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

[SiLo]

What irks me more than anything is the FIA effectively saying rule 15.3 supersedes other rules whenever they want. When in reality it should only be for safety purposes.

[SiLo]

It's not about what decisions hurt what team the most, its quite simply about applying the rules correctly. The reaction from most of the drivers is quite telling, they were all confused.

[El Scorchio]

It just reminds me of special order 937 in Alien.

"Priority one
Insure (sic) maximising the drama of 'the show'.

The safety car isn't called the "entertainment control vehicle" in Australian racing for nothing.

They may as well rename it to that in F1. probably be an integral feature of every race within two years if Liberty and FOM carry on down the same path they are treading.

On a random lap every race whether it's necessary or not, a load of klaxons and red lights go off, a troupe of dancing girls come out in the pit lane and a man in a sparkly suit and top hat can announce that it's 'the extreme excitement fabulous F1 safety car scramble'.

[jz11]

Masis motivation IMO is very clear - not let a season like this end under SC at all cost

Yes, and it would have been a shame if the different tyre strategies of the top two runners couldn't play out under a green flag finish, so it all turned out quite well I reckon!

As the Race Director said:

Race Director’s Evidence
The Race Director stated that the purpose of Article 48.12 was to remove those lapped cars that
would “interfere” in the racing between the leaders and that in his view Article 48.13 was the one
that applied in this case.
The Race Director also stated that it had long been agreed by all the Teams that where possible
it was highly desirable for the race to end in a “green” condition (i.e. not under a Safety Car)

I think everyone can agree it all worked out quite well on that front! No one would like to see lapped cars in the way or a safety car finish, just because of some procedural technicality [unless for some reason they *don't* want the tyre strategies to play out ]. That's not entertaining motor racing.

I get the sarcasm, and I also said before this wasn't how I'd wish Max to win a title and I still do have mixed feelings about this, I'm just saying - Masi wasn't the only thing that caused the result, you just can't ignore a season long back and forth between the teams and him, decisions that led both ways

I think the error was not to redflag it as soon as it happened, that, and that Mercedes played much too safe of a strategy considering their options, I looked a lot at the F1-tempo graphs of how Lewis car performed during quali and race (and Maxes car), and the last lap especially, I'd suggest you also look at it, I'm amazed how he could do what he did on nearly spent hards, talent, of course, but that car had plenty more to give not just in quali, but also in the first part of the race, and they chose not to use it, because it seemed they have it covered, Max was barely making a dent in the 17sec lead with new hards vs 25lap old ones, that tells a lot

[Tom145145]

This is an excellent analysis as always on the topic.

[jz11]

It's not about what decisions hurt what team the most, its quite simply about applying the rules correctly. The reaction from most of the drivers is quite telling, they were all confused.

not all, generalizing is never good, some expected lapped cars not to be allowed to pass, some expected this to end under SC, and do you know why? do I need to put on my tin foil hat and explain it?

[Big Tea]

So many posters do not seem to get that this is not about Lewis v Max or Horner V Woolf, and it does not matter who was leading and who was 5 cars back, or what happened during the season.
The whole nub of this is that a race and championship was decided on the whim of an official who had written rules and procedures and he decided to ignore them for a lap of TV excitement.

We all know Merc is not going to get anywhere and now way is the race or championship going to be changed but the procedure has to be.
This time it was RBR and Max gaining at the expense of Merc and Lewis, if it happens again to could equally well be Mclaren and Ferrari in those roles, or any other team.

The only possible outcome is Massi will be 'promoted' to a different job and a new set of procedures and rules will be introduced for next year on.

Please understand this is not a driver and team v another driver and team this is fundamental to the fairness of sport for the future.

[wogx]

[DChemTech]

Like pressuring the FIA into inventing a new pitstop rule that mostly harms your direct opponent mid-season? Or pressuring into new wing load rules because of qualitative visual observations made by you with respect to your direct opponent? Whether it's about 'new' rules or selective interpretation of existing ones doesn't matter. The issue is the same.

Exactly! If nothing else, the FIA are consistently inconsistent.

I asked a specific question about a specific incident, rather than conflating stay focused the same for the Chem guy

Well maybe then the issue is that you are considering a specific incident in isolation while the problem is systemic. Again, the championship is not decided on singular events in isolation, but on the cumulative of the season. If you have an issue with rule changes under political pressure, fine, I do too - but then at least recognize that there's much more to this than that singular incident that you now feel 'handed' the championship to a particular driver that you do not happen to support. The real issue that rules have been meddled with or loosely interpreted in favor of one team or another all season, and that that as a whole affected the outcome. Stay focused on the real issue, like the 'Chem guy' is doing (or trying to, at least) - rather than on a specific instance while pretending all those other things did not matter.

[motobaleno]

I'm positively sure that all the herd complaining here about violation of SC rule, for the ethic of the sport etc etc etc
IF ham would have pitted and masi would let finish the race under SC ALL OF YOU here would have made exactly the same annoying noise simply reversed: "fia cannot let a F1 championship the pinnacle etc etc finish behind a SC etc etc Hamilton dominated the race and max robbed it etc etc".

Just one last thing: I don't think mercedes will go on to protest this decision in PARIS or in a civil court. In case, In Paris they have very few possibility of win, In a civil court they have absolutely ZERO possibility. (maybe a court could let mercedes exit formula1 without penalty or even a money refund (very unlikely but not completely impossible)) but a court will NEVER EVER revert the championship result.

