Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021Formula 1

[Monkey Man]

It doesn’t deserve to be overturned because the driver who loses out has done nothing wrong.

You mean like Lewis?

If you had to choose between two drivers and neither had done anything wrong before the rule breach, surely you'd give the W to the driver leading the race?

Don't understand why you "pooped" my post.

 

[Samus]

Maybe in future.
Instead of making lapped cars do a FULL LAP, the cars on the current lap are told stick to the right of the track.
Then cars that are 1 lap down starting from the front of the grip move to the left in order and slot in last place.
Then cars that are 2 laps down to the same and so forth.
Then the cars are all marked as "On Current Lap"
One can argue, they don't cover "Full Race Distance", but does it matter?
A car that is 2 laps down and crosses the line after the checked flag is shown doesn't do those 2 extra laps, the race is over right there for them, so overall its the same as it would be if its not under a SC.

This can all be done in 1 lap,
This way racing is resumed quicker.

That won't work because the whole point of unlapping is that you're back on the lead lap and if you pass the car ahead after the restart it's now for position. If they just drop behind and then get a lap chalked off to achieve that then they're at an advantage in regards to less fuel usage having not done those laps. If you just delcare them technically still lapped at the end then what they do after the SC is pointless, they're in a state of nothingess and confusion. Not lapped but lapped.

There were three options Masi had per the rulebook.

1. Leave the lapped cars in place and go racing. The rules allow for that, it's not a requirement they unlap. Everyone already has the advantage of the cars all closing up (VER gaining 10 seconds and a free stop for example), you don't have to also give them the advantage of no lapped cars.
2. Let everyone unlap themselves and as soon as they're far enough ahead of P1, 5 or so seconds for the last car, go green the next lap. Again, there is nothing in the rules that say they have to catch up to the train after unlapping.
3. Finish under the SC.

But Masi dilly dallied, left it too late, or at least he felt he'd left it too late to do 2 and then did whatever he could for the front two to go racing and didn't care about the rest. The only option that wasn't in the rulebook.

 

[Scaff]

That won't work because the whole point of unlapping is that you're back on the lead lap and if you pass the car ahead after the restart it's now for position. If they just drop behind and then get a lap chalked off to achieve that then they're at an advantage in regards to less fuel usage having not done those laps. If you just delcare them technically still lapped at the end then what they do after the SC is pointless, they're in a state of nothingess and confusion. Not lapped but lapped.

There were three options Masi had per the rulebook.

1. Leave the lapped cars in place and go racing. The rules allow for that, it's not a requirement they unlap. Everyone already has the advantage of the cars all closing up (VER gaining 10 seconds and a free stop for example), you don't have to also give them the advantage of no lapped cars.
2. Let everyone unlap themselves and as soon as they're far enough ahead of P1, 5 or so seconds for the last car, go green the next lap. Again, there is nothing in the rules that say they have to catch up to the train after unlapping.
3. Finish under the SC.

But Masi dilly dallied, left it too late, or at least he felt he'd left it too late to do 2 and then did whatever he could for the front two to go racing and didn't care about the rest. The only option that wasn't in the rulebook.

He also had option 4.

Red flag and then run a short sprint to the end

 

[Samus]

He also had option 4.

Red flag and then run a short sprint to the end

Well, true. Three options under the SC I meant.

 

[Monkey Man]

They say any publicity is good publicity.

So, good for F1 in a way, but terrible for the fair-minded and long-term fans. Not a good look.

 

[Samus]

They say any publicity is good publicity.

So, good for F1 in a way, but terrible for the fair-minded and long-term fans. Not a good look.

Let's be honest though, it's not the first time and won't be the last.

 

[Hun200kmh]

I almost feel what I am about to post is off-topic here, but I'd like to point out that after stating here that Lewis only had the better car and nothing else to fight for this championship (and that I didn't even know in what position his teamate ended the race), someone pointed out to me that he was 4th, right behind Sainz, at the start of the last lap, than managed to get overtaken by both Alpha Tauris in that lap, ending 6th.

