Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021Formula 1 

  • Thread starter Jimlaad43
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Who will win the Driver's Championship?


  • Total voters
    73
  • Poll closed .
Other drivers are quick to share their opinions.


Russel is already on that "yes, sir!" grind to console Wolff.

Honestly, as sad as it was for Hamilton with the team not letting him change his tires and the whole safety car fiasco, hearing Wolff cry and scream on the radio was refreshing.

Nice to see that smug face get some sort of karma for what he did to Bottas at Monaco.
 
There are rules, if you're clearly being robbed and that's worth millions of dollars and in the case of the driver's championship the exposure and eyeballs, ads, etc. One should have a right to appeal and there is a higher FIA court of sorts isn't it? This is such a shameful and orchestrated act. Liberty wanted drama and a new champion and they got their wish.
God, I would love it if Mercedes actually sued. They could genuinely bring this mob down if they wanted.
 
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Best f1 season ever.
Yeah... no.

We've seen technical and sporting regulations made up on the spot, dirty driving punished with a lack of consistency, the expansion of the calendar into yet more brutal regimes and safety procedure bypassed to get there, and a total validation of on- and off-track unsportsmanlike actions. And then there was the Belgian Grand Prix which was among the ****test things ever to happen in F1, ranking alongside the US Grand Prix in 2005 and... quite frankly the "race" we have just witnessed, though that only descended into farce late on after a reasonably tedious event.

To much of the F1-watching world, this entire season has looked like a concerted effort from the FIA to engineer a result. I can't disagree that it looks really bad.


Though thankfully we've had no absolute plane crashes, despite best efforts.
 
In fairness to Red Bull and Verstappen, they made the perfect strategy call which happened to work out brilliantly during the final phase. I knew the moment we went green that Hamilton wasn't going to hold out much longer, and in a way I think he might have benefited in the long run from an extra tyre change. Still, good to see him congratulating Verstappen afterwards, and at least he didn't give up on track without a fight.
 
If he wanted to finish the race under green, he should have thrown a red flag
The primary issue is that they clearly did something different for the sake of the championship. If that were any old race they'd have just ended under SC or left the lapped cars there, but here they just wanted to clear the track to let the two contenders have a last lap race.

So, should we be doing things differently because of the championship? That is the question.
No, they should have did nothing different. The race should have ended under safety car. There was not enough laps left to clear the wreck, then allow all the lapped cars around safely.

Mercedes didn't pit because they rightfully didn't believe there was enough time left in the race to finish these procedures, or if the lapped car wave around was cancelled lewis would have a buffer of lapped cars between him and Max.

Max pitting was a desperation call from red bull that the race director spun into a massive advantage for them.
 
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Well, of course F1 has always been filled with controversy, but this is like American Football levels of stupidity.

It's like the FIA made this season for Drive to Survive lol
F1 has done this for decades. Controversy is and always has been intentional.
 
Yeah with that clear wording, Mercedes absolutely have a case. That didnt happen.
The problem is, regardless of having a case or not, they can’t strip Verstappen of the championship now, owing to the point that he hasn’t done anything wrong. If a rule has been broken to get this race finished on track, then there isn’t a subsequent rule or case to go along with it that has a suitable outcome. Not without turning it from farcical to a genuine joke by rewriting the WDC after a race control muck up.
 
Call it what you want... All opinions are accepted given the circumstances! But I'm pretty sure we all are agreed on this! That's how racing works, son!! :cool:. And that Michael Masi, if he has at least some common sense, should quit the FIA or at least the F1 race management chair on the go! :dunce:... We would be going to see history with either both (Hamilton/Mercedes with an 8th WDC or Verstappen/Holland's 1st ever WDC), and, at the end, they picked IMO the best choice!... BUT ABSOLUTE RESPECT TO HAMILTON! ALREADY A 8TH CHAMPION IN MY MIND!!

2022 CARS CAN'T COME SOONER!! ❤️
They tried so hard to replicate Brazil 2008 and had to do it like this. What a ****ing joke.
You can't replicate rain, bro... Especially on dessert... Even if the last race was made on either Sandvoort (possibly) or Silverstone (probability)
 
Senna got screwed the previous year by FIA rigging so that was just.
Ehhhh, hard disagree there. Yes, Senna got screwed by Balestre in '89, but ramming his competitor off the track and actively endagering his life was a piss-poor way to go about things. I still think Senna should've been DQ'd for that move.
So, should we be doing things differently because of the championship? That is the question.
I personally don't think so. Stewarding should be consistent regardless of the race or circumstance. Even if a call isn't popular, if it lines up with the rules given, then it should be satisfactory.

