To wonder what happened in the F1 yesterday?

[WonderingWoman30]

I am trying to get my head around what happened with Lewis v Max in the F1 yesterday! I have read articles and was watching it… but I don’t understand the controversy… can anyone explain in (very) simple terms?!

Such a disappointing way for Max to win. But as DogInATent said, Max and Lewis have both benefited from decisions of the race director in the past. Lewis went off track in lap 1 and wasn't penalised. Not as major an incident as the ending, but they take the decisions when they benefit them and then bring in a barrister when they don't.

I have to say Toto Wolff has come across as a very sore loser. Lewis and his dad came across well and congratulated Max.

@PinkWednesdays

I heard a very simply analogy on the TV, along the lines of this.

England v Germany in World Cup final. England is up 3 goals and there are only 10 minutes left.

In that 10 minutes a player hurts himself so they stop the game. During the stop, Germany is allowed to change players and freshen up, England can’t.

Before the game restarts, the referee resets the score at 0-0.

Game restarts and Germany, with their new and energetic players, score a goal and win.

That is pretty much what happened to Hamilton yesterday.

Anyone who thinks this is a useful analogy knows absolutely nothing about motorsport.

The race director departed from the established regulations with regards to safety car procedure in a way that massively favoured one driver (Verstappen), who subsequently won the race.

Which sums up the season! In September, in Spa Belgium, Mad Max was on pole, the rain on the race day was torrential making it unsafe to race, therefore the Race DIrector decided to run two laps behind the safety car and call that a result! No-one can overtake under the safety car hence MM was bound to win but as the 'race' had taken place the fans who pay collosal amounts of money couldn't get a refund. Win, Win all round for Liberty Media.

@MindyStClaire I know nothing about it! The analogy on TV used rugby though, not football! It was me that changed rugby to football, but same points! 🙈🙈

Lewis and his dad came across well and congratulated Max.

They were the winners of the day when it comes to dignity, having seen Papa Jos' reaction when Mad Max hit the wall last week, I don't think it would have been the same had Lewis won.

[quote PinkWednesdays]@MindyStClaire I know nothing about it! The analogy on TV used rugby though, not football! It was me that changed rugby to football, but same points! 🙈🙈[/quote]
F1 isn't football or rugby, it's much more complex because there are so many more components. The possibility of a safety car nullifying a lead isn't unfair, it's fascinating. We all love F1 because of stuff like this, the strategising, random events that can turn a race on its head etc.

There is a conversation to be had around the lapped cars, but not around the use of the safety car.

@JudgeJ to say they ran that ‘race’ at Spa to benefit Max makes absolutely no sense and is so far detached from reality. That whole weekend was a shitshow. They should have stopped qualifying much earlier than they did, it took Lando having a freak accident and someone else almost driving into him to stop the session. That was the pinnacle of incompetence this season. Max wasn’t even on track for pole before the weather eased off, yet they insisted to run the session before the accident happened.

That’s like saying Monaco and Hungary results shouldn’t count because those races are, at the end of the day, processions.

I realised how much of a farce F1 was when George Russell drove Lewis' car in Sakhir though, so none of this is surprising to me.

@readsalotgirl63

I also understand that Hamilton didn't have a set of softs left to change to - that is also down to strategy over the whole weekend. It's not Verstappens fault he took a risk in pitting and changing tyres to be able to take advantage of the opportunity should it arise.

These things happen in F. I'm old enough to remember Nigel Mansel's tyre blowing out in the last lap when he was "sure to win ". Think it was 1986

Dh is old enough to remember Senna driving into Prost & no one was on the phone to their lawyers.

All of you defending LH has a lovely fluffy character have forgotten silverstone when he drove max off track on purpose & TW wasn’t bothered about it to ring like all the other teams did. Adrian Neweys still salty about it and I don’t blame him. He was so far off the racing line he had to get his passport out to get back on it. No wonder Leclerc backed out from that corner.

@Naillig222

I realised how much of a farce F1 was when George Russell drove Lewis' car in Sakhir though, so none of this is surprising to me.

It took you until 2020 to realise that the performance of the car is a significant component of F1?

And it took you until the end of 2020 to realise that Russell has potential to be a multiple champion himself in time?

There was nothing farcical about his performance at all.

@Laiste

So - and i know there will be a good reason - why don't they all just slow down and stop when there is a big incident on the track. They must all stop within a certain number of seconds and then start again when the track is clear?

Everyone stays in order and the race just carries on.

Because coming to a standstill would mean the heat goes out of their tyres and starting in cold tyres is hazardous, they tend to burst. Keeping the heat in their tyres is why you see them weaving around behind the SC.

I despise F1 racing

Neither of those things. I completely understand about the cars and Russell's ability.

I don't believe that Mercedes accidently put on the wrong tyres. And then pitted him when he flew up ahead again.

