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?!

The football analogy is ridiculous because it completely misses out on what the actual problem was yesterday (the unlapping rules).
Losing advantage due to safety car and pitting are normal.

Both drivers totally deserved the title, before the race I said I'd be happy with either and the person who drove the best race deserved to win. To end like it did is beyond ridiculous and I don't think I'll be watching next year..

The whole situation with teams on the radio to MM over the last few races has been absolutely farcical - it's like players surrounding the ref in football, no respect and doesn't do anyone's reputation any good. However, when MM and the FIA are seeming to make the rules up as they go along, I can't really blame RB and Mercedes for acting the way they have.

Both TW and CH have acted badly in the second half of the championship, but the way CH has sounded in the media and on the radio is desperate - like someone who was looking at losing their job if MV didn't win (or RB didn't win the constructors title).

People comparing F1 with football.. it isn't comparable. Most laps led does not mean that you will win. That is the beauty with F1 - anything can change at any given point of a race. That is where strategy (and luck a lot of the time) comes in.

People are also kind of missing the point. Lewis absolutely deserved to win the race yesterday. But he didn't deserve to win the championship this year. The FIA have heavily favoured Mercedes the entire season, Max has lost at least three wins through no fault of his own (or the car). Max got some of the luck that Lewis has benefited from multiple times this season...

while Red Bull threw all caution to the wind and used everything they had.

Because they were going to lose so it’s easy to make the decision to do that. No point being cautious when you’re staring defeat in the face! And it worked for them.

You might be a Max fan and I agree he is a worthy winner but can you honestly say there’s not a bit of a question mark over how the rules were applied?

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?

Drivers have spoken about it already. No positions changed in either the drivers’ or the constructors’ championship yesterday, so I guess they don’t believe it’s worth the extra work now that the season is finally over. They probably just want to go home.

The only swap in the WDC was Carlos getting P5 and Charles P7, and I don’t think them being in the right order at the restart would have made a big difference. Maybe Charles could’ve gotten Lando if he gained two positions, but that’s very unlikely. In any case, Ferrari let it go because it didn’t matter at the end of the day.

The drivers have said it was all very strange and confusing. They will probably demand some explanations. Let’s not forget some of them sit on different boards and committees that decide how the regulations and safety rules should be applied. They represent their colleagues’ views so they will most certainly ask for clarification.

Well, there is a lot of shite in this thread. F1 is being run now as a viewer attention grabbing drama due to who owns it now sadly.
In a way it's good that Netflix Drive to Survive has garnered F1 new fans, but many of them sadly appear to be rather ignorant of F1 rules and regulations. The toxicity of F1 fans has ramped up hugely in the past three years. Exhibits of this are in this thread.

There is no way in hell that race should have ended like that and it most definitely needs to be investigated by an outside party like CAS.

As a fairly neutral party being a McLaren fan, I'm shocked by what has happened this season. It would never ever have happened under Charlie Whiting the previous race director. FIA has always had it's issues, e.g in the Schumacher and Ferrari power years, but it was never this bad.

I support Mercedes taking them to court, it won't affect Max's championship, however it will keep the focus on the terrible decisions made by Masi and his stewards and hopefully next year we can get fairer and more consistent stewardship.

Max's title is forever going to be tainted by this, and for once the mess was not his doing, but Michael Masi and his stewards. Max himself didn't put a foot wrong in the race, but it should have been Lewis' victory without a doubt.

This is going to be even more poorly regarded as a world championship win than Schumacher's was in 1994.

Apparently Mercedes have withdrawn their appeal, which I think is for the best.

Let F1 celebrate its new champion, and relish a new era.

@BiscuitBean

Also to add, I think Mercedes second objection was the fact that Verstappen was level (arguably ahead) with Hamilton before the SC came in.

He wasn't when the SC came in and the race restarted though, hence why it was rejected. That was a desperate attempt at an appeal.

Dh is old enough to remember Senna driving into Prost & no one was on the phone to their lawyers.
I'm old enough to remember Mansell pushing his car over the finish line, and cars routinely having to run through the marbles on the slow-down lap to make sure the car made minimum weight for regulations.

F1 has always had rules. There have always been gains and losses as a result of them.

PS. Russell drove Lewis's car when Lewis was unable to drive because Russell will be driving for Mercedes next season and he was never going to be a contender this season. It's not unusual and many other well-known drivers have driven for the 'wrong' team mid-season.

