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

[Jono8]

Pretty much this. You either believe that Masi really wanted to finish the race with 1 lap to go with a battle between the top two or he wanted Max to win. I think maybe the last bit is a bit CT but I do believe he was pushed to get the race restarted in any way possible. After what happened at Belgium. It wouldn't surprise me there are external forces at work.

Unfortunately the way the accident happened you couldn't have a 1 lap battle because he had to bend the rules. That in itself is giving Max an unfair advantage whether that was his intent or not.

If this had all happened 5 laps earlier we would be all congratulating Max and even though harsh it would have been legal. The only legal solution in the reality of what happened was to finish the race behind the safety car or restart the race without cars unlapping themselves.

Thing is, if the crash happened a few laps earlier, Mercedes may well have pitted Hamilton as they would have known that there might be a few laps at the end.

This is why not making up the rules at the last minute is so crucial to any sport. No competitor can make any sort of judgement if they don't know what the rules are going to be.

 

[Demon]

The only legal solution in the reality of what happened was to finish the race behind the safety car or restart the race without cars unlapping themselves.

Or red flagging the race almost immediately and we could have had 4+ laps of actual racing with Max/Lewis on soft tyres, that would have actually been entertaining..

Well from next season teams wont be able to talk to the RD during race according to Brawn.

Sounds like a step forward..

Lets see if they can address the aggressive driving and have clearer rules, to be clear, I'm OK if it's more gloves off, just need some clarity so we don't end up arguing the toss over incidents like Brazil.

 

[I_M_Weasel]

MM must be looking back on this and thinking 'Why did I let some of the lapped cars through' the race could've had a great and thrilling finish with Max battling through with fresh tyres and blue flags and maybe a final corner decider.

Instead we have controversy, a devalued champion and a team finding it hard to be magnaminous in defeat because it doesn't feel like a fair and square defeat.

I can't blame Max and RB for taking the opportunity though.

 

[Irish_Tom]

MM must be looking back on this and thinking 'Why did I let some of the lapped cars through' the race could've had a great and thrilling finish with Max battling through with fresh tyres and blue flags and maybe a final corner decider.

Instead we have controversy, a devalued champion and a team finding it hard to be magnaminous in defeat because it doesn't feel like a fair and square defeat.

I can't blame Max and RB for taking the opportunity though.

+1 would have been much more exciting.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

The message “cars xyz may unlap themselves” wasn’t displayed until the penultimate lap.

Surely he must have realised that there was no time left? Or at least you’d like to think so…

 

[touch]

Only letting some unlap themselves is obviously massively prejudicial towards some of the field (not just Lewis either).

If they'd removed all the lapped cars whilst still ignoring the rules and bringing the safety car in early, Sainz could easily have had his first ever F1 win.
In the 10 laps of free racing before the safety car, Sainz was lapping slightly slower but consistently getting faster. Lewis + Max were both the opposite - a little faster but getting slower each lap.
Here's the timings for the 10 or so laps before safety car and then the big spike where everyone slows up when the safety car comes out:

Sainz red
Lewis grey
Max blue

With Lewis + Max only caring about the championship and fighting it out with each other it would have been a perfect opportunity for Sainz to jump them both.

 

[Jono8]

If they'd removed all the lapped cars whilst still ignoring the rules and bringing the safety car in early, Sainz could easily have had his first ever F1 win.
In the 10 laps of free racing before the safety car, Sainz was lapping slightly slower but consistently getting faster. Lewis + Max were both the opposite - a little faster but getting slower each lap.
Here's the timings for the 10 or so laps before safety car and then the big spike where everyone slows up when the safety car comes out:

Sainz red
Lewis grey
Max blue

With Lewis + Max only caring about the championship and fighting it out with each other it would have been a perfect opportunity for Sainz to jump them both.

yep, that was the other massively unfair part of the new rule Masi dreamed up.

Sainz had no chance to be on the back of Max, and Max had no one to worry about from behind. If Lewis and Max made a mistake battling it out, Sainz could have pounced and won the race.

Granted, Sainz likely might have elected to stay out of it, BUT that isn't Masi's decision to make. He has to treat all competitors fairly and he simply didn't.

It was simply engineered to give Max a free and unchallenged go at Lewis.

 

[turbot1984]

If they'd removed all the lapped cars whilst still ignoring the rules and bringing the safety car in early, Sainz could easily have had his first ever F1 win.
In the 10 laps of free racing before the safety car, Sainz was lapping slightly slower but consistently getting faster. Lewis + Max were both the opposite - a little faster but getting slower each lap.
Here's the timings for the 10 or so laps before safety car and then the big spike where everyone slows up when the safety car comes out:

Sainz red
Lewis grey
Max blue

With Lewis + Max only caring about the championship and fighting it out with each other it would have been a perfect opportunity for Sainz to jump them both.

Thats interesting, you could almost add Tsunoda into the mix, he only finished 0.5sec behind Carlos!

 

[Skyboat]

Pretty much this. You either believe that Masi really wanted to finish the race with 1 lap to go with a battle between the top two or he wanted Max to win. I think maybe the last bit is a bit CT but I do believe he was pushed to get the race restarted in any way possible. After what happened at Belgium. It wouldn't surprise me there are external forces at work.

