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!
They did touch…watch it again. Lewis was bumped.
The stewards, and Masi, are all part of Race Control.
Masi is RD, not a steward, stewards would have made that call?
Hamilton was on the same tyres since lap 14. In any race that’s a massive gamble, and unless you’re so far ahead that you can pit and retain position a safety car can pretty much destroy your race.
In fairness I think it wasn’t so much RBs strategy - they basically had one thing they could do - but it was Checos excellent work slowing Hamilton down that essentially forced Lewis to stay on his current set that put them in a position to win it.
Currently rewatching the race. Lap 34 and around this point I debated going to the gym…
To be fair, the criticism was that Max in Saudi drove Hamilton off the track by doing the same thing himself.
This time Max stayed on the track and while his move was aggressive it's nothing that we haven't seen before. It's hard racing.
The issue isn't so much that Hamilton should have had to give the place back imo, it's more that he clearly gained a lasting advantage that wasn't given back.
Another one of Masi's great calls, that.
Been watching F1 since I was a kid and I don't recall I've never heard F1 talked about in mainstream media so much
Red Bull have clearly acknowledged that, they got lucky that there was a safety car, Horner and Max both acknowledged that and I don't think anyone has ever said otherwise. But they did maximise that with superior strategy and superb race craft on the restart (it's absolutely possible to hold a car behind you for a single lap when your tyres are worn, as Perez showed previously - the result was in no way settled before the restart)
Red Bull lost about 70 points between Silverstone, Baku and Hungary. Mercedes also got hugely lucky with red flags at Imola - the red flag at Imola alone gained Hamilton 18 points while the safety car at Abu Dhabi only gave Max the opportunity to gain 7. Safety cars and red flags are a part of the sport and sometimes one team gets lucky and sometimes the other team does. In this case, for once, it was Red Bull who got lucky.
So they were fortunate that Latifi crashed, but once he did, the correct procedures were followed and Red Bull did everything right and made the most of the opportunity. And over the whole season the right man certainly won.
I have seen various people saying that Red Bull got their strategy perfect and Mercedes should have pitted Hamilton.
What was so incredible about RB's strategy when Hamilton was 12 seconds clear with 6 laps to go? Only a massive stroke of good fortune resulted in Verstappen winning.
I think we are in agreement that Hamilton should have given the place? That was my view of it anyway.
Horner said numerous times after and even once prior to the SC that Max need something from the racing gods.
Imola, Silverstone, Hungary in particular Lewis had huge slices of good fortune which are the only reason the title was on the line yesterday.
If Lewis didn't have that good fortune at say Imola he would be 10+ points behind yesterday at lights out.
As annoying as Toto is, I feel like there should be some acknowledgement by Redbull that this was a highly unusual lucky way to end a race, Iam a Redbull fan, but to act like they somehow deserved this win is a bit laughable, we could go back and forth about rules all day, restarting a race like that just for TV isn’t right, basically saying the other 99% of the race was irrelevant, let’s have 1 lap sprint with one driver having a massive advantage
Redbull are being just as petty as Mercedes’, kind of saying nah nah nah nah nah nah, we won, we’re the best.
Probably not, but any time Max has done something similar Mercedes and Race Control have asked for the position back.
I'm not sure how much time Hamilton gave up as it looked like he ended up 2 seconds ahead because of that and stayed at least that time ahead after.
Its another case of the rules not being clear and confusing but Mercedes benefitting this time.
Hopefully this is a wake up call to simply and clear up the rules.
Definitely the signing of the season.
He didn't bump him though, it was a lunge but he didnt touch him. Max also stayed between the white lines but Hamilton didn't.
All in all, it didn't matter in the end.
Probably because he didn't bump him off track? He made the apex, stayed on track, executed a perfect clean overtake. Lewis decided that instead of just conceding the corner he'd drive off the track, cut the chicane, and steal the lead.
For a change from pages of back and forth about rules and regulations, why not enjoy Checo's defensive masterclass backing Hamilton up 7 seconds in a couple of laps on old soft tyres
Max broke late but made a legitimate attempt to make the corner and stayed within the track.
