2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Yas Marina, Dec 10 - 12

[auv]

Great race. Driver who attacks, risks and does not cut corners deserved the win.

[jknights]

Well done Max, you drove well if a little controversially, but that final "racing" was heavily contrived. Michael Masi should be fired. He said he wants racing, but Lewis was 11 seconds up the road. All or no overlapped cars should have been the decision; not a few.

He cant give in every time that Horner whinges.
I have said this last season and this one. Masi is out of his depth. He needs to go.

Mercedes will contest that restart was not as per regulations.
I wonder if this will end up in court. I dont know the procedure well enough to comment.

[JPBD1990]

Shady ending. I'm prolly in tinfoil hat territory here, but looks like a directive came from upstairs to guarantee a final lap showdown. Very Hollywood, very NASCAR.

I said back in 2018 that Liberty would eventually prioritize entertainment over sporting values.

Nvertheless, I think Verstappen had a fantastic season and is not undeserving, even if Hamilton had the better of him in the last few races. Just a shame that F1 resorts to this kind of trickery to ensure maximum entertainment.

I agree with this. They wanted a lap of racing. I think the intent, in fact, was genuine and well intended. They wanted it settled on track. Of course because of everything else (RB pitting and Mercedes not) it hasn’t turned out that way.

[Tom145145]

In my view if the lapped cars had been left it would have been a fair fight, that was the compromise. Otherwise if you let all the cars through it would have been ended under the safety car. This is like a hybrid of the rule that only helped RB. I can congratulate Max on an amazing season he is worthy but Massi is not and I doubt he will be in the job for long.

Exactly. It’ll be fudged and all that will happen is Masi is finally fired. That imbecile has messed up this sport for far too long already.

It would be really unfair on Verstappen to take the title away from him, but the manner in which it was won was completely unjust.

I wasn’t happy when Nico beat Hamilton but that was just driver preference and still loved the sport that I have watched for 25 years. I don’t know if I have the time for this “sport” anymore, and I hate to be that fan but this is more than my driver preference.

[Jolle]

One thing is for sure, “the FIA/Sterwards/FOM/Masi” is favouring Mercedes/Hamilton can’t be used the coming years.

[jz11]

I do think Mercedes is going to raise enough stink behind closed doors that they’ll offer Massi’s head on a plate and get rid of him.

Hopefully. The inconcistency of Massi is outrageous even for FIA's standards - as evident by both RB and Merc complaining about him and nobody trusting his decisions.

his decisions have been "unfair" to both teams, that, and the fact that one isn't happy and that cost them the championship is the reason why NOT to change him, because it is a clear signal that teams have influence here - which is totally not what you want, he must stay, not because he is good, or anything like that, he may remain just a placeholder and have an adviser board really calling decisions, but if Toto&Co get him sacked, that is a very bad signal for the sport in general

his only defense here was that they wanted the season to end with a race, not a safety car, and Merc poor strategy calls not to change the tires 2 times was the ultimate downfall of them, they didn't want to race, they had the pace and the position, and they stuck to it, RB by doing the contrary could only win, it was an easy decision for them, a hard one for Merc strategists, but they chose very predictably the usual - conservative approach, and Lewis even complained about it, he wanted new tires, to have a chance, but they didn't want him to have to possibly overtake Max, that is how I see it, I've said a number of times - Merc strategists are "fat" and "lazy", and it finally bit them where it really hurt

[jknights]

Great race. Driver who attacks, risks and does not cut corners deserved the win.

Aheem, I dont know who you are talking about both drivers were cutting the corners.
Bring back the gravel traps or a 5sec penalty for each and every excursion!

[El Scorchio]

The fact they abandoned protocol to essentially engineer a Verstappen win is extraordinary. Mercedes won’t get anywhere but yes they should protest. But it’s not Red Bull’s fault the FIA sent them the title on a plate.

It’s beyond luck.

I can totally see your point, but the only other option for the race director was to keep the safety car out until the end (which would have equally been considered an engineered result). I just wonder whether had Mercedes have handed the place back on lap one (personally, I see no difference between that incident and the one last week after the first restart - MV had to give the place back), whether they would have held the same tactical advantage during the VSC period. LH would be champion now.

Of course it wouldn’t have been an engineered result. It would have been following procedure and if the race ends under SC then that’s just that. The race wasn’t ready to be restarted when they got to the end of lap 57 as all the cars hadn’t unlapped but they didn’t follow their own rules in their haste.

