[sajands]

What a race, what a season...... No one could predict the season finale

Cant wait for Drive to survive to come out, netfilx team has lot to hard work to edit the last 2 races what content to fit in and leave out......

Special moment for Team Honda who worked hard to ensure that they had an engine that could help max.

What did I do, well.. I took whatever devices I could find at home, tab's, laptops, desktop and mobiles to make the votes count for Kimi as the driver of the day

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by rkv_2401

...they have to fight this out in court to preserve the integrity of the sport...

Let's preface this by saying Mercedes, and everyone else, have the right to argue their case in every and all relevant fora. There's no justice if it isn't accesible universally.

That said, there's no ONE obvious decision that would make everything fair and whole now, so whether 'sporting integrity' can be restored by a court is arguable, irrespective of what they decide. FIA made a mess, and undoing it by stripping a driver & team of a title earned over a season, not just one contentious race or incident, isn't any fairer than their decisions costing the other driver and team a title they would've deservedly earned too.

Within F1, sporting fairness would be post-facto revising the 2008 WDC classification once Renault were caught race-fixing, but if that had led to the WDC changing hands, would that be fair to either Massa or Hamilton? Neither McLaren driver should've arguably been in contention for the 2007 WDC after the car was disqualified from the constructor's championship. If either had eventually won, which they both came perilously close to, would it be fair to their competitors?

That's just two obvious examples based on known facts, without even getting into subjective interpretation of other contested incidents that affected races & titles.

There are plenty of examples in other sports where events and titles were decided on technicalities that flew in the face of sporting fairness. Look at cricket, South Africa 1992 and New Zealand 2019 come to mind.

The option to litigate specific situations is everyone's right, but it needs to be tempered by the possibility that it's a Pandora's Box capable of vast consequences beyond the immediate dispute. Once a precedent for off-track litigation is set, what happened yesterday will look like a schoolboy dispute compared to what will follow in the years to come.

Sporting integrity is not a black & white monolith, it sometimes involves drawing a line under a situation at some point even if you feel robbed, and moving on.

We'll see how this turns out, but it's naive to think 'sporting integrity' will be restored by litigating yesterday's events.


P.S. If I was the race director, I would've red-flagged the thing given the stakes, allowed lap cars through on the out lap, followed by a rolling restart for a 3-4 lap sprint with tire advantages neutralized. That would've been within the rules - even if unprecedented - and arguably fairer to everyone.

[CloudedQuartz]

This will be my first post on the forum, and i sincerely apologize for any errors.

To get this out of the way early, both Max and Lewis deserved the championship, and Max won it this time, regardless of the circumstances. He cannot be blamed for whatever happened, and he did his best.

Just looking at the end of the race, the FIA spectacularly crumbled. The regulations clearly state that either:
1. All lapped cars must be allowed to pass.
2. None of the lapped cars pass.

I have been following F1 for a long time and I have never seen only certain cars being allowed to unlap themselves. I will not make accusations as to whether this was intentionally to benefit a single driver, but it very clearly did benefit Max. At that point, with fresh tires and only a slight pace disadvantage, Lewis had no chance.

The possible outcomes of a crash such as Latifi's would have been:
1. Red flag
2. Race finishes under safety car
3. Race restarts with very few laps to go

Red Flag:
In this season, we have consistently seen the red flag brought out in situations like these, where a car is on/close to the track. Considering how close the car was to the racing line, this would have been an obvious choice. I simply do not understand why a red flag was not thrown.
From a competitive standpoint [NOT THAT THIS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED BY THE FIA WHEN MAKING A SAFETY DECISION], it would allow the title protagonists to have a 5 lap sprint to the end on equal tires, possibly the fairest outcome possible

Finish under safety car:
This would have definitely been controversial, as it would take away Max's opportunity to overtake Lewis at the end. However, this should not be considered when making a decision with regards to safety. Precedent has established this as a valid option many times over, but the urge to keep fans entertained is understandable (yet thoroughly irresponsible).

Finish under green flag:
This is obviously the preferred outcome, letting the drivers race. However, there were clear reasons why this shouldn't have been possible in this specific scenario, which I will attempt to explain. The fact that the FIA pushed through to get a race is at best an attempt to artificially manufacture excitement.

