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

[dans79]

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.

Well, certainly not the first time something like this happens. Does anyone remember Monaco 2010? The Stuarts executed the rules wrong, which lead to Schumacher overtoke Alonso in basically in the last corner. Afterwards they penalized a driver for a mistake they did.

Yea, and Schumacher got a 20 second penalty for that, but he actually kept the place across the line if memory serves!

[dans79]

The FIA have screwed this up SO much. My bet? They revert the result per the rules and fire Masi as the sacrificial lamb.

No shot! 1 sec penalty incoming for overtake under SC, and massi fired for the SC restart order.

Result will stand

Unless he only gets a warning or a fine its a 5 second penalty, as the rules don't allow for anything less (if memory serves)!

[GrizzleBoy]

Finish behind the SC would be right than?

It would have been a huge anticlimax but yes, it would have been right. There wasn’t time to do what they tried to do under the safety car. They rushed it, they f’d up.

If the race was 59 laps then I don’t think there could be complaints from anyone. Just hard luck, but the FIA broke their own regs to get that result.

I don’t think anyone could possibly argue Hamilton didn’t deserve it if the race had ended under safety car.

That's about the size of it. Then again, the Dutch say it was karma for what happened in turn 7 of lap 1.

I think it would have been better if Hamilton had given that place back as he had pace in spades.

Max screwed himself on lap 1 though. Straight-lining a corner with a divebomb so your opponent has to literally take evasive action off the track to continue racing will always go against you. If he was a racer like Perez he'd have left the correct space or attacked in the right way and Lewis wouldn't have had any reason to leave track.

[El Scorchio]

I wouldn’t put it beyond them to save their own skins and penalise Verstappen for that but it would be sickening if they did. I don’t think him getting a nose ahead had any baring on how the race finished. The damage was already done by Masi at that point.

[Bill_Kar]

Some people seem to have the opinion that "what's done is done" and to just leave the protests. But the rules are rules and multiple ones have been broken.

They are not rules where there is scope for interpretation or intent. They are quite literally black and white rules that have been broken.

The result of this race simply has to be changed. The sport is in more disrepute now than if they just change it to ensure rules were complied with.

They won't. This year, we've learned that being a championship contender gets you a special treatment. There is no way on earth they reverse the results, they think it's a scandal, when in actuality, is just following rules that govern the sport.

Prediction: Max stays world champion and Masi is the race director next year as well.

[Jolle]

Pretty stupid to take that risk with that amount of advantage. Clear mistake by Verstappen. He should of stayed behind,

[Bandit1216]

If any Karma, I would say karma for Baku (7 points), Imola (18 points), Hongaroring (17 points and Silverstone (18 points). Without bad luck Max would have been crowed 3 races ago. Now this race Lewis deserved to win but had bad luck. Mercedes deserves the constructors title, but Max deserves the driver title imo. If they turn this back it will be like Lance Armstong. In my book he won the tour 7 times no matter what the statistics say.

Hope next year we have less controversial stuff.

[godlameroso]

A fitting end to the season, well done to Mercedes on winning the constructor's title. It's nice to know your team is strong enough to beat the champions in a slower car. Really shows the quality of the people at RBR. This Red Bull tastes extra good

Considering what happened at the start, the people crying about passing under the safety car...

[SchuMassa]

I hope Max taps the brake next time Lewis is behind him during an SC phase so that Hamilton overtakes him for a second. Cannot wait for the Hamilton fans to demand a penalty!

[Mattyw]

Yeah the overtaking under SC is a non point no? If the rules were followed SC would have stayed out and Ham wins?

A sad day for the sport really.

[Phil]

The fia wanted controversy, they get it. They really deserve this.

[Bill_Kar]

I wouldn’t put it beyond them to save their own skins and penalise Verstappen for that but it would be sickening if they did. I don’t think him getting a nose ahead had any baring on how the race finished. The damage was already done by Masi at that point.

Sorry, El, we disagree. A rule was broken (I'm referring to SC procedure, not the overtaking), sure, RB is not at fault, but understanding and changing your mistake is the essence of getting better.

Fans will be fuming, especially Dutch fans, but a sport is a sport and not street racing because of RULES. Under normal circumstances, you don't rule based on the opinion of some fans, even if they are the majority (I'm not sure they are, but anyway.)

Still, they will do nothing because it's a "special" race. But Mercedes has every right to appeal.

[DChemTech]

I wouldn’t put it beyond them to save their own skins and penalise Verstappen for that but it would be sickening if they did. I don’t think him getting a nose ahead had any baring on how the race finished. The damage was already done by Masi at that point.

Thanks mate, I agree with you and find it reallt sportive you say this. Shout out to you, and for that matter, Lewis for showing great sportsmanship after the race.

[Ryar]

Just re-watched the onboard. Looks like he did.

An overtake under SC, is a position gained. Did Max gain position under SC? No. Has that happened in the past where under safety car, the car ahead and behind are side by side, or nose ahead of car behind? Yes. DId the leader not start in his position when it was a go? Yes he did.

The rules are pretty clear in this case. His nose moved ahead, so he did gain a position no matter how fleeting. Jolyon and Aitken agreed that was a slam dunk case of overtaking under the safety car, especially since Max did not need to be side by side with Lewis at that point of the circuit.

If that was the definition of "overtake", then Max was ahead on lap 1 when Lewis cut the corner and kept the position! That would be called into the discussion. If Stewards let that go, then there is no reason for considering Max being alongside or a few centimeters ahead before letting the leader have the position to restart after SC.

[flexcon]

I have been a verstappen fan for the past year as I really wanted Honda to win

Over the past few months, I have been torn on who I desired to win.

In the end, I chose what is right, within the rules and fairness

And for that, Lewis is my champion.

Well done to Max and Redbull and Honda though.

I'll still by the limited edition die cast models to celebrate Honda, but it's an uncomfortable position to be in I must say