[Worldchamp 2019]

I feel Lewis and Mercedes handled the aftermath wrongly. Just imagine if they came out and said "You know what..fair play. This is motor racing and it could have gone either way so a huge congrats to Max and Redbull. We'll come back stronger next year"
Now that would have been a credible response and earned them more fans instead of shouting and sulking the way they did. I mean Toto's rant of "this is so not right" sounded comical. One should be gracious in victory and gracious in defeat also.

[akshye]

Detailed and interesting analysis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5Ee0czVr5s

[Hatari]

What a championship.. what a final race and what a final lap!
Unbelievable to have ended like this!

This season has been an absolute treat for F1 fans!

Credit to Red Bull for fighting it right down to the wire.. with Perez, with 2 additional pit stops! Did all they could, hoped for a little help from the racing Gods and it paid off!

To begin with, we need gravel traps back, enough is enough!
All this tarmac on the outside is ruining racing.
Beyond me how Lewis kept his place once Max made his move early in the race, staying on track.

In the end, credit to the FIA for ensuring the race was restarted, in the fairest manner possible.

[NKB]

I could not watch the race live. I have now seen entire race replay (every second of it). Hamilton was in control after taking position off the track in first lap. Max lacked the pace to catch up. Perez gave legendary fight. And race was more or less ordinary till Latifi decided to make it interesting and subject matter of long discussions. I have also read most of the discussion in this forum. My take on this is as below:
1. Max has won the CHAMPIONSHIP racing and fighting. and he deserves every bit of this. He has driven whole season as a champion.
2. Whatever decisions that Stewards have taken during the race, in the first lap or the last lap, neither Max nor Hamilton could control that and their job was to race which they did with everything that they had in their kitty. The fight in the last lap was true representation of how hard both contenders had fought during the year.
3. It is not important how many lap one lead during the race. What is important is who crosses the line first. In Sochi, Norris lost due to poor decision of not pitting for wets and Hamilton won because he pitted at the right time. So the point I am trying to make here is race strategies do matter a lot . I believe Mercedes has lot to blame themselves for a blunder that they made in strategy by not pitting Hamilton during VSC/SC.
4. Blunder of a strategy - I can still understand why Mercedes did not pit Hamilton in the second SC but I completely don’t understand the logic for not pitting during the first one. If you see closely the Free Practice sessions and qualifying session, both Mercedes cars had better long run speed compared to Red Bulls and the same was also visible during the race as well. So even if Hamilton would have lost track position if he had pitted during first VSC/SC, he would have overtaken Max and eventually would have had much better tyre towards the end.

The decision to not pit Hamilton in last SC had two factors 1. Staunch defence put up by Perez because of which Hamilton could not create a bigger window; and 2. More importantly, towards the end of race, the fuel level would be much lower nearly around Qualifying level and Mercedes had seen the pace that Max had in qualifying so they were also worried if Hamilton had lost the track position to Max if the former had pitted, it would have been tough to overtake Max.

5. As regards the racing decisions, I feel the decision of ‘No investigation necessary’ was not correct. Hamilton was behind at the corner and he went out of the track and gained a very big advantage when he re-joined. Like Jeddah this also was fit case for time penalty. One argument is that Hamilton reduced speed to neutralise the advantage. I think that is just not correct. He got the position off the track and should have given it back. Plain and simple. On the decision to first not allow lapped car to unlap was itself not correct and then whether the timing was correct to allow them (only cars between P1 and P2) is a contentious question. I think Mercedes are well within their right to Appeal. I hope the stewards get reprimand and the race result is not altered.

Whatever it may be, but this was an epic year and to me the most exciting one. After all this roller coaster we got a new champion. Let’s see what is there in store for next year. I hope it to be a triangular fight.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by FURY_44

Haha found this to be "simply lovely" among all. TBH social media is filled with sympathy for Lewis overpowering Verstappens title news, only the F1 official handles are celebrating the new champion, like nothing happened.

