Formula 1 2021 - General Discussion Thread (Read 1st post rules)

After all the twists and turns this year, Mercedes as WCC and Verstappen as WDC is definitely the right outcome as best machinery and best driver come out on top respectively, and all the incidents and controversies earlier in the season can now be put to bed.

Does anyone one want to give the most casual of casual fans (I might watch 1 race a year) an "Explain Like I'm 5" as to why this season was so controversial, and why this race itself was controversial?

Usually it would be safety car lapping until the accident has been resolved, everyone unlaps themselves, when a big enough gap or all unlapping cars are at the end of the pack again safety car comes in, usually a lap later.

This time it was first announced no unlapping what meant Lewis world championship, then only a handful drivers unlapping while safety car came in the same lap what handed the championship to verstappen. Let everyone unlap would have meant no more racing and Hamilton wins.

All got more controversial as you could hear the team bosses intervene to the race director who changed his stance or the outgoing information.

Overall it feels as FIA crowned the champion by picking, choosing and bending rules as they felt like. This inconsistencies have to stop. Or don't broadcast the whining of highly paid exec's to a global audience on the most important race of the year.

Although marketing might say, there is no bad news.

Everyone has, I think we heard Budesca once talking to Masi.

Is there any reason why they don't sort out the lapped cars while they are lapping behind the safety car. It would be so much easier to have the cars shuffle about behind the safety car rather than making them pass everyone and then wait for them to catch up with the rest of the pack.

TAlk about a sore loser. What handed the WDC to Verstappen was Red Bulls brave strategy unlike Mercedes who played it safe. Max and Red Bull were on the right tires at the right time Lewis and Mercedes were not simple as and maybe a bit if Luck but Lewis had luck at the beginning of the race so you can not have it all your own way. I would call that Karma. I am glad it did not end under the safety car or it would have been one of the lamest races in decades.

There's no quick and simple explanation, it's been building up for months.

The first half of the season was pretty uncontroversial and Verstappen built up quite a big lead in the championship with numerous race wins. Then, after losing 5 races in a row, Hamilton was extremely desperate on arrival to his home race in Silverstone. On the first lap he was in second place behind Max and coming into one of the fastest corners on the calendar he didn't brake on time or turn into the apex and instead clipped Max's rear wheel, putting him out of the race and into hospital. He was given a ten second penalty for this, but given that Hamilton and Verstappen are comfortably more than 10 seconds ahead of everyone else at every race, this meant he could still win the race easily and in one fell swoop he gained more of a points swing by taking his rival out than Max did from multiple clean race wins. Hamilton went on to celebrate and run around waving a union jack while doctors had not yet concluded their tests confirm Max hadn't suffered a traumatic brain injury. Red Bull took major offence at this, and Lewis has also been booed by the fans at nearly every race since then.

In the following race Hamilton's teammate caused another crash and put Max out of the race again, which turned a large championship lead for Verstappen into a lead for Mercedes over two races thanks entirely to Mercedes' bad driving, and there was a huge amount of animosity between the teams thereafter with the team principals taking a lot of pot shots at each other.

Verstappen took the championship lead back after those setbacks with another series of wins and was leading the championship again going into the final few races, but Mercedes introduced a powerful new engine at Brazil which really turned the championship around. At this point the Mercedes was significantly faster, but Max had managed on a number of occasions to get ahead of the faster Merc with quick race starts and then hold it behind, which was his only real option to win races. On a couple of occasions, once in Brazil and twice in Saudi Arabia, Max was ahead of the faster Mercedes and in his determination to stay there he outbraked himself and went off track. On all three occasions no contact was made, and in all instances Max ceded the position to Lewis soon after and Lewis won the race in question, but after each race Hamilton started making incendiary statements in the press about what a dangerous driver Max was, which became the narrative that the British media ran with.

This led up to the final race, where the press was full of wall to wall articles about how dirty Max was and how he was going to take Lewis out, even though they had no basis on reality. Max for his part just turned up and drove hard and fair and took the lead from Lewis in the race, which Lewis promptly took back by completely ignoring a chicane and taking a massive shortcut. As mentioned previously, the Merc was faster and the only tool in Max's arsenal was getting in front at the start then staying there, so once Lewis regained track position illegally like this the championship was effectively over as he pulled away and Verstappen had no answer.

