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

[oT v1]

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)!

It was very tongue in cheek, it was more a nod to the engineering of the FIA. That they will do anything to keep the result.

Precedent means nothing.

[siskue2005]

Honestly can they give this year's title to both drivers? Since they can bend their own rules at will.

[ENGINE TUNER]

Honestly, in all of this Hamilton failed to hone his racecraft for his "enemy". He should've held the inside line into the hairpin and run max wide. If you give Max a hint of the inside line a dozen times, he takes all the time.

There's no legal recourse for Merc. Team and driver need to go take a hard look for every improvement opportunity next year.

Agreed that HAM allowed VER and PER to get the inside line too often.

[GrizzleBoy]

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.

That's the problem though.

The regulations are the regulations.

Lewis was disqualified from Brazil quali for 0.05mm of deviation on a body part of the car. Less than the width of a hair.

He was penalised in Sochi for doing a practise start where he wasn't allowed to.

Yet the WDC can be decided by a race director literally making up and/or breaking multiple regulations on the last lap of the last race for reasons that could never hold up in court if this was a pure legal battle?

"Yeah but" and "well it doesn't make a difference does it?" doesn't quite cut it when the Stewards are slamming down the book on one driver for technicalities while turning a blind eye toward another drivers clear terrible race craft all season.

And then the last race even the stewards make up their own rules to disadvantage one driver in favour of another?

It's absolutely horrible.

[214270]

The directive to race on the last lap would’ve been by the Race Director only; no need to confer with the stewards, no?

Which means we’re in a pretty unique situation where the stewards (team) are being asked to look into the RDs (team leaders) effort, lol

[Restomaniac]

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.

Well let’s hope Mercedes take the FIA to the cleaners then. Any court would find in favour of Mercedes the rules are THAT clear.

[e30ernest]

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.

I think Lewis' lap 1 incident with Max is a whole different discussion, and not really comparable to the SC violation here. That said, I do agree with you nothing would come out of this, especially since there was no real advantage gained. This will probably be let go.

[Hoffman900]

Well, in all this controversy, I’ll make this a Carlos Sainz appreciation post. The guy did great this year and I don’t know if people gave him as much of a chance as they did.

[Dr. Acula]

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!

Yes. But it wasn't Schumachers fault at all. As Onboards from back then show, the stewards switched the indicator lights along the track from yellow to green during the last lap, which was not the procedure the rules discribed. So what did this mean from a driver perspective? It was obviously green, so you should be allowed to overtake.

[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.

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.

Ha! Cheers. Well in the absolute chaos of the situation and the moment, and the obvious tension they were all feeling, it would be incredibly harsh to penalise that. I just can’t see it giving any advantage at all when the line was some 3-4 corners afterwards.

[dans79]

If he did overtake him under the safety car, that should be a penalty. Plain and simple. They won't apply it, he'll get a reprimand and liberty will hvae the winner they wanted all along. It's just a total fix, that race should've been red flagged or finished under the safety car. It's no longer a sport.

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.

that's now what the rules say.
https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files ... -12-08.pdf

48.8

With the exception of the cases listed under a) to h) below, no driver may overtake another car
on the track, including the safety car, until he passes the Line (see Article 5.3) for the first time
after the safety car has returned to the pits.

[kaller]

The Perez - Ham fight was the highlight of this race. That's how proper racers behave on track...

[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.

that's now what the rules say.
https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files ... -12-08.pdf

48.8

With the exception of the cases listed under a) to h) below, no driver may overtake another car
on the track, including the safety car, until he passes the Line (see Article 5.3) for the first time
after the safety car has returned to the pits.

The question is, what is the definition of an "overtake"? Nobody clearly knows. Is that one millimeter ahead, nose ahead, front wheels ahead or a whole car ahead? It's that vague.

[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.

That's the problem though.

The regulations are the regulations.

Lewis was disqualified from Brazil quali for 0.05mm of deviation on a body part of the car. Less than the width of a hair.

He was penalised in Sochi for doing a practise start where he wasn't allowed to.

Yet the WDC can be decided by a race director literally making up and/or breaking multiple regulations on the last lap of the last race for reasons that could never hold up in court if this was a pure legal battle?

"Yeah but" and "well it doesn't make a difference does it?" doesn't quite cut it when the Stewards are slamming down the book on one driver for technicalities while turning a blind eye toward another drivers clear terrible race craft all season.

And then the last race even the stewards make up their own rules to disadvantage one driver in favour of another?

It's absolutely horrible.

I hear you. I am a bit torn but just, in that crazy situation…

If the result is being changed for anything, then have it on the FIA’s incompetence in not following their own rules rather than shifting the blame to Verstappen. It would already be a huge kick in the nuts to take it away from him but to then say ‘oh, it’s your own fault as well’ is just cruel to the extreme.

[mzso]

If he did overtake him under the safety car, that should be a penalty. Plain and simple. They won't apply it, he'll get a reprimand and liberty will hvae the winner they wanted all along. It's just a total fix, that race should've been red flagged or finished under the safety car. It's no longer a sport.

No it's not. It was because of Hamilton's erratic braking. There were cases where the second place driver needed to fully go past as well as take evasive steering to not crash into the first driver.

Honestly can they give this year's title to both drivers? Since they can bend their own rules at will.

They robbed Verstappen of many more points.