This is a very short-sighted view. We can also say Lewis needed Max's tires to blow up in one GP, needed to take Max out of one GP himself and his teammate to take Max out in another GP just to arrive at the last race level on points

As a fan of neither Max or Lewis (Kimi all the way!!), I had mixed emotions after the race. I was very happy for Max who has been driving exceptionally well this season. At the same time, Lewis losing an unprecedented 8th WDC in the last lap of the last race left me sad as well. Both drivers were performing at such a high level during the season that it is difficult as a neutral to say who deserved it more, or to say who did/didn't deserve it.

Lewis was definitely unlucky in the last race and can feel hard done by. I have sympathy for him. But that doesn't stop me from celebrating Max.

For me it's like watching an Aus vs NZ WC final and some well-set batsman getting a bad decision against him and ending up on the losing side. Tough luck, but life goes on.

I will be surprised if Mercedes go ahead with their appeal. Unless they can prove than Max specifically was running an illegal car or somehow made some illegal moves that affected the race outcome, I think they have no chance of overturning the result.

[FuelInjector]

Originally Posted by vinya_jag

Constructors dosn't count so much. No one remembers it as much as the Victor.

Not entirely true. Constructors use this to further their positioning and sales in new markets and new products (existing markets).
There is also a sizable money for constructors, to keep them motivated on coming back next year.

[motorworks]

Originally Posted by vinya_jag

Constructors dosn't count so much. No one remembers it as much as the Victor. It is more like a team winning the Cricket world cup, and the opposition team has a Man of the Series in them.

Looking at this, I wonder if Mercedes is able to really make use of this stat while selling cars worldwide. I know, Ferrari had the edge, when they sold more road cars back then, when they were winning.

No offence, but that’s a wrong analogy to start with. In cricket, no one actually remembers the man of the series or man of the match, it’s always the winning team that has recall.

In formula 1, probably constructors championship haven’t been so much spoken about since in most cases like you pointed out the driver and the constructor are from the same team. Exceptions being 2008 when Ferrari won the constructors championship whereas Lewis won the driver’s championship, and a similar scenario has played out this year.

And yes, car manufacturers do use the constructors championship as a marketing level! I remember Renault advertising in India as world championship winners when Redbull were having that phenomenal championship run. And I also believe Mercedes would surely but may be in a subtle way leverage constructors championship or even driver championships through advertisement campaigns involving their drivers and also for their performance division AMG.

[iamahunter]

Despite whosoever has won, accept the fact and move on!
The season is over, don't scrape out the charcoal at the bottom and spoil the taste of Biryaani!

Next, somethings that really need to change:

1. The inconsistencies throughout the season.
2. The team principals telling the race director what to do.
3. Finally, remove those coloured lines off the track and please put some gravel there!

[McLaren Rulez]

There is an absurd, insane alternate scenario that will go down in the what ifs of history but Hamilton could have taken Verstappen out by crashing into him and still won the championship.

I had some fun imagining this crazy, but surprisingly realistic scenario that could have happened on the last lap. Lets say Lewis and Max crashed during their battle on the last lap. 100% racing incident, no ones fault. Climbing out of their cars, I can see Max celebating, because the title was now in his bag. But would it?

Actually, it would depend on one seemingly small detail. Would Sainz be able to overtake blue-flagged Ricciardo in front of him before the end of the last lap?

Why is it important?

See, in this scenario Sainz would be the winner. He would have 8 drivers finishing on the same lap - P2 Tsunoda , P3 Gasly, P4 Bottas, P5 Norris, P6 Alonso, P7 Ocon, P8 Leclerc and P9 Vettel. The next question mark is Ricciardo. Masi didn't let Daniel unlap himself and therefore he finished the actual race just ahead of Sainz, almost being lapped by him. Now lets imagine 2 possibilities in the crash scenario:

If Ricciardo wouldn't be lapped by Sainz in this scenario, he would be able to start the final lap normally and just cruise to P10.

BUT if Ricciardo was overtaken by Sainz, guess what - he would be lapped and therefore not be able to start the last lap! And that means that Hamilton and Verstappen finished ahead of him, P10 and P11 respectively, because of the result of the penultimate lap classification! (I guess it works like that when multiple drivers both DNF on the last lap?)

Hamilton would get 1 point for P10 and Verstappen would get 0 points for P11 even though he had the fastest lap (the point doesn't count because he finished out of top 10).

