F1 Season 2021

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

Higher ups giving him an order no doubt

You mean the F1 equivalent of the VAR Match Commander?

 

[ShedDweller]

I wouldn't be that surprised if LH decides to call it a day and do something else, he knows he's been cheated out of history. He put in a huge effort to get into a winning position and it was stolen from him right at the end.

The problem with people like MV is that they will turn F1 into glorified banger racing. In the past, the cars were unsafe and the people with a high risk threshold pretty much all ended up dead.

The cars are much stronger and safer now and its enabled people like MV to basically thrive by taking liberties. Even the incident at the begining of the race yesterday MV would have caused an accident if LH had not gone off the track to avoid the contact.

LH has had a career spanning the final years of the old days where the cars structure would not save you if you had a big crash. Hence he's been the more conservative driver in this season.

From the minute he arrived in F1 MV has been known as a dangerous driver. Its only a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt due to his over aggressive style.

Of course, the Americans lap up this sort of thing so the owners and Netflix etc will be loving it.

NASCAR is a nonsense for the same reasons, which is why no-one is really interested in it.

 

[Sheikh rattle and roll]

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!

This is how I see it
If I was Mercedes I would withdraw from next seasons F1 championship saying it’s fixed and corrupt and announce my Intention to partake in an alternative type of motor sport

 

[Brightwell’s left peg]

I think people have become somewhat desensitized to Maxs overtaking manoeuvres, the director alluded to it in his comments to RB but it was just a case of forcing Lewis off. Just look at the angle of his car going into the corner he just wanted to plant the car in front of the merc.

Honestly mate, it’s the first race I’ve watched in about 10 years. I’m about as Indifferent to who wins as possible, and ignorant to driving styles. Just looked like good driving to me.

 

[Uwe's 80s mullet]

I wouldn't be that surprised if LH decides to call it a day and do something else, he knows he's been cheated out of history. He put in a huge effort to get into a winning position and it was stolen from him right at the end.

The problem with people like MV is that they will turn F1 into glorified banger racing. In the past, the cars were unsafe and the people with a high risk threshold pretty much all ended up dead.

The cars are much stronger and safer now and its enabled people like MV to basically thrive by taking liberties. Even the incident at the begining of the race yesterday MV would have caused an accident if LH had not gone off the track to avoid the contact.

LH has had a career spanning the final years of the old days where the cars structure would not save you if you had a big crash. Hence he's been the more conservative driver in this season.

From the minute he arrived in F1 MV has been known as a dangerous driver. Its only a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt due to his over aggressive style.

Of course, the Americans lap up this sort of thing so the owners and Netflix etc will be loving it.

NASCAR is a nonsense for the same reasons, which is why no-one is really interested in it.

The way Lewis spoke after the race yesterday made me think he may call it quits. His performances since Brazil have been truly astonishing and to be fucked over like that after making up the point gap must hurt. Hope he comes back next year and destroys the lot of them.

 

[ShedDweller]

Honestly mate, it’s the first race I’ve watched in about 10 years. I’m about as Indifferent to who wins as possible, and ignorant to driving styles. Just looked like good driving to me.

Its not really good or fair driving if someone has to go off the track to avoid an accident.

 

[Brightwell’s left peg]

The move on the 1st lap? Hamilton had 2 choices... evade as he did keeping himself in the race or smash right in to Max's car

Didn’t think it was as early as first lap. I don’t know why he wasn’t required to give the lead back to Verstappen.

 

[Brightwell’s left peg]

Its not really good or fair driving if someone has to go off the track to avoid an accident.

My take, rightly or wrongly, is It was obvious early in the manoeuvre that Verstappen had the advantage. Hamilton was forced off track because he didn’t cede the advantage and tried to regain it on the outside. If Verstappen locks that off, then that to me is good driving?

 

[ShedDweller]

Didn’t think it was as early as first lap. I don’t know why he wasn’t required to give the lead back to Verstappen.

I think it was lap 6

Because MV forced LH off the track.

 

[The Future’s Blue!]

Looked to me like Verstappen got the inside line, saw the gap and got the advantage. If Hamilton has nowhere to go as a result of Verstappen taking the lead, then I’d have thought that was good driving on Verstappens part? If Hamilton has nowhere to go…then I’d have thought he’d have needed to get back on track and take his lumps…not just ignore the track and end up 100 yards ahead?

It‘s all about perspective and I suppose it all looks well and good if you look back at some incidents this season. MVs way is to take it to the max and run other cars off the track, which happened there as he failed to turn into the corner, running LH off. Usually, running another car out that way results in the driver having to give the place back for running them off track but due to previous incidents this season where they just let it run then they couldn’t take any action and just had to let it play out.