If the race was 59 or 60 laps long then no complaints from me at all but they simply didn’t follow their own rules.

[Tizz]

The fact they abandoned protocol to essentially engineer a Verstappen win is extraordinary. Mercedes won’t get anywhere but yes they should protest. But it’s not Red Bull’s fault the FIA sent them the title on a plate.

It’s beyond luck.

I can totally see your point, but the only other option for the race director was to keep the safety car out until the end (which would have equally been considered an engineered result). I just wonder whether had Mercedes have handed the place back on lap one (personally, I see no difference between that incident and the one last week after the first restart - MV had to give the place back), whether they would have held the same tactical advantage during the VSC period. LH would be champion now.

The situation there was irrelevant. Lewis would have overtaken him again. It turned out to be of no importance.

[Restomaniac]

The fact they abandoned protocol to essentially engineer a Verstappen win is extraordinary. Mercedes won’t get anywhere but yes they should protest. But it’s not Red Bull’s fault the FIA sent them the title on a plate.

It’s beyond luck.

I can totally see your point, but the only other option for the race director was to keep the safety car out until the end (which would have equally been considered an engineered result). I just wonder whether had Mercedes have handed the place back on lap one (personally, I see no difference between that incident and the one last week after the first restart - MV had to give the place back), whether they would have held the same tactical advantage during the VSC period. LH would be champion now.

They had 2 choices.
1 Don’t let cars unlap themselves and Verstappen has to pass them whilst Hamilton cruises to a win. As per the rules.
Or
2 Let ALL the cars unlap themselves and keep the SC out an extra lap and Hamilton wins. As per the rules.

Number 1 is out as the decided to allow lapped cars to unlap themselves. They then decided to NOT follow the protocol. Any court would enforce the rules which would mean Hamilton wins.

[Tvetovnato]

What a complete domination it was by Mercedes though. Even when getting a free pitstop and tyre change during VSC, Max hardly made a dent into Lewis lead for real. At least the best team won the constructors, thank the lord for that.

Super happy that Max title will have a huge asterix to it as well, when the sporting regulations are blatantly broken to engineer the win.

Onto the next season!

[Jolle]

The FIA tried all to ensure the black victim wins! but they failed! Great!

Get this racist out of here please

[e30ernest]

Merc poor strategy calls not to change the tires 2 times was the ultimate downfall of them

I don't think they had the choice? On the VSC, if they stopped, Max would have stayed out and would have held the race lead. We saw how the lap times dropped off Max during that stint. Now on the SC period, if they stopped, Max would have stayed out and taken the lead, and the race would have potentially ended on the SC.

Mercedes' lead along with the gap they had to Max meant they did not have a chance to react to those stops.

[littlebigcat]

If I was any other driver or team in F1 I would be peeved by that decision, it effectively says your participation in the sport is meaningless

[kaller]

I do think Mercedes is going to raise enough stink behind closed doors that they’ll offer Massi’s head on a plate and get rid of him.

Hopefully. The inconcistency of Massi is outrageous even for FIA's standards - as evident by both RB and Merc complaining about him and nobody trusting his decisions.

his decisions have been "unfair" to both teams, that, and the fact that one isn't happy and that cost them the championship is the reason why NOT to change him, because it is a clear signal that teams have influence here - which is totally not what you want, he must stay, not because he is good, or anything like that, he may remain just a placeholder and have an adviser board really calling decisions, but if Toto&Co get him sacked, that is a very bad signal for the sport in general

his only defense here was that they wanted the season to end with a race, not a safety car, and Merc poor strategy calls not to change the tires 2 times was the ultimate downfall of them, they didn't want to race, they had the pace and the position, and they stuck to it, RB by doing the contrary could only win, it was an easy decision for them, a hard one for Merc strategists, but they chose very predictably the usual - conservative approach, and Lewis even complained about it, he wanted new tires, to have a chance, but they didn't want him to have to possibly overtake Max, that is how I see it, I've said a number of times - Merc strategists are "fat" and "lazy", and it finally bit them where it really hurt

It's a very bad signal for the "sport" in general if rules are breached by flavour of the day by the stewards themselves. And if you cannot foresee if and how the rules apply the teams need to have influence on the ones that should watch over the rules. Else you could sack all those pages with F1 rules at all, because obviously it boils down to some emperor raising or lowering his thumb.