F1 2021 Season

This aversion to ending a race/season under the safety car is bizarre. The 2012 Brazilian GP was the title decider and ended behind the safety car thanks to Di Resta being shit and that's remembered as a classic. If there is time to get back to green flag racing, great, if not then just end under the safety car, don't muck about with red flags or rule changes mid-race.

This crash and amount of laps remaining did not warrant a finish under SC. 8(?) laps of SC in the title decider would be a joke.
 
It really isn't time to move on though, the worst possible outcome is to let this blow over so Masi can make up rules to tell his own story again.

F1 has suffered badly for this, as the situation has disillusioned a lot of people. Max fans and Hamilton haters may be enjoying the result, but even they know this sets a terrible precedent, and next time Max might be the one who gets robbed. It's gotta be nipped in the bud now.

I meant for our own sanity.

You nor I can change anything, from the moment the race ended the FIA were making sure Mercedes take this no further.

Should it be dropped? No. Is it actually for the benefit of F1 it is? Of course not.

But dropped it has been. Sad, but very true.
 
This crash and amount of laps remaining did not warrant a finish under SC. 8(?) laps of SC in the title decider would be a joke.

See, the problem you are bringing the situation into this again and not looking at it objectively. It doesn't matter if it's the last race or the first race.

The moment you choose when and where to apply certain rules, then we are here today in this situation.
 
This crash and amount of laps remaining did not warrant a finish under SC. 8(?) laps of SC in the title decider would be a joke.
The crash was at the end of lap 53 of 58, 5 laps behind the safety car is fairly normal.
 
Well it's better than a GP ending under SC. Imagine they would've ended last race under SC? Are we fans of racing or what?
Absolutely zero chance you say that if the situation happened the other way around.

That's why people know you're full of shit. You either stick to the rules and do it properly (end under safety car) or red flag the race and give them both a fair fighting chance.

Instead, what they did just gifted an easy win to max. Clearly Max fans don't care how it happened - but the other 90% of F1 fans do.

I could only imagine the meltdown if the FIA assisted Lewis into winning his 8th title this way instead :lol:
 
See, the problem you are bringing the situation into this again and not looking at it objectively. It doesn't matter if it's the last race or the first race.

The moment you choose when and where to apply certain rules, then we are here today in this situation.

I'm speaking in general. They need to have a look at the rules so this doesn't happen again in a race or title deciding race. I'm just spitballing and don't know the solution, but there must be a better solution for situations like last race.
 
Absolutely zero chance you say that if the situation happened the other way around.

That's why people know you're full of shit. You either stick to the rules and do it properly (end under safety car) or red flag the race and give them both a fair fighting chance.

Instead, what they did just gifted an easy win to max. Clearly Max fans don't care how it happened - but the other 90% of F1 fans do.

I could only imagine the meltdown if the FIA assisted Lewis into winning his 8th title this way instead :lol:

Like I said mistakes were made and this time Max was lucky. FIA should find a solution for these kinds of situations.
 
I'm speaking in general. They need to have a look at the rules so this doesn't happen again in a race or title deciding race. I'm just spitballing and don't know the solution, but there must be a better solution for situations like last race.

Dude, there is just no way you can force an accident not to happen in the last few laps of a race so that races never finish under the safety car. We could red flag and restart for every accident and remove the idea of a SC altogether, but that's another debate.
 
I'm speaking in general. They need to have a look at the rules so this doesn't happen again in a race or title deciding race. I'm just spitballing and don't know the solution, but there must be a better solution for situations like last race.
Following the existing rules would have been fine. They've been fine for years and 100s of races. You have this unwarranted obsession about SC finishes and I suspect its only a new obsession and 5 days ago you wouldn't have cared. Its pretty transparent.
 
The way Hamilton has conducted himself throughout this whole thing has been sheer class. Fair play to him.
Yep, I'm amazed at how well he handled it. Pretty certain if I got robbed like that, I'd have been busy going for a walk down the pit lane to find Masi like Schumacher looking for Coulthard at Spa.

Can't wait for all the posts next year about hoe "whiny" he is though.
 
Dude, there is just no way you can force an accident not to happen in the last few laps of a race so that races never finish under the safety car. We could red flag and restart for every accident and remove the idea of a SC altogether, but that's another debate.