This all turned on its head 5 laps from the end when Latifi crashed. There was no option but to put a safety car out. This allowed Max to close back up on Lewis as they bunched up. However, a number of lapped cars were in between him and Lewis. The rules state that backmarkers are always allowed to pass the safety car, such that the cars are in racing order without backmarkers between them. However, for unknown reasons, the FIA made the bizarre announcement that backmarkers wouldn't be allowed past on this occasion. This departure with precedent would guarantee Hamilton the championship as it would be impossible for Max to pass all those cars and catch and pass Lewis in the time remaining. The FIA then reversed this decision one lap later and said backmarkers would indeed be allowed past as normal, much to Mercedes' dismay. What followed was one single racing lap after the safety car went into the pitlane. Verstappen overtook Hamilton cleanly on this lap and won the championship. Mercedes then lodged an appeal, asking for the race result to be overturned, because they identified a technicality saying "all backmarkers should be allowed through" while only five of the seven backmarkers were actually allowed through (the others were further back and not relevant to the race at the front)

The FIA threw out this appeal on the grounds that the rules state that the race director's decision regarding safety cars is final and the priority is to get drivers racing again as soon as the track is safe, which is what they did.

Ultimately Mercedes feel hard done by because of the safety car not being run to their liking, while Red Bull have felt hard done by all season by multiple cases of their driver being taken out and a multitude of other incidents throughout the season I haven't mentioned such as Mercedes running an illegal flexible wing in Brazil and the pitstop rules being inexplicably changed mid season to slow Red Bull down after they won in France with faster pitstops than their opponents.

With all said and done, the fastest car won the constructor's championship and the best driver won the driver's championship and the rest will eventually be forgotten.

I don't think Mercedes would have agreed in this particular race to go green again.

Overall it needs a regulation like other series have it that ensures green light racing at the end. Might it be red flagging or extending the race distance.

It was great to see another winner in the sport this year with Ocon.

There is technically no reason why they couldn't rejig the order under safety car instead of having to unlap drivers. The reason they don't do it is because the current rules and timing software don't allow for it.

There have been many instances in past where safety car has stayed out way too long after the track being clear to let people unlap and catch up to tail.

Fair play, you weren't far off.

There is a clear difference between what happened on the first lap and what happened in the last lap. One was a perfectly valid overtaking maneuver where the defending driver simply drove off track to keep position. The other was a selective application of rules to a certain number of cars based on their position on the track.

Is it normal that they would only allow the cars between Max and Lewis to unlap themselves to allow Max and Lewis to fight?

I know it's been established that the rules allow some cars to unlap themselves but is there precedent for limiting it to the cars between the front runners only to facilitate them racing and nobody else?

Show me where I said that it should be Toto's call? The race director can over-ride any rule he wants, but no race director in the history of this sport has set up a scenario like this, where the rules only apply to specific cars, at specific times, at a specific race, with the championship on the line.

Since your such a fan, what would you have done in the situation?

This.

The optics on leaving it so late weren't great.

He couldn't as there were marshalls still on track at turn 14 sweeping up the last bits of the Latifi debris. You could see that from the onboards.

Any audio of that I would love to hear it?

They cannot release the lapped cars while marshals are on track as drivers may well be moving too fast when they approach marshals so that is a complete nom starter.

They cannot just shuffle the lapped cars backwards into correct order as then they will be a lap down on restart whereas traditional safety car brings everyone back into play in a snake behind leader and not a lap down. I would vote for a change there to allow drivers who were lapped to stay lapped and shuffled backwards but rules at the minute don't allow it.

The current rules do add to excitement. Button in Canada 2011 for example stopped about 6 times after punctures and damage and won the race. Safety car bringing him right back into the running.

I think they could possibly have red flagged this race. For that to be fair though I think they should ban tyre changing during red flag situations.

I'm finding most of your posts on the whole debacle laughable, and the best part is, I can actually imagine you flipping out if the roles were reversed yesterday and you'd have Masi lynched.

I'm delighted Max won the championship, I really don't like Hamilton, but the way it was done is a farce. And you blaming Toto for slowing the process is hilarious. Masi has told them all where to go enough times now. You can use Toto as an excuse if you wish but Masi made the blunder. Either let them unlap early, or don't let any of them unlap if it's not safe to do so.

As others have said, why couldn't Sainz have his back markers removed and let him have a shot?

As happy as I am with a new F1 champion there was no logic to yesterdays finish and it leaves a bad taste. If Max was on the receiving end of that, I'd be furious.

Edit, also your use of Alonso as a "neutral" is hilarious.