Formula 1

Norton Cherry said:
As well as it being a complete farce, for many there will now always be an asterisk next to Max's name for his world title, with people remembering what happened in the final race.
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That’s the case regardless of whoever is now awarded this title. Masi has brought the sport into disrepute. That’s not fair on either driver or either team after the season they’ve had.
 
From BBC:

“Mercedes have lodged their intention to appeal the decision of the stewards to dismiss the team's protest”

So might be next season before this is all sorted out .
 
Verstappen will get the title.

Mercedes will get Masi’s head on a metaphorical spike.
 
MB1980 said:
This must be one of the asteroid-like hitting posts you mentioned yesterday :D
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Ohhhh Yesssy...more to come...I'm no shrinking violet...snorting on snowflakes....I'm no lavender cowboy with scented hairs on his chest riding a Filly called Daffalong Dilly...waving at the sailors....bollux to that.. I speak my mind..like old Englanders with ' backbone ' !
 
If the actions by Massi were not to allow Max to win, how come he didn't move the lapped cars out of Sainz way? He was in 3rd place, was he not entitled to fight for the win as well? Instead he was left out to dry because apparently only one driver on the grid needed special treatment.

Its a few hours later and I still cannot get my head around the utterly bizarre and rule breaking decision.
 
Lap 1, Verstappen pushes Hamilton off the track, Hamilton keeps the lead by running through the corner, why wasn't Hamilton told to give back the lead? Because again Verstappen tried to shunt him off but Hamilton saw it coming.
On the last lap if the roles were reversed both cars would of been off the track, Verstappen would never let Hamilton pass without an incident because that is how Verstappen drives. All or nothing.
When it did happened to him, he was in the other drivers garage acting like his father, trying to fight.

"After a 1998 incident at a karting track in which a man suffered a fractured skull, Verstappen and his father, Frans, were found guilty in court of assault but were each given a five-year suspended jail sentence after reaching an out-of-court settlement with the victim."
 
AFCBade said:
exactly you need to believe it’s a fair fight otherwise don’t invest your time and money in it. F1 had an opportunity to build a new fan base today but no doubt many first timers will look in disbelief at what they watched.
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Not just first timers. If that is now the sport, turning a whole season into a one lap farce and for what? Publicity for sponsorships, viewing figures and to promote the Netflix series? I can see many proper hardcore F1 fans turning away. Right now, I feel like I could be one of them.

Still emotional about it and the hardest thing is, as I said hours ago. I’m not even surprised by it all.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if this has longer term ramifications to Mercedes continuing in F1.

The legacy motor industry faces massive challenges since the invention of he car itself with the change to electrification and the fact that a non legacy manufacturer (Tesla) have stolen a 3-5 yr head start. When they face the possibility of laying off employees in their engine and transmission plants over the next 5 yrs they will need to justify the F1 spend.
 
DJ said:
Not just first timers. If that is now the sport, turning a whole season into a one lap farce and for what? Publicity for sponsorships, viewing figures and to promote the Netflix series? I can see many proper hardcore F1 fans turning away. Right now, I feel like I could be one of them.

Still emotional about it and the hardest thing is, as I said hours ago. I’m not even surprised by it all.
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Agree. It has been a slippery slope since Liberty “Media” took over.
It’s more about “engagement” than sporting integrity.
A new champion is better for the F1 brand than Lewis winning again.
The worse driver ( with appalling levels of racing skill and sportsmanship ) was awarded the title today by Liberty Media lackies in the stewards room.

But despite the wrong man winning by dubious means, Mercedes should shoulder some of the blame for their excessively conservative strategy. How many times has Lewis questioned their calls this season and been proven right ?

Pit him at the safety car and put him on softs. Red Bull have two choices. Do the same ( unlikely, maintains the status quo ) or stay out ( more likely ) which gives Lewis new tyres to hunt down and pass Max. At least he would have had a fighting chance and if Max had punted him off, the stewards would probably have punished Max ( because of their earlier statements ) and Lewis would have been champion, I’m sure it would have been Lewis’ preferred option. As it was he was hung out to dry with a knife in a gunfight. Mercedes must shoulder some of the blame and if that dopey twunt Latifi could have just kept his car out of the wall for a few more laps, Lewis would have cruised to a well deserved eighth title and there would have been nothing anybody could have done to prevent it.
 
