Formula 1-2021 Season

Keith Tanner said:

Thinking back, I think Perez driving the widest F1 car in the world was the highlight of this race. 

In the end, that had no bearing on the race, other than making sure Perez would have less of a chance to finish 3rd.  RBR's fan can hail him all they want, but Horner screwed him over the entire season in favor of Max.   He admitted to going after the drivers championship over the team one.  Yay.   Other than having a competitive car, being the #2 driver under Horner must not be that fun.

Agree, have always liked Checko.

In reply to alfadriver :

It may not have had an effect, but it sure could have. And it was fun to watch. 

alfadriver said:

Keith Tanner said:

Thinking back, I think Perez driving the widest F1 car in the world was the highlight of this race. 

In the end, that had no bearing on the race, other than making sure Perez would have less of a chance to finish 3rd.  RBR's fan can hail him all they want, but Horner screwed him over the entire season in favor of Max.   He admitted to going after the drivers championship over the team one.  Yay.   Other than having a competitive car, being the #2 driver under Horner must not be that fun.

Didn't seem like Valtteri got much better treatment from Toto, and he was a much more consistently effective wingman over the course of the season than Checo.  
There was never a question for either team who was going to be the lead driver.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I think Perez and Hamilton racing each other was the highlight of any of the on track action this year, his defense in Brazil while everyone else looked like chumps (including Max) was commendable too. More of that, less run the other guy off the track bullE36 M3.

The real MVP of the year. Ha!

SnowMongoose said:

alfadriver said:

Keith Tanner said:

Thinking back, I think Perez driving the widest F1 car in the world was the highlight of this race. 

In the end, that had no bearing on the race, other than making sure Perez would have less of a chance to finish 3rd.  RBR's fan can hail him all they want, but Horner screwed him over the entire season in favor of Max.   He admitted to going after the drivers championship over the team one.  Yay.   Other than having a competitive car, being the #2 driver under Horner must not be that fun.

Didn't seem like Valtteri got much better treatment from Toto, and he was a much more consistently effective wingman over the course of the season than Checo.  
There was never a question for either team who was going to be the lead driver.

I don't know... VBot's head wasn't on the chopping block the entire time he was there. Mercedes didn't treat the second car like a revolving door like RBR does. Yeah I get it, time for a new driver in that seat, but the transition process seems to have been respectful enough.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Certainly lucky but I wouldn't say gifted. Mercedes screwed up by not pitting and Max still had to make the pass and hold off Hamilton (which Lewis did a hell of a job almost getting the position back on terrible tires).

SnowMongoose said:

alfadriver said:

Keith Tanner said:

Thinking back, I think Perez driving the widest F1 car in the world was the highlight of this race. 

In the end, that had no bearing on the race, other than making sure Perez would have less of a chance to finish 3rd.  RBR's fan can hail him all they want, but Horner screwed him over the entire season in favor of Max.   He admitted to going after the drivers championship over the team one.  Yay.   Other than having a competitive car, being the #2 driver under Horner must not be that fun.

Didn't seem like Valtteri got much better treatment from Toto, and he was a much more consistently effective wingman over the course of the season than Checo.  
There was never a question for either team who was going to be the lead driver.

Maybe this year, but it's not as if Bottas hasn't had his chances- he could have made passes like Lewis did to be more relevant.  And Valtteri was never called in while in the points to take points off of another driver.  

The last time the second driver was not treated like a second driver was Max.  Weber was, Ricciardo was treated badly as #1, we know what happend with Gasley and Albon.  Since 2013, Mercedes has been either Hamitlon-Rosberg or Hamilton- Bottas- 3 drivers.  RBR has had Vettel, Weber, Ricciardo, Kvyat, Verstappen, Gasley, Albon, and Perez.  

In reply to MrFancypants :

The most hollow victory of all would be winning the championship in the stewards room, arguing to have a legitimate pass overturned because cars in no way involved in the pass were out of position, no? Should Max be punished because Masi screwed up and only told some instead of all of the unlaped cars to unlap themselves? I mean that certainly was a screwup but the cars who have a legitimate gripe are those cars who weren't allowed to unlap themselves - not lewis. Lewis' situation is exactly as it should have been.

BrewCity20 said:

In reply to MrFancypants :

The most hollow victory of all would be winning the championship in the stewards room, arguing to have a legitimate pass overturned because cars in no way involved in the pass were out of position, no? Should Max be punished because Masi screwed up and only told some instead of all of the unlaped cars to unlap themselves? I mean that certainly was a screwup but the cars who have a legitimate gripe are those cars who weren't allowed to unlap themselves - not lewis. Lewis' situation is exactly as it should have been.

Ah ok, so Max shouldn't be punished because of a screw up but Lewis should be punished because of a screw up?

Lewis's situation is not at all what it should have been. If the referees don't know the rules they're there to enforce and aren't willing to make things right when they screw it then what's the point?

I don't think the choice not to pit was a screwup. It would have been borderline if Lewis would have come out ahead of at all. At least, that was my impression at the time. Given a safety car that late, the race was almost definitely finishing under yellow. It was the randomness on the part of the race director that bit them.