Oh and both Alpha Tauris had to clear one Haas before getting to that 2nd Merc. This video is many levels of amazing. Enjoy

 

[snowgt]

Now add in a load of 5s penalties, as awarded to Norris and Perez at Austria so as to make it consistent, for forcing another driver off in the sprint at Silverstone, at Imola, at Austria (this time Leclerc), at Barcelona, at Brazil, at Saudi Arabia, and at Abu Dhabi, convert the 5s penalty at Monza to a grid penalty at Russia, plus a disqualification at Saudi Arabia for that brake check which caused a collision (and that's being kind; Schumacher was disqualified from an entire season in 1997 for a bad sideswipe which retired his own car, and the FIA's justification was that he... caused a collision), and a 5s penalty for overtaking under the safety car at Abu Dhabi (standard punishment for all cases except this one). Then submit it to Marvel for the next series of What If..?

And this is the problem. Nobody can possibly argue that Verstappen hasn't got the talent to be F1 World Champion with the right car (same as Hamilton, Vettel, Button), or that he hasn't earned this title, because we've all been saying since 2016 that he definitely does. The issue is that he's been allowed to get away with stuff nobody else has even within the same race and, other than the joint-least relevant penalty this season at Saudi (along with Hamilton at the British GP), he's faced no sanction so he's kept on doing it. That is not his fault, but that of stewards failing to apply the laws properly; of course an F1 driver is going to keep doing the most he's allowed to get away with, everyone does that all the time.

Which ultimately renders what happened on Sunday completely unsurprising, even if it was almost the lowest that race officials have ever stooped in the last 15 years (Spa 2007 will never be beaten on that front; inventing a rule to retroactively punish a driver is... all kinds of bent). They just ignored their own rulebook, and Verstappen benefitted from it.

Verstappen still had to be there to benefit from it, and he had to make that pass to win it, so it's also not his fault, and any punishment for him or Red Bull would be grossly unfair (unless collusion could be proven of course, but that's a reach right now - even if Horner got exactly what he asked for just after asking for it... "Michael, we just need one lap without the lapped cars").

Quite so, and it's left a lot of fans - neutral as well as Hamilton fans - wondering what the point of even watching it is, if Liberty's ownership is turning the motor sport into a motor exhibition with WWE-style pre-ordained conclusions depending on who's popular and what will get the most views.

My list was just meant to illustrate what could have been the situation, if most of the incidents involving the top two contenders had played out, let's say, "in a non-controversial way". I'm aware it's pure speculation, of course, and many other things could have happened as a cause of it. It's not exactly scientific.

Regarding your comments about "pre-ordained conclusions" I think that you are looking at this a bit one-sided. I can tell you from my own group of friends that they had the exact same feeling the other way round for most part of the season, so I tend to think that whoever you were rooting for determined your view of Masi's decisions. (I still think Masi is doing a bad job (and has been doing it all year), but that's beside my point) I have also been thinking for a long time, that the stewarding system needs a big overhaul. We'll see, if they dare to touch that going forward.

My view of this last race is, that after the first lap both drivers, and also both teams, from a tactical and execution perspective did everything exactly right. They could not have done anything differently as they were trapped in the situation that unfolded and their decisions were determined by where the other cars were at what time. Which is exactly what was bound to make the outcome for one of the involved parties so incredibly frustrating, because they had no way to influence it anymore, as much as they tried (mostly with pleading to Masi).

As I think I have already argued in another post, in any other race it would also have come down to Hamilton directly ahead of Verstappen on the exact same tyres they were on going into the last lap, so all the confusion surrounding Masi's decisions was completely unnecessary, but in the end, as weird as it may sound, inconsequential.

 

[Samus]

in any other race it would also have come down to Hamilton directly ahead of Verstappen on the exact same tyres they were on going into the last lap, so all the confusion surrounding Masi's decisions was completely unnecessary, but in the end, as weird as it may sound, inconsequential.

Not really sure what you mean here?

