Our penultimate race of the season brings us to the Olympic city of Sochi. Having hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics, the Sochi Autodrom was first used for Formula 1 racing later that same year.
The starting grid is located at the beginning of what is easily the longest straight on the track, and the run up to the first corner will be done at high speeds. The straight is long enough that those at the back of the starting grid will have a chance to catch up with the front runners by hitting 5th gear. The problem will be that they’ll have to hit Turn 1 just right. Turn 1 is a short, sharp right hander that cars will have to hit in stride in order to set themselves up for the large, notable horseshoe turn.
The entire circuit is full of corners just like Turn 1. After the horseshoe, there is a series of five of these sharp corners in quick succession. None of these corners are conducive to staying in any particular gear. How each driver manages their journey through this section will be one of the keys to the race.
Coming out of Turn 7, the other long straight on the track will allow drivers to open it up again. Expect to see higher speeds entering the straight than exiting it, as it feeds into the only multi-stop turn on the track. Turn 8 is winding and slow, then gives way to a small straight section before running to the final two turns. The last two turns are more of what was seen earlier, sharp 90-degree bends that would challenge drivers at higher speeds. The difference here is that the slowdown from turn 8 will likely set up these two as nothing more than elementary since cars won’t be able to carry speed into them.
Overall, 8 of the 10 corners on the track are extremely short, meaning there will be a lot of opportunities for mistakes. Expect these sharp bends to cause separation in the field relatively early in the race, but it won’t be before a highly entertaining run up to Turn 1 happens. The other consequence will likely be heavy use of tires and braking. Anyone who can manage to run a mostly clean first lap may find themselves with the luxury of forgoing the pits and really gunning it down the front straight.
STARTING GRID
Mater starts a 3rd consecutive race in pole position, but he’s closed the gap to the white liveried Scandinavian Blitz drivers. Both Captain Slow and The Stig sit at 61 points on the year, but the Stig starts at P2 after finishing behind his teammate the last time out. Danger Wheel follows next. Despite crashing out early, Nero only drops down to 4th in the standings, which puts him at 5th on the grid. Launch Bornado maintains an extremely small lead for 3rd place. Ice’s runaway victory saw him jump all the way to 2nd in the standings, leaving him to start 7th. Jaap gets a 6th consecutive race from the back of the pack after another strong race in Germany.
- Mater (GT)
- The Stig (SB)
- Captain Slow (SB)
- Danger Wheel (GT)
- Nero(CO)
- Launch Bornado (RM)
- Ice(CO)
- Jaap Snellrijder (RM)
Pit selection is simply the reverse order of average start position. Since the Green Team and Scandinavian Blitz have the same average start position, the tie is broken by reverse order of team standings. The Green Team has moved up to 3rd, so Scandinavian Blitz gets preference.
- Regency Motors
- Cobalt
- Scandinavian Blitz
- Green Team
The STretch Run
With Sochi being the second to last race of the year, there isn’t much time left for drivers at the bottom of the standings to catch up. Mathematically speaking, everyone still has a shot at the driver’s championship, however it’s a bit more challenging for some than others. Mater needs to finish no lower than 2nd in each of the final races to have any shot at winning the driver’s championship. Captain Slow and the Stig are in equally precarious positions, needing at least a 4th place finish in both races.
It should be noted that Danger Wheel, currently 5th in the standings, is actually closer to 4th than 6th. The largest points gap between drivers is 8 points between Ice (2nd) and Launch Bornado (3rd). Launch has recently come under some criticism for failing to maintain the success from earlier in the year, although it should be noted that has come while staying high up in the standings.
Probably the biggest question is whether or not anyone can catch Jaap, who has been immune to just about any sort of trouble for most of the season. Surely he has to have a bad race at some point.
Cobalt have won each of the last two races in runaway fashion, but no driver has won twice yet. Mater and Launch are the two drivers without a victory. If Mater does manage to earn what is now essentially a required win, he’ll maintain his streak of having never finished in the same spot twice. He’s finished everywhere but 1st and 3rd.