2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix - Jeddah, Dec 03 - 05

[Seerix]

Wow, I was slowly coming to terms with VER as he was not crashing as much as in the early years... but these last GPs showed he is still the same dirty driver, noone is safe trying to overtake him, "get out of the way or we both crash"... today was too much and it shows.

[SiLo]

My take:

Max tries to let Lewis through, but in a bit of a stupid way.

Lewis (not knowing he is being let through) thinks Max is simply gaming the DRS line (remember Canada 2013 with Alonso?) so Lewis doesn't want to overtake either, at least not on this straight.

Max continues to brake but suddenly brakes harder than before. Lewis realises too late and tries to avoid, clips left rear wheel.

Max accelerates after being hit.

[Jolle]

Even though you are hopelessly biased, I will try to explain why Max was breaking at that point. It's pretty simple:
HE WAS TOLD TO LET HAMILTON THROUGH.

Had he wanted to take him out/brake test him, he would've just floored the brake on the straight.
Instead, he had been constantly deccelarating, and still, Hamilton didn't go through. Most likely he grew slighly impatient (understandably) and decided to slow down even more. That's when contact happened. Everyday traffic situation: you decide to let the other car slot in ahead of you, he misunderstand you, so you slow down even more (flash lights etc.) so that he gets the message. Yet, I realize it's more convenient to call Max a cheat. Still, it's extremely tiresome for us to deal with blatant cases of trolling.

The facts are out, he did deliberately brake chack hamilton. Now the facts are there your opinions needs to change

Facts are out, indeed: he tapped the brakes.
I offered an utterly sensible explanation from everyday life. As someone who has done competitive racing, trust me, I can relate to it more than a lot of people here. If I want to let someone through and yet he stays behind me, I either slow down even more or say "f.ck it" and floor the throttle. Since he was ordered to give up the position, he had no other choice. Was it dangerous? I guess it was, that's why he got penalized. Was it malicious, something completely unreasonable, something that cannot be explained? No. (Well, provided that one is willing to engage in objective thinking.)

Slowing down to let someone through is one thing and done at the end of a straight, making way, way off the racing line, leaving a clear line into the first corner.

It’s not done by someone that tried to run you off track three times already with every attent to pass him and on the middle of the track.
From Hamilton’s perspective he could have broken his gearbox and would weave him against the wall when he would overtake him.

[rb88]

Even though you are hopelessly biased, I will try to explain why Max was braking. It's pretty simple:
HE WAS TOLD TO LET HAMILTON THROUGH.

Had he wanted to take him out/brake test him, he would've just floored the brake on the straight.
Instead, he had been constantly deccelarating, and still, Hamilton didn't go through. Most likely he grew slighly impatient (understandably) and decided to slow down even more. That's when contact happened. Everyday traffic situation: you decide to let the other car slot in ahead of you, he misunderstand you, so you slow down even more (flash lights etc.) so that he gets the message. Yet, I realize it's more convenient to call Max a cheat. Still, it's extremely tiresome for us to deal with blatant cases of trolling.

Your entire case rests on the idea that Verstappen is such a poor driver that he didn't know where Hamilton was so, when he stamped on the brakes (as highlighted by the stewards), he had no idea that Hamilton was directly behind him.

What makes you think that Verstappen is such a poor driver?

The point is he's not a poor driver, he's an excellent one. And one that knows exactly how to brake-check someone without looking like it's intentional - and to boot, to run another driver off the track and make it look like it was un-intentional!

[foxmulder_ms]

Sham of a season. FIA is now negotiating the penalty for redbul driver's crazy moves during the race, trying to minimize damage for redbul and making life as difficult as possible for HAM. What a sham. This season made me realize Italian football league is more fair than F1. I never seen this much favoritism by a regulatory organization.

HAM is marvelous.

[void]

Intent to cause a dnf.. really? Is '94 still hurting? Because the only two non mechanical dnfs by ves this year were caused by collisions with the mercs at fault. Brazil is a strange case yes, but you can't blame max for trying if the FIA can accept; no contact there though.

You forget Monza where was a clearly Max fault.

[Incognito]

Max continues to brake but suddenly brakes harder than before. Lewis realises too late and tries to avoid, clips left rear wheel.

If Verstappen doesn't know where Hamilton is when he stamps on the brakes, then he shouldn't be allowed in F1. There was one car on the same piece of track, he was clearly checking his mirrors...and then, 'accidentally', he brakes with Hamilton directly behind him.

