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

[Herne Hill Hammer]

That’s the whole reason it was a bullshit call. It was intentional to make sure it was interesting. I don’t have a foot in either camp but surely anyone without their head up their ass can see that it was setup to have them both racing neck and neck for the final lap. There’s no way they were letting it peter out and finish under safety car. But it should have, thats sport. Sometimes you don’t get the match winning stoppage time goal to win the champions league, sometimes sport is “boring” in the way it ends.


The question is, would they have done that at the end of race 1? No. They would’ve made the safety car go round again. Zero consistency and integrity. Their eyes absolutely lit up at the salivating finish on offer. I’m not pissed at the result, just at the corporates laughing all the way to the bank on the back of taking away what we love about sport the most, the unpredictability.

Your second paragraph doesn't make sense. Letting the cars finish under safety would have been the consistent/ predictable thing to do. The officials chose the unpredictable thing.

 

[ptrg]

Your second paragraph doesn't make sense. Letting the cars finish under safety would have been the consistent/ predictable thing to do. The officials chose the unpredictable thing.

Not so true given the teams have previously this year agreed the preference is to finish under a green flag.
If Merc agreed to this, then it's the predictable thing to do.

 

[Saint Shags]

Who’s the company that now owns F1? Liberty Media? Of course they would’ve pulled strings to allow it to be a fierce 2 car battle for the title on the last lap. Good decision, an entertainment decision

The real question is, is F1 entertainment or a sport.
Letting only 4 cars unlap themselves just screams of fixing the race.
Got no love for either driver, but that in my eyes was yet another stuff up by officials.

 

[Bedi]

Take it to the courts I say. Total farce of a finish.

 

[ptrg]

We hear "just let them race" so often - but if this isn't the perfect example of the FIA doing exactly that, then what does it even mean when teams (including Merc) and their drivers say it?

They obviously meant, "let them race, except in this one case, despite even earlier in the race is demanding that the VSC and not full Safety Car be deployed to allow them to continue to race"

 

[darth_timon]

Whether you agree with the decisions today or not, I think F1 needs to take a long hard look at how they enforce the regs. They need to be more consistent.

 

[StrappingTape]

Also max and his engineer had resigned themselves to the lapped cars staying between for the restart.
You could hear max and his engineer saying he knew that would be the decision.
Then next minute they are gone.
Two things that could help here
Lapped cars could just slide back to their position and be “unlapped” there’s really no need to send them the whole way around surely?
Also laps under after cars shouldn’t count.
There would have been 4 genuine racing laps at the end to decide.
More than happy to have Max win.
Complaining about this is like complaining that one free in a footy match decided the game.

They were being sarcastic because it was completely unexpected that the lapped cars were not being moved for the restart. They had pitted from an already dominant restart position (way newer tyres) to have an even better advantage because Mercedes didn't pit under the vsc earlier, all based on the normal functioning for a slight incident like that for the backmarkers to be moved.

You can't not include those laps either because they'd all then run out of fuel some races if there were multiple safety cars.

 

[Sixpence]

This title race was like the Richmond v Geelong GF, didn't really want either campaigner to win but I guess one had to. Neither driver/team has been overly graceful this season.

Ultimately, Ham lost it the moment Latifi put it in the wall. It was a lose lose situation for Mercedes strategy wise. Came blame them for leaving him out. If they brought him in, Max and Perez would have stayed out, making it impossible for Lewis to overtake both in a lap (weren't to know Perez would retire) and no guarantee they'd get back to racing.

First lap, Max made the corner, Lewis didn't. Should have given the position back.

Safety car handling was a joke. Lapped cars should have been either let through earlier (Max wins) or ALL lapped cars let through at the end, which would probably mean the race finishes under safety car (Lewis wins). It's then up to the discretion of the race director to deem the most appropriate timing. I think fans in general would be happy in either case. Letting just 5 cars through isn't discretion, it's contriving a result. Poor handling.

In any case, I'll be surprised if Williams still have a Merc engine next year!

 

[Wargreymon90]

So it’s not only the AFL who bends the rules to manufacture results?

 

[Coasters7]

Your second paragraph doesn't make sense. Letting the cars finish under safety would have been the consistent/ predictable thing to do. The officials chose the unpredictable thing.