It would have been an absolutely mental ending to the season. We could have seen first Red Bull and then Mercedes pitwall celebrating before Red Bull realizes the harsh truth that Hamilton still somehow managed to finish P10, get 1 point and win the championship! What a Interlagos 2008 flashback that would have been!

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/co...eb2x&context=3

[Akmal]

2021 F1 season was one for the tales. Mercedes's Turbo-Hybrid era dominance challenged by Max's audacious driving albeit in a slower car. We could not have asked for more twists, turns and dives in one season. Abu Dhabi race could not have been better scripted by netflix. There were speculations before the race if Sergio Perez would pull a Bottas's Hungary on Hamilton or something that may DNF the Silver Arrow. But it wasn't to be. Checo played it clean and how! Hamilton was a clear winner in this race with the spicy engine and brilliant Q3 run that gave him the advantage to start on the medium C4 tyre. On the hind side, Michael Masi could have red flagged the race when Latifi crashed, allowed both championship contenders to get a free pit stop and given us all 5 laps of adrenaline pumping, hands shivering and heart thumping race. Both teams would have had little to argue with that decision i'd imagine. But, to be honest, its easier to think of such options after the fact with the luxury of time. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Max challenging Lewis all throughout the season and there is much to love and admire about both drivers. Cant wait to see what they do in 2022.

[Ashishkel]

I think it was delivered to Max on a platter by Masi. It was very much unnecessary to restart. FIA has closed races on safety cars before. I think Masi was trying to prove a point, who is the boss. But whole deal sucked for Merc, but RB who had no chance on a race despite starting on top and trying different tyre strategy..

Max drove great, this whole year, in a good car, he has gotten better with his ethics and professionalism.
But Lewis did well to come back from behind and catch up with RB too. He too did deserve.

It would be sour, when things slip off like the way it did, it would feel unfair.

[Cyborg]

So it seems Mercedes could have a legal case because of Masi’s flip-flop over the lapped cars decision. First he said lapped cars would not be allowed to unlap themselves, then changed his decision.

He should have been consistent like the normal way and allowed ALL the lapped cars to unlap themselves, not only those between Hamilton and Vestappen, which could have finished the race under safety car conditions. This has a precedent too and could be grounds for a dramatic reversal. Of course all this legal wrangling will take its own course, let’s see the outcome.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formu...rs-f1-25700005

https://www.irishpost.com/sport/lewi...ighs-in-226335

Cheers

[ninjatalli]

This cross-set video of the last lap and the RedBull pit engineers is just fantastic!

https://twitter.com/F1/status/1470475861849640960?s=20

[lambodara]

Masi being in F1, race director and all, knew pretty darn well. Heck, even I knew pretty darn well that he is handing the win to car no 33. People here still are saying it was fair. Guys, you have to be a blind RedBull fan to say so. Even neutral people have agreed that what happened was not correct.
Any car in the top 5 with fresh soft’s would have beaten Lewis. And herein lies Merc’s case. The rules were twisted to achieve this. People have said they have not witnessed this twist of safety car rule since 1958 !
Merc’s calculation was accurate that the race will end under safety car. Why on earth would they pit? VSC they could have but still, as it was proved later, Max was still slower! And Max with absolute no fear (as he would have won if both cars crashed ) was dangerous to overtake and was a threat.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by vinya_jag

Constructors dosn't count so much. No one remembers it as much as the Victor. It is more like a team winning the Cricket world cup, and the opposition team has a Man of the Series in them.

Teams do value the the consturctors championship, otherwise why would Ferrari advertise 15 Drivers and 16 Constructors championship on the street where their F1 office is.

There is good amount of money involved too (in the millions), that's why Ferrari and McLaren were fighting tooth and nail for the 3rd place in constructors.

Besides this also gets them publicity and technology and for their street legal car divisions. La Ferrari is one such.

Man of the Series in Cricket is not a correct analogy really.

Mercedes letting Lewis pass Bottas is not new, any team who has a driver in the top 2 is going to do that. They (Mercedes) are so far ahead in the hybrid era that, they have the luxury to do team orders and still hold on to constructors trophy.

Even in a closely fought season like this one, their constructors trophy was in much safer spot than drivers mostly due to where Checo ended up finishing in most races.