Formula 1 Round 22 Abu Dhabi GP

Alright Mystic Meg, it was playing out as expected, the pace advantage was as I said it was. Verstappen had to lap a second quicker than Hamilton before the unpredictable safety car. Don't be an ass hat.

I think it is fair to say both have had decisions go for and against them over the season and that is racing. It will take someone better than me to try and work out has it balanced out - which is what everyone says happens, on the face of it I'd say it did.

I'm not best qualified as I can't describe myself as a neutral, I wanted Max to win.

It is annoying me on BBC Breakfast this morning, the narrative that they are pushing - basically that it was a farce and that Lewis was robbed. At least they had Eddie Jordan on who reminded them of the first lap incident. The main thing I took from his interview though was that he says "Safe-i-dee Car"

Agreed. Doesn’t at all seem like sport.

Maybe they should change rules where leading car maintains say 50 percent of his advantage..

Awful lot of armchair critics slating the race director. It is an extremely tough job, as well as a very dynamic and complex job.

shoulda done this, that, the other. What about this rule, that rule, his rule, their rule blah blah blah..

it is not an exact science, and you can bet no matter what the stewards and race director decide, they will still be slated by armchair critics.

The rules around safety cars are pretty straightforward but he didn't follow them. So now we end up in this mess with an appeal hanging over the result.

Is there anything in the rules to get the race result changed though? I don't think Mercedes really think they can win this one but what they can do is make sure someone is accountable and come next season then everyone knows what the rules are.

I'm neither a fan a massive of Verstappen or Hamilton. Both drivers have matured a lot, Verstappen has toned down the dangerous lunging (I know some wont agree) and Hamilton has learned to accept defeat somewhat overall he was gracious and while gutted congratulated Max.

Horner and toto are both dicks for the most part when things don't go there where and both are insufferable , but like a few have said I've felt Toto's anger outbursts are bad optics for the sport in general and need to be dealt with they are all too regular this year.

Enjoyed that race and think the right Driver won the championship this season eventually like him or loath him he was the best driver this year. Hamiliton showed that he had a lot of pace left in his tires but max positioned himself well to cover lewis once he got passed.

I do think they should clarify in the rules that where possible(unless serious safety concern) a race should not finish on a safety car and could be extended a lap or 2 to cover this.

This year has highlighted a few things that where probably left alone for far too long and need to be addressed going forward.

track limits -- are getting abused by all more and more ,either gravel traps or some speed restriction software to come into affect once so far off track.

race end-- race shouldnt end on a safetly car unless for serious safety concerns.

on track racing , not everything has to result in a penalty

Thought as much myself! Not Hamiltons biggest fan but it would have been easy for him to storm off and refuse interviews etc but he didn't and like you say was gracious in defeat.

Toto definitely has come out the end of this in a bit of a negative light for me especially after getting on the blower to Masi to not give a safety car when there was a vsc for giovanazzi I think was parked up? Really unsporting to be trying to coerce decisions from officials.

After sleeping on all this they really should have just red flagged the session when latifi binned it, it was always gonna be a majorly tight call to get the race restarted under safety car. That would have pacified everyone I think.

That's not at all similar. This is F1 not football so these "imagine if" stuff is pure nonsense.

Yeah, I think the closest comparison would be more like swimming. You are 15 metres from Olympic gold and suddenly they freeze your lane of the pool and by the time it thaws the others have caught up and have warmer fresher limbs.

Safety car has been around for many years - there is no entitlement to keep whatever lead you had built up once a safety car is deployed. A lot of people on this thread don't seem to understand that or are new to F1 and don't understand that part of it.

Imola? Hamilton binned it, was a lap down but a red flag meant he unlapped himself, repaired a load of damage and got new tyres, finished 2nd.

Silverstone? Puts Max in the wall, gets a 10 second penalty he had pretty much negated by the time he took it, win the race.

Hamilton has benefitted from the reset to 0-0 on several occasions.

Bahrain ? Hamilton ran wide at T4 29 times but as soon as others starting doing it they imposed track limits. Resetting the rules mid race to the benefit of Mercedes.

They are straight forward until masi was given the go ahead to wave the regs in order to restart under green flag conditions.

Ye will have to just get over it lads.

At this rate there will be no tears left when Merc lose out next year as well.