Totally agree . and it shouldn't take up space on the football board.

F1 is the sport I love the most, for those not familiar with its procedure etc, the final lap showdown was a travesty that was not normal. Had a feeling of it needed a Hollywood showdown for all the new uneducated fans since the release of Netflix drive to survive series.

The sport opening up to the wider public is great but not at the expense of it prestige, heritage and dignity. Nobody wanted stewards, race directors or even courts to decide the championship and it will end that way. If they wanted to race to the finish, they had the option of a red flag allowing all the teams to change tyres and have a standing start 5 lap sprint to the finish.

F1 is as corrupt as the world cup in Qatar.

I enjoy the sport though

After a day of dubious penalties and erratic reffing, I changed sports and watched the f1 finale. I’m not an f1 fan so it was pretty much new to me. What an utter sheetshow! And we think we have it bad with var.
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Same. Wad exciting though, even if I had no idea what was going on and it all seemed a bit bizarre.

Pretty much the footballing equivalent would be if a team was 3-0 up with a minute to go, but one bloke gets injured so they just decide restart with a penalty shoot out to decide the winner.

I don't watch F1 but for some reason find myself keeping an eye on the results and standings. Masi's "wanting a race" at the end really was a travesty: an intervention that ensured the slower driver over the course of the race, and the one whose team's tyre strategy had lost out to the leader's tyre strategy, would be handed a win. They decided to go for entertainment rather than sport. I can imagine serious F1 fans feel about this similar to how I felt about the European Super League.

comment by -bloodred- (U1222)
posted 1 minute ago
After a day of dubious penalties and erratic reffing, I changed sports and watched the f1 finale. I’m not an f1 fan so it was pretty much new to me. What an utter sheetshow! And we think we have it bad with var.
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Same. Wad exciting though, even if I had no idea what was going on and it all seemed a bit bizarre.

Pretty much the footballing equivalent would be if a team was 3-0 up with a minute to go, but one bloke gets injured so they just decide restart with a penalty shoot out to decide the winner.
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Me too, quite enjoyed it as well despite not having a clue on how it all works. I’ve actually now started watching the drive to survive series on Netflix and am really enjoying it so far

comment by -bloodred- (U1222)
posted 1 minute ago

Pretty much the footballing equivalent would be if a team was 3-0 up with a minute to go, but one bloke gets injured so they just decide restart with a penalty shoot out to decide the winner.
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...and they make the injured guy go in goal. What I find so incomprehensible about it is that the marginal call Hamilton's team made to go with hard tyres and just one pit stop, which had proved successful and was delivering him that comfortable win, was precisely thing that guaranteed Verstappen (on fresh, soft tyres) would win if they wiped out the lead and relieved him of the need to overtake the cars in between them.

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Safety cars happen all the time, and teams get a cheap pit stops from it all the time, like Max did. I don't like it, but this is nothing new.

I dont blame Masi for letting some backmarkers through, they were interfering with the race on a restart. Who wants to see a race/championship finish under a safety car? Only Hamilton/Verstappen fans if it means their man wins the championship.

Hamilton could easily have pitted under the safety car and overtaken Max on the last lap instead. If that happened the UK media would have forgotten about it by now.

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comment by Michael, this isn't right. 😭 (U10408)
posted 2 minutes ago
Mercedes gambled on the race ending behind the safety car with 6 laps to go. If they pitted and Max didn't the result would have gone the other way.
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I'm ready to be corrected on this, but as far as I understand, no one is disputing the fact that it's a normal thing for the safety car to bunch everyone together and team strategies and gambles at these times can have a big impact on results. From that point of view, Red Bull made a winning gamble (while for Mercedes, in a winning position, it would have been a much riskier thing to do). However, what seems to be unprecedented and not justified in the rules - unless the rule that "the race director can do whatever he likes" trumps all other rules - is allowing Verstappen, but not the cars between him and Hamilton, to overtake the safety car. So not only had a 12-second lead been wiped out by the safety car (tough luck for Hamilton), but so were the four or five cars that Verstappen would have to overtake before attacking. Masi's intervention effectively picked up Verstappen's car and put it next to Hamilton's. Having done so after Red Bull had changed to soft tyres, this effectively guaranteed Verstappen would win.

comment by Michael, this isn't right. 😭 (U10408)
posted 17 minutes ago
Mercedes gambled on the race ending behind the safety car with 6 laps to go. If they pitted and Max didn't the result would have gone the other way.
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It wouldn't have, the safety car light came on as Hamilton passed the pit entry line. As max was 11 seconds down the road he was able to put risk free. Hamilton would have lost track position and there was a serious risk of the race finishing behind the safety car. Mercedes had no option but to remain out.

comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 5 minutes ago
comment by Michael, this isn't right. 😭 (U10408)
posted 2 minutes ago
Mercedes gambled on the race ending behind the safety car with 6 laps to go. If they pitted and Max didn't the result would have gone the other way.
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I'm ready to be corrected on this, but as far as I understand, no one is disputing the fact that it's a normal thing for the safety car to bunch everyone together and team strategies and gambles at these times can have a big impact on results. From that point of view, Red Bull made a winning gamble (while for Mercedes, in a winning position, it would have been a much riskier thing to do). However, what seems to be unprecedented and not justified in the rules - unless the rule that "the race director can do whatever he likes" trumps all other rules - is allowing Verstappen, but not the cars between him and Hamilton, to overtake the safety car. So not only had a 12-second lead been wiped out by the safety car (tough luck for Hamilton), but so were the four or five cars that Verstappen would have to overtake before attacking. Masi's intervention effectively picked up Verstappen's car and put it next to Hamilton's. Having done so after Red Bull had changed to soft tyres, this effectively guaranteed Verstappen would win.
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Correct FIA have admitted they broke their rules surrounding the safety car.

The rules state that all cars must pass. Only 5 did but not only that, the race can only be restarted 1 lap after the cars have gone through. They started the race immediately which is unprecedented

Wasn't there a race earlier in the season, won by Verstappen, where the last few laps were a procession behind the safety car, with no possibility of racing to determine the winner?

The one thing you want in sport, if it has integrity as a fair contest, is consistency in the application of rules.

A modern day F1 car has the same length and width as a Rolls-Royce LWB Phantom. And the turning radius of a bin lorry.

Gone up in length by at least 2 feet over the past decade, while the various racing tracks basically stayed the same.

Only way to keep this up is by adding more administrative waffle and silly rules.

Whilst it made for great TV....the race itself was a farce.

Perez trying to stop Hamilton resembled something in Wacky Races. I get they race in teams (they don't really though do they only when it suits them). Meanwhile Bottas was nowhere to be seen to help Lewis. So immediately that's a disadvantage.

Then Max being able to change two sets of tyres for basically free and costing him no time really as it was all about the last lap anyway. And none of that was Lewi's fault.

Then you get the FIA announcing one thing, immediately realise what they announced is going to mean Lewis wins and then change their mind.

It's an entertaining spectacle but the sport is so so flawed.

Fia messed up big time on the biggest stage

comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 hour ago
I don't watch F1 but for some reason find myself keeping an eye on the results and standings. Masi's "wanting a race" at the end really was a travesty: an intervention that ensured the slower driver over the course of the race, and the one whose team's tyre strategy had lost out to the leader's tyre strategy, would be handed a win. They decided to go for entertainment rather than sport. I can imagine serious F1 fans feel about this similar to how I felt about the European Super League.
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Red bull had the right tyre strategy, Mercedes went for track position.

Mercedes biggest mess up was not pitting under VSC. It was a no brainer with Hamilton pace advantage and if Max did the opposite he would have been a sitting duck anyway. That way they had more fresh tyres for the safety car.

Also the only reason why I think if Mercedes appeal, Hamilton will be crowned the champion is because of Sainz. Sainz didn't get same opportunity as Max and he finished far behind and Max would have had 1 lap to overtake some cars from much further back and then catch Hamilton and win it all in one lap.

comment by One Love - Admin 3 (U1250)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 hour ago
I don't watch F1 but for some reason find myself keeping an eye on the results and standings. Masi's "wanting a race" at the end really was a travesty: an intervention that ensured the slower driver over the course of the race, and the one whose team's tyre strategy had lost out to the leader's tyre strategy, would be handed a win. They decided to go for entertainment rather than sport. I can imagine serious F1 fans feel about this similar to how I felt about the European Super League.
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Red bull had the right tyre strategy, Mercedes went for track position.
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It was only rendered the correct tyre strategy by the race director's unprecedented decision. As I understand it, because of Hamilton's track position when the safety car came out, he'd have probably lost the lead to Verstappen if he'd taken a pit stop, whereas Verstappen was able to take the stop without sacrificing position. Mercedes' strategy was working perfectly and required both the crash/safety car and the race director overriding the usual rules to backfire.

What is damning is the race director changed his mind on lapped cars after Horner came on the radio and in doing so forgot about Sainz lol.

The FIA should have no leg to stand on and cheated Hamilton out the championship. If the FiA had allowed Sainz through then Max may have got away with it but the fact they didn’t means legally Hamilton is the world champion but the FIA Masi being corrupt he stood by his decision which if any other race he would never have done.

comment by Posh Mufc Great Hafi Not Arrogant Just Better (U6578)
posted 6 minutes ago
What is damning is the race director changed his mind on lapped cars after Horner came on the radio and in doing so forgot about Sainz lol.

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He needed to change his mind. You could tell by the drivers reactions on the radio how much of a controversy it would of been if they were all kept in position behind the S/C. I've always rated Alonso.

Russians gonna be subscribing to the F1 Athletic equivalent and be an expert in no time.

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