Formula One
Comments
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Tomorrow should now be amazing drama.
pit stops and tyre differences potentially should be great to watchcan’t wait
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Probably going to be the most spectacular race since Ben Hur.
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I'll miss the lead up into it, god my booster at 11.00
JK
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I don't think you can rely on that, or any other media outlet! Especially if LH wins. I have spent the day trying to avoid the quili results but happen to look at the YouTube feed and the first video gave me the results. The only consolation was that it was the right result from my point of view but I appreciate others will have a different view!
David
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What a way to win a race, handed to Verstappen on a plate by the stewards, disgusting.
No way should that have happen, rules are rules and they just bent them all out of shape.
If Max is happy winning like that then it speaks volumes of him as a sportsman.
Totally disgusted.
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A fitting end to the fantastic F1 season.
Just think what 2022 will be like. 😉
My avatar picture is just one from many of the years at the British Silverstone F1 Grand Prix.
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Personally I think the decision was the right one. It would not have been right to let it end behind the safety car. Red Bull made some very good tactical decisions, that in the end paid off. It could just as easily gone the other way. Overall the stewards decisions have been about 50:50 on who they have favoured, perhaps questionably. However, like any sport you abide by the refs decision, even if you don’t like it.
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Can't agree, they should have let All the cars un lap and not just some. Which is what the rules state.
Without that crash there was no way Verstappen could have caught Lewis even with new tyres. He was lucky not skilled, what a way to way to win a race let alone a championship.
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I think the FIA officials have reached the only decision they could do. It would have been a travesty to allow such an important, championship deciding race, to finish under the safety car. Mercedes had at least two opportunities to pit LH and change his tyres but decided not to, whereas Red Bull made sure Max had the best tyres for what was to come. Sometimes the outcome of the Drivers Championship is down to Lady Luck as was the in 2008 when LN snatched the championship from Phillipe Massa in Brazil less than a minute from the finish of the race. Had that gone the way some are suggesting this race should have LH would only be six times World Champion!
David
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I'm no great fan of Lewis Hamilton but I have to say he shot up in my estimation by the good grace he showed in accepting the result and congratulating Max on his achievement. Without the late intervention of the safety car there is no doubt that he would have kept the lead and won the title.
But I do think it was unfortunate that the stewards first announced that the lapped cars wouldn't be allowed to overtake the safety car and then appeared to change that decision.
But that's sport and at the end of the day the "ref's" decision is final.
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Well I think the race director, stewards and anyone involved in making the decision to end the race the way it did have brought the sport of F1 in to disrepute.
Incidents always happen in any sport, its all part of the attraction, but to engineer a one lap race, by only letting some lapped cars to un-lap themselves contra to the regulations, which of course meant that Max was directly behind Lewis, and then not run another lap behind the safety car as the rules state, clearly shows that someone wanted a new champion.
If the powers that be really wanted a fair finish, the race should have been red flagged to give all drivers the same opportunity. Clearly they didn’t want a fair fight.
A very hollow victory for Max, although I’m sure he somehow thinks he deserved it. Lewis was obviously the faster driver and the Mercedes was clearly the faster car, the start proved that.
I thought Lewis showed great dignity and sportsmanship in congratulation Max and taking a full part in the podium celebrations, unlike Max last week when he walked off straight away like a spoilt brat.
I understand Mercedes have announced their intention to appeal, so common sense may still prevail.
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What I don't understand about these safety car 'issues' is (whether the lapped cars are removed or not) how Max manages to erase the 20 second lead Lewis had over him.
how can someone who might have been trailing by 90% of a lap be allowed to drive right up behind someone who has spent the entire race building that lead.
total nonesense...surely there should be NO pitting or passing under safety car rules?
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Fully agree that Lewis showed great dignity tonight, however Mercedes not so much.
They were more than happy on a number of occasions this season when decisions went in their favour. Such as the Turkey race when Lewis was not only able to change tyres but also unlap himself which gained him 10 points and no action when Lewis punted Max into the barriers at Silverstone, a race Lewis went on to win and cost Max engine penalties at the next race.
Most decisions have favoured Lewis this season.
As Lewis got away with passing while off the track on the first lap, you could say the decisions were balanced.
I do not believe it is mandated in the rules to allow lapped cars to pass the safety car and cannot understand why while on track work is taking place that they do not just allow lapped cars to drop back to the rear of the pack on the clear parts of the track.
It has been the norm for many years to move lapped cars from between the leader and the next cars on the same lap. A situation that has been to the benefit of Lewis in past.