Unpredictable in that it’s unpredictability is independently decided by the competitors and weather. Not by officials ignoring their own guidelines. Of course it has to be “predictable” when it comes to the rules, or else why have them at all

The race was over if the rules were followed, thats sport. You don’t bend rules to make the ending more exciting because it devalues the genuine magic moments in all sports. You end up questioning whether it was greatness, or just contrived for views and an entertainment product.

This is like the AFL coming out with a minute to go in the grand final where a team is 20 points up and saying the scores are now level for the final minute.

 

[Ghost Patrol]

Hahahahahahaha poor Lewis

 

[Underarm]

Ultimately, Ham lost it the moment Latifi put it in the wall. It was a lose lose situation for Mercedes strategy wise. Came blame them for leaving him out. If they brought him in, Max and Perez would have stayed out, making it impossible for Lewis to overtake both in a lap (weren't to know Perez would retire) and no guarantee they'd get back to racing.

First lap, Max made the corner, Lewis didn't. Should have given the position back.

Safety car handling was a joke. Lapped cars should have been either let through earlier (Max wins) or ALL lapped cars let through at the end, which would probably mean the race finishes under safety car (Lewis wins). It's then up to the discretion of the race director to deem the most appropriate timing. I think fans in general would be happy in either case. Letting just 5 cars through isn't discretion, it's contriving a result. Poor handling.

I think the FIA were in an impossible situation. The rules are loose for a reason, but it meant in the scenario either decision they made guaranteed a win for either driver.

Having said that this is just one race. There have been countless controversial incidents all season - flip one of those decisions to rule in Hamilton's favour and he wins the championship.

 

[Sixpence]

I think the FIA were in an impossible situation. The rules are loose for a reason, but it meant in the scenario either decision they made guaranteed a win for either driver.

Having said that this is just one race. There have been countless controversial incidents all season - flip one of those decisions to rule in Hamilton's favour and he wins the championship.

But the rules aren't loose, you simply cannot let just 5 cars unlap themselves. Imagine you're the 6th lapped car battling the 5th, they get let through and you don't, you'd just been robbed of a chance for an extra place. Fans may not care about middle order teams, but for them the consequences can be significant.

It wasn't an impossible situation. If the RD didn't feel it was safe enough to let them through earlier, then the correct choice is finish the race under safety car. If it was safe to let them through earlier than make that call and stick with it. Don't half ass it like he did.

 

[lionbear]

Sadly the FIA mustn't have realised that Lewis had 25 old lap hard tyres while Max had 5 lap old soft tyres.

Tried to create a race, but Lewis was never going to be able to hold him back with that much difference in tyre.

Bad call, wrong call, but you cant change it.

Well done to Max, but it certainly is a massive error that has cost Lewis becoming an 8 time world champion.

At least with George Russell as his team mate, if he gets his 8th, he is going to earn it.

 

[Achy Blakey Heart]

Sadly the FIA mustn't have realised that Lewis had 25 old lap hard tyres while Max had 5 lap old soft tyres.

Tried to create a race, but Lewis was never going to be able to hold him back with that much difference in tyre.

Bad call, wrong call, but you cant change it.

Well done to Max, but it certainly is a massive error that has cost Lewis becoming an 8 time world champion.

At least with George Russell as his team mate, if he gets his 8th, he is going to earn it.

Max should have won it even finishing second, if the rules at Silverstone were adhered to correctly. They wern't and Lewis was able to win as a result with no penalty.

 

[DamoESP]

hahaha yes

 

[StrappingTape]

Sadly the FIA mustn't have realised that Lewis had 25 old lap hard tyres while Max had 5 lap old soft tyres.

Tried to create a race, but Lewis was never going to be able to hold him back with that much difference in tyre.

Bad call, wrong call, but you cant change it.

Well done to Max, but it certainly is a massive error that has cost Lewis becoming an 8 time world champion.

At least with George Russell as his team mate, if he gets his 8th, he is going to earn it.