It will be interesting to see how Lewis treats George next season. Will he nurture a younger driver?

There's definitely a question mark over how the rules were applied. But I am glad overall that Max won. I think he has done brilliantly this season and deserved it. Afterall, the decision by the FIA wasn't his doing, he made the most of the situation he was in as would any other driver. If it had been Lewis he'd have done exactly the same and as a whole I think Max (well he has by the statistics) has done better this season.

@MindyStClaire

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 haven't, but they're usually fairly on the ball. I know it's very conspiracy theory of me, but I think it was to save face for Hamilton. Have to say I lost a bit of interest in the sport after that. Pinch of salt nowadays. Still watching though 🙈

@HalfWomanHalfMincePie

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.

Hamilton didn’t drive Verstappen off the track at Silverstone. He had the advantage at the bend. Verstappen did his usual thing of trying to bully the other driver into giving way. Hamilton stood his ground. Verstappen was the victim of his own dangerous driving style and ended up in the wall.

This season’s championship has been skewed in favour of Red Bull. Remember Belgium where Verstappen led the cars round the track for 2 laps behind a safety car before the race was stopped, gaining him an extra win and half points?

If they were so keen for the final race to end in style, they should have red flagged the accident and then had a straight sprint shoot out over 5 laps in fresh tyres.

One argument that keeps popping up on SM about how unfair it is that Lewis had a 12 second advantage before the safety car then he didn't ... Well yes, that happens all the time when a SC is deployed, it always benefits the driver behind that's not new nor unfair.

I’m very excited about Lewis vs George next year. I too wonder what the dynamic will be.

Will we get a Seb vs Charles in 2019? Because that was amazing to see. Second race and they tell Charles to keep position, yet he goes and overtakes the no. 1 driver, because he’s faster and wants to be in front. It was brilliant!

A bit like Lewis sending it into the first corner at his first ever race in Melbourne 2007. Those are the kind of moves that tell you they mean business and they don’t care how decorated the older guy is, they’re not there to play second fiddle to anyone. Moves of future champions.

I can’t wait to see how Mercedes approach it next year and whether George will equal or best Lewis. It’s a win-win for him; if he doesn’t beat Lewis it won’t be a huge deal and he will learn so much anyway, but if he beats him it’ll be fantastic to see how well he’ll have proven himself against one the best ever.

I can’t wait for 2022

AND in addition to this, the race director specifically stated that the lapped cars wouldn't be allowed to unlap themselves before randomly changing his mind after it was too late for mercedes to change strategy.

^The race director changed his mind after Christian Horner of Red Bull kicked off

Remember Belgium where Verstappen led the cars round the track for 2 laps behind a safety car before the race was stopped, gaining him an extra win and half points?

That wasn't to favour Max or RB. It was because of the massive financial implications of not running the race. Anyone on pole would have been given the same chance. It's nearly happened before but the weather has cleared in time to have a race. It was inevitable it would happen some time.

@MindyStClaire

For people who watched for the first time yesterday:

Safety car: comes out when there's an accident, slows down the cars and bunches the field up so an accident can be cleared safely (obviously can't have marshals on track with cars racing). No overtaking allowed. Usually, lapped cars are allowed overtake and build a gap in front of the pack so that when the racing resumes, cars are together in race order.

People (on Twitter etc) complaining about Hamilton losing his advantage to Verstappen are flat out wrong - losing an advantage to a safety car is a normal part of racing, and it's an important part of strategy to have a plan for what to do. It was more or less a no brainer for Hamilton to stay out and keep track position, and a definite no brainer for Verstappen to stop for fresh tyres once Hamilton didn't.
That much was all fine.

As others have said, the problem is in the lapped cars. Usually, they're all allowed to overtake. There is an option for them to be left in situ which I can't remember being used before, but it's there. There is an accepted wish that races shouldn't finish under safety car where possible.

The argument is over whether or not Masi was allowed to only let SOME lapped cars through rather than ALL. There wouldn't have been time to let them all through and restart the race. Personally, I think if what he did is allowed under the rules (rather than just convention), I think it was the best call to allow the race to finish as a race. If it's not allowed under the rules, then obviously it wasn't ok - but what on earth a court of appeal could do I don't know. That will be the discussion now.

However, I do think the dithering wasn't great, and that Masi hasn't been inspiring as a race director. It's time for someone new.

It is an incredibly fitting ending to this season that it ends in controversy and close racing. Anyone saying this sort of controversy is anything new in F1 isn't familiar with the sport.