Unfortunately the way the accident happened you couldn't have a 1 lap battle because he had to bend the rules. That in itself is giving Max an unfair advantage whether that was his intent or not.

If this had all happened 5 laps earlier we would be all congratulating Max and even though harsh it would have been legal. The only legal solution in the reality of what happened was to finish the race behind the safety car or restart the race without cars unlapping themselves.

I think Belgium showed that there is definitely outside and/or commercial influence, and not simply the FIA being fully isolated in how they govern the sport.

 

[Locky]

Max is a paper champion.
FIA and MM rigged it.
Nothing is going to change.
It's not a sport but a reality TV show.

This pretty much sums it up...

 

[Mr Jack]

Max is a paper champion.
FIA and MM rigged it.
Nothing is going to change.
It's not a sport but a reality TV show.

This pretty much sums it up...

Regardless of this race, Max's performance this season makes him a worthy champion. It's not his fault Masi is unfit.

 

[Mr Men]

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.

So now it's Bottas fault

Best driver over the season won the title, even with all the bad luck Max had otherwise the title would have been over long before Abu Dhabi.

 

[Jono8]

Regardless of this race, Max's performance this season makes him a worthy champion. It's not his fault Masi is unfit.

I'm really torn on this. Certainly Max is very good but the real test of a champion for me is the end game, especially when it is this close and with all this pressure. In that respect, Lewis was far better than Max. Max had to resort to dirty tactics on track, and in the end only won the deciding race by having it gifted to him by the race director. He was realistically nowhere in Abu Dhabi compared to Lewis.

If he had won this race, even with the VSC/safety car offering up free pitstops all day, I still would not begrudge him the championship so much. However, for Lewis's astonishing performance at the end of this season, and the undoubted winner of the last race but for Masi's shenanigans, it really feels like Lewis deserved it more. I felt that no doubt Max's time would come, but it wasn't supposed to be Sunday but for outside influence.

 

[Jono8]

So now it's Bottas fault

Not at all. Lewis would have still won it but for Masi's imaginary rules. if Bottas had been at all useful though, then even with Masi tipping the scales it wouldn't have mattered.

 

[Kenai]

Standard top quality video from ChainBear, don't think i've missed it already being posted.

 

[Skyboat]

Put it this way. Hamilton very nearly won the title despite Bottas not being as helpful as Perez has been for Verstappen.

 

[adam cool dude]

Regardless of this race, Max's performance this season makes him a worthy champion. It's not his fault Masi is unfit.

That is sad in itself because it will always been seen as tainted even though he is a deserving champion. Hopefully it will not be his only one but if it is he will not be seen as a true champion.

 

[Irish_Tom]

Best driver over the season won the title, even with all the bad luck Max had otherwise the title would have been over long before Abu Dhabi.

Like being gifted the race win at Spa, or being gifted a second race in Austria where RBR had a ridiculous advantage? Or Monaco where he qualified 2nd but was gifted pole (effectively a guaranteed race win bar some mechanical issue)? Or all of the times he drove overly-aggressively and the stewards turned a blind eye? All of that bad luck?

 

[Kenai]

It's hard to begrudge Max the title overall (even if you dislike his 'aggressive' style), as many others have suggested - if you could split it in two, this would have been the year you'd do it. Max has contested 22 races this season and only finished outside the Top 2 in 4 races (Azerbaijan not his fault, Hungary not his fault, Britain and Italy people will argue to the death over). That's an impeccable level of consistency and something i'm not sure anyone other than Lewis have come close to achieving? To do so when competing with someone of Lewis' quality, that's certainly no fluke.

Equally, that Lewis was able to get anywhere near such a level of consistency is a display of exactly why this guy has 7 titles already.

The level they were both operating at this year was astounding to see really.

 

[Jono8]

It's hard to begrudge Max the title overall (even if you dislike his 'aggressive' style), as many others have suggested - if you could split it in two, this would have been the year you'd do it. Max has contested 22 races this season and only finished outside the Top 2 in 4 races (Azerbaijan not his fault, Hungary not his fault, Britain and Italy people will argue to the death over). That's an impeccable level of consistency and something i'm not sure anyone other than Lewis have come close to achieving? To do so when competing with someone of Lewis' quality, that's certainly no fluke.

Equally, that Lewis was able to get anywhere near such a level of consistency is a display of exactly why this guy has 7 titles already.

The level they were both operating at this year was astounding to see really.

Yep. Made the rest of the field , including their team mates look like muppets to be honest.

Where on earth do they both get that race pace from?

 

[adam cool dude]

It's hard to begrudge Max the title overall (even if you dislike his 'aggressive' style), as many others have suggested - if you could split it in two, this would have been the year you'd do it. Max has contested 22 races this season and only finished outside the Top 2 in 4 races (Azerbaijan not his fault, Hungary not his fault, Britain and Italy people will argue to the death over). That's an impeccable level of consistency and something i'm not sure anyone other than Lewis have come close to achieving? To do so when competing with someone of Lewis' quality, that's certainly no fluke.

Equally, that Lewis was able to get anywhere near such a level of consistency is a display of exactly why this guy has 7 titles already.

The level they were both operating at this year was astounding to see really.

Yes but there can only be one and it has been given to Max on a plate really.