Mixed emotions about this, the ending is without doubt outrageous. I’m by no means a fan of Hamilton but to fight his way back into the title picture and then be undone by a farcical off track decision is galling to the extreme. Having said that, I don’t think Max did anything wrong in his overtaking move at the start of the race which Hamilton then used the run off to shortcut and maintain his first place - so the race should have run differently from the start.

But all of the nights events are net result/climax of a season of extreme gamesmanship and weak stewardship by all concerned.
Max will keep his title and Masi will rightly be ejected from his position.

Maybe it’s all just the same as it ever was? And next time the GP rolls round to Singapore I’ll be there with tickets in hand embracing the procession once again……
 
I'm still gobsmacked this morning. At least Hamilton won't be angry with his team or Max or anyone else other than Masi. Getting him fired won't be enough for Merc though, it was Lewis' record breaking 8th title and Masi stole it from him by breaking the rules. Absolutely bonkers.

Where were the Netflix cameras for all of it?
 
thegazzyb said:
But despite the wrong man winning by dubious means, Mercedes should shoulder some of the blame for their excessively conservative strategy. How many times has Lewis questioned their calls this season and been proven right ?

Pit him at the safety car and put him on softs. Red Bull have two choices. Do the same ( unlikely, maintains the status quo ) or stay out ( more likely ) which gives Lewis new tyres to hunt down and pass Max.
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I don't think Lewis had any softs left... only another set of the hards.
 
I've been gradually drifting away from being interested in F1. There seem to be a lot of 'dark arts' at play from a certain driver. IMO for pure driving skill Hamilton is still the best. MV drives like an idiot a times and creates potentially dangerous situations.
 
I completely understand why MM thought he should let the drivers fight it out for the championship rather than finish under the safety car but he's dropped a massive ricket here.

The regulations, despite what some people are saying, are absolutely clear.

He should have let all of the unlapped cars pass or none. Then he should have waited a lap, then got the safety car in.

This will end up at CAS which is the worst possible outcome.
 
Notmarcjackson said:
I completely understand why MM thought he should let the drivers fight it out for the championship rather than finish under the safety car but he's dropped a massive ricket here.

The regulations, despite what some people are saying, are absolutely clear.

He should have let all of the unlapped cars pass or none. Then he should have waited a lap, then got the safety car in.

This will end up at CAS which is the worst possible outcome.
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If they wanted to have their “spectacle” finish and a grandstand, fight it out duel, then throw a red flag with 3 laps to go.

But they didn’t want to do that because with new tyres, Hamilton still had a probable advantage. They wanted Verstappen to have that advantage so manufactured the ending they wanted.
 
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Notmarcjackson said:
I completely understand why MM thought he should let the drivers fight it out for the championship rather than finish under the safety car but he's dropped a massive ricket here.

The regulations, despite what some people are saying, are absolutely clear.

He should have let all of the unlapped cars pass or none. Then he should have waited a lap, then got the safety car in.

This will end up at CAS which is the worst possible outcome.
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MM is a fool for thinking it is his responsibility to engineer a result. We had a result. Hamilton was the best driver on the day, his car was the fastest, team tactics, tyre choice and pit stop faultless. Red Bulls team manager is on record as saying that a couple of laps before the safety cars - he actually said "we need an act of god to win this". Well Masi decided to be god so instead we have someone breaking the clear cut rules trying to make things exciting by loading the dice heavily for one driver in a one lap game of chicken. The more I look at it the worse it gets.
 
wingsnwheels said:
I've been gradually drifting away from being interested in F1. There seem to be a lot of 'dark arts' at play from a certain driver. IMO for pure driving skill Hamilton is still the best. MV drives like an idiot a times and creates potentially dangerous situations.
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...as. for balance, did Hamilton against Verstappen at Silverstone.
 
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