Off Topic

But that F1 final was some .........

It’s a shame when the stewards decide a race instead of the drivers.

Hamilton out drive him the whole race, abs Mercedes made their tire strategies based on the existing rules….then the Stewards changed the rules on the fly in the last lap of the season after Verstapin had an opportunity to not only close the gap because if the safety car, but to change to a fresh set of soft tires….they changed the rules in the last lap to put Verstapin wheel to wheel with Lewis KNOWING that Lewis was on 40 lap old hard tires abs that Max had just put on brand new soft tires.

That’s racing


But it’s also some .........

Agree, LH drove better and IMHO got done over by arbitrary decisions, 4 car unlapping themselves so Max became the no 2 car on new softs? Give me a break.

Paul G said:

Agree, LH drove better and IMHO got done over by arbitrary decisions, 4 car unlapping themselves so Max became the no 2 car on new softs? Give me a break.

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Did LH/MB have the same opportunity to change tires?

37NG900X said:

Did LH/MB have the same opportunity to change tires?

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No

Because the rules were written in a way that made it VERY unlikely that the race would be restarted with 4 laps to go under the caution flag, and if it was restarted for the last lap there would be 4 cars between LH and MV….so as the rules were written there would be no way for MV to get past 4 cars and close the gap for a pass with one lap left in the race even though MV had fresh soft compound rubber and LH had 40 lap old hard compound rubber.

If the rules were followed as written LH wins without changing tires, BUT if he pits and changes tires and the race doesn’t restart LH comes out of the pit behind MV and loses the race and the Championship under the caution flag.

What the stewards did was give MV a chance to change to fresh tires for the last lap, then in a violation of their own rules cleared ONLY the cars between LH and MV, so that MV could close the 11 second gap that Lewis Hamilton had before the caution flag and pull up wheel to wheel with him with fresh tires for a one lap race against a guy with 40 lap old tires.

As the rules were written the stewards had the choice of either letting ALL the lapped cars clear out of the way, in which case Lewis keeps his 11 second lead that he had before the caution flag and the race ends under caution.

Or they could choose to keep all cars in their current position and restart the race for the last lap but that leaves 4 cars between Hamilton and Verstappen and Lewis wins.

What they did was change the rules in the last lap of the season mid-race to give Verstappen the win.

Following the rules, if Mercedes had pitted to get new tires they would have lost under a caution flag…so no, Mercedes, who assumed (rightfully so) that the rules of the race wouldn’t be arbitrarily changed with one lap to go and the Championship on the line did NOT have a chance to pit and change tires.


Was some straight up .........

Yes, it's easy to argue it either way, but definitely a disappointing end to the season.

Would've been a more exciting final lap if MV had had to pass those four/five lapped cars to get to LH.

Nothing MB could do, RB would always do the opposite (regards pitting for tyres right at the end) and had nothing to lose. RB stole it, but absolutely wasn't through their wrong doing, it was poor race control.

You could argue that MB should've pitted in the previous yellow, same as RB. At least they would've had fresher tyres, but probably wouldn't have made much difference in the end.

Unfortunately, sometimes the safety car works for you, and sometimes against you.

RickD996 said:

Yes, it's easy to argue it either way, but definitely a disappointing end to the season.

Would've been a more exciting final lap if MV had had to pass those four/five lapped cars to get to LH.

Nothing MB could do, RB would always do the opposite (regards pitting for tyres right at the end) and had nothing to lose. RB stole it, but absolutely wasn't through their wrong doing, it was poor race control.

You could argue that MB should've pitted in the previous yellow, same as RB. At least they would've had fresher tyres, but probably wouldn't have made much difference in the end.

Unfortunately, sometimes the safety car works for you, and sometimes against you.

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For sure Mercedes’ should have pitted in that first yellow before the first red flag…but even if they had that was early enough in the race that the tires still wouldn’t run wheel to wheel with a one lap old set of softs.


I agree that neither team did anything wrong, they both did the exact right strategy at the end of the race…but if the stewards had not made up the rules to GIVE it to Verstappen in the last lap then Mercedes’ strategy would have won and we would be talking about how Red Bull played brilliantly to give themselves a chance of winning but lost.

Shame the Stewards took it upon themselves to decide the winner.

Steven31371 said:

But that F1 final was some ........…

That’s racing

But it’s also some .........

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No, it wasn’t racing. It was a blatant attempt by the FIA to do their best to knock Lewis Hamilton off the top spot that he earned back several times during the race. The race stewards should be fired and the title given to the person who earned it, LH.