 

[toastet]

Best of the rest beating Lando and Charles in his first Ferrari year. Surprise of the year for me 👍 🏎️

 

[CarreraGT]

Are you just purposely ignoring the issue that the internet has been discussing the past 72 hours? You know, the race director doing something he'd never done before, going against what he himself had said in the past? Where procedure wasn't followed, because he just wanted a show between the front two and screw everyone else? That issue?

He also said before the race (and all the teams agreed) that he would do whatever he could to allow the race to finish under green flag conditions. Leaving the lapped cars in the way would have been doing something he had not done before, so letting half of them through and releasing the safety car that lap was a fair compromise between ensuring safety and allowing the leaders to race. He did it well if you ask me

 

[Imari]

There is a question that has come to my mind that I'm not sure has been bought up much yet.

How aware was Masi of the underlying regulations when he made his decisions that night at Abu Dhabi?

I mean, he's the race director. He should know this stuff back to front. If he doesn't, then that's not an excuse. That's even more reason that he's unsuitable for the job. Making a mistake that affects the championship winner is not acceptable, this is not something where we can write it off as "everyone has bad days". Making situations like this work cleanly is literally his job.

There were three options Masi had per the rulebook.

1. Leave the lapped cars in place and go racing. The rules allow for that, it's not a requirement they unlap. Everyone already has the advantage of the cars all closing up (VER gaining 10 seconds and a free stop for example), you don't have to also give them the advantage of no lapped cars.
2. Let everyone unlap themselves and as soon as they're far enough ahead of P1, 5 or so seconds for the last car, go green the next lap. Again, there is nothing in the rules that say they have to catch up to the train after unlapping.
3. Finish under the SC.

I feel like 1 would be the option I would be most happy watching. Max gets a lucky advantage from the crash, but that's racing. Hamilton keeps the lead, and now Max has a lap on fresh tyres to blow past 5 blue flagged backmarkers and clear Hamilton while also fending off Sainz. I don't think that's a sure thing, I could see it going either way. I feel like if he manages that cleanly then yeah, he got lucky, but he's also earned it with some spectacular driving at the perfect time.

 

[Samus]

Leaving the lapped cars in the way would have been doing something he had not done before,

Incorrect, he left them there for a wet race, I forget which one.

Irrelevant anyway, he'd not done anything before Australia 2019. Fact is, the rules don't say they have to be let through, so leaving them there is an option within the rules. The rules don't say you can let a few through and not others, but that's one for the lawyers to argue in legalese. It's certainly not there in black and white though.

so letting half of them through and releasing the safety car that lap was a fair compromise between ensuring safety and allowing the leaders to race. He did it well if you ask me

Allowing two cars to race. So the safety of those behind don't matter, or their ability to race without traffic? I don't see how that's doing it well, it's literally just focusing on the title battle and ignoring the rest of the race. Which isn't how you should be carrying out actions as race director, not just because it's the finale. Every race should be treated the same.

I mean, he's the race director. He should know this stuff back to front. If he doesn't, then that's not an excuse. That's even more reason that he's unsuitable for the job. Making a mistake that affects the championship winner is not acceptable, this is not something where we can write it off as "everyone has bad days". Making situations like this work cleanly is literally his job.

I feel like 1 would be the option I would be most happy watching. Max gets a lucky advantage from the crash, but that's racing. Hamilton keeps the lead, and now Max has a lap on fresh tyres to blow past 5 blue flagged backmarkers and clear Hamilton while also fending off Sainz. I don't think that's a sure thing, I could see it going either way. I feel like if he manages that cleanly then yeah, he got lucky, but he's also earned it with some spectacular driving at the perfect time.

Yes exactly. VER had already gained a huge advantage from the SC, he was now ~5 seconds behind instead of 12 and on fresh softs, so I'd have had no issue with that. I think he still could have done it anyway, two-three of them probably done even before T1 with blue flags, the rest before T5, leaving the rest of the lap to catch HAM, maybe into the banked corner. Now THAT would have been a thrilling ending without the rule bending.

 

[snowgt]

Not really sure what you mean here?

