2021 Formula One Season: Championship Decider Abu Dhabi - Verstappen Wins in a Controversial Race! 🏆 🍾

[DamoESP]

It would have finished under safety car, as he would be following the rules. There was no obsession with finishing under a green flag or letting only some of the lapped cars pass.

I suspect this may go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

If Charlie was still around, Hamilton would have had to actually give back the advantage he gained from the lap 1 incident, so who knows how the rest of the race would have evolved.

And also my understanding is that for it to go to CAS, all parties involved need to agree to do that, and I fail to see how the FIA will agree to go to CAS over this.

 

[Forward Press]

If Charlie was still around, Hamilton would have had to actually give back the advantage he gained from the lap 1 incident, so who knows how the rest of the race would have evolved.

And also my understanding is that for it to go to CAS, all parties involved need to agree to do that, and I fail to see how the FIA will agree to go to CAS over this.

Yeah, who knows. In the end I still believe Verstappen is the deserving winner, I was also inclined to think Hamilton should have let him back past in Lap 1.

I addressed the second point in subsequent posts, the ICA can choose to hear appeals from teams about adverse FIA decisions.

 

[Neale4brownlow]

So after taking some time im still pissed off about that ending. That was wrong jn so many ways. It's actually made me think if it's worth watching any more if they can just manipulate it to get a dramatic ending.

Just imagine if that was Danny ric in lewis's spot the majority of us would be alot more pissed than we are right now.

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Pretty hard to be unbias really as everyone is either a Lewis or Max fan (or pro or anti lewis).

As a max fan...

The accident happened with 5 or 6 laps left. If that happened in the first race of the year you 100% expect racing to get going again. It was a straight forward spot to clear a car. They cleared it in 1.5 laps from memory. Maybe 2 at most. The rest was final tidy up and answering calls to screaming team bosses.

There was ample time to let lapped cars unlap themselves as per usual procedures and get racing again.

But this was not a normal race. Redbull and Mercedes both badgering Massi from all angles. It would have been difficult to get it all sorted in a timely manner.

To go racing without clearing the lapped cars would have been a joke.
To finish the championship under a safety car would have been a joke.

They picked the only option left under the conditions they had. Clear the cars that were essential (cars between lewis and max) and get back to racing. The fact there was 1 lap left or 100 is irrelevant.

Its a similar situation to Norris losing to Lewis earlier in the year. The leader has no choice but to stay out, the guy in 2nd has no choice but to do the opposite. Its a coin flip. Perhaps in hindsight Mercedes would realise now that had they pitted for fresh tyres, max would have stayed out, and they could have been the one's on the phone asking for the race to restart. Do they really think the FIA would allow them to lose the championship in that scenario? Unlikely.

Lewis / Merc probably deserved to win that race. But Max / RBR deserved the drivers championship in my opinion.

 

[Neale4brownlow]

Does anyone know what happened to Perez? I found that really odd. Perez himself seemed confused by it.

Only thing I can think of is in the chaos he was actually ahead of Max in the safety car train? And they retired his car to get him out of the way for the race restart?

 

[DamoESP]

Never change Seb <3

 

[banzai]

Does anyone know what happened to Perez? I found that really odd. Perez himself seemed confused by it.

Only thing I can think of is in the chaos he was actually ahead of Max in the safety car train? And they retired his car to get him out of the way for the race restart?

There was talk that they deliberately short fueled him so he would be faster during the race. Not a bad tactic if it's legal.

 

[DamoESP]

Does anyone know what happened to Perez? I found that really odd. Perez himself seemed confused by it.

Only thing I can think of is in the chaos he was actually ahead of Max in the safety car train? And they retired his car to get him out of the way for the race restart?

 

[Neale4brownlow]

Fair enough. That makes sense I guess. Constructors wasn't in play for them anyway.

Perez might be a bit peeved though. He'd put together a pretty good race considering he was just used as a defense tool the entire race.

 

[OldBlueFan]

I have to say that Horner certainly kept his powder dry despite some outrageous decisions. And yes, he did have the occasional blowup.
But Toto, didn’t take much to light his fuse and the results were always spectacular. That’s what happens when you’ve had it all your own way for close to a decade.

Came here to post exactly this. For the first time in the hybrid era Mercedes haven't had it all their own way this year and Toto's behaved like spoilt brat.

Say what you want about the final stages of this race, but the overall result was definitely fitting. Max has been the best driver all year, it would have been robbery had he not won the championship.

 

[Forward Press]

They picked the only option left under the conditions they had. Clear the cars that were essential (cars between lewis and max) and get back to racing. The fact there was 1 lap left or 100 is irrelevant.

