Championship showdown this weekend. Will Lewis win his eight title or will Max win his first? All will be revealed on Sunday.
TV Times:
Qualifying Live: 1PM. (Sky Sports)
Race Live: 1PM. (Sky Sports and Channel 4)
Bring! It! On!
If you put Max in that merc he'd probably win by 30+ points, phenomenal driver.
He didn’t wave them, as we found out yesterday Masi had the right to what he did anyway! Even before all the appeal rigmarole Rosberg called it and said the regs say in black and white that the RD has the final say on what can and can’t be done.
My honest view is a red flag would prob have been most appropriate but I don’t think Masi tried to screw anyone. No matter what decision he made someone was going to be p*seed so he done what he could to get atleast a lap of racing done, he tried to be fair and it backfired spectacularly!
That's Guillaume "Rocky" Rocquelin, Head of Race Engineering at RB. He used to be Vettel's race engineer back in the day.
The processes were followed in this instance.
If it had simply been a case of a safety car, and procedure was followed then tough luck Hamiliton.
In this case the RD decided to ONLY move the cars out of Max's way (not in the rules) and then decided to bring in the SC a lap early, also against process.
Max didn't just benefit by the safety car, he benefited from the RD deciding to mess with SC process specifically for Max's benefit. If proper process was followed, as it has been in the other instances, then Hamiltion is world champion. Thats the facts of the matter.
I must stress I was taking the piss.
These analogies with other sports are unbelievably tedious and irrelevant. Safety Cars bunching the race up and eliminating the gaps have been a fixture of Formula 1 for as long as anyone can remember, and are always to be recognised as a possibility by the teams. Mercedes left themselves incredibly vulnerable by not pitting Lewis despite having a couple of opportunities to do it.
I accept that it was unusual to only allow some lapped cars through. But that's it. This thing of a 3-0 lead in football being scrapped for next goal wins has absolutely no relevance here.
But that is just the luck of Motorsport and F1. A SC can mess your race up if you are leading or massively help you if you are behind. Thems the breaks and Hamilton has benefited from it in the past. Talk of his 11 second advantage being ruined should be discounted, it simply shouldn't be considered an issue. Its unfortunate, but that is all it is.
The real issue is how the RD directed manipulated the restart of the race against process to hand every advantage to Max.
Toto letting off some steam and Valtterri absolutely hammered. Fair play to them!
How do you conclude the RD brought in the SC a lap to early ?
When Hamilton wins, "he had a great drive".
When Hamilton doesn't win, "the team need to look at what we can do better".
SC comes in the lap after lapped cars unlap themselves. SC came in the same lap, therefor early. Had process been followed the race would have ended under the SC.
Adding that to the RD only getting the cars of Max's way - cause the guy in 3rd doesn't matter.... - its an absolute s-show from the RD that absolutely screwed Merc over.
So how come you're on here 1717 posts into the thread at 1:30 in the morning?
Reckon the stewards (not RD) decided that Hamilton had nowhere to go seeing as Max lunged up the inside and gave zero room on track for the other car. You're supposed to leave a cars width, yes? Very similar to turn 4 in brazil where Max's driving forced Hamilton to drive off track or crash.
Hamilton benefitted from SC or red flags earlier in the season. One of those red flags he caused. Thems the breaks
I disagree.. If "normal" procedures would have been followed, The backmarkers would have been able to unlap themselves in an earlier stage.... therefore changing nothing regarding the Lewis Max track position as it unfolded yesterday.
And Latifi is going to get a call to drive for one of the rebuild teams in the future
The question we have to ask is whether Masi would have taken the same action on the opening race.
He implemented a safety car procedure that has never been seen before. Basically saying lets have a shootout between P1 and P2 ... P3 nah you're not allowed to take part. Would he have done this in the opening race, if they were all three on 0 points ?
I think any reasonable person would say no, he wouldn't do it on the first race. He did it due to the championship circumstances, to create a final spectacle between Lewis and Max.
Anyone who agrees that it would not have happened on race 1 cannot logically support it occurring during the last race, or any race.
Very similar to T27 last week where they threatened Hamilton with a black/white flag.
No offence but I don’t care about your opinion. The deltas showed the speed that the three cars did over the last lap. Under blue flag conditions the FIA believe that Max would have caught Lewis. Like I’ve said, their official response implies this.
If Hamilton had known that they’d have got one lap he probably would still not have pitted. That would have handed Max track position and Lewis while faster on newer tyres wouldn’t have been guaranteed to pass him.
Sainz and Ferrari are not unhappy with the situation. You don’t need to be unhappy for them. You also don’t have to agree with this decision from the FIA but they’re using concrete data and facts that you don’t have access to. You’re basing your argument on your interpretation and opinion of the rules.
So.... it wasn't followed is what you are saying, then partially implemented... followed by the SC coming in a lap early. COOL. all utterly reasonable and fair.
Without those half points, Lewis would have been champion before we even got to Abu Dhabi.
And then people would be saying that Masi's decision to allow all the lapped cars past Vestappen to get Hamilton up his exhaust was flawed
I did not understand the reason why the backmarkers weren't allowed to pass, which would have been normal procedure, and something everyone was expecting, They messed up there I think and tried to correct this somehow by using their discrepancy...
Do you agree that if normal procedures would have been followed the outcome would have been the same ?
What everyone seems to be failing to recognise is that the cars that passed were also battling for position and some important constructors points. The RD’s decision was to “let them race”. Those drivers were able to scrap it out for one lap and so too were the leaders.
I get why some people think this is controversial. I agree it sets a precedent. However, it is not illegal that the RD, when faced with a completely unique situation, made a completely unique decision to deal with it.
I am happy to discuss the decision objectively. We can pull in the released statements from the FIA and dissect them in a non-biased manner but being bitter that Lewis lost is just stupid at this point.
Where are you coming up with this?
No ... Because that is the normal procedure.
No offence taken but the last lap ( assuming you are talking about THE last lap ) was not atypical, RB were on FRESH soft tyres, an ADVANTAGE was handed to them on a plate by removing the back markers between RB and MB, without that happening who knows what the result would have been
Except normal procedures would mean the safety car stayed out for another lap after the lapped cars over take.
So no, the last lap absolutely wouldn’t have happened as that would have resulted in the race finishing behind the safety car.
It wouldn’t have happened earlier as Masi deemed it was unsafe to do so.
Without the Mercs taking Max out on several occasions and all the other weird luck they had we would have celebrated a Verstappen world title months ago.
In a similar way that an advantage was handed to Merc after Copse and even after not forcing Lewis to return the place on lap 1. I agree that the momentum was firmly flipped to be in RBs favor, that doesn't make it illegal. And from the FIAs perspective it is defensible.
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