That's exactly the debate I'm trying to have. Another solution, but I don't know. I understand now that in certain situations it would make sense to end a race under SC. I just think with the amount of laps left last race, there had to be a better option than a parade for 8 laps. But its not only about last race I'm also talking about the future.
 
That's exactly the debate I'm trying to have. Another solution, but I don't know. I understand now that in certain situations it would make sense to end a race under SC. I just think with the amount of laps left last race, there had to be a better option than a parade for 8 laps. But its not only about last race I'm also talking about the future.

Yes, you could have red flag and restart. And it would have been not perfect, but a much better option that what I saw on Sunday.

But, think purely on TV and adrenaline, even with all the back markers unlapped, I would have put money on Max taking them all within a quarter of a lap with his super shiny new softs and pressuring Lewis into the final few corners. It could have even gone down to the last corner and I would have put money on Max to do the job. I would have clapped Max off the freaking podium. Even as a race fixer, Masi is shit.
 
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Absolutely zero chance you say that if the situation happened the other way around.

That's why people know you're full of shit. You either stick to the rules and do it properly (end under safety car) or red flag the race and give them both a fair fighting chance.

Instead, what they did just gifted an easy win to max. Clearly Max fans don't care how it happened - but the other 90% of F1 fans do.

I could only imagine the meltdown if the FIA assisted Lewis into winning his 8th title this way instead :lol:
And you'd be the same if it were the other way around tbh. Like Lewis fans would care :lol: you'd be like haha, Max got what he deserved.

And the FIA did already try to assist Lewis many times including the beginning of the race to make it more exciting. As expected, incidents like Silverstone are never mentioned by Lewis fans.
 
I like this re-writing of history whereby somehow finishing under the SC would've been unfair on Max.

Had Latifi not crashed, Hamilton would've won by 10+ seconds. He was about 10s clear anyway with Max barely closing the gap and Max had 5 cars to lap. It's absolutely insane.

I'm still baffled by Max's fans needing some kind of acceptance that he was the best. Statistically, maybe he was, but Sunday was the title decider, so frankly, any other race became irrelevant. And Sunday's finish was a farce that shouldn't have decided the WC.
 
And you'd be the same if it were the other way around tbh. Like Lewis fans would care :lol: you'd be like haha, Max got what he deserved.

And the FIA did already try to assist Lewis many times including the beginning of the race to make it more exciting. As expected, incidents like Silverstone are never mentioned by Lewis fans.

Lewis received a penalty for that? :lol:

What more do you want?
 
And you'd be the same if it were the other way around tbh. Like Lewis fans would care :lol: you'd be like haha, Max got what he deserved.

And the FIA did already try to assist Lewis many times including the beginning of the race to make it more exciting. As expected, incidents like Silverstone are never mentioned by Lewis fans.
Those were either racing incidents or were met with penalties - you can argue about the penalties sure but that's within their decision-making process and not something illegal. Referring to Silverstone, Baku, Hungary or whatever is just trying to justify what happened in Abu Dhabi while there is no way to justify how it went down.
 
And you'd be the same if it were the other way around tbh. Like Lewis fans would care :lol: you'd be like haha, Max got what he deserved.

And the FIA did already try to assist Lewis many times including the beginning of the race to make it more exciting. As expected, incidents like Silverstone are never mentioned by Lewis fans.

Exactly
 
As for those calling for Masi's head: I'm inclined to agree but are we sure that his successor would be bette than him? I thought Masi was being guided by Whiting, so not sure there's currently anyone in a better position to be race director. Unless we're going with a core team which assumes that role in the future.
 
And you'd be the same if it were the other way around tbh. Like Lewis fans would care :lol: you'd be like haha, Max got what he deserved.

And the FIA did already try to assist Lewis many times including the beginning of the race to make it more exciting. As expected, incidents like Silverstone are never mentioned by Lewis fans.
Not true, Silverstone was covered in this thread. He was deemed predominately at fault, but as this following video shows, Max would've done the same to Hamilton 5 times had he not been conservative.


As a Hamilton fan, I'd obviously be happy for him if he did win the way Max won, but would still admit Max was cheated because that's just fact. Everyone knows Max was gifted the win, as everyone would know the same if the scenario was vice versa.
 
Lewis received a penalty for that? :lol:

What more do you want?
10 second penalty for almost kiling Max. He made that up in like four laps :lol:

Those were either racing incidents or were met with penalties - you can argue about the penalties sure but that's within their decision-making process and not something illegal. Referring to Silverstone, Baku, Hungary or whatever is just trying to justify what happened in Abu Dhabi while there is no way to justify how it went down.
I agree, they shouldn't be compared or used to justify separate incidents. I was just pointing out how its never mentioned because those decisions went the way of Hamilton.
 