The lapped cars:
At first, it was announced that lapped cars would not be let by the safety car. This is/was hugely unprecedented, and almost never happens, barring extreme circumstances. This decision would have severely impacted Max's attempt to overtake, which would certainly have been unfair.
I do believe this was attempted in order to get to a green flag as soon as possible, to allow for one lap of racing at the end. The regulations do state that after the hazard is cleared, the lapped cars must be let by and after a reasonable gap is established, the safety car will come in and racing will resume.

I will try to construct an imaginary sequence based on this information:

End of lap 56/Start of lap 57:
- Latifi's car is cleared
- Lapped cars are given the signal to pass
End of Lap 57:
- Lapped cars have a safe margin, signal to end safety car is given

In this imaginary timeline, The race ends under safety car (lap 58)

Another alternative:
End of lap 56/Start of lap 57:
- Latifi's car is cleared.
- Lapped cars are not allowed to unlap themselves, and safety car is brought in
End of lap 57:
- Safety car is in pits, and there is one lap of racing action, albeit hampered with traffic.

Each of the above scenarios would have been in accordance with the regulations, with precedence establishing the first as more reasonable

However, what actually took place was utterly shambolic

In an effort to get racing started without traffic, the FIA allowed only certain lapped cars (the ones between Max and Lewis) to be let by.

This was/is unprecedented, and the only motive I can see (excluding overt bias) is the intent to manufacture racing without regards to competitiveness. Carlos (in P3) had to deal with multiple lapped cars, and thus couldn't challenge Verstappen for P2, practically handing the him the win, as he was up against Lewis on much slower tires.

I would like to close this by saying that i do not begrudge Max of winning the title. Both drivers were stellar, and absolutely deserved it. The reckless driving style allowed by the FIA is a debate for another day. However, the way the winner was manufactured was not only unfair, it also takes away from all that Max has done to be a legitimate winner. It is also scary to see how future titles may be so greatly influenced by F1's motive of generating excitement, rather than allow fair, competitive racing. Max deserved the title, but not like this, and seeing how the next generation of cars may be extremely close in performance, I can only hope that this mess is sorted out before another title is decided under dubious circumstances.

[AZT]

Mercedes are going all the way with this. They’ve hired the lawyer who got Man City out of the UEFA ban, one of the biggest sporting lawyers in the world. QC stands for Queens council which means a very senior lawyer in the UK.

[Kickdown]

Goodness gracious me! what a wild wild race. I still cannot fathom the amount of emotional roller coaster both teams would have gone through during the course of the race. WDC getting decided on the last lap of a race was unheard of. We wanted a close fight for championship and boy oh boy did we get one – more than what we asked I say and the most controversial one at that too .

Enough has been said about the decisions made on the day so I won’t get into that. Still, I can’t help but get this feeling that Micheal Masi gets a bit flustered at times and makes some shoddy decision. Wonder if Charlie Whiting would have made the same calls when he was the race director.

We will see what comes of the complaint that Mercedes have lodged but here’s a questions guys - what happens if those are complaint are considered legitimate and are upheld? Is there a chance that Max might have to relinquish his championship? That would indeed be sad.

Bring on seasons 2022 .

[fiat_tarun]

Originally Posted by amitku

Finally a conspiricy theory.

Why was Parez asked to retire the car at the very end..?? Was it that RedBull would have won both Drivers and Constructors Championship if Max and Parez were on the podium and Bottas down in 6-7...??
Was there a final deal stuck..? Mercedes takes Constructors Championship and RedBull the Drivers..??
Did Liberty Media Corporation play the Deal Maker..??

No conspiracy, Mercedes would have won even if Redbull had finished 1-2 with Hamiltion 3rd and Bottas 6th.

Perez's car was showing signs of imminent engine failure and Redbull didn't want to risk leaving him on track and extend the safety car period if his engine actually ended up failing.

[suhaas307]

For those saying it should have been red flagged after Latifi's accident:

A Red flag would have been triggered upon an impact greater than 25g thereby forcing the Medical Car onto the track.

This incident was not large or severe enough for a red flag scenario. It was not on the fastest part of the circuit. And all it required was a quick repair of the wall, a crane to pull out the car from the track and the Marshalls clearing the debris.

I had the same question, but it was later clarified by Vid6639.

[deetjohn]

Originally Posted by amitku

Finally a conspiricy theory.