Now what they could have done would be to run Lewis down pit lane. If Max followed, pit. If not, come right back out ahead of Max. That's going to be 3s faster than stopping and it removes the strategic advantage the following car has :)

In reply to SnowMongoose :

Lawsuits incoming

SnowMongoose said:

According to the F1 website, the lapped car release is still under investigation. The "passed before the start line" protest was denied. 

In reply to Keith Tanner :

That'd have been a really clever move. 

Once the crash happened I new it was bad news for Hamilton.

I was hoping it finished under yellow (because I am Hamilton fan) but knew they'd very likely have 1-2 laps of racing. 

RB just kept digging hoping for a chance to capitalize. I'm not happy about the result but it was an epic season.

On a different note: my wife was pissed.........she refers to Verstappen and Versnotty........she's not really a F1 fan. This made me laugh, while I was disappointed she was actually pissed.

In reply to MrFancypants :

I guess my thoughts on the situation are...If everything was done exactly as it should have been (e.g., Masi allowed all the lapped cars to unlap themselves earlier in the situation like he should have) then the correct starting order would be Lewis 1 and Max 2. That is exactly how it was when the green flag fell. So for all intents and purposes Max and Lewis were in the correct locations and all "out of position" cars were further back and therefore inconsequential for that last lap (at least as it pertains to Max and Lewis).

So canceling that lap would be punishing Max for Masi's screwup - while Lewis should have had to defend himself from Max and just failed to do so.

Wow! What can I say. That was, ah, interesting. It's going to be a messy post season.

I've been a Max fanboy since he came on scene. This season he's been like a pit bull. Fast, but maybe too aggressive at some points. I think when you're driving the second fastest car you have to be aggressive if you want to win. He's certainly proven that he has the guts to take the risks to win.

I was a fan of Lewis in the past. I'm ready for a change though. Just as I was when Seb won his 4th in a row or Michael won his 5th in a row. I think Lewis is a great driver who's had the best car for the last 9 seasons. He was beatable in 2009-2013 when he wasn't in the dominate car. Maybe next season Red Bull/Ferrari/McLaren/Alpine will be the one to beat and we'll see him driving at/past the limits a bit more. 
 

I started watching Indycar again the last couple seasons after a long hiatus. I don't watch the ovals much, but the road course races are usually very tight and since the cars are basically equal there isn't as much of the domination by one team/driver. Same goes for MotoGP the last couple seasons. The races are close and there wasn't anyone who really dominated race to race. I really hope F1 swings in this direction next season.

In reply to BrewCity20 :

Sure, but not pulling in the safety car on the prescribed lap screwed Lewis. Had the rules been followed the safety car would have been called in at the end of the next lap, which would have been the end of the race.

The FIA have dismissed Mercedes' protests over events at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, after a late Safety Car was called in a dramatic finale, with the team later lodging their intention to appeal the decision.

Max Verstappen passed Lewis Hamilton on the very last lap of the race after a Safety Car emerged for Nicholas Latifi's crash five laps from the end of the 58-lap Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Thirty minutes after the race, the eight-time constructors' champions protested the final classification, specifically calling into question an "alleged breach of Article 48.12 of the 2021 FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations”, while also citing a further breach of Article 48.8 in a separate protest.

A document released by the FIA on Sunday night read: "Article 15.3 allows the Race Director to control the use of the safety car, which in our determination includes its deployment and withdrawal.

READ MORE: Mercedes launch protests over Abu Dhabi GP result after Safety Car-affected race end

"Although Article 48.12 may not have been applied fully, in relation to the safety car returning to the pits at the end of the following lap, Article 48.13 overrides that and once the message 'Safety Car in this lap' has been displayed, it is mandatory to withdraw the safety car at the end of that lap.

"That notwithstanding Mercedes’ request that the Stewards remediate the matter by amending the classification to reflect the positions at the end of the penultimate lap, this is a step that the Stewards believe is effectively shortening the race retrospectively, and hence not appropriate.

"Accordingly, the Protest is dismissed."

The FIA had just previously denied Mercedes' protest over an alleged overtake made by Verstappen over Hamilton under the Safety Car.

A statement from a Mercedes spokesperson just after the decision was made announced the team's intention to appeal the decision. The team have 72 hours to decide whether to appeal fully.

Cut and Pasted from formula1.com

In reply to SnowMongoose :

So effectively there's a clause in the rules that says "we can do what we want." How is this different from professional wrestling?

What other top level sport allows their officials to selectively apply the rules as they see fit?

Regardless of the outcome, I was happy that the race did not end under caution.  It would have been even more awesome to see Hamilton and Max battle it out for one last lap had both drivers taken on new tires, but beyond that, all good as I see it.

In reply to MrFancypants :

F1 is hardly alone in having a moving target for rules and how (or if) they're enforced.

The obvious plot line that the Netflix things is going to follow is how inept the rules have been applied during the season.  Everyone got to bitch about them very feverishly.  

And since that's pretty much all there is to talk about- I'm not going to watch.

McLaren's one shining moment is just that- one.  Ferrari was good enough to get 3rd overall, but not all that good.  Renault ended well, but started really badly (based on finishing where they did).  Haas sucked.  Williams sucked, and ended up having their driver decide the championship at the last moment.  Alfa sucked- having Kimi's car not even finish his last race.

So all there is to talk about are the controversial calls between Max and Lewis.