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

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.

Why don't they just do it like it's done in Rugby where they stop the clock if something happens that needs to be looked at but in this case when a safety car happens just stop counting laps untill it is all the right order again? Then before the safety car comes in say they all have a free Pitstop if they want it but if not ok. So once everyone is back out of the pits and in the right order they then race again and resume counting laps from where they left of before the safety car.

The cars would run out of fuel. They are fuelled only to cover the race distance within extremely tight margins.

Because it all depends on where the accident site is. If there is a crash say at T3 or T4 and cars pit, they are then rushing to catch up the back of the pack

Safety car for one could bunch them up and they'd finish on the lead lap. A red flag also could do the same.

When a driver pits, they generally do it right at start of safety car period for maximum advantage. There is then no advantage is speeding up on exit of the pits as they will catch the train anyway.

Cars released for unlapping generally don't get enough time to fully catch up so it's in drivers interest to get around as fast as possible to get as near to the pack as possible.

I believe drivers have to drive to set target laptoimes when catching safety car and when unlapping themselves but even that could result in a driver going too fast past marshals on track so cars need to be guided through accident scene by safety car in all circumstances.

Think of the Jules Bianchi crash.

True but they use les fuel under safety car conditions. If there's a safety car for a few laps then they'll probably save even more fuel.

If they get to finish on the lead lap due to safety car intervention then they still wouldn't need the same fuel as other cars.

Maybe the less good cars have poorer aerodynamics and use more fuel all the way around the track.

Just on a side note with regards to fuel - was that the issue with Perez? I seem to recall mention that they had to retire his car as he would have been disqualified anyways (used up too much fuel trying to keep Hamilton behind him).

Has anyone else noticed that the media coverage from the like of sky, C4 and the podcasts I've listened to anyway, haven't been totally pro Hamilton when analysing the race at the weekend. They all seemed to agree rather Hamilton was very lucky to get away with the first corner incident and Max was lucky with the end. But they're not pro Hamilton as they have been accused of being all season.

I have thought they they have played up Hamilton's achievements (of which there are many). And they have also acknowledged that Max was great too and a worthy champion.

Not the rabid pro-Hamilton media which I've seen them accused of being all season.

That's on the teams then. If they did introduce this, stopping the lap count under the SC, it would add an exciting new strategy element into the race; teams would have to predict the appearance of the SC based on the track, weather, starting positions, etc. And fuel accordingly. A good idea!

I feel Masi did what he had to do to make a satisfying race. Everyone was screaming at him and he had to filter all that out. I'm sure the other stewards had their opinions too; would be interesting to hear from them.

I was agog for those last few laps. Masi had to make a call on how to finish the race, and he had the right to do so. He's the race director after all - he is directing the race! It wasn't hit fault Hamilton was on ancient tyres; if Merc had pitted then Hamilton would've had a decent chance of defending his position on the restart.

That's the real point - Merc cocked up the strategy. I also think Hamilton should've given the place back at the start, but that doesn't really matter now.

Mostly it’s been fine. I think the big worry from a lot of the media is that it would finish with Max smashing into Lewis, but considering the way the race went with a bit of luck for both drivers I think most have been happy to congratulate both drivers for a phenomenal battle over the season.

I watched the F1 show with Buxton yesterday evening on YouTube. They had Jolyon Palmer on and I presumed he would have been in the Lewis was robbed corner but he was actually fairly balanced. The gist of it was this is motor racing and the SC is part of it.

Off the ball last night had some English journo on as well as their own internal discussion and the lack of knowledge about F1 on display from the 3 lads was a joke. Talking about how poor Lewis built up this lead which was wiped out by a safety car and it was unfair. No mention of the red flags which LH benefitted from to a far greater degree earlier in the season which is the same logic applied meant the title would have been wrapped up 4 weeks ago for Max.

You would swear this was all some conspiracy yet the irony is it was a Williams with a Merc engine which caused the SC.

I think a lot of the strange viewpoints is based on this being race 22 of 22. If this was race 1 the viewpoint would be entirely different.