If Masi had decided right away to let all the cars overtake, there would have been plenty of time for them to pass (that was 2.5 laps from the end), everything would have been according to the sporting regulations, and the race would have ended exactly the same - with a 1 lap sprint to the end, Hamilton directly ahead of Verstappen at the restart. (only the cars behind would have been in a different order on track)

All Masi's confusion did, was to waste almost 1 lap, which he tried to correct to get the same outcome as if he had decided correctly right away.

 

[WiisardNic]

I've been reading through this and feel the need to address some things, so there may be quite a few Quotes below:

Aryton Senna 1990 WDC*
Michael Schumacher 1994 WDC*

Fun game, how many more can we do?

Prost 1986*
Alonso 2006*
Schumacher 2003*
Hakkinen 1999*
Hakkinen 1998*
Hamilton 2008*
Vettel 2010*
Vettel 2012*
Rosberg 2016*
And so on and so forth, until every World Champion who sealed their title at the last race is listed, because If's, buts and coconuts happen every season.

Well for next year there needs to be some serious clarification and codification for penalties regarding on-track incidents, in the same way as for technical infringements i.e.:

Forcing a driver off-track with no contact: five-second time penalty
Forcing a driver off-track with contact: 10-second time penalty
Forcing a driver off-track with contact and inducing damage: drive-through penalty
Forcing a driver off-track with contact and inducing race-ending damage: 10-second stop/go penalty
Deliberately driving into another driver: disqualification

To do that though, they need to clarify what 'Forcing a driver off-track' is. More on that later.

Mazepin didn't get the best lap in Spa, because he was outside the top 10.

It's all an interesting case though, because it deals with the question what happens when race control doesn't act according to the rules. But I guess this can then be compared to a football referee whose decisions are final, even in the case they are proven to have been wrong at the time.

I mean.. you don't need to finish in the top 10 to get the fastest lap. That's just for the championship point. You still get awarded the fastest lap outside the top 10. Verstappen got the fastest lap in Baku this year, as one example.

1. He's faced a single sanction for crowding a car off the road this season, after doing it eight times in total, and that wasn't actually what he got the penalty for (he got the penalties in that race for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage, and for causing a collision). There were only 12 instances of cars being crowded off the road this season, and all of the other four got penalties - including Hamilton doing it to him at Silverstone, for which he got 10s (five for all the others) even though the FIA and teams insist that penalties are applied to the action not the consequence. Though it was an ultimately meaningless penalty given the performance in the Mercedes compared to everything else.

2. In the last seven seasons there have been ten occasions where a car has overtaken another during a safety car period. Nine of those were punished with 5-10s penalties and most with two penalty points, including one where Magnussen briefly overtook Vandoorne and ceded the place back again (5s, two penalty points). I will leave you to guess what the tenth one was.

3. I can't even conjure up a moment equivalent to the brake check madness, but a mere 10s penalty doesn't seem appropriate. The only two I can think even come close were Maldonado (also on Hamilton) in qualifying at Monaco, which got him a five-place grid drop, and when Schumacher half-tried to take out Villeneuve in a title-decider in 1997 and crippled his own car. That got him disqualified from the entire season, and I'm having a hard time coming up with ways that a 2.4G deceleration in the middle of a straight in a potential title-decider is less bad than that.

And we're not even getting into the rear wing shenanigans, where Red Bull can apparently change theirs every session or so without consequence, but the Mercedes item fails an inspection on one occasion (the FIA saying it was not a deliberate act, either bad fitment or damage) in a performance-detrimental manner, and is confiscated and the driver is disqualified.


4. IF rules were equally applied, Verstappen would have missed about three races this year through licence point totting-up bans and disqualification. But as we saw on Sunday, if a rule exists to cover a situation, Michael Masi can ignore it. It's like the Rule 34 of motorsport.

