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

[Ryar]

Bottas is gone and Perez will feel Redbull owes him his fair chance at being champion.

It's strange still to believe that Mercedes signed a driver that you consider inferior to Bottas!

[GTO99]

In my view Merc team is behaving like a sore loser child. Is 7 driver's titles no enough? They can't survive without 8th? Smells like GREED.
They can "bend" their wings and the rules to suit themselves to win. However, when things don't go their way to keep piling on race wins, titles, dominance, they behave like a like a greedy little child.

[ringo]

Bottas is gone and Perez will feel Redbull owes him his fair chance at being champion.

It's strange still to believe that Mercedes signed a driver that you consider inferior to Bottas!

Sometimes commitment is more important. Bottas is fast, but i dont think he really had much team spirit. Perez has more fight in him, even if he qualfies on the 3rd row. His race pace is also better than Bottas.
Doesnt mean Bottas is a bad driver, but i think mentally he doesnt cope well with being the slower driver. He did well at Williams being a match for Massa.
Perez is mentally tough, but also polticially smart. He will ask Horner when will his time come. That may be 2022.

[ringo]

In my view Merc team is behaving like a sore loser child. Is 7 driver's titles no enough? They can't survive without 8th? Smells like GREED.
They can "bend" their wings and the rules to suit themselves to win. However, when things don't go their way to keep piling on race wins, titles, dominance, they behave like a like a greedy little child.

No competitive person thinks they had enough and they should accept corruption for the sake of the show.
Competition is not about sharing or giving away prizes.

[PlatinumZealot]

Not a big fan of either Ham or Max...both great drivers...both huge DB's at times. A few things:

1. Checo is a good mate....had Bot been where his car was capable of, no controversy.

2. Masi was going to be crucified either way...wish I could read read the Max forums in an alternate universe were MM did not let the lappers by. IMHO, I would rather see racing settle things, not lappers. Red Flag or having lappers slow/stop ASAP when under 5 to go or something.

3. Main thing...letting TP's talk to the Race Director during races is assinine (2"s" added for a reason)..

Overruling the rules as written for the sake of the show to the point of being unfair to best performing driver is assinine if you ask me.

Might as well call this Mario Kart. You could say Lewis got Blue-shelled.

[Fairplay]

On a more constructive note - I really think the race should've been red flagged (Latifi's car was smoking quite badly at one point). That would have been pretty much consistent with recent precedent, and more fair towards everyone, too

Yeah that would have been the best course. In the heat of the moment though, they chose to stay on the safety car and that really ruined the end of this race and championship.

Yes and they should have taken fan opinions from the last race that no tyre change was allowed in red flag too and do a standing restart. Because, allowing tyre changes is deemed evil by entire sky gang and a large number of fans.

'Fans opinions to make the rules;' that takes the biscuit

[Ryar]

Bottas is gone and Perez will feel Redbull owes him his fair chance at being champion.

It's strange still to believe that Mercedes signed a driver that you consider inferior to Bottas!

Sometimes commitment is more important. Bottas is fast, but i dont think he really had much team spirit. Perez has more fight in him, even if he qualfies on the 3rd row. His race pace is also better than Bottas.
Doesnt mean Bottas is a bad driver, but i think mentally he doesnt cope well with being the slower driver. He did well at Williams being a match for Massa.
Perez is mentally tough, but also polticially smart. He will ask Horner when will his time come. That may be 2022.

If Perez keeps qualifying 2 rows behind Max, he will continue to play second fiddle. I am more excited to the intra team battle at Mercedes next year.
Even if McLaren and Ferrari becomes contenders, Max would be the only one with ready to assist team mate of all the lot.

[Hoffman900]

Yeah that would have been the best course. In the heat of the moment though, they chose to stay on the safety car and that really ruined the end of this race and championship.

Yes and they should have taken fan opinions from the last race that no tyre change was allowed in red flag too and do a standing restart. Because, allowing tyre changes is deemed evil by entire sky gang and a large number of fans.

'Fans opinions to make the rules;' that takes the biscuit

Michael Masi consults a fan poll on what to do in the next lap! Flame Throwers!

I honestly wish they would look at how Indy Car races. Not full proof, but MUCH better. If the new rules do bunch the field, there is going to be a lot of drama up and down the field due to the rules of engagement being so convoluted.

[Just Passing By]

Under the current rules, tire changes are allowed so then it should be allowed in this case. Under the current rule set there were only 3 legitimate ways the incident would have played out:

1. Red flag, all cars are able to pit and change tires
2. SC restart, lapped cars are not allowed to unlap themselves.
3. Lapped cars allowed to unlap themselves, race ends in SC.

For me it doesn't matter who won in the end provided the race went on fairly. If the positions were reversed in this race and Lewis won the championship because of how they handled the safety car restart then it would still leave a sour taste for me.

Option 1 would be the fairest and they would have a showdown at the end of the race that many wished for. I don't know what would happen, but it certainly wouldn't be a mess like now.