Not really fair on Sainz and the other drivers still racing for position, though, that still had their own lapped cars to deal with and were still fighting for points.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with finishing under a safety car - it has happened loads of times before. It has even happened this year.

 

[Not Important]

Haven’t watched it yet.
Only have one question.

What would Charlie have done?

not have removed all the cars between hamilton and max thereby handing the max the title. even daniel can't work out the logic.

by no means a hamilton fan but he was robbed. anyhoo, benz will suck it up due to the adverse publicity of taking it further.

 

[jabba5114]

not have removed all the cars between hamilton and max thereby handing the max the title. even daniel can't work out the logic.

by no means a hamilton fan but he was robbed. anyhoo, benz will suck it up due to the adverse publicity of taking it further.

But they admitted he got ahead of lewis as well under safety car.

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[DamoESP]

I have to say that Horner certainly kept his powder dry despite some outrageous decisions. And yes, he did have the occasional blowup.
But Toto, didn’t take much to light his fuse and the results were always spectacular. That’s what happens when you’ve had it all your own way for close to a decade.

Just enjoy the melt Though, there is a severe lack of headset smashing this time

 

[Loonerty]

So after taking some time im still pissed off about that ending. That was wrong jn so many ways. It's actually made me think if it's worth watching any more if they can just manipulate it to get a dramatic ending.

Just imagine if that was Danny ric in lewis's spot the majority of us would be alot more pissed than we are right now.

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It very easily could have been Verstappen in Lewis' spot too, had Mercedes opted to pit him.

 

[jabba5114]

It very easily could have been Verstappen in Lewis' spot too, had Mercedes opted to pit him.

And I would be annoyed at that too. Loke I've said before dislike both those two teams, team bosses and drivers equally.

It was a bad call. If they wanted to have a final showdown red flag it. Lewis can change his tyres as well. He's been allowed under red flags before. Have a 5 lap shoot out on equal tyres.

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[FRUMPY]

as contrived a finish as you'll see but thats what sport is these days - governed sporting bodies doing their all to get what they want - headlines and media attention. They also got a new world champion - good media coverage. Next year will be about this last race and will hamilton get his revenge - again good media coverage.

 

[Fade]

Just enjoy the melt Though, there is a severe lack of headset smashing this time

Merc are such an entitled bunch. A meltdown for the ages

 

[Loonerty]

And I would be annoyed at that too. Loke I've said before dislike both those two teams, team bosses and drivers equally.

It was a bad call. If they wanted to have a final showdown red flag it. Lewis can change his tyres as well. He's been allowed under red flags before. Have a 5 lap shoot out on equal tyres.

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Oh, that's what I mean. There are people here somewhat defending it because it benefited Max, but would be outraged if it went the other way I'm sure.

At the end of the day, that race was just a disaster from race control.

 

[Satan]

Waiting for Germany to recall ambassador from Australia

 

[skam85]

Not really fair on Sainz and the other drivers still racing for position, though, that still had their own lapped cars to deal with and were still fighting for points.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with finishing under a safety car - it has happened loads of times before. It has even happened this year.

Nine races in the history of F1 have finished under the safety car. Zero in 2021.

 

[Forward Press]

Nine races in the history of F1 have finished under the safety car. Zero in 2021.

2021 Belgian Grand Prix - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[StrappingTape]

Not if they pitted, they’d all be in the same boat.

huh, not allowed to refuel so that doesn't work?

 

[skam85]

2021 Belgian Grand Prix - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

That race was red flagged. They peeled into the pits and there wasn't a chequered flag waved.

"During the third lap, the race was suspended again and was not resumed."

 

[Forward Press]

That race was red flagged. They peeled into the pits and there wasn't a chequered flag waved.

"During the third lap, the race was suspended again and was not resumed."

Mere technical distinction as there were no laps completed under green flag conditions and the safety car was out from beginning to end.

In any event, there is nothing in the rules forbidding a safety car finish.

 

[StrappingTape]

There was nothing contrived about it, there was simply no way that at that circuit it was going to take the remaining laps to move that car, at most it should have been sorted in 3. Massi's * up was not releasing the back markers when he originally was going to. It would have been a absolutely ass fisting to Red Bull to NOT remove the lapped cars and the first time that'd ever happened since the rule was implemented, they just had to let them piss off into the distance and not completely unlap themselves. RBR Made their decision to pit knowing that they'd be back out in time to be right back behind lewis on new tyres because he hadn't pit, if they'd known that race control was going to out of nowhere even contemplate not pissing off the lapped car they'd have left him out with the hards he had at half age with the advantage they got by pitting twice just in case something like this happened. He'd have sailed past him just a bit later than he did on a restart with the tyres he was on let alone the softs so to me the whole argument is moot, Mercedes ****ed their strategy by being too conservative.