1. Crowding isn't necessarily illegal. I think the three main criteria for "illegal crowding" is: contact, staying on track, and whether a car was significantly ahead or not heading into the corner. I'd argue that if you think Imola and Barcelona were worthy of a Penalty, then so was Lewis in Jeddah, when Max went off track at the first restart. So was Austin 2015. I think all those instances are fair. In terms of both drivers, the only 'overtaking actions' that really warranted penalties were: Silverstone (Lewis), Monza (Max), Brazil (Max), Jeddah (Max), and borderline Abu Dhabi (Lewis). Even taking the last one out of the equation, All of them were penalised, except for Brazil.

2. In relation to overtaking under safety cars, there are multiple provisions in the sporting regulations that penalties will only be imposed on "any driver who fails to re-enter the pit lane if he has not re-established the original starting order before he reaches the first safety car line on the lap the safety car returns to the pits," as well as "on any driver who, in the opinion of the stewards, unnecessarily overtook another car during the lap (or laps)." It's quite certain that Max met those two criteria. As for other examples, you'd have to specify them or provide footage to examine.

3. You note that that Maldonado got a 5 place grid-drop in Monaco for something similar. The equivalent of that is during the race is apparently a 10-second penalty, so sounds like the stewards got that spot on to me.

4. Are you actually suggesting that Max would have gotten 36 penalty points this season?

F1 tweeting out a video of literally every driver outside of the Red Bull tosspotarchy going to Hamilton and saying how much Red Bull **** that was:



Either their press officers and social media bods are clueless, or they're extremely not...

Are you a lip-reader?

Lewis has been brilliant in public since the whole thing happened, very graceful and sportsman-like, and his dad too when he congratulated Jos and Max.

Away from the public eye though I cant imagine what Lewis must be feeling.

To play devils advocate.. has he even done/said anything in public since the post-race interview/podium? However, that was all class.

Why is Latifi being blamed?

If anything, scrutiny should be on Pat Symonds. I doubt he has done anything wrong. But he was previously banned for this.

Why should the scrutiny be on Pat Symonds? Unless that was just the joke to introduce Crashgate?

---

Now onto my own points.
Where Masi went wrong is by initially stating that lapped cars won't overtake, and then saying a lap later that some will. That first decision was made when the SC was exiting turn 5 on Lap 56, and by the time the cars had gotten to the scene of the accident (T14), the track was cleared. If he just let them go at the start, then we wouldn't have this problem.

In relation to red-flagging the race.. well, there is precedent for this. Masi actually said part of the reason he red-flagged Baku after Verstappen's incident was because he didn't think clearing it under the SC would leave enough time to restart the race. That was an incident much more worthy of a red-flag in itself compared to Latifi's, but remember he only deployed the SC for Stroll's very similar accident earlier in the race.

The thing that has actually baffled me, even though I had called the FIA using 15.3 as an article to give the Race Director discretionary powers over certain aspects of the race (Similar to IFAB's "Spirit of the Game" law in football [soccer]), another interpretation was put to me afterwards, which I think if the stewards used that in their 'discretion' decision, would actually make more sense. And that is Article 48.8a (Yes, the same one as the frivolous protest).
48.8a states:

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 exceptions are:
a) If a driver is signalled to do so from the safety car.

Now, it could be argued that the drivers who were allowed to unlap were signalled to do so by the safety car (it could also be argued that the race director is not the safety car), but there are no specifics on how many drivers to be signalled to overtake, and what circumstances. The only mention of that comes directly after in Article 48.9:

When ordered to do so by the clerk of the course the observer in the car will use a green light to signal to any cars between it and the leader that they should pass. These cars will continue at reduced speed and without overtaking until they reach the line of cars behind the safety car.

That article specifically mentions the signal used to direct any cars between itself and the leader past, using a green light, upon its deployment. 48.8a only suggests that drivers CAN be signalled to pass, with no other specifics.

Whilst not entirely different, suggesting this as the reason to let 'some cars past', and not 'any and all' makes a helluva lot more sense to me than what the stewards ruling actually did..

