Formula 1 Round 22 Abu Dhabi GP

Have Masi or anyone in the decision making give a reason why they gave 2 cars an advantage over all other cars?

Max and the last car to unlap itself. Reason Max got 2 cars between him and person behind and 5 cars infront of him got removed to attack Hamilton.

Last unlap car meant he couldn't get attacked and lose a place.

Fair enough, one could go back to every single race of the year but the reality is the last race is what decided it, and in my opinion, just an opinion, that’s not how the world championship should be decided because that’s the end, no one has the ability to come back at the next race, game over, ball burst ! It is what it is but no team or diver would be happy losing like that, that should speak for itself, F1 needs to learn from this, it’s not good for the sport, anyone hung ho on either side is delusional, it’s a messed up situation.

Hamilton gained plenty more then Max did over the season from red flags or SC from what I can remember. So if the SC scenario on Sunday is to be considered, if the rules on red flag were different regarding changing damaged parts (start in pit lane for example and don't unlap yourself) then Max only needs 3rd place on Sunday.

Lewis had plenty of good fortune earlier in the season, this is only an issue because the luck fell Max's way with 6 laps of the season left.

I can’t take anyone seriously who thinks a title is tainted or has an asterisk beside it because of one incident, and mainly because that one incident is the most recent one.

Both Max and Lewis had to race the wheels off each car for the whole year to even be in a position to win it, so to boil it down to one decision you don’t agree with just because it’s recent does an incredible disservice to the drivers imo.

And the incident itself is being treated as if Mercedes literally had a title snatched away from them by the race director. Mercedes chose track position and distance on old tires for the whole race. That was their call. A late safety car without the distance to pit and maintain track position was always a possibility and they gambled on it not happening. Had they been a bit braver during the race and gave up track position during the VSC the car had the pace and Lewis the talent to get back into first by racing, and they would have been covered off from any danger with a late safety car.

Max and Lewis are different class, and as much as I think Max deserved this season, had Lewis won I wouldn’t be begrudging him his title.

A question: had Lewis pitted lap 38 VSC, do people think those fresher tyres would have given him a much better chance over the final 3.5 miles or so?

Yes. I agree. They had to make a choice, and it was just unlucky.

A late safety car.... with the RD deciding only to unlap the cars in the way of Max, and bring the safety car in a lap earlier than would have been done on any other occassion.

The issue isn't that Max benefited from a lucky safety car (from his perspective), it is that the RD decided to make up processes and ignore precident and rules to give max every advantage and a chance he should not have had, safety car or not.

Merc chose track position cause there was not time to get back to racing. The RD throwing process and rules out the window is what changed that.

I agree with you that the RD made a bad call(in fact for the last few races since it looked like a late showdown could occur it has felt like decisions had been made to ensure that’s what happens) but where we disagree is the extent that removing the back markers had on the result.

In my mind, if he wanted to finish by racing, he should have continued the race without any cars unlapping themselves and gotten the race started as quickly as possible. But then, most likely we would have had 2 laps instead of one and those back markers would be out of Max’ way coming into the final lap anyway. And we know that the safety car came in a lap early but that’s at the discretion of the RD if he deems it safe.

I said in my previous post that Mercedes made the sensible call staying out but now I’m going to disagree with myself. Lewis definitely should have pitted under the VSC. He’d have enough laps to overtake Max at that point, and if there’s a late safety car either he’s in first with fresher tires and in a better position to defend or he’s in second and he can basically do what Max did, take the free pit stop and win it at the end.

The fact that they kept him out makes me think that ultimately they were looking to avoid being close to Verstappen at any stage for fear of contact. And it backfired on them.

Well now we have a new precedent that we can see some racing in such situations which generates exciting finishes.

If we only ever follow "precedents" life would be fairly boring. I've seen tweets from people who switched off with about 15 laps to go because it was fairly pedestrian but turned it back on when they got the sky sports alert on their phone about the SC. Sport is at its best when it is unpredictable.

Masi is the race director and we got racing. If you want to watch a procession then go sit on a bridge over the M50 for a few hours.

Oh and I think Merc got their commupence for Toto trying to persuade the RD over the Gio incident. Toto would rather risk a Marshalls life for a greater chance at a race win then win it racing.

He did right away. He said it's a motor race and he wanted to see cars race

The Red Bull wing passed all the FIA tests so it wasn't illegal but Mercedes pushed their weight around to get the rules/tests changed mid-season. Funny that.

Time to unfollow.

It's going around in circles, when verstappen benefits from luck it's deemed that races and points are being handed to him, when he's on the opposite end of other driver errors it's his own fault but when Hamilton benefits its waved away and dismissed or its "but max got such and such in wherever".

Anyway, hurrah for Verstappen WDC 2021.

Oh, hope you all have a good Christmas.

Its incredible how he kept his emotions in check after being so close to winning the championship.