Poll: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021, Yas Island - Race 22

Rate the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix out of ten. If you want. I can’t be arsed.


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Caporegime
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RB had pit advantage, again, because Bottas was nowhere in the team fight, so Lewis couldn't risk a pit. Toto also asked the FIA for no SC on the prior incident; they're just doing their job and trying to get whatever advantage they can.

People need to remove their tinfoil hat when it comes to the teams conspiring. FIA has proven incompetence multiple times this season, and I'm sure there is a mandate from Liberty to keep things interesting.

Imagine if Bottas could actually remotely keep up. Max gets third in Saudi Arabia due to the penalties and cant pit/gets stuck behind him potentially twice in Sunday's race.

Its been shocking how far off the race pace he has been in that Merc.

if only Ham had Perez as a teammate this season. Probably would have walked it.
 

Deleted member 651465

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Deleted member 651465

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In my head this is what race control looked like on Sunday.
 
Soldato
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Imagine if Bottas could actually remotely keep up. Max gets third in Saudi Arabia due to the penalties and cant pit/gets stuck behind him potentially twice in Sunday's race.

Its been shocking how far off the race pace he has been in that Merc.

if only Ham had Perez as a teammate this season. Probably would have walked it.
I thought he was running with a dodgy engine?
 
Soldato
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Imagine if Bottas could actually remotely keep up. Max gets third in Saudi Arabia due to the penalties and cant pit/gets stuck behind him potentially twice in Sunday's race.

Its been shocking how far off the race pace he has been in that Merc.

if only Ham had Perez as a teammate this season. Probably would have walked it.
I know it appears Bottas has been rubbish this whoel season but if that was the case, why has RB not won the constructors title then?

Bottas finished ahead of Perez overal
 
Soldato
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IMHO

Masi was mostly likely happy for the race to finish under the SC - the safest option. Someone puts pressure on him to restart the race so we get a racing finish. Masi determines the quickest way to restart the race is not to wait for back markers to come through. Same someone tells Masi that won't do, it must be a racing finish between the two title rivals. Masi then determines the quickest way to that is to allow only the cars in between.

The changing of decisions to me, indicates more than one person was making the decisions. I suspect it's someone higher up - very unlikely to be anyone at team level.

Whether all or only 5 passed the SC the result would have been the same.
 
Caporegime
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Whether all or only 5 passed the SC the result would have been the same.

Almost certainly not. Max would have had a lot of ground to make up to not only make up the distance 5 backmarkers would have left between him and Lewis, but to also get past them all. Remember, they are all still in their own race. Yes they would have let him go where they could, but its pretty inconceivable that Max would have been close enough to Lewis to overtake him.
 
Caporegime
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if only Ham had Perez as a teammate this season. Probably would have walked it.

Pérez has been worse than Bottas this season, although he improved towards the end he has been consistently poor in qualifying, and has frequently failed to secure the 3rd/4th finish that he should be nailing every time, and has had plenty of miserable races of his own. Bottas has more often been able to put his car close enough to Max to cause Red Bull tactical issues. The balance between the cars has swung back and forth, with Mercedes have enjoying a strong finish, but the Red Bull has been the better car overall this season yet Pérez's relative weakness let Mercedes take the WCC again. That said, Red Bull's immensely strong first driver bias did rob Pérez of points at quite a number of races.
 

Deleted member 651465

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Deleted member 651465

Horner saying you only need 1 racing lap. To clear the crash from the track. Why does everyone read it as give me one lap for max to win the race. Sheesh talk about seeing what you want to see.
You are in a world of your own if that's how you took that.
 
Don
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Horner saying you only need 1 racing lap. To clear the crash from the track. Why does everyone read it as give me one lap for max to win the race. Sheesh talk about seeing what you want to see.

I read it as to clear the crash from the track - especially given we don't know exactly how delayed the radio message actually was - could easily have been at least a lap earlier than it aired (as frequently is the case)
 
Associate
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Pérez has been worse than Bottas this season, although he improved towards the end he has been consistently poor in qualifying, and has frequently failed to secure the 3rd/4th finish that he should be nailing every time, and has had plenty of miserable races of his own. Bottas has more often been able to put his car close enough to Max to cause Red Bull tactical issues. The balance between the cars has swung back and forth, with Mercedes have enjoying a strong finish, but the Red Bull has been the better car overall this season yet Pérez's relative weakness let Mercedes take the WCC again. That said, Red Bull's immensely strong first driver bias did rob Pérez of points at quite a number of races.

Given this was Perez's first season in a very different car, I think he did extremely well. Overall had a lot of ups and downs, but was there when it mattered. Will be interesting to see where things are next year with the new cars.
 
Soldato
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Horner saying you only need 1 racing lap. To clear the crash from the track. Why does everyone read it as give me one lap for max to win the race. Sheesh talk about seeing what you want to see.

Maybe because laps behind the safety car aren't typically called or considered 'racing laps', so the obvious inference is that he is talking about laps after the safety car.

Whether you take that to be that he then means "you only need one racing lap..."
...to finish without the safety car
...to create a showdown
...to deliberately hand Max a golden opportunity
...to meet the terms of our arrangement

Well, that's going to depend how much conspiracy people want to buy into :D
 
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