If they were going to throw out all precedence and not move the backmarkers then red bull wouldn't have pit and they'd still have driven straight past hamilton with hards half the age of his. Mercedes were screwed in that scenario because they didn't take new tyres when red bull did and the gamble paid off for this exact scenario. He could have pit and given up track position and max would have stayed out and then been the one on softs and passed him but they kept playing it safe and got burnt. There's no way that safety car on that minor incident was going to last until the end there, it's a new track made for clearing things quickly and mercedes knew they were ****ed hence the pleading and sooking.

 

[Coasters7]

But the rules aren't loose, you simply cannot let just 5 cars unlap themselves. Imagine you're the 6th lapped car battling the 5th, they get let through and you don't, you'd just been robbed of a chance for an extra place. Fans may not care about middle order teams, but for them the consequences can be significant.

It wasn't an impossible situation. If the RD didn't feel it was safe enough to let them through earlier, then the correct choice is finish the race under safety car. If it was safe to let them through earlier than make that call and stick with it. Don't half ass it like he did.

This is what a lot of people are missing. Ultimately it was still a 20 driver race and they effectively threw out the entire integrity of the race in favour of marketing. What if that sixth car needed to hit some sort of KPIs and were robbed of a legitimate end from their point of view. It’s not solely about who wins. There’s careers and all sorts at stake for other positions on the grid.

You can’t just be f*cking around with the order of the race just so the 1st and 2nd can have a shootout. If that’s the case I don’t know why anyone else showed up. Just have Ham, Bottas, Checo and Max go at it

 

[Ugene41]

We hear "just let them race" so often - but if this isn't the perfect example of the FIA doing exactly that, then what does it even mean when teams (including Merc) and their drivers say it?

They obviously meant, "let them race, except in this one case, despite even earlier in the race is demanding that the VSC and not full Safety Car be deployed to allow them to continue to race"

Let them race means letting all the driver's race. Not just Verstappen and Hamilton. Why was Ricciardo stuck behind Verstappen and unable to unlap himself? Why wasn't Carlos allowed to be right up behind Verstappen and maybe he could've dive bombed inside and gotten second or even gone for the win.

Letting only the cars impacting Verstappen get out of the way is farcical

 

[Neale4brownlow]

Race is over. Boring.

Might as well go to bed.

This aged poorly.

 

[Neale4brownlow]

Wishlist. They both spin out on the 50th lap and have to go for fastest lap to snap the point, or a 1v1 on the final lap. Give us a good finish

You got your wish :O

 

[Neale4brownlow]

In theory Latifi just won Red Bull and Verstappen the championship

Technically he was fighting Mick ( I think) and went off into the dirty line while trying to pass him, which cooled or dirtied his tyes, and he went off a couple corners later.

..... So... the Mick prophecy was correct?

 

[Forward Press]

Well, that was a race.

Verstappen and Red Bull are deserving winners. Hamilton and Mercedes will feel hard done by. From what I've seen and read, both drivers have been gracious and sporting and at least it wasn't sorted by a crash - unfortunately it was sorted by a bewildering safety car directive.

I think we can all agree that Michael Masi can GAGF and that race direction and steward rulings must be reformed during the off-season.

It's been a pleasure posting with you folks over the year. Onwards to 2022!

 

[Acinath]

Also max and his engineer had resigned themselves to the lapped cars staying between for the restart.
You could hear max and his engineer saying he knew that would be the decision.
Then next minute they are gone.
Two things that could help here
Lapped cars could just slide back to their position and be “unlapped” there’s really no need to send them the whole way around surely?
Also laps under after cars shouldn’t count.
There would have been 4 genuine racing laps at the end to decide.
More than happy to have Max win.
Complaining about this is like complaining that one free in a footy match decided the game.

You’d get major issues with fuel if Laos under safety car didn’t count

 

[Neale4brownlow]

Because the rule states that only once the last lapped car passes the leader, the safety car pits the end of the following lap? So the last lapped car doesn’t unlap, only 5 random cars between the first two cars, and safety car coming in when it shouldn’t have?

I havent checked the exact wording but if it's along those lines its ambiguous.

The 5th car was the last lapped car permitted to unlap itself. The rest were not.

When the 5th car had unlapped itself, the safety car came in.

Regardless, theres no way they'll overturn the outcome.