[Cyborg]

Uncharted territory here, at one point the commentators said all the lapped cars have not unlapped themselves. If this was the case, then the safety car should not have ended till all the lapped cars were allowed to overtake. If the safety car would have gone for one more lap, the race would have completed under safety car conditions (it’s happened before) which would have made Hamilton the world champion.

I wonder if we have just witnessed a rule book infringement and if so, will this go to the court of arbitration and what will be the outcome.

Mercedes have filed a double protest, Lance Stroll, Daniel Ricciardo and Mick Schumacher were not given the call to unlap themselves, details below.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/m...sults/6878175/

Cheers

[Chetan_Rao]

Once the emotions settle down, what Hamilton did - to his ENORMOUS credit - is the least worst way out of this long-term. Swallow your pride and live to fight another day, just as Massa did all those years ago at Interlagos, the year of Singapore-gate.

If this ends up in arbitration, every future race & championship arguably will, because some rules (and situations they're applied to) will always be open to interpretation and whoever loses out will tie it up in arbitration instead of backing down and moving on. Who's to say this entire season's worth of contentious decisions won't become fair game to bicker about?

The pinnacle of motorsport deserves better stewardship (literally and figuratively), and F1 today has become a bit less of a sport and a bit more of a circus. What a crying shame.

[Mat095]

Epic Season!

FIA played their own little game this season and had been inconsistent throughout, although people had a perception that FIA always benefits Mercedes, that definitely changed today. Can’t even imagine what must be going on inside Lewis’ head but he handled losing a championship in a much better way this time compared to when Rosberg defeated him. Nevertheless, amazing driving by both the drivers throughout the season.

Expected some donuts for the Iceman, even though he didn’t finish would’ve been nice to see Vettel and Alonso doing donuts for their teammate and rival. Iceman did get the driver of the day though!

Perez and Bottas were definitely teammates of the year providing their support and slipstream to both their respective teammates all season, these two deserve as much credit as Max and Lewis for getting this result.

[SilentEngine]

What a comical way to end the season! If there's something consistent the whole year, it's the way how Masi has handled few things (or mishandled). No doubt he was in a tough position, and it’s not easy to make these quick decisions when a single decision can change the outcome of entire season result (and it actually did), but he has not been decisive enough. Lot of unnecessary interpretations of rules in last few races, not penalizing the drivers for the mistakes the first time (eventually setting a bad precedent ) etc, so many incidents.

Can’t believe it all came down to single lap, and down to race director’s decision!

Leaving other questionable decisions aside, the safety car ending at the same time when lapped cars were unlapping themselves, i don’t think I have seen anything like that before. Although from racing point of view I don’t think anything is necessarily wrong in that, but why only allow some cars and not all!

If he had not allowed any cars to unlap, no one could have questioned as he was well within his rights given there weren’t many laps left. I also believe the teams put unnecessary pressure on him (some of those calls from Horner and Toto are outright silly).

Anyway, whoever won the WDC, would have deserved it, so well done to Max. Good to see finally a new champion.

Sad see Kimi end his last race like that with a DNF. Did anyone notice he was leading the 'Driver of the day’ poll even after the DNF. Such crazy fans he has got (including me)

[shibujp]

That's it ladies and gentlemen. The curtains close on what has been a humdinger of a season. And what a close befitting the whole season especially the second phase.

I am sure that Michael Masi's decision to let some cars lap themselves would be debated, deliberated and then some. But it sure gave us a mega finish. And to be fair, it leveled the playing field. There were so many decisions through out the season that could have gone either way and decided the championship. It was a clean slate in the last race and then the slate was wiped clean again in the last lap. To be fair Red Bull was the team that played the start-ups game and Mercedes the enterprise game playing a no risk strategy. Which proved to be their undoing. It was all about maintaining track position which let Red Bull run riot on strategy and be prepared for any disruption mid race. And got it they did, and how.

Mercedes narrowly escaped Giovinacci's stop thanks to VSC but should have pitted Hamilton. With that rocket engine strapped on I am not sure Hamilton would have been kept behind for long.

What a defence from Perez! Amazing race craft and spatial awareness.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[speedmiester]

I am still trying to come to terms with the result of the race and the championship.
I don't care who won, I always routed for F1 as it's the pinnacle of motor racing.
I have cheered for Lewis as well as Max and for any racing action in track.
And I have rarely missed a race for so many countless seasons. I have sat through multiple procession of races with zero on track action and I will trade today's farce of a race to one of those boring races anyday.

After today's race, I am questioning myself, is this what F1 has reduced itself to, a scripted media spectacle?
I think this is what one can expect when a Media firm owns the sport.