 

[Samus]

If Masi had decided right away to let all the cars overtake, there would have been plenty of time for them to pass (that was 2.5 laps from the end), everything would have been according to the sporting regulations, and the race would have ended exactly the same - with a 1 lap sprint to the end, Hamilton directly ahead of Verstappen at the restart. (only the cars behind would have been in a different order on track)

All Masi's confusion did, was to waste almost 1 lap, which he tried to correct to get the same outcome as if he had decided correctly right away.

They can't do that until the track is safe though, or we end up with Imola again. It wasn't safe to let them pass until the scene was completely clear although without looking back at it again, I don't know when that was exactly.

 

[snowgt]

They can't do that until the track is safe though, or we end up with Imola again. It wasn't safe to let them pass until the scene was completely clear.

Ok, has that been proven to actually have been the case or is it what Masi said in order to justify his decisions?

Because, to be honest, that has never happened at the end of a SC period ever and now it happened that one time? That sounds dubious...

But it doesn't really matter anymore. (and I'm saying anyway that it didn't change the outcome)

 

[Samus]

Ok, has that been proven to actually have been the case or is it what Masi said in order to justify his decisions?

Because, to be honest, that has never happened at the end of a SC period ever and now it happened that one time? That sounds dubious...

But it doesn't really matter anymore. (and I'm saying anyway that it didn't change the outcome)

How do you mean? The rule states that the lapped cars allowed to pass should only happen when it's safe to do so, at the discretion of Masi.

If the Clerk of the Course considers it safe to do so, and sends the message “the lapped cars can now overtake” to all participants through the official system, any car that has been lapped by the leader will be able to overtake the leader of the group and the Safety Car.

Marshals still on track does not count as safe, to me. That's why historically we've always had SC lasting way longer than needed, because they wait until it's clear before letting the lapped cars through, then we usually wait again for them to catch the train back up.

 

[snowgt]

How do you mean? The rule states that the lapped cars allowed to pass should only happen when it's safe to do so, at the discretion of Masi.

Marshals still on track does not count as safe, to me. That's why historically we've always had SC lasting way longer than needed, because they wait until it's clear before letting the lapped cars through, then we usually wait again for them to catch the train back up.

Yes, that was basically my point. In the past they always waited for Marshals to leave the track. Because, usually, when you know the SC period will end soon, you have to know that the Marshals will also definitely be gone momentarily anyway, so why not wait until they actually are gone and then let the cars overtake? There won't ever be more than a couple of seconds difference to the whole process.

Unless maybe Masi thought he could squeeze in 2 laps at the end (without unlapping), but then ran out of time and changed his mind.

We'll never know for sure.

 

[WiisardNic]

Yes, that was basically my point. In the past they always waited for Marshals to leave the track. Because, usually, when you know the SC period will end soon, you have to know that the Marshals will also definitely be gone momentarily anyway, so why not wait until they actually are gone and then let the cars overtake? There won't ever be more than a couple of seconds difference to the whole process.

Unless maybe Masi thought he could squeeze in 2 laps at the end (without unlapping), but then ran out of time and changed his mind.

We'll never know for sure.

I tried alluding to this in my earlier posts. When the Safety Car is being shown going past Turn 14 on Lap 56, the last marshall is just hopping over the barrier..

 

[Samus]

Yes, that was basically my point. In the past they always waited for Marshals to leave the track. Because, usually, when you know the SC period will end soon, you have to know that the Marshals will also definitely be gone momentarily anyway, so why not wait until they actually are gone and then let the cars overtake? There won't ever be more than a couple of seconds difference to the whole process.

Unless maybe Masi thought he could squeeze in 2 laps at the end (without unlapping), but then ran out of time and changed his mind.

We'll never know for sure.

I tried alluding to this in my earlier posts. When the Safety Car is being shown going past Turn 14 on Lap 56, the last marshall is just hopping over the barrier..

Right, so ultimately it just comes back to Masi dilly dallying and running out of time leading to his half cocked action.

Mind you, I doubt having the team bosses in his ears helped all that much. If only one thing changes next year, THAT has to be stopped. Team bosses, no matter how right or wrong their grievences are, should not be directly talking to the race director WHILE he's busy trying to, you know, direct the race. There should be an intermediate person passing messages on as appropriate, not "NO SC PLEASE" or "GIVE US ONE LAP, GO ON. GO ON. One lap, it's all we need. Please" as Wolff and Horner were doing.

