with the decision to remove them in the first place. I’m not sure why we needed to have this experiment, especially at Jeddah. It’s just another questionable decision in a long line of them, in my opinion.
-Did any team member’s performance in the first race concern you?
Nobody’s performance concerned me. Given the questionable decisions leading up to the race it’d be stupid for anyone to draw conclusions from it. KB keeps saying he hasn’t got the pace, but he’ll get there eventually. Say won the race and Aleixcucco27 qualified P4 in a great display. Quoth did a good job filling in in my absence. I’m excited to see where the team can go from here.
-The next race is at Paul Ricard. Any thoughts or predictions on how your team will do next week?
I’m not sure if I’ll be able to race next week, but I’m sure Say will be competitive. Aleix will be absent so we may have to have both our reserves, Quoth and Loris, filling in. Not sure if KB’s wifi issues will be fixed so we may need a free agent reserve to fill in.
Solid Performances Give Boon to Ghost’s Title Hopes
-What is your opinion on how the first race went?
I’m happy with how my team performed, but the race itself was a little bit of a cluster. I think it showed that a lot of us (myself included) are still working on learning the nuances of the new game. That said, I think there were some good battles. Say, 562 and KindDavid had a good battle at the front. Jeff and juzzy had a nice little battle. Paul Ricard has a lot more grip than Jeddah, so I’m hoping for a lot less incidents and even more good racing.
-What’s your opinion on re-removing safety cars from the league?
As someone that was adamantly against turning the safety car on, I think this is the right decision. The reality is this is digital racing, not real life racing. The safety car exists in real life for one reason, the safety of competitors and marshals on track. Not to re-bunch the field or add an element of randomness. Since we don’t have the safety concern, there’s just no need for a safety car. No safety car makes strategy more important and rewards consistency over raw pace. If drivers in the league want to bunch the pack to artificially create more wheel to wheel racing, I understand that, but I don’t think safety cars are the way to do it. A reverse grid sprint would accomplish the same thing more effectively.
-Did any team member’s performance in the first race concern you?
Not at all. It’s hard to be concerned about the team when you put 4 cars in the top 6, while no other super constructor had more than 2 cars in the points. All four of my guys had podium pace and drove strong races.
-The next race is at Paul Ricard. Any thoughts or predictions on how your team will do next week?
I think 4 in the top 6 will be hard to replicate, but I like our chances at a podium finish and at least 3 drivers in the points. While France fits my team’s skill set better than Jeddah, I think the field will make fewer errors this week, leading to a slightly reduced points haul.
Steady Jmtitan10 Leads Teams to Decent Finish in Jeddah
-What is your opinion on how the first race went?
I think the racing was sloppy and the safety cars were miserable, but I saw some really great racing at times.
-What’s your opinion on re-removing safety cars from the league?
I think it’s the right decision to foster clean and competitive racing moving forward.
-Did any team member’s performance in the first race concern you?
No, I was actually quite encouraged. HAL and SSPoTs showed great pace and I’m excited to see how the season pans out.
-The next race is at Paul Ricard. Any thoughts or predictions on how your team will do next week?
I think with the larger runoff areas, we’ll be less at the mercy of the walls and other cars, so I think the natural pace of our guys will be unleashed and we’ll hopefully get some good results and solid points.
Double Points for Juzzzyb’s Teams Gives Hope for Future
-What is your opinion on how the first race went?
The first race overall went pretty well. We lost a driver from each team, but the both teams still managed points, so pretty happy for our first outing of the season.
-What’s your opinion on re-removing safety cars from the league?
It’s definitely needed. have four restarts on ice cold tires and spending more than half the race in a driver parade wasn’t my idea of fun racing.
-Did any team member’s performance in the first race concern you?
No concerns on my end. Jeddah can be an unforgiving track at the best of times. Add in new cars and there was always going to be some DNFs, I’m just surprised it wasn’t me.
-The next race is at Paul Ricard. Any thoughts or predictions on how your team will do next week?
We haven’t begun our rigorous training camp yet, so no predictions at this stage.
Lebowski’s Teams Do Well in Debut Race
-What is your opinion on how the first race went?
I think everyone was off put by the amount of safety cars in the race. But I think the paddock spent more time complaining about safety cars than practicing to race cleanly. If there are too many safety cars it is because too many people keep crashing and hitting each other.. So that being said, I think the first race went well with everything considered. But I do think that the quality of racing was very poor for most of the race.
-What’s your opinion on re-removing safety cars from the league?
It’s going to have to happen since zero people said “you know what, I’m gonna not make stupid decisions and rear end cars” or “I’m not gonna win the race with this move, might as well back out.” Everyone seems to think they’re Max Verstappen.
-Did any team member’s performance in the first race concern you?
Nope. But I was concerned to see HAL get absolutely mugged from the lead while every driver on the way down pushed him out of their way. Didn’t seem like respect for other drivers went very far in any direction.
-The next race is at Paul Ricard. Any thoughts or predictions on how your team will do next week?
I think Aston Martin and Alpine will do well at Paul Ricard. But I do think with the removal of safety cars, high speeds, and the wide open spaces we are going to see people complain about spinning out or making small contact that puts them far away from the rest of the field making them spend the rest of the race lapping solo at the bottom of the leaderboard.