Why was Parez asked to retire the car at the very end..?? Was it that RedBull would have won both Drivers and Constructors Championship if Max and Parez were on the podium and Bottas down in 6-7...??
Was there a final deal stuck..? Mercedes takes Constructors Championship and RedBull the Drivers..??
Did Liberty Media Corporation play the Deal Maker..??

LOL. No

These cars got so many sensors nowadays that the team really knows beforehand when a car is not going to last the distance. And the last thing Red Bull would have wanted is a stricken Perez retiring on the track and for the race to finish under the Safety Car. So, they retired the car for the track to remain clear for racing and give Max that chance for the attack.


And my feeling is that Merc will drop the appeal and will not pursue it. There is a new F1 champion and that is not going to change! Whoever thinks otherwise is just watching too much of that stuff on Netflix.

Merc has a decision to make - between one that is a PR disaster and another which gives the 2021 constructors champion the moral high ground! Lewis was gracious in defeat but Toto is not letting this go. This is what happens when you bring advocates into the pit wall for the final race of the season. Sigh!

Someone senior at Mercedes better talk some sense into Toto. Merc will do well to release a statement saying the team doesn't like the way those decisions were made, but they are not going to proceed with the appeal for the better of the sport. The team will do better to concentrate on 2022 with what is in store. Let's see!

[motor_breathing]

Fernando Alonso's epic reaction about the lapped cars not allowed to overtake, initial decision by the race control.

we have verstappen four cars behind us. yup and he should be two cars in front of me
Even though he gets along well with Lewis, i think old fox hasn't forgotten the politics of 2007 season.

[BlueFreedom]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

LOL. No

And my feeling is that Merc will drop the appeal and will not pursue it. There is a new F1 champion and that is not going to change! Whoever thinks otherwise is just watching too much of that stuff on Netflix.

Merc has a decision to make - between one that is a PR disaster and another which gives the 2021 constructors champion the moral high ground! Lewis was gracious in defeat but Toto is not letting this go. This is what happens when you bring advocates into the pit wall for the final race of the season. Sigh!

Someone senior at Mercedes better talk some sense into Toto. Merc will do well to release a statement saying the team doesn't like the way those decisions were made, but they are not going to proceed with the appeal for the better of the sport. The team will do better to concentrate on 2022 with what is in store. Let's see!

Utter incompetent decision making from Masi, I’m pretty sure neither Max nor Hamilton would like the WDC to be resolved in the courts.
It’s not RB or Merc who has made a joke of the rules it’s the inept Masi who has to be blamed with his flip flop decision making, how the standards have fallen. Charlie you are missed
I would say Toto should really drag this to the courts, FIA has not covered themselves in glory this year. If it goes to the courts I don’t know how FIA can defend this arbitrary and selective rules application which had such an impact on the WDC, this is completely on FIA not on RB not on Merc, this season was one of the best seasons in the recent memory only to be tarnished by incompetence of Masi, he should go

[Reinhard]

The season & the finale - reminded me of the 2008 Massa-Hamilton season a lot. Plenty of strategy blunders, accidents at worst possible points in the calendar for the protagonists.

It was a German Timo Glock with his really novice like last lap driving, letting Hamilton through, that resulted in Hamilton becoming the champ (well deserved too) back in 2008. It was Massa's horrendous pit-stop in Singapore that set the show-down back then.

This time - it was another German, Mick Schumacher - driving quite well, causing Latifi to end up in the wall after a duel which probably unsettled him a bit. This domino-ed into the last lap drama that unfolded. I'm inclined to think, the adventurous lung at Baku this year, is the one point that Hamilton might consider as a mistake that cost him the championship in hindsight.

Quite a high octane end to a really competitive season. Yes, some part of my mind as always feels if things were "managed" or "choreographed". But that's a feeling I have lived with since the mid 90s when I started following F1 as a kid. When there's a lot of money involved - things are going to be managed mostly. In my opinion, the complex task of race direction and stewardship was not carried out upto the mark this year. Too many fumbles, too many inconsistencies. It looked too random, too often. This takes away a lot of the glory and fun from such championships. I hope this gets fixed henceforth. Its farcical that such a rich & technically advanced sport actually has very vague rule-book that gets applied literally whimsically more often than not. Motorsport can generally be easy to police with rules. Strangely F1 is not . We have lots of appeals and re-appeals and what not.