But like a lot of things I expect it will continue, and they'll continue broadcasting it as well, because they love the drama it brings.

 

[WiisardNic]

Right, so ultimately it just comes back to Masi dilly dallying and running out of time leading to his half cocked action.

Mind you, I doubt having the team bosses in his ears helped all that much. If only one thing changes next year, THAT has to be stopped. Team bosses, no matter how right or wrong their grievences are, should not be directly talking to the race director WHILE he's busy trying to, you know, direct the race. There should be an intermediate person passing messages on as appropriate, not "NO SC PLEASE" or "GIVE US ONE LAP, GO ON. GO ON. One lap, it's all we need. Please" as Wolff and Horner were doing.

But like a lot of things I expect it will continue, and they'll continue broadcasting it as well, because they love the drama it brings.

Yep, agreed so much. I had assumed Clerk of the Course would have this role of relaying messages to and from the race director to be honest. I mean.. while I don’t like there way that’s it’s been handled the past year or so (FIA - Team Radio), there probably should be some level of communication between them for safety issues if absolutely necessary. They can still do that with messages related through the CotC

 

[Grayfox]

If they just drop behind and then get a lap chalked off to achieve that then they're at an advantage in regards to less fuel usage having not done those laps.

Things can be done such as allowing those on current lap to have an Extra Lean engine mode which can only be turned on during safety car period, using this mode outside of a SC results in a disqualification.

Those who are down 1 or more laps have to use the standard mode.
Depending on length of SC and how economic the engines are fuel usage could be same when the restart happens.

Or bring back refueling?
Remove the fuel flow limit, cap the amount of fuel they can use during the race to the current limit.
If teams want to burn through their fuel and splutter to a stop, Oh well too bad so sad.
We saw this in the 1985 San Marino Grand Prix.
This will add more strategy into the mix, do teams want to try and race with more fuel at the start, be slower but save time refueling in the pits or do they want less fuel, be quicker but spend more time in pits.

Another thing
No tire changes during red flags unless to change from slick to wet
If changing from worn slick to new slick or punctured slick to new during a red flag, you start from pit lane.

 

[Samus]

If changing from worn slick to new slick or punctured slick to new during a red flag, you start from pit lane.

A better option is what one of the ex-drivers said, I think Karun. If you change your tyres during a red flag it has to be onto the same compound you're already on, and so it doesn't count as your mandatory stop.

That way people can change for safety reasons but don't get a free stop. Mind you, all they really have to do is say the mandatory stop has to be an actual stop during the race, not during a red flag, it'd have the same effect. So change from mediums to hards if you want but you'll still have to a proper stop.

 

[Grayfox]

A better option is what one of the ex-drivers said, I think Karun. If you change your tyres during a red flag it has to be onto the same compound you're already on, and so it doesn't count as your mandatory stop.

That way people can change for safety reasons but don't get a free stop. Mind you, all they really have to do is say the mandatory stop has to be an actual stop during the race, not during a red flag, it'd have the same effect. So change from mediums to hards if you want but you'll still have to a proper stop.

In cases like that if you already made a stop from hard to medium 1/3 of the race and were planning on a 2 stop and a red flag drops near your next pit window, you could change to fresh mediums and have a FREE stop, you already made a stop so it doesn't matter if it doesn't count.
Most drivers go towards hard towards the end, so this driver will end up charging forwards.

 

[AshenGraey]

Here's an idea to prevent race to end under a safety car....if a race has less than 10 laps to go and something major happens, red flag the race and give the fan a mad dash restart to the finish. If the incident happens in the penultimate lap and requires a safety car then end the race there. If it doesn't require a safety car but a virtual one can do then apply the VSC and be done with it.

 

[JDMKING13]

Here's an idea to prevent race to end under a safety car....if a race has less than 10 laps to go and something major happens, red flag the race and give the fan a mad dash restart to the finish. If the incident happens in the penultimate lap and requires a safety car then end the race there. If it doesn't require a safety car but a virtual one can do then apply the VSC and be done with it.