I have a question. Surely Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton aren’t the only ones who were disadvantaged from the decision to only let some lapped cars pass. If you were further down the field and had a lapped car in front of you, that wasn’t allowed to pass, couldn’t you argue it was unfair because you didn’t therefore get the chance to have a go at the car in front of you in terms of track position? Whereas Verstappen did? OK, it’s not the championship at stake for you but maybe some points? So it’s not just Mercedes/LH who can claim unfairness.

@PinkSparklyPussyCat I'm on the same page as you.

@PinkWednesdays

That analogy is completely flawed.

At the end of the day, Mercedes got their strategy wrong. Leaving Lewis out on old tires for the majority of the race was a bad move. If they would have pitted even once (before the Latifi crash), yes, he would have lost position but his car had the best pace out there and he would have had fresh tyres. It would have been a proper race to the finish.

They chose to play it overly safe, while Red Bull threw all caution to the wind and used everything they had. Max drove amazingly, Checo was a fabulous team player, the pit stops were exceptional (as usual for RB)... It was a real team effort.

I think Lewis even knew before the crash that it was a bad idea leaving him out on those tyres. He literally said "it's a bit risky leaving me out, no?" In motorsport, especially F1, you can't assume that there won't be a crash late into the race. Mercedes didn't have a back-up plan. With about 20 laps to go, they settled on what they were doing and that was that. At least Red Bull were dynamic enough to be able to maximise on every single obstacle in their course.

But, of course, I'm biased. I'm a die hard Verstappen fan and the FIA have been incredibly soft on Lewis over the entire season. Unfortunately for him, the one time they ruled against him in a way, it was the final lap of the final race. He did get the advantage at the beginning of the race, though. If he had been made to hand back that position, it could have been an entirely different race.

In the end I think the right decision was made. It was a thrilling last lap and I'm delighted that F1 is finally back to being competitive again, not just a set winner from the first race for x years in a row. There's some great talent coming up; Lando Norris will be a great watch next season. It'll be a fantastic watch next season.

As the F1 community, commentators etc, have been saying all year long, Mercedes have been unchallenged since 2014. They’ve done some mistakes every year, but it did not affect them in any way due to the huge advantage they had. They could afford screw ups because they were going to win anyway.

You only have to look at all the mistakes Mercedes have made this season, to understand why George’s tyre mixup at the end of 2020 will most likely have been genuine. They’ve made mistakes, just like every other team, some of them huge. It was unfortunate that one of them happened in Sakhir but I don’t agree that it was done on purpose, because they’ve displayed that same behaviour time and time again this year.

@Naillig222

Neither of those things. I completely understand about the cars and Russell's ability.

I don't believe that Mercedes accidently put on the wrong tyres. And then pitted him when he flew up ahead again.

Oh this fucking infuriated me. There's not a chance in hell they accidentally put on the wrong tyres, as you say.

I just hope Russell ends up being more of a Rosberg type teammate, rather than Bottas. Bottas is an amazing driver but I wish he'd been allowed to race without having to think about the golden boy every time. And, yes, I know Checo helped Max in the last race but there's a big difference between helping a teammate in an equal points finale as opposed to constantly having to back off so your teammate can swan to victory.

If Mercedes had brought Lewis in for new tyres during either incident, Max might not have been able to pass him on the final lap. It’s the Mercedes team’s poor judgement that cost Lewis the race as much as anything. They gambled, they lost.

I don't think I've ever seen any suggestion it wasn't a mistake (Russell's tyres). It's the sort of mistake that does happen and Mercedes haven't been bullet proof in that regard at all.

They all play silly buggers on the track (well, almost all).

Lewis drove Max off at Silverstone.
Max drove him off yesterday and was 'salty' (great term!) about having to give the place back last week.
Michael S drive Barrichello into a wall and Damon H off the track (and loads of other stuff .
Alonso had to have known about crashgate.
Vettel clearly went back on team race agreements with Webber (Multi-21).
Tyrell fired lead shots out of the car to lighten it up - ha!
Jenson drove a car with a secret second fuel tank - double ha!
Senna deliberately took Prost out in Japan 1990

I don't think any are all good, or all bad. Human nature simply is more complication than that.

Some bloke drove a
Fast car faster than another bloke.

I think the FIA are simply giving LH a huge hint that it is time to move over and give the youngsters a chance. If one driver consistently wins, year after year, people stop watching.

However, they may have created a monster for themselves. They'll need to rein Max in before he actually kills someone. The video of his car sitting on top of Lewis' head was alarming.

The papers were interesting. Almost universally, the front page pictures were large one of LH, small one of MV. Usually the other way round, winner v. loser.

I just hope Russell ends up being more of a Rosberg type teammate, rather than Bottas.

I think he'll be more of an Alonso! Fully expecting sparks to fly, should be a fun one.