I do think the result will stand, but that procedure will change in future.

Agree with all of this.

The comparison to a 5-0 lead in a football match being wiped out is absurd, and shows a total lack of understanding of F1 as a sport.

Hamilton didn’t drive Verstappen off the track at Silverstone. He had the advantage at the bend.

If you look at the images, telemetry analysis and official investigation reports, you’d see this isn’t true. Lewis was at no point ahead of Max.

Lewis was penalised for that move, just like Max was penalised in Monza or Jeddah. The issue is how inconsistent the penalties have been this year. It used to be that pulling the move Lewis did (and sending your opponent to hospital) was a drive through or stop and go penalty. Not an insignificant 10 second penalty which did nothing to prevent him from winning the race.

They’ve both driven aggressively, and that’s why the battle was so exciting throughout. The race was clean yesterday from lap 2 onwards, and neither of them deserved the end they got. For once, it wasn’t their fault that the FIA screwed up.

Lewis deserved to win the race but Max deserved to win the Championship.

Farcical. I don't think I'll bother watching next year. What's the point, if the FIA can decide at the last minute to depart from their own rules to all but crown their chosen champion?

It was farcical

@MindyStClaire

Remember Belgium where Verstappen led the cars round the track for 2 laps behind a safety car before the race was stopped, gaining him an extra win and half points?

That wasn't to favour Max or RB. It was because of the massive financial implications of not running the race. Anyone on pole would have been given the same chance. It's nearly happened before but the weather has cleared in time to have a race. It was inevitable it would happen some time.

Exactly. I also don’t see people complaining about George’s ‘podium’. If anything I’ve seen suggestions he could’ve won the race or something like that, had they run it. People will see what they want to see.

A few times in F1 history, qualifying has mattered more than the race. That’s why good qualifying results earned those drivers points in Belgium. You could argue Monaco is the same, it awards qualifying results. That’s F1.

There was a lot to disagree with yesterday and now Michael Masi has put the FIA in a really awkward position.

You can't take away the win from Max because Red Bull played it perfectly, using every opportunity that was presented to them, just as any racing driver or team would do. They were very fortunate to have had a "free" pitstop available when the SC came out, and they'd have been stupid not to take it.

It's also not their fault that Masi decided to play by his own rules (as others have alluded to - there seems to be a much higher need to produce "entertainment" since the new American owners came in).

Mercedes, rightfully, have an axe to grind. The rules give two options plus a get out of jail "race director has authority" rule that's never been an issue before. Unfortunately even if they did know what Masi was going to do, they'd have been screwed. If they'd pitted, Max would have stayed out and Lewis would have lost track position, so it was a bit of a lose-lose scenario in that respect.

I can't see the FIA changing the result, but I think some rules will end up changing and heads will roll. What form of compensation there will be for Mercedes is unclear. It's the kind of thing that could lead to teams boycotting F1 in the future, which is clearly not good for the sport.

Either Masi needs to go (though the commentary team were saying that who else would want the job!), or at the very least they need to ban in race communications between the race director and the teams.

Masi has no say on penalties, etc. That's all down to the stewards team. He is purely in charge of controlling the race itself. He seemed to not handle the stress of yesterday very well at all.

Mercedes aren't innocent in everything that happened yesterday. Lewis should have given the place back, or clearly reduced the advantage he got by going off track. Then Lewis was complaining that Perez was driving dangerously. Bollocks he was - he was racing, and bloody good racing it was too - I had no concerns whatsoever that they were going to take each other off. From that point of view Perez is a much "cleaner" driver than Max.

I had no preference on who was to win - I'm an F1 fan, not a fan of any driver in particular. It's fair to say that F1 lost yesterday though.

And as for comments re George's tweets. I too was very disappointed in his comments. It's sad to see him becoming a Mercedes puppet before he's even got his boots in the door. I hope to god Merc allow him to race next year.

My greatest sympathies, however, go to Susie Wolff... I think I'd have been sleeping in the spare room last night if I was her!

@senua

In very simple terms: Formula 1 decided that it is no longer a sport; it is a manufactured TV entertainment with predetermined outcomes, akin to WWE.

I think it was a bad decision. If it was any other race the normal rules would have stood. They wanted an entertaining final lap, but you can't just change the rules of the sport just for entertainment purposes. Where does it stop?

Whoa - didn't think that was so long!