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

[Locky]

Bottas should have just crashed under the SC...

 

[Purdy]

I’m in 2 minds. One hand Masi basically handed the race over and bent rules, the other hand he let racings happen where it mattered on a last minute judgement call then merc lost to strategy.

if merc pit Lewis, he had the quicker car so Lewis still wins. So taking the questionable call out Merc lost this by putting early, then not putting again, then not putting under SC. Even Lewis On hards 20 laps newer has a solid chance right there.

Congrats to Max, great to see a new Champion and makes next season even more interesting looking, lewis pushing for record breaking in a new car atleast.

Masi would be catching grief what ever call he made.

Unlap all cars - races ends under SC

no cars unlap - give RB almost no chance despite playing the better strategy

do what he done - RB win from the better strategy.

All of them Masi gets hate, atleast this way we got a race out of it.

If the SC doesn't occur Lewis is coasting to a win.
Undoubtedly Mercedes made mistakes but ultimate Hamilton's management of the tyres was coasting him to a win (which I was very wrong about, thought he'd be a sitting duck in the last 10)

So ultimately Masi's decision change the outcome of the championship and nulled out the rest of the race, which Lewis had built a nearly insurmountable advantage with 5 laps to go.

 

[BuffetSlayer]

Seems like the rule book went out of the window today.

That is a troubling precedent to set.

There’s no doubt Max is a brilliant driver and a worthy champion. I’m just not sure I can stretch to todays outcome being the right one. Not yet anyway.

I’m in the camp of what’s right (I’m not a massive fan of either protagonist).

Irrelevant of the circumstances and the status of the championship the rules should be followed. If it transpires Masi was well within his rights to make that call on the SC, then that is fair enough but I’m not sure that will be the case.

I guess time will tell.

 

[Jono8]

I think we can safely say that there is no love lost towards Michael M by the majority of folk on here.
(I'm neither here or there on the subject).

But lets address, why Michael took this decision?
Was it really to let them race? Was it pressure from Christian screaming at him? Did Toto not object enough?
Did he want to bring WWE to F1?

Incidentally I know a lot of people have been quoting the FIA regulations... and this is absolutely correct.
And I am not saying this is the same as a game of football, but sometimes the referee gets it wrong and there have been games won based on controversial referee decisions.... and never changed after the event...
So by the same token, is the Michaels decision final as the race director?

(All genuine questions to the masses and not intending to troll anyone).

I'm not sure, but the regulations seem pretty cut and dry. The safety car comes in the following lap after all lapped cars have passed.

It's awful to just make up the rules as you go.

As they are saying on SKY now, the regulations were not followed.


Merc made a strategy decision based on the RULES , not what Masi makes up in his head at the time..

The race director can't just arbitrarily decide which cars unlap themselves to give the advantage to one driver and one driver only.

Merc made the right call because the race should have finished under the safety car.

 

[GodAtum]

TBH I think Mercedes lost during the race as Bottas was useless and too far behind to help.

 

[el_dazza]

Trouble is Merc can't do anything about it, what are they going to ask for? 2 lap countback?

 

[chrismscotland]

They need to deal with incidents in a way that doesn't require someone to give up all their time advantage, or give people free pit stops.

Why? It's been like that since the safety car was introduced in the 70's, its as much part of the sport as tyres, engines or flags.

Safety has to be paramount

 

[PikeyPriest]

Bottas should have just crashed under the SC...

I think if this happened or stopping on track they would have black flagged him stopped or not and punished Mercedes’ and Hamilton for creating an intentionally dangerous track situation to gain a team benefit.

Similarly I think any action that was deemed intentional by Perez that took out LH would have seen MV punished/lose the championship as well as significant penalties going in to the new season and against the drivers and teams.

 

[.Lethal]

So by the same token, is the Michaels decision final as the race director?

(All genuine questions to the masses and not intending to troll anyone).

No he shouldn't be replaced.

The FIA and teams need to sit down and talk this out, you can't have teams badgering the FIA like we've seen every race.

