It seems people here think this was all by design to allow Max to win. Of course Max being on the fresher tyres in a one lap shoot out was always going to get a fair shot of passing him. Im not saying I think the decision to let them race / allow some backmarkers to pass was right.
However, I can’t help but look at one moment in the race, and it’s a gamble we see teams take week in week out down the field to get a ‘cheap stop’. Mercedes made the call to maintain track position instead of pitting Lewis under the virtual safety car. (Toto on the radio to Masi begging him not to deploy the full safety car). Obviously Red Bull then react, they have to, they are then racing the variables. Both teams gambled and unfortunately for Lewis that initial team decision has put him on the back foot with tyre choice for what happens later. That initial decision keeps him on those worn tyres for the duration. He himself was on the radio multiple times questioning it, even calling it a risk and a gamble.
The sport comes down to split decisions and on a high speed street circuit there was always the possibility of a full safety car.
It’s a farce how the end of the race unfolded, but I do think Lewis is going to come back stronger than ever next season. The man is a warrior.
WADR, I think you’ve missed a big chunk of what happened and conflated the strategies.
Lewis was kept out on the hard tires because he would have given up track position to Verstappen if he had pitted.
This is a known fact and was told to him by Bono.
Indeed, Bono also told him the two possible scenarios…
1) No lapped car overtake, which put enough time and distance between Lewis and Max, even with Max on the softs for the last lap, or
2) Let all the lapped cars undertake the Safety Car, but finish under a yellow flag, because there was simply not enough time (an extra lap) to go racing again.
Those were THE ONLY TWO OUTCOMES, and Mercedes’ strategy had them both covered, REGARDLESS OF TIRES!
The problems were, at a minimum, threefold:
1) Race Control TOLD the teams there would be no overtaking by the lapped cars. This cemented the idea that Lewis would have multiple cars between him and Max IF they were able to clear Latifi’s car and debris in time.
2) Race Control, after being told by Red Bull’s Horner that he just needed ONE RACING LAP (remember that from an earlier race GIVEN to Verstappen on the rain out?!), CHANGED THEIR MIND to allow lapped cars through past the Safety Car.
3) They ONLY allowed it for the cars that Hamilton had recently overtaken and that Verstappen had lost places to because of his tire change. In short, it wasn’t a 14 second “penalty” tire change, it was a FREE TIRE CHANGE AND it removed every car in his way.
Those are the minimum problems. However, even beyond that, when the Safety Car left the track, it’s up to the race leader to determine when they start racing again. Until then, ALL other cars have to stay behind the leader, just as they have to behind the Safety Car. Max didn’t!
Multiple times, Hamilton slowed to a crawl, as he’s allowed to, in an attempt to gain some advantage, but Verstappen was pulled ALONGSIDE AND SOMETIMES AHEAD when the rules clearly state it is verboten.
That appeal was turned down by the Stewards, as they said Hamilton was braking and accelerating. Huh???
There is almost nothing ANYONE can tell me that will convince me that Masi was not pressured (internally and/or externally) into making a horribly flawed decision to change the rules at the most important time of the most important race of the entire World Championship season.
None of that has a damned thing to do with Hamilton being on old hard tires versus new soft tires…unless you believe that Masi was completely cognizant of that fact, which was WHY he did what he did.
I find it impossible to believe he was not acutely aware of the respective drivers’ strategic positions and, by his hand, he placed a thumb on the scale of this Championship.
Masi should not be the Race Director next season, but the FIA would be admitting their own failure by removing him, so it’s kinda like PGMOL! They’re fucked!