That’s what should of happened, but buddy knew what he was doing in my opinion that’s why there was no red flag. That’s why he let those five cars pass, because that was the only way max could win. I actually like Max a lot but let’s keep it 💯 Lewis was just better that race in all aspects. Either let all the cars pass, let Max drive through the 5 cars in front of him, because they chose to pit and put on soft tires… or red flag the race and do a shootout til the end. If he chose any of these option in my opinion he would not look like he basically gave the chip to Max.

 

[Blitz24]

Here's an idea to prevent race to end under a safety car....if a race has less than 10 laps to go and something major happens, red flag the race and give the fan a mad dash restart to the finish. If the incident happens in the penultimate lap and requires a safety car then end the race there. If it doesn't require a safety car but a virtual one can do then apply the VSC and be done with it.

This is essentially what NASCAR does. Red flag the race to try and ensure a green flag finish. The problem is NASCAR will artificially extend races if the crash happens on the penultimate lap.

 

[GroupB]

An example of the orchestrated finish paying dividends for Liberty:

America has 3 newspapers that reach a potential nationwide audience of millions (USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times)
The race report that WSJ published on Monday morning was completely sanitized, far more so than the FIA’s version.
This is where many of the world’s richest and most influential people heard about what happened - potential sponsors, investors, facilitators. They were given a glowing report that was all sizzle and made Liberty’s product look very appealing.

 

[OJBrit]

As much as I'm baffled with what played out at the end of the race... I actually think it was Mercedes themselves that cost Hamilton a chance at winning, they had a car that was fast enough to overtake on track but were too scared to give up track position ? They had like 3 chances to bring in Hamilton to give him fresh tyres, I really don't understand why they were too scared ? If I was Hamilton I would be more pissed at my team than anyone else. I dont think Hamilton lost the championship, I think his team lost it for him !

Merc did not loose it for Hamilton. They had track position and a healthy lead. They made their calls to what the regs say. Lewis' tyres were still very much o.k. as he was outpacing Max at the time.

F1 tweeting out a video of literally every driver outside of the Red Bull tosspotarchy going to Hamilton and saying how much Red Bull **** that was:



Either their press officers and social media bods are clueless, or they're extremely not...

Pretty much every driver I have seen have not been happy with what happened. They know exactly what went on. The drivers association will probably be presenting their concerns to the FIA.

There's too many pitfalls and caveats if the result is to be overturned. The rules and regulations are all subject to interpretation and the FIA can easily throw out any and all allegations if there's something that justifies the overriding of certain procedures. Nothing is clear cut and that is the problem for Mercedes. I don't know if it's possible to make judgement calls based on a "what if" scenario in the court of law. There has to be irrefutable proof that Hamilton would've won the race and if not, their case won't hold up. It sucks for them but I fail to see how anything will change. Hard to defeat a corrupt organisation that won't admit to their own failings.

If the regs were followed then the race would have finished behind the safety car and as Lewis was in P1 it was 100% certain he would have won.

I'm actually a little upset (though not surprised) that Ferrari and McLaren aren't protesting the race results, too. While I imagine that Ferrari in particular don't want to do anything that could benefit Mercedes, the call at the end of the race did screw over one of each teams drivers from achieving a better result.

If and when it goes to CAS then they could come in as damaged parties and claim alongside Mercedes if they wished.

Doubters need only look at the lead Max managed to gain in less than a lap after taking Lewis; those new slicks vs Lewis' old hards was chalk and cheese.

It's a bloody disgrace in my book. The result deserves to be overturned if ever there was a case for this AFAIC.

Sky released a video of the onboards on the last lap and a half including some of the radio messages. After the 2nd straight when Lewis knew he couldn't take Max around the outside of the new corner he gave up on it and backed off. It's at that moment he said the FIA had 'manipulated the event.' If Lewis continued at his normal pace he would have been a lot closer at the line.