That's entirely my opinion. Why penalise the leader who may have build a gap and negate all his effort? Why give the advantage to his followers? What is the need for a safety car or a full course yellow, when an incident is only local on the track? Why not just neutralise (speed limit, no overtaking) only the sector impacted by the incident, but let the drivers race on the rest of the circuit?
The FIA adopted a single supplier to avoid a costly "tyre war", they will tell you. It's in the interest of limiting budget, apparently. But I am not convinced.
Yet you advocated for a completely race resetting red flag (and then end of the race, thus automatically handing the title to Lewis) after the latifi crash. Don't make me laugh Willy!
Chronic accusations or Captain Obvious comments… that’s all he’s got. That plus the always-present hatred for people/organizations/ethnicities he himself hates and surreptitiously backing hateful comments including “liking” a banned comment to avoid being banned himself—that basically sums him up.
Yes, in this instance (Abu Dhabi), 5 laps from the end, I think a red flag with no restart was appropriate. a) Under current practice, a full course yellow and safety car would have been called for anyway. b) So near the end, nobody knew how long it would take to clear the track. c) Since 3/4 of the race had been run, all the points could have been attributed. If it had been in different circumstances (not the last GP, not Hamilton-Verstappen decider) that would have been accepted without a problem. Masi has been obsessed (or influenced?) by finishing the race under green, engineering the car switch that ensued.
Again, it’s not Max’s fault or Horner’s if Mercedes didn’t bring Lewis in. They would have done so and Lewis would have found himself behind Max with much grippier tires and it would have been checkmate. But it’s easier to blame Masi.
Even Hamilton himself knew it was a strategy mistake to leave him out ... and he broadcasted the risk, in radio communication during the race (well before the final lap).
If my posts irk you so much, you have 2 options: report them to the mods, or put me on ignore. I am far from being the only one to occasionally go over the line, witness the bans other participants incur including some who constantly agree with you!
It doesn't matter who pitted when. Pitting ain't the contrversy. Masi breaking SC rules is what decided the championship.
But before the start of the last race, there were amazingly on equal points. So forget the rest of the season with ups and down for both of them, the Abu Dhabi GP was the decider. It was a dream scenario for Liberty, TV viewing, the sponsors, etc ...
The viewing public wanted to see a race and they (we) got it.....to include Liberty and TV ratings from a global perspective.....billions of dollars were made.
You're spot-on. The time for having ALL the lapped cars unlap themselves evaporated very quickly. At first, Masi wasn't going to let ANY of the lapped cars unlap themselves. And then just after Christian Horner's protestations, Masi SUDDENLY decided to have ONLY the lapped cars between Max and LH unlap themselves. At this very same point in time, if Masi had instructed ALL the lapped cars to unlap themselves AND then had the safety car come in AT THE END of the FOLLOWING lap only AFTER ALL the unlapping was completed, as defined by once ALL of the unlapping cars pass the leader (i.e. which is normal practice and precedent), the clock would've simply run out and the race would've finished under yellow. The estimated time for all this to take place obviously also entered into the Mercedes-AMG team's calculus of whether to pit LH or not. Tract position was NOT THE ONLY part of that calculus, etc. As a corollary, Article 48.12 deals with the situation of having backmarkers unlap themselves. Initially, Masi had been within his rights to state that "Lapped Cars will not be allowed to overtake"’ - which meant Verstappen would be trapped behind five backmarkers before he could get a run on Hamilton. The decision to only allow SOME lapped cars to unlap themselves is unusual as Article 48.12 suggests that the message "LAPPED CARS MAY NOW OVERTAKE" should be sent to ALL competitors. Regarding WHEN the race can be restarted, the regulation is rather explicit. “Unless the clerk of the course considers the presence of the safety car is still necessary, once the LAST lapped car has passed the leader, the safety car will return to the pits at the end of the FOLLOWING lap. “If the clerk of the course considers track conditions are unsuitable for overtaking, the message "OVERTAKING WILL NOT BE PERMITTED" will be sent to all Competitors via the official messaging system." This clause suggests that with the lapped car message having come out on lap 57, then the restart could only come at the end of the ‘following lap’- so lap 58, which was the end of the race. And Article 48.8 relates to there being no overtaking behind the safety car. During the restart phase, as Hamilton and Verstappen prepared to begin racing again, it appeared from the onboard that the Red Bull had briefly nudged ahead of the Mercedes. The rule states: “no driver may overtake another car on the track, including the safety car, until he passes the Line (see Article 5.3 – which is the safety car line) for the first time after the safety car has returned to the pits.”
You've only quoted 48.12 ... which is the "weakest" of all the rules in question. 15.3 gives the Race Director full authority to over-ride the optional choice that 48.12 gives to the race clerk. YES (like it or not): the Director has full authority to over-ride the clerk ... and 48.12 only gives options to the clerk, rather than giving rules to the Director. Furthermore, it is recognized by ALL parties ... including stewards, and FIA officials ... that 48.13 over-rides 48.12. And this rule (48.13) defines when the safety car period ends, with zero mention of lapped cars. In conclusion: there's a well-established "hierarchy" to the rules, recognized by all parties: 15.3 > 48.13 > 48.12 Similarly, there's a well-recognized "hierarchy" to the chain-of-command: Race Director > race clerk Again, 48.12 only gives an "option" to the race clerk ... which is a far, far cry from defining "orders" or "hard rules" for the Race Director. (all of the above is, of course, why all of Mercedes' protests and appeals went nowhere)
Uuuhhhh, actually, no they didn't. How they got there is irrelevant. Max and Lewis were tied in points going in to the last race, remember? It was only what happened at Abu Dhabi that decided the championship.
So you and others are going to base Abu Dhabi as the DECIDING race without acknowledging what errors happened between both drivers and their teams TO INCLUDE the inconsistencies of the stewards in all 23 races??? Nice.......I'm literally speechless. I don't buy into that 1 race(out of 23) as the ultimate DECIDING race.
