Soldato
It's pathetic in so many ways, all the stewards had to do was give max a 5 sec penalty for overtaking under the safety car but they didn't even have the balls for that.
FIA confirm Michael Masi removed as race director
- Thread starter Mr Jack
- Start date
Soldato
Don't be ridiculous. About 0.5mm of Max's nose nudged ahead of Lewis because Lewis was doing 6mph trying to back everyone up.
Why did it take a report for everyone to realise the obvious? I don't get that. The overall result doesn't bother me anything like the post rationalisation of an obvious decision against the rules, the motivation for which we will have to take on good faith that Masi was acting in good faith.
Imagine if it was the other way round. F1 would be in complete turmoil. It would be such an egregious mistake even as a Hamilton fan, I'd have strong suspicions it was fixed to flip the result.
Imagine if it was the other way round. F1 would be in complete turmoil. It would be such an egregious mistake even as a Hamilton fan, I'd have strong suspicions it was fixed to flip the result.
Soldato
No mechanism to change the result... Lol utter tosh.
I think the stewards had the ability to call the final lap illegal. But too late for that now.
My reading of paragraph 35 was if Merc had taken it to the court they would have won their case.
Soldato
Just confirms what we all knew, Verstappen is essentially an illegitimate world champ. I'm not saying he isn't talented, but he didn't win it.
Caporegime
You can see it in all his interviews when they mention it and you can see it gets to him. If it was to be his only championship it would be even sweeter.
When the safety car was pulling in, Hamilton effectively became the safety car and can travel at whatever speed he needs to build the gap to the car coming into the pit lane. Exactly the same as any other driver does.
And Verstappen overtook him, ok, only for a second or two, but he did.
Soldato
Yeah he tried the same trick in bahrain with Leclerc but Leclerc just cut him up. The second car should be behind the first car not getting in its way.
Maxs problem is he he doesn't think very hard about what he does before he does it and the useless stewarding last year allowed him to carry on, imagine him doing a brake test when de freitas is on watch, I doubt that has been done many times before.
As for human error, they've adapted to that in the past.
Off the top of my head... When a celebrity waved the chequered flag a lap early, they actually took lap the flag was flown as the last lap and not the actual last lap. So no process to change? Really?
Off the top of my head... When a celebrity waved the chequered flag a lap early, they actually took lap the flag was flown as the last lap and not the actual last lap. So no process to change? Really?
But... that's the opposite of adapting to human error. The flag defines the end of the race (article 59 of the Sporting Regs now, article 43 at the time).
I dunno, seems to me what they did is pretty much how it goes in sport: see England getting an extra over due to a scoring error in the cricket, or when we didn't get a replay when Madonna's "Hand of God" came to light, or countless other mistakes in football, rugby and the like. Even in F1, there's no right of appeal for a penalty applied during the race yet it's acknowledged that the stewards don't always get it right.
Masi eff'd it up. His error put a massive cloud over the end of an otherwise outstanding season. He paid with his job, and F1 has introduced various measures to ensure it doesn't happen again. This was as much as could be hoped for, realistically.
Time to move on, as much as it irks.
Soldato
Even if for a fleeting moment he went slightly in front it isn't an overtake as he quickly allowed Lewis back in front. Under the safety car conditions this will happen but as long as the place is given back then zero rules are broken. You try driving right behind a car that constantly accelerating and braking at nearly 100mph whilst maintaining a close distance and see what happens.
You should accept that the stewards would have looked at it and decided no offence took place.
I really liked what Leclerc did then. He obviously knew Max would play those tricks and he left the inside open, waited until Max was right on the apex with almost a 90deg right-hand turn to make, and just hit the gas. Because Leclerc was on a much shallower angle he was able to get a really good getaway, where Max was left to make the corner first before putting his foot down. Only slightly, but it worked.
I think most people have moved on from last year. What we haven't moved on from is discussing (a) Max's terrible driving and attitude, and (b) Red Bull's toxic effect on the sport, namely from Horner. I think that's all still fair game. For one it's only a matter of time until Max drives someone else off the road in an attempt at a pass. What the stewards do then is absolutely fair game for discussion.
Soldato
My point is that the stewards must have either known the safety car process was wrong or be absolutely useless, also they should be able to tell the difference between right and wrong. So they were as bad as Masi, I mean the report stated fairly clearly that that was the case, so they should have used Max theoretical safety car overtake as an excuse to reverse it. They didn't so they were either in on the scam, or didn't know the rules whichever is a bit of a shocker for the stewards of the event.
To add I won't move on ever, I will stop going on about it, but the report just confirmed what a pathetic incompetent lot they were. F1 has got a long way to go before I respect the rule enforcers. As for Max and RB, they need to grow up.
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Max drove much closer to Lewis than I've seen other drivers do, presumably because they know they're not allowed to pass. Actually, I can't think of another example other than when Seb drove into Lewis (twice) and got a little tap on the wrist for it.
Yeah, like F1's stewards are totally consistent, reliable, trustworthy, and have no conflicts of interest.
There was very little chance of the FIA making a decision that would have made Lewis champion. Most likely the race would have been voided and Max champion anyway, hence Merc dropping the case. What we have now with the rule changes and Masi been fired was the best realistic outcome.
The rule is that
All competing cars MUST reduce speed and form up IN LINE behind the safety car.
So pretty clear in black and white, Max driving alongside anyone is NOT in line behind the safety car.
So whether he went ahead of Lewis or Charles, is irrelevant to an extent.
In the words of the rule driving up alongside, is not driving in a line.
So he is against the rule plain and simple, just another inconsistent application of the rules.
Man of Honour
That's only the rules while forming up and physically being behind the safety car; once the "Safety Car in this lap" message is issued and the lights on the SC are extinguished the leading car dicates the pace (and usually the SC disappears into the distance at this point)
Article 39.13 does however offer this up:
39.13 In order to avoid the likelihood of accidents before the safety car returns to the pits, from the point at which the lights on the car are turned out drivers must proceed at a pace which involves no erratic acceleration or braking nor any other manoeuvre which is likely to endanger other drivers or impede the restart.
However it doesn't say that cars need to stay "in-line"
Deleted member 651465
D
Deleted member 651465
I think if Hamilton had been ahead on points prior to Abu Dhabi the FIA would have annulled the race result knowing that Lewis would be champion but as they were level (and Max was ahead on count back) they couldn’t.
Either way, they’ve admitted that it was a pile of dog **** and we move on.