All they need is controversy as it gets more eyeballs and chatter than actual sportmanship.

There is no surprise that Mercedes will go to courts on this.
Constructors will always lodge a protest if they feel there is a breach of regulations and Mercedes would have done it even if it's Bottas.

FIA and Masi cannot defend themselves by saying we needed some last lap action and not finish behind safety cars. That's not why regulations are there for. They are there to set an equal footing for teams and drivers involved.
Remember the 2009 championship, Brawn came out of nowhere to clinch both the championship because they benefited by interpreting the rules by utilizing the double diffuser. They didn't break any rules there.

I feel sorry for the future of this sport that I loved so much.
It's the drivers and the true fans who are the losers here.

Kudos to Max for winning the championship and for Lewis for great sportmanship and a for a nail biting season. Both of them had some tremendous races and both of them deserved the championship.

[eccentric]

If you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver.
- Ayrton Senna

Pic Source: YouTube

[ramsudhir]

That was a cracker of a season keeping us right on the edge of our seats all through. Both Max and Lewis drove beautifully making every race nail biting and down to the wire.

Eagerly waiting for the 2022 season to start. 2 months looks like a long wait. It will be interesting to see how the season unfolds with those new cars.

[SAK-XXVII]

Originally Posted by mayankk

but all inconsequential at the end. Or maybe not.

Definitely not. If it was not for Checo's masterclass, Lewis would have saved at least 4 seconds there and built a big enough gap to pit under the safety car and still retain the track position.

Now with all the protests, i dont think anything will change on the track. There will be an undisclosed agreement between the FIA and teams or some big money exchanging hands.

[Turbohead]

Originally Posted by eccentric

If you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver.
- Ayrton Senna

Attachment 2244468
Pic Source: YouTube

He took that quote quite literally today.

I'm a Max fan but Hamilton's drive today was incredible.

Checo was dope with his defence.

FIA really need to clean themselves up. Extremely inconsistent.

[McLaren Rulez]

Not sure what Mercedes expect as an outcome of their protests. They're not gonna change the race outcome - it would simply be too much of a farce if they did.

Well done to Max and Red Bull. Whatever you think of the battle, Mercedes and Hamilton certainly had worthy opponents this year for the first time in years!

[TheDarkKnight]

If the decision goes to CAS, they can supersede FIA’s decision and may decide to take the classification of the previous lap, with HAM in P1. That would just rob Max of the win and he had no role to play in this and would be gutting for him.

Whatever the decision is I would bluntly say that Micheal Masi should either quit or be replaced. Too many arbitrary decisions taken by the FIA and the Race Director, and all the more reason to have permanent stewards instead of a different joke of a panel every race.

If all they wanted was a duel to the finish line, they could’ve just Red flagged the race and then have a 4 lap duel to the finish.

Cheers.

[anb]

Found this on social media.

[adwaith]

Originally Posted by Cyborg

I wonder if we have just witnessed a rule book infringement and if so, will this go to the court of arbitration and what will be the outcome.

Cheers

Originally Posted by TheDarkKnight

If the decision goes to CAS, they can supersede FIA’s decision and may decide to take the classification of the previous lap, with HAM in P1. That would just rob Max of the win and he had no role to play in this and would be gutting for him.

Whatever the decision is I would bluntly say that Micheal Masi should either quit or be replaced. Too many arbitrary decisions taken by the FIA and the Race Director, and all the more reason to have permanent stewards instead of a different joke of a panel every race.

If all they wanted was a duel to the finish line, they could’ve just Red flagged the race and then have a 4 lap duel to the finish.

Cheers.

So according to this twitter source Mercedes have gone to the CAS. We might not have a decision for months probably.

So even the off season is going to be exciting, filled with a lot of hot takes and drama and what not. Good entertainment for us fans though. Might not even have to watch DTS to pass my time.

Hopefully, this leads to reform to have more uniform and consistent stewarding with less gray areas for teams to exploit with safety being of paramount importance.

I personally don't believe dive bombing or forcing your opponents out is clean racing nor is it safe. Max is an aggressive racer but this time around he's pushed it beyond the limits of what hard racing should be. Today's Lap 1 incident as well as the battery of incidents last week are mere testament to this. Brazil was another glaring example.

If something does come out of this, I guess Max has contributed to the safety standards of F1.

[PJ1987]

I still can't fathom the insanity that went on track in this cracker of a season. Really looking forward to 2022 and wish the REDS come up with a race winning car. If there's one thing that I want not to repeat from this season is the arrogance and dirty politics played by Toto and Christian. They both were really unprofessional and even treated the race director as their errand boy. Stop the unnecessary drama and let the best drivers duke it out on track.