F1 2021 – spoilers here

Well I am glad Merc are protesting the result

+1 there’s no point having a rule book if it’s not applied. Hopefully this will at least trigger a proper review of the sporting regs to remove ambiguity.

Understand Mercedes have lodged an appeal, so now the FIA are right in it…. How do they sort this mess out?

Race result will be annulled on Merc appeal as the FIA race rules have been breached by the Race Director.

Max is champ on race wins!

Get ready for a 5 lap Super-Sprint re-run race back to the order of the VSC to decide the title… Seems like par for the course for Liberty Media WWF1…

How about real life Mariokart with oil slicks and banana skins and stuff? That’d be ace! 😃

Max won the race because the rules were not correctly applied.

So once the last lapped car has passed the leader, the safety car comes in an the end of the next lap, they didn’t do that either did they?

No.

Not enough time to do all that, allow the lapped cars to get through and out of the way and then for one more lap.

Thus contravening the regs.

I will agree that Nico Rosberg makes a good point. If Mercedes are making decisions during the race under the understanding that a certain set of regs are going to be applied, then they can feel aggrieved. However, RB were the ones taking the fight to Mercedes today, changing tyres and gambling and pushing hard right to the end. Ultimately they should be racing, and that’s what happened.

I doubt the FIA will find against their own race director if it goes to court. Is there much point to any protest under these circumstances?

Not watched F1 for a while. Thought I would watch this one. What a crock of shit. Barely sport if this sort thing is how races are decided.
Won’t bother again.

Team principals shouldn’t have ready access to the RD to whine and moan, anyway.

This. Under no circumstances should Team Principals be able to talk to the Race Director during the event. The whinging and moaning from both teams (more RB but also Merc) to Massi have been cringeworthy and have really cheapened the sport. Smacks of trying to influence the judges.

In cycling, Radio Tour (from the Commissaire to the team cars following) is a listen-only facility designed for things like “Rider 14, mechanical service please” and the team car will come up to assist. Race Radio needs to be the same.

Mercedes have lodged 2 protests. Good luck with that! If they win via protest then the sport will look even worse, whether it’s the right thing to do or not

Make them race on vehicles appropriate to the national stereotype.

Max on a canal boat, or a shopping bike. Lewis in an Austin Allegro.

Clearly Lewis will be quicker, but probably won’t make it round 56 laps

LOL @Binners! F1 is certainly edging closer to random banana skins and oil slick hazards being applied! 😀

However, RB were the ones taking the fight to Mercedes today, changing tyres and gambling and pushing hard right to the end.

LOL. Hamilton was comfortably in the lead and Max couldn’t get near him with new tyres.

Nico Rosberg makes a good point.

First time I’ve seen Nico as a pundit, and he seemed to be hopping on and off the fence every time someone else said something. Button seems to talk decent sense.

If Max was going to win the championship I was prepared for considering similar to Rosberg’s oft-caveated win ‘he only won it because of Hamilton’s mechanicals’, in that Max has won it only because he drives people off the track & gets away with it & the stewards/director have let him away with stuff they shouldn’t have, but the end of today’s race was just a joke.

Mercedes have lodged 2 protests.

Cast iron guarantee that RB would have done the same if the tables were turned. Its turning the sport into a farce. Appeals on every other corner at this rate with all the what-ifs that come from that.

Max was pretty aggressive behind the safety car, and put his nose ahead at least once. I thought you had to stay behind the lead car, in a long line?

Anyway, this was all cock. A right old mess. Don’t care who won now, as that ending was just awful. Very disappointing end to a nutty season.

I agree it’s farcical, but that’s the FIA’s fault for all the dithering and indecision.

Cast iron guarantee that RB would have done the same if the tables were turned. Its turning the sport into a farce. Appeals on every other corner at this rate with all the what-ifs that come from that.

It is a farce. So let’s get it all into the open. It doesn’t deserve any respect……  not talking about the drivers btw.

It is a farce. So let’s get it all into the open

100%

changing tyres and gambling

It wasn’t really gambling: pretty much all their calls were no-brainers as they had good gaps as well as knowing exactly what Mercedes were doing with Hamilton. Strategy-wise RB had a pretty straightforward day of it. All but the first of Mercedes’ calls were necessarily gambles: keep track position and go deeper into deg, or lose track position and have to pass Max on track.