Masi has come out looking badly this season but if he's replaced by somebody else and nothing else changes the same thing is going to keep happening.

I don't believe for one second that this sort of pressure was going on when Charlie was in charge.

 

[MissChief]

Results on FIA website only listed as provisional.

They always are. Scrutineering still needs to happen.

Normal...

Technically the Champion isn’t crowned until the FIA Gala. Except that was last week.

 

[Snookums]

We had seen a race for 50 plus laps.

Which was then turned in to a complete farce.

How about in future we make all grand prix a one lap shoot out where everyone is on different tyres?

Sound fair?

No of course not.

it’s the risk of racing though, it happens all the time, a sc basically removes XX previous laps.

It sucks for both parties, Can they really take the WDC from max cause Masi made a **** call?

In the other camp Masi took the WDC from Lewis on a **** call.

At the end of the day Mercs strategy lost them the race.

 

[Jono8]

it’s the risk of racing though, it happens all the time, a sc basically removes XX previous laps.

It sucks for both parties, Can they really take the WDC from max cause Masi made a **** call?

In the other camp Masi took the WDC from Lewis on a **** call.

At the end of the day Mercs strategy lost them the race.

Yes they can, because it wasn't Max's championship.

 

[Psycho Ned]

I'm conflicted now, on one hand a wrong has been done and Merc are well within their rights to get it looked at.

On the other I really don't want Lewis winning the title 2 weeks later in some courtroom. Plus it'll stoke up the Max/Horner 'everyone's against us' sentiment.

Cheers FIA.

 

[Flibster]

Mercedes have lodged 2 protests!

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Let’s be honest, I can’t see the WDC result being overturned.

It’s merely likely that this’ll result in some nothing slap on the wrist for Masi.

The backlash from overturning the championship result would be 1000x worse than letting the race end under a SC.

 

[Greboth]

I’m in 2 minds. One hand Masi basically handed the race over and bent rules, the other hand he let racings happen where it mattered on a last minute judgement call then merc lost to strategy.

if merc pit Lewis, he had the quicker car so Lewis still wins. So taking the questionable call out Merc lost this by putting early, then not putting again, then not putting under SC. Even Lewis On hards 20 laps newer has a solid chance right there.

Congrats to Max, great to see a new Champion and makes next season even more interesting looking, lewis pushing for record breaking in a new car atleast.

Masi would be catching grief what ever call he made.

Unlap all cars - races ends under SC

no cars unlap - give RB almost no chance despite playing the better strategy

do what he done - RB win from the better strategy.

All of them Masi gets hate, atleast this way we got a race out of it.

The thing is it's almost a panto villian, you were playing by the rules but a-ha I'm playing by different rules.

That's where I have the problem, Merc gambled on the rules as they seem to be written - basically that the race would end up a safety car or they'd have enough lapped cars to hold on to the win. It was a gamble but a gamble based on the rules - not the rules that seemed to have been made up just to have an exciting end.

 

[Locky]

I think if this happened or stopping on track they would have black flagged him stopped or not and punished Mercedes’ and Hamilton for creating an intentionally dangerous track situation to gain a team benefit.

Similarly I think any action that was deemed intentional by Perez that took out LH would have seen MV punished/lose the championship as well as significant penalties going in to the new season and against the drivers and teams.

Nah not if bottas just loses it.. warming up his tyres..

 

[iamtheoneneo]

Bottas should have just crashed under the SC...

I would like to hear what they have been doing with Bottas all season. It feels (and zero evidence to support this claim) that they skimped on his development to support Lewis' bid once they realised RB were fast this season. We need a documentary.

 

[Jono8]

Let’s be honest, I can’t see the WDC result being overturned.

It’s merely likely that this’ll result in some nothing slap on the wrist for Masi.

But Merc made the decision based on the rules. It was the correct decision as the race would have finished under the safety car under the rules.

If the rules can just be made up on the fly, how can any team make strategy calls?

 

[GodAtum]

I think the question is, do we want an exciting race, or a boring one?