It's the same defence as Verstappen's inability to keep an F1 car on the track whenever Hamilton gets near to him. Surely, being able to keep your car on track should be a pretty basic requirement to race in F1? Verstappen continually shows that he lacks the ability to do that. Otherwise, he's deliberately crowding Hamilton off track or impeding him, and it's a penalty.

So, which is it? Is he such a bad driver that he should have his licence revoked?

Or is he a skilled driver who knows a double-DNF wins him the championship?

[Hoffman900]

My biggest gripe in this is that I want to like Max. He’s a sensational driver as his Q3 up until the crash showed. Schumacher was the same for me, but then they do stupid --- like this. Even if they just owned it, that would sit better with me, but Max is just surrounded by insufferable apologists.

This is why people liked guys like Dale Earnhardt. He would do dirty --- and when confronted would be like, “yeah I did that”.

[Tom145145]

I can’t understand how being found to have brake checked another car in a Grand Prix is 10 seconds. I fear for the last race now, I want a race worthy of the champions not dive bombing and brake checks.

[ringo]

Whoever is talking about traffic and braking I will not not respond to you. Max give Lewis the position should have been just easing off the throttle and moving offline.

Brake testing is eratic for a reason.. It's meant to catch your follower off gaurd.
He had to draw Lewis in close then slam on the brake.
He's like those rotten kids playing video games online and smirking as they cause havoc in the virtual world.

The FIA are trying their best to make Max the WDC. It's painfully obvious now. They embarass themselves just to keep max in the game.
Next race i predict he will be under pressure again and he will do something silly in Q3 and in the race. Only this time i hope it's Bottas he tries to drive off track and I hope Bottas doeznf back down.

[ema00]

At least max showed to the world what I had always seen in him: a very unrespectful driver, this race he should have been black flagged

[Just_a_fan]

For the gladiatorial spectacle I have to disagree and remember that F1 is owned by an American conglomerate that like hard contact!

F1 is owned by the FIA. Liberty have a licence to promote it and make money from it.

[BlueCheetah66]

I don't think it is right to suggest that Verstappen braked with the intention to take out Hamilton. He was trying to let Hamilton through, why would he then decide to try and take him out. I agree that he was predominantly at blame for the incident due to the heavy braking, however that does penalty does not say that he attempted to take out another competitor. As much as many people would like to believe the FIA would just pass that off, If a driver did intentionally try to take out another driver, they would take much harder action, regardless of if there is a championship on the line. I think that the FIA believe that many of the errors within this incident (Hamilton not overtaking, Masi telling Merc too late, Max's braking) were mainly down to the confusion around the situation. That is why in the Stewards decision it states that they see Max having 'predominant' blame and mentions the other faults that led to the collision.

[siskue2005]

My biggest gripe in this is that I want to like Max. He’s a sensational driver as his Q3 up until the crash showed. Schumacher was the same for me, but then they do stupid --- like this. Even if they just owned it, that would sit better with me, but Max is just surrounded by insufferable apologists.

This is why people liked guys like Dale Earnhardt. He would do dirty --- and when confronted would be like, “yeah I did that”.

Common it's not even comparable to schumacher. Schumacher atleast did it only once in the heat of the moment... he never was this dirty or this desperately holding on it his position and pushing evey one out of the way...

Max is just another level, it's crazy how much desperation and madness he is doing

Schumacher has been on many close battles he never did any crazy things like this.

[mzivtins]

Whoever is talking about traffic and braking I will not not respond to you. Max give Lewis the position should have been just easing off the throttle and moving offline.

Brake testing is eratic for a reason.. It's meant to catch your follower off gaurd.
He had to draw Lewis in close then slam on the brake.
He's like those rotten kids playing video games online and smirking as they cause havoc in the virtual world.

The FIA are trying their best to make Max the WDC. It's painfully obvious now. They embarass themselves just to keep max in the game.
Next race i predict he will be under pressure again and he will do something silly in Q3 and in the race. Only this time i hope it's Bottas he tries to drive off track and I hope Bottas doeznf back down.

I agree with you.

I do a lot of sim racing in a professional grade simulator, and I was in a competition race at suzuka, 2020 bop gt3 class.

Anyway, I peeled off for pit entry and got tagged by the car behind, he though I brake checked him and he was livid, I understood why he was so angry, but when I said I was actually making the pit entry the driver understood also and everything was happy that exact moment.

Like it was Omg sorry you thought I brake checked you like that, honestly I woukd never do that, like it was some crazy thing you'd never even expect to see in a sim race...

And here we are today, 10second penalty. In gt3 racing I could cause a 2 maybe 3 car ending scenario by brake testing someone... That's a lot to gain for only 10 seconds