Please explain the controversy

Masi, the race director declared all lapped cars will have to unlap themselves, and do an extra lap afterwards. He changed those rules in the last seconds of the last lap. Only focusing on 2 drivers. Other drivers were ignored. The result led Max having a new advantage on new soft tires. He was able to overtake Lewis on the last lap as Lewis tires were 40 laps old.

 

Mercedes didn’t want to lose track position so they did not pit. They thought their instructions to race control would be followed and they weren’t.

 

No. If Hamilton pitted RB would have did the opposite and stayed out to gain track position. The pitstops are not controversal. Its the tampering of the safety car rules.

 

No rules were broken by Masi or any of race control.

 

They also thought race control instructions to race control would be followed and they weren't.

 

The controvery has been brewing for the past few years. The race stewards have been consistently inconsistent in their application of the regs, and enforcement of penalties. It came to a head this race when Michael Masi first said cars would not be unlapped under the SC, then changed his mind at the last moment to let the cars between #1 and #2 unlap themselves. Some say Masi was waiting for the track to be clear and safe, but others have said things to the contrary.

Even Masi contradicted his orders from a previous race where he said all lapped cars would unlap themselves. That was brought up by an attorney. At the end of the day, Masi has the last call be it right or wrong. However, many of his decisions are making F1 a mockery.

 

DiamondDog, if you came here expecting to get an honest answer to your question, it probably won't happen. But I'll give it a try. I'll try to use super simple language, and I apologize in advance if I make it too simple. I certainly don't mean to talk down to you.

Hamilton was in the lead and it appeared that he was set to win the race without much of a challenge. As the race was nearing the end and everyone was prepared for Lewis to win, another driver (Latifi) crashed. He was way back in the pack when this happened. When a car crashes in such a way that it makes the race unsafe, the race officials send out a safety car to gather up the racers and slow them all down. This way, it allows the Marshalls to clear the wreckage without worrying about getting hit. Generally, the guy who is leading a race near the end HATES a safety car, since it bunches up the pack and allows his competitors to catch back up. I think we all agree that Latifi's crash was terrible luck for Lewis.

A consequence of the safety car is that because all of the cars are now moving more slowly, it's a great chance to come into the pits and get fresh tires without getting too far behind. But even when the cars are moving slowly, a driver who comes in for fresh tires will come back out behind a rival who did NOT choose to pit. Lewis' team decided it would be best to leave him on the track so he could keep the lead, even though his tires were quite old by that time. Maybe they thought the race would end behind the safety car, in which case it wouldn't matter how old his tires were.

Max was in second place, ten seconds behind Lewis, when the crash occurred. Red Bull decided to pull Max into the pits and put a fresh set of soft tires on, so that in case they got the crash cleaned up in time and started the race again, he could go balls out for the final laps.

So, the set up was this: Lewis was in first place, with old tires, but hoping he wouldn't have to race with them. Max was in second place, with new soft tires, but not sure if he would get this use them. This is where it gets interesting:

There were five cars between Lewis and Max. These cars were a lap down and not competing against Lewis and Max. Thus, you might say they were "in the way." If the race had restarted with them between Lewis and Max, it would have been difficult for Max to get past them all and attack Lewis before the race ended. Because this is always a problem, the normal procedure is for the lapped cars to get out of the way of the leaders by passing the safety car and going to the back of the pack.

As they were cleaning up the crash, the laps were ticking away behind the safety car. Mercedes really hoped the race would end with Lewis in first place, or at the very least, that the lapped cars wouldn't be moved out of Max's way. Masi, a race official, told the teams at first that the lapped cars wouldn't be moved out of the way. I'm sure Mercedes was relieved by this news. However, Red Bull was furious about it, since it is standard operating procedure that the lapped cars should get out of the way. But then Masi changed his mind and decided that he would move the lapped cars out of the way after all. The problem was, he didn't let ALL the lapped cars go, only the ones that were between Max and Lewis. With only one lap left and the lapped cars out of the way, the green flag waived and the battle was on. Max passed Lewis and won the race.

After (and during) the race, Mercedes complained that Masi should have let ALL the lapped cars go through instead of the only the cars that were between Lewis and Max. I think their position is that if Masi had done this, there would not have been enough time to get it done and the race would have ended behind the safety car, safeguarding a win for Lewis. When Masi explained his decision, he said he wanted a motor race. It does seem that he was afraid that if he let ALL of the lapped cars go through, the race would have ended behind the safety car, and that was not the way he wanted such an important race to be decided.