[diffuser]

In many ways, regardless of what happened, destiny handed over the title to the most deserving one. The title would have decided long back if Max didn't have to endure those painful failures of which he was a bystander. We were given a dramatic season instead, ensuring the guy that performed the best while suffering the misfortunes, was rightfully crowned.

What a job Honda has done. If not for Mercedes driver errors forcing, RB would have come to the final few races with much fresher fourth engine with a strategic penalty, instead of a forced one. From 2015 to 2021, Honda have turned things around remarkably.

Disagree, he was gifted the championship by Masi cause that's who Masi choose to win. It was fixed by Masi moving 4 cars out of the way for Max. Merc was by far the faster car. Max is a great driver who is a poor sport. He drove well most of the year but didn't earn today's win.

Max "pseudo Champion" Verstappen*.

Now he and Bonds both share an "*" and no championships.

BTW, I'm not a Hamilton fan. I just think Masi made a joke of F1.

[Hoffman900]

Whether through set up or whatever, the Mercedes was waxing the RedBull today. It wasn't close speed wise.

Let's not forget the FIA changed the floor regs to specifically hurt the low rake cars this year...

[Ryar]

In many ways, regardless of what happened, destiny handed over the title to the most deserving one. The title would have decided long back if Max didn't have to endure those painful failures of which he was a bystander. We were given a dramatic season instead, ensuring the guy that performed the best while suffering the misfortunes, was rightfully crowned.

What a job Honda has done. If not for Mercedes driver errors forcing, RB would have come to the final few races with much fresher fourth engine with a strategic penalty, instead of a forced one. From 2015 to 2021, Honda have turned things around remarkably.

Disagree, he was gifted the championship by Masi cause that's who Masi choose to win. It was fixed by Masi moving 4 cars out of the way for Max. Merc was by far the faster car. Max is a great driver who is a poor sport. He drove well most of the year but didn't earn today's win.

Max "pseudo Champion" Verstappen*.

Now he and Bonds both share an "*" and no championships.

BTW, I'm not a Hamilton fan. I just think Masi made a joke of F1.

Only if you were some kind of official historian, your self serving reality would be of some consideration.

[diffuser]

In many ways, regardless of what happened, destiny handed over the title to the most deserving one. The title would have decided long back if Max didn't have to endure those painful failures of which he was a bystander. We were given a dramatic season instead, ensuring the guy that performed the best while suffering the misfortunes, was rightfully crowned.

What a job Honda has done. If not for Mercedes driver errors forcing, RB would have come to the final few races with much fresher fourth engine with a strategic penalty, instead of a forced one. From 2015 to 2021, Honda have turned things around remarkably.

Disagree, he was gifted the championship by Masi cause that's who Masi choose to win. It was fixed by Masi moving 4 cars out of the way for Max. Merc was by far the faster car. Max is a great driver who is a poor sport. He drove well most of the year but didn't earn today's win.

Max "pseudo Champion" Verstappen*.

Now he and Bonds both share an "*" and no championships.

BTW, I'm not a Hamilton fan. I just think Masi made a joke of F1.

Only if you were some kind of official historian, your self serving reality would be of some consideration.

Not sure how it's self serving. I feel slighted by the sport. If they don't fix this crap. F1 can go F themselves.

[proteus]

Yep, that's exactly what they would've done, and it would've been as per the rules.

No way they would've gone out of their way to let Lewis have a shot at MV on the final lap. Like they've done for MV. And that's the exact reason why Merc didn't pit him. They're not stupid, and they in their right minds couldn't have anticipated Masi and the rest of the guys at race control butchering the rules to manufacture a result.

That is pure speculation. Present me the proof that Max has been chosen to win the title by FIA troughout the season. And why have they decided for that? The circumstances in this race are shady, that is true but dont scoop that low to say it was all staged for Max to become a champion. I bet someone will come out with a story that crane operater was bribed by RedBull to work faster than usual, just to ensue race to continue. And i bet illuminati are involved as well.

If you believe for a second that, that race would've been restarted the exact way it had been, when Lewis would've been on new soft/meds in 2nd place, and MV on very used hards, I have a bridge to sell you

The one you bought yourself?

[Ryar]

Disagree, he was gifted the championship by Masi cause that's who Masi choose to win. It was fixed by Masi moving 4 cars out of the way for Max. Merc was by far the faster car. Max is a great driver who is a poor sport. He drove well most of the year but didn't earn today's win.

Max "pseudo Champion" Verstappen*.

Now he and Bonds both share an "*" and no championships.

BTW, I'm not a Hamilton fan. I just think Masi made a joke of F1.

Only if you were some kind of official historian, your self serving reality would be of some consideration.

Not sure how it's self serving. I feel slighted by the sport. If they don't fix this crap. F1 can go F themselves.

Nothing is going to change the fact that, Max is the 2021 F1 WDC. He deserved it more than anyone else did and earned it rightfully by performing in the given circumstances. If the FIA executed some decisions in a different manner, you can't blame Max for that. So, no "*" is going to be added in any official version, definitely not in my version, except in someone's thought process. That is why I called it, self serving.