This willy-nilly rule violating crap by the FIA is the main reason I stopped watching F1cars many years ago. I just happened to see this seasons final race while flipping channels. I get all the racing news, so I’ll pay attention to see if LH is awarded his well-earned F1 eighth(!!!) F1 championship.

Car racing in general continues the decline into WWE (non)respectability.

I HOPE that WSBK and MotoGP don’t follow the FIA route into laughable nonsense for pot-bellied, beer-drunk goons.

Why not red flag the race, call all the cars to pit lane, clean up all carbon fiber and remove Latifi's car then go racing again? That seemed to be the easiest and most appropriate decision if you wanted to go racing again. But, to allow only the first five cars to swap and none of the others, then pit the safety car on the current lap instead of the next lap (last lap) like the rules dictate was wrong. I saw a lot of comments online about F1 trying to make this as "Hollywood" as possible for Netflix. I sincerely hope that's not the case!

The crazy thing is that Mercedes almost got them on that last lap with Hamilton very briefly taking the lead back even on 40 lap old hard compound tires, and that without DRS.

If they were going to arbitrarily change the rules to make last lap drama they should have at least allowed active drs zones for that last lap….I mean imagine the Drama of Hamilton with DRS open overtaking Verstappen at the line on old tires sliding all over the track lol

Don’t follow F1 but this sounds pretty much why I don’t watch it to begin with. Stupid rules that get selectively enforced based on where the leagues favorite racer is in the pack.

What a .... show of racing. So sad to see this kind of stuff in today's F1 series. Between the KERS stupidity and the even dumber idea of battery car racing, I am not looking forward to setting aside time to watch the season next year.

Thankfully we have World Superbike and now a crazy World Supersport class with all kinds of weird displacement bikes thanks to Ducati's V2. Might be more fun to watch.

Homer Simpson in a negligee would have been easier on the eyes than that finish. I'm drinking a Monster today in protest.

Yep, that was a joke. F1 seems to invite these kinds of controversies more than other racing

WSBK and Motogp really did well this year

endodoc said:

Homer Simpson in a negligee would have been easier on the eyes than that finish. I'm drinking a Monster today in protest.

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Hahaha

brad8266 said:

Don’t follow F1 but this sounds pretty much why I don’t watch it to begin with. Stupid rules that get selectively enforced based on where the leagues favorite racer is in the pack.

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Oh it was a good season to watch, epic actually.

I like the history of F1, because that an a few other races are the history of Motorsports in general, and I love Motorsports.

I think even with that crazy debacle at the very very end this season will go down in history as the greatest single season rivalry in Motorsport history.

Was fun to watch it unfold…the brash wreckless upstart charging out of the gates ahead of the sports elder statesman and winningest driver in history, and the older calmer brilliant driving of Hamilton methodically chasing him down the 2nd half of the season to a final race where they were tied in the points standing on the last day of the season. And then it all coming down to an epic back and forth final lap.

Was good entertainment even with Hamilton getting shafted in the end.

Agree with everyone else - typical F1 bs.

First season of Grand Prix “Racing” to include any actual racing in how long - 25 years? And they couldn’t allow that - don’t want any real competition upsetting the scripted results.

Like others, I became bored and quit watching a few years ago due to the aero-dominance of the cars all but eliminating passing and wheel-to-wheel racing, and due to the Mercedes dynasty. Years of “was it a Mercedes one-two or one-three?”, was enough. I’ll start watching again when there are consistently lead changes after qualifying.

craig bush said:

Agree with everyone else - typical F1 bs.

First season of Grand Prix “Racing” to include any actual racing in how long - 25 years? And they couldn’t allow that - don’t want any real competition upsetting the scripted results.

Like others, I became bored and quit watching a few years ago due to the aero-dominance of the cars all but eliminating passing and wheel-to-wheel racing, and due to the Mercedes dynasty. Years of “was it a Mercedes one-two or one-three?”, was enough. I’ll start watching again when there are consistently lead changes after qualifying.

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There were lots of lead changes this year, and some very dramatic races…unlike previous years where after the Vettal era Mercedes dominated.

Lots of rule changes for next year, that will upset the apple cart on pecking order.

Steven31371 said:

There were lots of lead changes this year, and some very dramatic races…unlike previous years where after the Vettal era Mercedes dominated.

Lots of rule changes for next year, that will upset the apple cart on pecking order.

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I suspect the rule changes will indeed shake things up.

How many different race winners this season?

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This is a heated discussion amongst many. I didn't know so many people around the world took it so seriously, but I've seen everyday folks pissed about the outcome and how decisions like this from race direction are ruining the sport. It's not just happening in F1. Dorna did similar things like this in MotoGP a few year running for MM93. It sucks IMO. Let the racers race.

#F1politics #ruiningeverything