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BB
Safety cars are always the "wild card" in F1. They can benefit all sides of the contest. However it does seem a strange strategy on the part of Mercedes not to have pitted LH when they had an opportunity? When Max pitted under, I think, under the virtual safety car, the expectation was that he would start to eat into the 20 second lead that LH had. Max did start to eat into that lead but had to overcome 4/5 cars that were also racing for position so if had remained that way I imagine LH would have won. When the real safety car was employed Max once again pitted to put on the faster soft tyres but because of the slow speed of the safety car Max was able to be right on LH's tail. By then LH's tyres were so old that he didn't stand a chance. Perhaps its not over yet? Having said that I don't think you can change the result so long after the race conclusion. Perhaps what will happen is that for next season the rules will be tightened? Having said that the Race Steward has always got to have room to make a decision and sometimes those decisions won't be to everyone's liking?
David
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..but Lewis had to pass those cars 'racing for position' just before the safety car..
just because the safety car is slow, cars behind it should maintain gaps..it's just nonsensical to say that Max was a) allowed to have all the obstacles to Lewis removed and b) to also allow him to get within feet of Lewis immediately prior to 'the off'...total sham, whatever had gone before in other races...
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Nonsensical or not, it is within the regulations at the moment. As are things like being able to change tyres under a red flag. Sometimes they favour one team, other times another. The team who comes out of it on top is generally the one with the best strategy and a modicum of luck. Today that was Red Bull.
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But Max wasn't on Lewis's tail until they released the lapped cars to overtake the safety car. Once that happens, drivers start to take up positions for the restart. You could claim that Lewis deliberately went so slow that almost caused Max to crash in the back of him. The leading car controls the race once the safety car goes in. The trouble for Lewis was that is tyres were shot so he was an easy target for Max. All that was a strategic error on the part of Mercedes as I have tried to point out in other posts.
David
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And what's also nonsensical is that the cars between Lewis and Max were told to un-lap themselves giving Max a free run at Lewis, but the lapped cars between Max and third place Carlos Sainz were made to stay in place making sure Max couldn't come under attack from behind.
As you say, a total sham.
It would be interesting if the race director made public why he changed his mind from issuing the instructions that no lapped cars would be able to un-lap themselves, then changing his mind to only let the cars between Lewis and Max to get out of the way.
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I think in retrospect they probably wished they red flagged it after the crash. Then everyone would have a chance to change tyres and it would have been a restart from there positions before the crash. Not perfect but it would have given LH a fighting chance and perhaps avoided this controversy if Max had subsequently won.
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On the contrary I think Mercedes had the strategy right.
Max qualified on soft tyres and Lewis qualified on the medium tyres. Whether or not Max made a mistake at the start Lewis took the lead and was comfortable pulling away from Max lap by lap. So, Mercedes had the better strategy for the start.
During the VSC Max changed his tyre and Lewis stayed out. When the VSF ended, once again Lewis was increasing his lead lap by lap until he almost had a pit stops distance between himself and Max so again Mercedes strategy proved to be the right one.
Then there was the full safety car with 5 laps to go. Mercedes made the call to leave Lewis out expecting the race director to apply the regulation as written. The Race director had two options so lets look at those.
1. Leave all the cars in the current position and once the track was clear bring in the safety car. Under these conditions Max would have to pass 5 cars to win the race. He would have been assisted by blue flags, but with only a short distance to the end of the race Lewis would more than likely kept the lead.
2. Once it was safe, allow all lapped cars to un-lap themselves and then run 1 further lap behind the safety car. The time this would have taken meant that the race would have ended behind the safety car and again Lewis would have kept the lead.
Again I think Mercedes made the right strategy call. What Mercedes could not have anticipated is that the race director would make up new regulations on the fly and give an overwhelming advantage to one car.
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Well done Max Verstappen for a great and entertaining seasons racing it's what the sport has needed for the last 7 years. Increasingly the people that matter, in my opinion, the spectators and viewers both last weekend and yesterday overwhelmingly voted Max Verstappen the 'Driver of the Day' award.
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Crashtappen was 12.3 seconds behind LH (and 5 lapped cars) when the VSC was implemented.
How come he was not the same time behind at the re-start of the 'race?' (I know about SC rules) FIA are a joke, the race was exciting, but just a total farce, resulting in them rushing their decisions, changing their minds re lapped cars (all within seconds) in order to provide a 'spectacle' of one laps' racing. They didn't take into account, the previous 57 laps or race strategy other teams had implemented. No wonder Toto Wolf was fuming!
I applaud Max and Lewis for the way they conducted themselves post race. Shame a whole season was decided like this.
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Putting all the controversy of the drivers championship to one side, Mercedes must be congratulated for winning an unprecedented consecutive eight world constructors championships.
I for one hope that their strategy of abandoning work on this years car half way through the season in favour of developing next years car, something Red Bull chose not to do, will pay dividends for next years championship and put Red Bull firmly back in their box.
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