Do us folk who correctly predicted today’s race result as as court battle win anything?

Do us folk who correctly predicted today’s race result as as court battle win anything?

The only real winner here is whoever Jos would have punched if Max hadn’t won.

Can Michael Massi get a penalty for bringing the sport into disrepute? It’s no longer a reputable sport anyway, that’s for sure.

However, RB were the ones taking the fight to Mercedes today, changing tyres and gambling and pushing hard right to the end.

I disagree – they were simply playing all the cards they had in the hope one would fall for them. As it turns out it did – I think it was a Red 14 of Spades

I’d be pointing the finger at Derek Warwick and his crew for setting up the precedent at the first turn. It wasnt just Massi that was inconsistent , see the stewards and giving back an advantage. I suppose Lewis/ Max can share the feeling of winning the championship on the last lap. Been a marathon of a season with nether principles fairing well. I feel for Susie as I imagine Toto will be like a bear with a sore head reading the regs all night with the lawyers.

2021 FORMULA ONE SPORTING REGULATIONS

39.12 If the clerk of the course considers it safe to do so, and the message “LAPPED CARS MAY NOW OVERTAKE” has been sent to all Competitors via the official messaging system, any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car.
This will only apply to cars that were lapped at the time they crossed the Line at the end of the lap during which they crossed the first Safety Car line for the second time after the safety car was deployed.
Having overtaken the cars on the lead lap and the safety car these cars should then proceed around the track at an appropriate speed, without overtaking, and make every effort to take up position at the back of the line of cars behind the safety car. Whilst they are overtaking, and in order to ensure this may be carried out safely, the cars on the lead lap must always stay on the racing line unless deviating from it is unavoidable. Unless the clerk of the course considers the presence of the safety car is still necessary, once the last lapped car has passed the leader the safety car will return to the pits at the end of the following lap.
If the clerk of the course considers track conditions are unsuitable for overtaking the message “OVERTAKING WILL NOT BE PERMITTED” will be sent to all Competitors via the official messaging system.

any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass

Is that all cars? Some cars? Cars allowed to pass at the Race Director’s discretion?

I think it was a Red 14 of Spades

You mean joker? ‘Won’ on a safety car. What do I win for my prediction?

Max was pretty aggressive behind the safety car, and put his nose ahead at least once. I thought you had to stay behind the lead car, in a long line?

I understand that one of Merc’s two protests is about overtaking behind the safety car.

no overtaking under the safety car……

“It was marginal and he didn’t get an advantage”

“But it says no overtaking”

etc……

Yep, definitely did, only for a second, and only a few inches.

5sec penalty if so. Lewis lost by 2.2.

Would love for Max to lose it for ****ing about.

Could be a get out for the FIA too..

What’s the penalty for overtaking under safety car conditions, 5 sec penalty?

Not inconceivable that Max could be handed a 5 sec retrospective penalty if the data is conclusive that he nudged ahead of Lewis.

Very messy end to the season.

This is interesting because it’s not one team protesting another, but a team protesting that the RD hasn’t applied the rules. As the RD is employed by the FIA (I think) then the FIA shouldn’t be allowed to stand as judge. I can see this going to the court of arbitration in Sport.

Will we know the identity of the 2022 champion before we know who is 2021 champion?

Is the overtaking under a safety car thing Merc’s offer to the FIA as a way of reversing the result given their cock up on the restart?

Yep, definitely did, only for a second, and only a few inches.

5sec penalty if so. Lewis lost by 2.2

This actually gives the officials an out. Its Max’s fault rather than their own.

yep, he didn’t need to be that close.

Will we know the identity of the 2022 champion before we know who is 2021 champion?

Chris Froome after the other competitors were banned for using performance enhancing parts.

Such a mess, Masi not implementing the apparent safety car restart regs, Max driving ahead of Lewis just before the restart, Max making more than one defensive line change before the braking zone along at least one of the long fast straights in that final lap.

What a disappointing end to a great season, highly manufactured outcome that was.

One thing I think both Verstappen and Hamilton fans can agree on is that Masi needs fired ASAP. No clue and inconsistent decisions throughout whole season from the stewards.

The outcome would be very different I think if Charlie Whiting was still in charge.