Red Bull said Masi did the right thing. Mercedes said it was totally unfair.

Now you get to decide what you think

 

Yes, they were. According to Masi himself.

 

You’re mistaken. He didn’t say that nor did he break any laws or rules. Where’s your source? Please place a link.

 

https://www.planetf1.com/news/michael-masi-contradicts-lapped-car-clarification/

 

Messy Masi messed up. The End.

 

I think most of us who have been following F1 for years knew exactly what was happening, and we were all yelling at our TV's...some were telling Mercedes to pit, others were telling the safety car to either speed up or slow down. I feel really sorry for Masi. It was a very difficult situation and he had people from both sides screaming at him the whole time. Latifi's crash came at the perfectly wrong time.

 

I doubt anyone here on FC had ever heard of 15.3,fans of F1 for maybe 40 or 50 years...now we realise the Race Director is basically God and can do wtf he likes.

 

This article doesn’t say what you claimed. It in fact list the article he enforced and that the race stewards agree with Masi. Ultimately the rules say that race control can do as they want here and what they did was end the race under green flag conditions as they discussed prior to the race. Masi’s issue is that he said one thing setting an expectation and then change and do something else. It seems that he made the initial call and realized it didn’t match what was discussed prior to the incident to let the race finish under green flag conditions. Upon realizing this he changed it to meet this condition.

 

Once he reversed gears with the “only lapped cars between LH & MV can unlap” after saying no cars could unlap, then started the race 10secs later, I was like “wtf??” (Similar to Dan Ricciardo). It was a Hollywood ending being played out in a live action event. He had 4 options before him, which he ignored.

Were this a normal action, you wouldn’t hear as much complaining from drivers, etc. Fans will complain when their ox has been gored…drivers, sports pundits, columnists are joined in their criticism of Messy Masi’s fouling up a great battle.

 

So, in your honest opinion, was the ending fair?

 

Imagine if Max had led the whole race and 12 seconds lead ..how you feel about Messy Masi when Lewis gets gifted the race and WDC?

Not great huh?

 

Fair? This sport isn’t exactly about FAIR is it? It’s fair that this is the first time that it doesn’t actually favor Mercedes as all calls have been for ten years. It’s been unfair to every other team to favor Mercedes. Period. So maybe this call threw RB a bone. It did as a byproduct of what race control discussed and agreed with the teams before hand that should and incident occur they would end the race under GREEN FLAG CONDITIONS. Was it fair to Ferrari that they ban PHYSICALLY TESTING CARS simply because Ferrari own their own F1 track? Mercedes would deem it unfair to simply not to receive favorable treatment which is unfair to every other team.

 

This sport is absolutely about fair racing. That's literally it's raison d'etat. That's where the "Formula" in F1 comes from.

If the rules don't mean anything, why even care?

What truly is at stake if the rules can be bent at will?

 

Oh my gosh, oh Merc gets this, Merc gets that, oh give me a break.
How can they insure to finish under green conditions if they don't know the condition? How would you know how long it would take to clean up a two car crash if occurred with 3 laps to go? The only option you have is red flag the race. Masi blew that and decided to go off script. Against his own rules that he previously adhered to.

 

Not great for Max fans but great for HAM fans. What’s your point? Are you saying Masi’s decision was based on—or should have been based on—who he thought would benefit most most from either a safety car or a restart? Like this was fully predictable.

All teams have contingency for a possible safety car and weigh potential benefits of new tires versus lost track position. RedBull chose one option and Merc the other.

If you think the FIA planned for Max to win this way—that is the pure luck of a crash and a safety car with 5 laps to go and the previously agreed plan by all teams to restart the race so as not to finish under a yellow—then the only explanation for the FIA “manipulation” (or manipalated [sic] per HAM and his fan here) is that they conspired with Latifi for him to crash and create a safety car situation with 5 laps to go. Conspiracy theory level of absurdity.

Answer this: if Latifi hadn’t crashed, what to you think the FIA and race direction would (could) have done to make Max win if they were so intent on making Max the Champion? What was their plan “B” or “C”?

 

Exactly. Mercedes have been doing just that, breaking the rules at their will for years. Now that time is over.

Keep simp’ing, kid.