I honestly hope that Mercedes badger the living hell out of Masi and the FIA for todays race. Not to see them take back the championship, but moreso to call out the inconsistency this year and force the FIA and stewards to re-think their approach, so that races like today don't happen again.
 
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The problem is, regardless of having a case or not, they can’t strip Verstappen of the championship now, owing to the point that he hasn’t done anything wrong. If a rule has been broken to get this race finished on track, then there isn’t a subsequent rule or case to go along with it that has a suitable outcome. Not without turning it from farcical to a genuine joke by rewriting the WDC after a race control muck up.
Yeah for sure VER did nothing wrong and he shouldn't lose the title but I'm not sure what the precedent is for stuff like this, when the governing body are the ones at fault.

I dont watch enough sport to know of any similar cases but I guess giving them a stack of cash Is about the only thing Merc could get out of it.
 
What the hell did I just watch :crazy: that was a wild Abu Dhabi race if I've ever seen one. No doubt this is one of the craziest and most controversial finishes to a season. For all of Hamilton's amazing luck (not saying he got all those race wins and championships with just luck alone), it all went kaput in the last moments of the final race. The Dutch crowd went absolutely nuts for Verstappen in the last lap, they were so loud it was insane. It is weird though, all of the lapped cars need to pass the safety car first before resuming the race, right?
 
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I get the continued moaning and groaning from both sides. However, no one is putting blame on Mercedes for not pitting Lewis and flipping the script. Even with Max 1 and Lewis 2, if Lewis has equal or fresher softs, he goes on to win, in this exact scenario, no? You'll have a hard time convincing me that's not possible (don't say Max will intentionally run Lewis off).
 
Well, of course F1 has always been filled with controversy, but this is like American Football levels of stupidity.

It's like the FIA made this season for Drive to Survive lol

It's funny that you bring up American Football because I haven't been this disgusted by a sporting decision since the infamous no-call.
 
Who's Latifi's manager? Is he or she linked to anyone at Red Bull or Alpha Tauri? I'm not a tinfoil hat guy (vaccines, big stuff like that) but race fixing has happened before. Well, the FIA or Liberty definitely fixed the race but... The event that led to this was Latifi crashing. I'm just wondering if it could be another Crashgate a la Alonso/Piquet. Red Bull needed a miracle and they got it at the right time, just when the fresh Hard tyres plan was coming undone. I don't know, I'm just in disbelief. I think it would be good to see the telemetry on Latifi's car just to clear any suspicions.
 
Yeah for sure VER did nothing wrong and he shouldn't lose the title but I'm not sure what the precedent is for stuff like this, when the governing body are the ones at fault.

I dont watch enough sport to know of any similar cases but I guess giving them a stack of cash Is about the only thing Merc could get out of it.
This is the problem, there’s no precedents and no rulings that could satisfy Mercedes. Even a stack of cash. Mercedes and Lewis will feel they should have the title but that can’t happen.

I think Masi resigning would go down well, but yeah it’s hard to know what can happen ruling wise.
 
I don't understand why the FIA first say lapped cars must hold position and then say that they can overtake the safety car.

The race was restarted when only lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen overtake the safety car.
Between Max and Sainz there were lapped cars.

Throughout the season the FIA has made controversial decisions and sadly the ending has also been highly controversial.

Thanks to Max and Lewis for the exciting season they have given us.
Also congratulations to Sainz, the best of the rest in the first season at Ferrari.

And finally I request the FIA to reconsider its decisions for the coming seasons.
 
If he wanted to finish the race under green, he should have thrown a red flag
That would have been the more fair thing to do. That way both Max and Hamilton would have been on new tires then could have equally fought for the win. I would have respected that more than this debacle we ended up with.
 
I get the continued moaning and groaning from both sides. However, no one is putting blame on Mercedes for not pitting Lewis and flipping the script. Even with Max 1 and Lewis 2, if Lewis has equal or fresher softs, he goes on to win, in this exact scenario, no? You'll have a hard time convincing me that's not possible (don't say Max will intentionally run Lewis off).
At the end you mean? They couldn't risk the race ending under SC.
 

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