For the civil law it is completely immaterial if Masi made an error or not: the final result of a sport event comes out from many different contributions: ability of partecipants, chance, luck, etc etc etc and ALSO errors by partecipants and refeeres ALL this thing are INTERNAL with respect to the final result and are normal events for the law. The only thing that could cancel (and also here NOT revert) the result is if mercedes demonstrates tha MASI has been paid (corrupted) by redbull to deliberately take the wrong decision. so if you think that this is the case you should explicitely state it.

[Roo]

Exactly! If nothing else, the FIA are consistently inconsistent.

I asked a specific question about a specific incident, rather than conflating stay focused the same for the Chem guy

Well maybe then the issue is that you are considering a specific incident in isolation while the problem is systemic. Again, the championship is not decided on singular events in isolation, but on the cumulative of the season. If you have an issue with rule changes under political pressure, fine, I do too - but then at least recognize that there's much more to this than that singular incident that you now feel 'handed' the championship to a particular driver that you do not happen to support. The real issue that rules have been meddled with or loosely interpreted in favor of one team or another all season, and that that as a whole affected the outcome. Stay focused on the real issue, like the 'Chem guy' is doing (or trying to, at least) - rather than on a specific instance while pretending all those other things did not matter.

And there you go again: I think you’ll find any court will look at this incident in isolation and the consequences of that decision. Again my comment stands focus and less conflating

[McL-H]

So many posters do not seem to get that this is not about Lewis v Max or Horner V Woolf, and it does not matter who was leading and who was 5 cars back, or what happened during the season.
The whole nub of this is that a race and championship was decided on the whim of an official who had written rules and procedures and he decided to ignore them for a lap of TV excitement.

We all know Merc is not going to get anywhere and now way is the race or championship going to be changed but the procedure has to be.
This time it was RBR and Max gaining at the expense of Merc and Lewis, if it happens again to could equally well be Mclaren and Ferrari in those roles, or any other team.

The only possible outcome is Massi will be 'promoted' to a different job and a new set of procedures and rules will be introduced for next year on.

Please understand this is not a driver and team v another driver and team this is fundamental to the fairness of sport for the future.

[El Scorchio]

So many posters do not seem to get that this is not about Lewis v Max or Horner V Woolf, and it does not matter who was leading and who was 5 cars back, or what happened during the season.
The whole nub of this is that a race and championship was decided on the whim of an official who had written rules and procedures and he decided to ignore them for a lap of TV excitement.

We all know Merc is not going to get anywhere and now way is the race or championship going to be changed but the procedure has to be.
This time it was RBR and Max gaining at the expense of Merc and Lewis, if it happens again to could equally well be Mclaren and Ferrari in those roles, or any other team.

The only possible outcome is Massi will be 'promoted' to a different job and a new set of procedures and rules will be introduced for next year on.

Please understand this is not a driver and team v another driver and team this is fundamental to the fairness of sport for the future.

+1. I know FOM and Liberty and all the broadcasters have tried to convince us otherwise all year, but F1 is about a lot more than one driver vs another. A greater perspective is sometimes necessary.

[DChemTech]

If a pickpocket goes to court because he lost his money being pickpocketed by someone else while the police looked the other way, sure, the court may rule in his favor.

Does that make it 'fair', though, if he himself benefitted many times from the police looking the other way while pickpocketing others? No, if anything, it feels less fair. The problem is obviously a systemic one, of the police looking the other way in the first place.

I realize this metaphor is completely forced and fabricated and I by no means imply a literal comparison between team politics and pickpocketing. The message is that if an single incident is a result of a bigger systemic problem, the aim should be to fix the systemic problem. If one starts addressing individual instances without fixing the systemic problem, one ends up with more bias - not less - because the system is not equally failed for all actors anymore. So, I stand by my comments. I am fully in agreement that errors have been made and the race ended in a ridiculous way and Lewis deserved to win this race. But it was not a singular event that overruled the entire championship - if this goes to court, other decisions deserve a similar treatment. Otherwise, the championship may really be handed unjustly on a single instance. But yeah, ideally, I hope we do not end up there. I hope they draw lessons and implement changes for next year; for this year the damage is done. There is no way of really knowing how things would have ended without 'political' influence by teams, and screwups by stewards.

[SiLo]

I'm positively sure that all the herd complaining here about violation of SC rule, for the ethic of the sport etc etc etc
IF ham would have pitted and masi would let finish the race under SC ALL OF YOU here would have made exactly the same annoying noise simply reversed: "fia cannot let a F1 championship the pinnacle etc etc finish behind a SC etc etc Hamilton dominated the race and max robbed it etc etc".

Just one last thing: I don't think mercedes will go on to protest this decision in PARIS or in a civil court. In case, In Paris they have very few possibility of win, In a civil court they have absolutely ZERO possibility. (maybe a court could let mercedes exit formula1 without penalty or even a money refund (very unlikely but not completely impossible)) but a court will NEVER EVER revert the championship result.

For the civil law it is completely immaterial if Masi made an error or not: the final result of a sport event comes out from many different contributions: ability of partecipants, chance, luck, etc etc etc and ALSO errors by partecipants and refeeres ALL this thing are INTERNAL with respect to the final result and are normal events for the law. The only thing that could cancel (and also here NOT revert) the result is if mercedes demonstrates tha MASI has been paid (corrupted) by redbull to deliberately take the wrong decision. so if you think that this is the case you should explicitely state it.

If the rules had been applied correctly, people would of course complain about ending under the safety car, but they would only be moaning as a fan of a team. Right now we are annoyed as a fan of the sport, because the show is now more important than the integrity of Formula 1.

And I think it really needs to be hammered home, this is not about Lewis vs Max, Red Bull vs Mercedes at all. Masi had plenty of options that would have been correct under the rules they race by, and he somehow managed to make new ones. Ricciardo and Sainz have both expressed their concern, and both of them got screwed by Masi's decisions.