2021 São Paulo Grand Prix - Interlagos, Nov 12-14

[Tvetovnato]

Right to review is denied. Wonderful! We can now forget about fair racing Just brake unreasonably late on the inside, force the other driver off track, and you are all good!

…at least until the next similar situation, which might result in a penalty after all. Nobody knows. The least they should do is to prevent these stewards from ever stewarding again.

[El Scorchio]

Well, I'd say it's fine in isolation to make that call, (although I think they are really ostriching it to try and keep a lid on it) but the issue is now that the lines are so blurred for all the drivers as to what's acceptable or not that no-one is going to know what to do when defending positions.

This is the only thing that p***** me off. Another driver will see that and think 'Oh, I can do that too then.' and do it, and then get penalised. it's simply not a fair way of enforcing the rules across the board.

[nimoraca]

Right to review is denied. Wonderful! We can now forget about fair racing Just brake unreasonably late on the inside, force the other driver off track, and you are all good!

…at least until the next similar situation, which might result in a penalty after all. Nobody knows. The least they should do is to prevent these stewards from ever stewarding again.

Why would "they" do that. The stewards did exactly what was expected from them.

[AeroDynamic]

Prediction: when needed, Mercedes will undercut red bull, Lewis will fight off max for a corner the same way as it was in Brazil but max will close in and take himself out. Stewards will give Lewis 25 seconds as if they always said that weren’t allowed

[AeroDynamic]

Lol Christian in his interview, flies just won’t stop landing on him

[El Scorchio]

Prediction: when needed, Mercedes will undercut red bull, Lewis will fight off max for a corner the same way as it was in Brazil but max will close in and take himself out. Stewards will give Lewis 25 seconds as if they always said that weren’t allowed

Not necessarily either of those two drivers, but someone will do it in this race and get penalised. It's certainly seemingly given a green light to just run yourself and your opponent off the track, but we all know they won't let someone get away with it this time and it'll be a penalty. It's farcical.

[djones]

Crazy.

The problem is much wider than this Brazil race though. What about other races this season where drivers were punished for less. What about future races where people can now use this as a benchmark.

Worst of all they have just given Max permission to take Hamilton off in the next races as he sees fit.

I really do hope Bottas is man enough to stand behind the team that has paid his wages X years and do some "let them race" with Max.

[RZS10]

It's the obvious result, the decision was absolutely wrong from the start and a proper review would have had only a single correct outcome if they had applied the rules properly.
The initial ruling of "no investigation necessary" was clearly made for the good of the ̶s̶̶p̶̶o̶̶r̶̶t̶ show which was now emphasized by the delay of making it public until Horner and Wolff were in the press conference where they were confronted with it, cameras catching their live reactions ... all that despite it being a very straightforward determination that could have been made yesterday.

[AeroDynamic]

Also prediction: some drivers who sat on the fence in their comments, will jump right off when they get walked outside of the track limits by the car they’re overtaking

[El Scorchio]

Crazy.

The problem is much wider than this Brazil race though. What about other races this season where drivers were punished for less. What about future races where people can now use this as a benchmark.

Worst of all they have just given Max permission to take Hamilton off in the next races as he sees fit.

I really do hope Bottas is man enough to stand behind the team that has paid his wages X years and do some "let them race" with Max.

Well, the messed up thing is that I bet if Verstappen (or anyone) does it this weekend he'll get penalised.

This is all because the stewards bottled a decision which although got them out of having to take any responsibility at the time, has now opened up a massive can of worms. Had they had any balls, this wouldn't be an issue.

[Shrieker]

Request for review denied

Shambles. Absolute shambles.

So they think MV doesn't even deserve a slap on the wrist for this. Right. So, what's the takeaway ? You can now push drivers off the track, with no consideration whatsoever towards making the corner. This is a mockery. People who have made this decision should be ashamed of themselves. What a joke.

[jurinius]

2) Red Bull "win" the investigation that follows, because they successfully argue Verstappen simply tried to defend position by braking later than all previous instances that weekend, on an unfamiliar line into the corner, and his car control on that one off instance was the best he could do under the circumstances. The lack of gravel on the outside minimised risk and the fact is that the status quo was maintained only temporarily, and given that Hamilton passed him in the end, this all suggests that the equitable thing to do here is nothing, since Verstappen otherwise lacks the opportunity to respond to any penalty in terms of racing on track for the previous event. However I would expect the stewards to nonetheless clarify that they are not setting precedent by taking no action despite the investigation and they will say that future instances where this type of thing happens (irrespective of the competitors involved) will be treated by... [insert preferred penalty / telling off].

Integresting ! I am taking some notes for the remaining races. Lets jump into Losail

[AeroDynamic]

It still amazes me that this sport has been a pioneer in moving masses of equipment, teams, personal, etc country to country, cannot run the same team of stewards overseeing all stewarding. They don’t even need to be local, as all teams demonstrate every weekend that a virtual support presence in the race room works fine. The stewarding in this sport is a farce.

[codetower]

Well, I'd say it's fine in isolation to make that call, (although I think they are really ostriching it to try and keep a lid on it) but the issue is now that the lines are so blurred for all the drivers as to what's acceptable or not that no-one is going to know what to do when defending positions.

This is the only thing that p***** me off. Another driver will see that and think 'Oh, I can do that too then.' and do it, and then get penalised. it's simply not a fair way of enforcing the rules across the board.

This is exactly what will happen. Both Leclerc and Sainz were talking about this same thing and how they (as well as other drivers) adapt to what is allowed by the stewards.

Quote from Leclerc:

“You always need to adapt to every situation, every decision the stewards are doing,”

“Honestly, I really don’t mind [what the outcome is] but whatever is allowed, I just want it to be clear as a driver. That’s the only thing that matters to me.

I believe that's pretty much how every driver is looking at this.

[Mogster]

Who will be the first person to try out the new normal? Alonso?