Driving skill, pit crew efficiency & entertainment value provided throughout the season was fantastic, and thats worth the time spent watching.
Will be interesting to see what happens about these come the next season -
1. Cars of the new aero and specifications
2. 18" wheels (I don't like the visual effect of them in the F2 cars at least for now).
3. New team mates in quite a few teams.
4. Honda exit from RBR. Once again - Honda exits after powering a driver OR team to the top (BrawnGP deja vu).

Adios Kimi!

[beingtg]

As much interesting and epic this season was highlighting the sheer competitiveness between Lewis and Max and the respective teams, it has let the viewers and the drivers confused on the penalties and selective application of rules.

By dragging FIA to the courts, we might not see a change in WDC result but atleast they will realise they need a much more sensible team of stewards and racing director for proper implementation of the respective standards.

As much as I feel sorry for LH, Max Verstappen did have the upper hand for 75-80% of the season and LH did make an epic comeback unfortunately for all of that to be taken away like a joke.

The biggest winner of this season is Netflix ofcourse...

[Fiestaboy]

Race & season Summary:

Great race to watch. As a Ferrari fan, its neutral to watch the last lap changes.

We are all concentrating on only one side, "the stewards & race Director Masi".
Did we see how much radio messages go from Toto & Horner when there is an incident/ crash between the lead drivers? (all across the season).

In a tense environment like F1, with time running like anything, Stewards/ race director shouldn't be interrupted by Team Principals. If any changes need to be done in stewards policy, this should be the first. Stewards will do a better job, if Toto/Christian don't call them in mid-race.

In the prior VSC period, Toto was saying to Masi that safety car should not be brought in. As a team principal, I guess Toto lost his cool this year.
Why a team principal need to tell race team about safety car in mid of a race. Just because his car is in lead, he shouldn't be saying this.
Masi/ stewards bring safety car, only when needed. when was the last time we saw safety car brought unnecessarily? Come on Toto.

While I put equal blame on Redbull & Mercedes on forcing their views to stewards in multiple races (Silverstone, Italy etc.), at last they deserved what they get for putting up a good fight. (Merc - Constructor's & Redbull - Driver's). Some might disagree, but I am just sharing my views.


Take away/ lessons learnt from 2021:

1. Live to fight another day - Regardless of incidents, drivers should not go with "do or die" attitude & should follow - live to fight another day. If Hamilton/ Max had done this in Silverstone or Italy, title is theirs when they arrived at AbuDhabi or just cruising to few points would have been enough. Lewis says this often, but this year, even he didn't do it, when needed. (Italy / Baku race re-start aggressiveness in turn 1).
2. Never lose your words in anger or happiness - Horner told in last race that he misses Charlie Whiting now, due to penalties for Max. I am sure, he will be happy with Masi now & may be again unhappy in 2022.
3. Carry sportsmanship behavior, even if it is tough. Seeing Lewis shaking hands with Max yesterday, just shows that he is a real champ. I didn't expect that.
4. Team play is always important. - Checo proved that multiple times this year & last but not the least again in yesterday's race.
5. Never Give up - We don't know what the result will be until we are completely done. So always have hope & try until the last minute. RB were inferior in pace in last few races, still they didn't give up. How many times they did change their tyres, but at last it seems that that's one of the main factors for the win.
6. Note: As I said priorly, I am a huge Ferrari fan, but equally always look Toto as a sign of true "leader", but this year he had shown that even great leaders melt or show signs of crack under pressure.

[BlueFreedom]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

Let's get a few things out of the way:

I hope some of the objective Lewis fans realize that if Mercedes had strategized correctly, the need to approach the Stewards/Race Director/CAS would not have arisen.
.

To an extent Mercedes strategy was not aggressive but there was no need, Ham was cruising with the hards, Ham was leading which really put them in a tricky position, RB would have done the opposite of what Ham would have done.
Probably they should have brought in Ham when Giovanzzi crashed but even in that case he would have lost the position and it was a "safe" call from Merc no to pit, Ham demonstrated even with that hards he established a gap of 11 seconds isnt it ? Without the Latifi incident Merc were cruising, no one can anticipate an SC and VSC.
I would still say Merc were undone by dodgy rules application rather than their strategy

[parrys]

Originally Posted by iamahunter

Sir.Crybaby should really stop playing the victim card man!

Every time he notices things are not going his way, he will immediately be on the radio trying to set a narrative. Then the blind fanboys will simply PASTE it everywhere.

The only part I did not like about the race was Kimi's DNF.