10 second penalty for almost kiling Max. He made that up in like four laps :lol:


I agree, they shouldn't be compared or used to justify separate incidents. I was just pointing out how its never mentioned because those decisions went the way of Hamilton.
Remind me of the penatly Max got for driving over Lewis' head?

And as @RobinLFC said it's beside the point, there were no rules invented or ignored for those penalties/incidents.
 
10 second penalty for almost kiling Max. He made that up in like four laps :lol:


I agree, they shouldn't be compared or used to justify separate incidents. I was just pointing out how its never mentioned because those decisions went the way of Hamilton.
And as hellhunter said, Max would've killed Lewis had the Halo not been there.

Also, Max only got a 10sec penalty for brake checking. Come on man, very bias.
 
10 second penalty for almost kiling Max. He made that up in like four laps :lol:


I agree, they shouldn't be compared or used to justify separate incidents. I was just pointing out how its never mentioned because those decisions went the way of Hamilton.
It shouldn't be imo, they were decisions within the legal framework. I bet Lewis fans would find the defeat much easier to digest if he had lost to a penalty, because that's within the discretionary power of the stewards. You can argue about it, even disagree with it, but no rules were violated if that should've happened.

Now it is 100% clear that the rulebook was not followed and the race director just made something up he thought appropriate for the last lap of the title decider. And that's what makes it different, and, imo, farcical and hard to digest (and I'm not even a Lewis fan).
 
Lock this thread, everything that could've been said has been done 3 times over.

It'll just spill over to the 2022 thread. People aren't done talking about it and to be fair, it's only been a couple of days.
 
Not for us Dutch folk and many others judging by YouTube comments. He won the race on track. Dubious circumstances sure, but for once he had luck and he gets to enjoy it like our whole nation is. Lewis was lucky a couple times this season, let's not forget. This time it -finally - went Verstappen's way. In the UK his title might have an asterisk, but the rest of the world is mostly happy for Max.
It's nothing to do with luck. The result was manipulated in the final race, in a unprecedented way, to decide a championship.
 
Not for us Dutch folk and many others judging by YouTube comments. He won the race on track. Dubious circumstances sure, but for once he had luck and he gets to enjoy it like our whole nation is. Lewis was lucky a couple times this season, let's not forget. This time it -finally - went Verstappen's way. In the UK his title might have an asterisk, but the rest of the world is mostly happy for Max.
If by rest of the world you mean the Netherlands yes, otherwise no.
 
Well it's better than a GP ending under SC. Imagine they would've ended last race under SC? Are we fans of racing or what?
:lol:

Real fans of racing would not want a manipulated end with 5 cars being moved out the way for P2, so P2 on fresh tyres can attack P1 on 40 lap old tyres.

This would apply in any motor racing from karting upwards it would be a manipulation, not racing.
 
Only LH fans would be happy with that. I wonder what you would've said if the roles were reversed.
You need to step back for a minute and look at this differently. Imagine it was 2 drivers and teams you had no feelings for, not LH or MV. As a racing fan would you want that to happen and be allowed to happen every season?
 
And you'd be the same if it were the other way around tbh. Like Lewis fans would care :lol: you'd be like haha, Max got what he deserved.

And the FIA did already try to assist Lewis many times including the beginning of the race to make it more exciting. As expected, incidents like Silverstone are never mentioned by Lewis fans.
Sure you take the good luck, but you can still admit he was completely shafted. We've got max fans in here trying to defend it saying it was the right thing to do.

You can be happy that Max has won it and still be honest.

Silvestone was nowhere near the same situation either - if anything Max should have backed out knowing he was on the outside of a right handed high speed corner. Lewis still got penalised for it.
 
10 second penalty for almost kiling Max. He made that up in like four laps :lol:


I agree, they shouldn't be compared or used to justify separate incidents. I was just pointing out how its never mentioned because those decisions went the way of Hamilton.

Christ.
 
Social media. Press coverage anywhere other than the UK.

Not saying everyone is happy with the dodgy safety car calls but the end result is certainly globally popular.

Actually no.. The FIA themselves have issued a statement saying the fan meltdown is tarnishing the image of the sport.