Hamilton did not need to cut the entire run off and I’m doing so gave himself a lead of about 1.2 seconds as far as I remember
Other than lewis diehards I dont think anyone would bat an eyelid if lewis retired so this strawman about people not getting lewis out of their heads is laughable.
Mercedes have decided to prolong this as sore losers and trying to steal the championship via dubious legal challenges. Why cant they take their beating and celebrate winning the constructors championship and as a team show some sportsmanship and be gracious in defeat.
Imagine being a mercedes mechanic busting a gut all season and instead your team principle is crying and moaning about one driver and throwing equipment around the garage.
Toto - the wolff who cried like a boy😂
Just on lap 1 when Max made pass on Lewis, bumping him off track. Why did so many feel Max did nothing wrong, and that Lewis should have given the place up? Stewards decided the way I felt they should have. Max’s move, albeit skilled, was too aggressive. He interferes with Lewis.
He dropped back after that and was a full car length behind once they actually got to the line and started racing again. I suspect getting alongside Lewis was a mixture of mind games and avoiding the risk of Lewis brake testing him (which Hamilton has form for in the past with Vettel)
Mercedes did protest it and it was thrown out. It's not at all unusual for cars to briefly overtake each other behind the safety car as they speed up and down to warm up their tyres - as long as they're not ahead when they actually start racing again it's never been an issue.
On Perez he had a massive impact on the WDC over the season
Monaco: Overcuts Hamilton to 6th Place, Max wins
Baku: Doesnt alllow Hamilton to pass him all Race, and at the second start up, HAM goes long and ends 16th
France: Due to position makes Hamilton not go into pits, Max catches up, passes HAM and wins race
Silverstone: Took Fastest lap from HAM
Turkey: Perez defends and leaves HAM in 5th, Max gets 2nd
Austin: Makes HAM make a Pit Spot too soon to prevent undercut, Max wins
Brasil: Takes fastest lap from HAM
Abu Dhabi: Holds him up for 10 seconds making HAM skip Pit stops in order to not lose position.
All small in isolation but when you add them uo its a massive impact... expect him to have a nice bonus soon
He's a master of making his tyres last and is regularly in the kind of position he was this race - 10+ seconds behind but ahead on track if he runs long after the others pit. The difference in Abu Dhabi was that Red Bull asked him to completely compromise his race to slow Lewis. In other races he'd continue doing his own thing, which would likely have involved maintaining the gap he had ahead of Lewis for longer and probably pitting before Lewis caught up to him.
Red Bull have maybe been naive not using Perez in the way Mercedes used Bottas most of the season, but in the end it worked out. I don't think Sergio is the kind of driver who'd be willing to do that kind of thing race in race out, but he was happy to do it on this most important of occasions.
To move away from this a bit, its gone a little bit unnoticed what Perez did during the race. He was able to slow Lewis down by 6 seconds in one lap. That is absolutely amazing. You can see that if Perez was further up the field in more races, he would've played a bigger role in perhaps RB getting the constructors too.
They would have given up track position to Max. Just because he would have had fresher hards doesn't guarantee he'd be able to pass Max, who is more than able to make his car as wide as possible.
The real issue is the FIA have given the teams too much control into what goes on during the race. It's a pantomime.
Horner and Wolff are more famous than three quarters of the drivers that lined up yesterday. Horner has said he was roaring at Masi throughout and Wolff is a meme. That's no way to officiate things.
You can't hold minutes long negotiations in a sport where everything happens at literally 100mph. There's a million and one incidents that happen during a given race and to have teams whingeing incessantly is intolerable.
It may be good for the cameras and social media engagement but Masi/the race director and stewards need to reassert control over proceedings and not let teams rule the roost.
To casuals, three of the five most famous people in the sport are non-drivers. Four out of six if you include Ginger Spice.
Unsustainable.
FIA need to tighten up some of the rules and then tell the Toto and Horner to piss off and stick to principal-ing their teams.
Remind me: did Max pit for VSC and SC?
Question; lap 37 or 38 VSC should Merc have brought Lewis in for new hards, in anticipation for a possible late SC? Had Lewis fresher tyres on come lap 57/58, surely the challenge for Max is more difficult?
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