Masi manipulated the order by bending the rules (unlapping not completed ), to pitch Hamilton and Verstappen against each other, at all cost. I am all for letting drivers race, but not after repositioning them by artificial means. Masi wiped away the advantage Hamilton had built up, by deliberately removing cars from Verstappen's path. The rules say the unlapping has to take place completely (not only selected cars), and thereafter another lap behind the safety car before the green flag can be waved. In this case, the race would have not ended under a green flag because of not enough laps left. As for restarting a race for one lap, it's ludicrous , although I see that it's common practice in NASCAR. The rest of your post is pure supposition. As for the agreement between teams, it was not binding. A safety car period has to be executed according to the rules, and not the whims of participants or officials.
Sounds like this is what Masi did: "This will have two important effects, firstly the cars directly behind the safety will line up in actual race order so when the race restarts they are in a position to overtake each other. Secondly, the MAJORITY of the field will be on the same racing lap, bunched together and with some of the cars on new tyres. Together with the DRS, this should create exciting racing in the midfield where cars on older tyres will be ahead of cars that have stopped for fresh rubber who are trying to battle their way up the order for points.” Isn't that pretty much the script followed by Masi? (of course, the word "majority" would no longer fly in 2023 ... after the rules were changed)
Remember that page on Mercedes' website where their senior guys said that finishing under safety car must be prevented at all cost and could even provide exciting last lap battles? Curiously they deleted it about a day later after people started sharing it.
Frankly ending such championship on safety car with 6 laps to go and a very minor crash ( Latifi) would have been a total failure for liberty and Fia.
Finishing the race behind the safety car would have been simply following the rules ! What would happend with an accident with 3 laps to go then ? Should we forget about bringing a safety car to "save" the show ? In the FIA Sporting Rules, there is a clause of "force majeure" that covers unforeseen circumstances. The issue is that F1 has become stage-managed to suit TV broadcast requirements or to follow a pre-arranged scenario.
I still don't understand the race should have finished under a SC argument. Why? The track was clear. The typical SC for an accident is 3-4 laps (including laps the yellow flag is thrown and ended). On longer tracks, the amount of laps is typically reduced... obviously. Abu Dhabi has one of the longer lap times, cars lapping around 100 seconds in the race. How in the world is a single car shunt, with no injuries, and an access road 100 feet away a condition that should require 6 laps under the Safety Car? I completely agree about F1 stage managing. They have been doing it for years, and in 2021 it got particularly bad throughout the whole season. Making unfair, biased, and inconsistent decisions on a race by race basis in order to keep the championship close and exciting. It's pretty darn disturbing and a big reason why long time fans of F1 have zero confidence in the Stewards and FIA.
No one could understand why the track wasn't given the all clear when it was. Probably a combination of both Toto and Horner screaming in Masi's ear. The much, much larger 2 car shunt at a worse spot and TONS of debris between Rosberg and Karthikeyan resulted in a SC of only 6 laps, and that happened on the racing line at a high speed spot with debris literally going across the entire track. Mercedes ****ed up by assuming they could manipulate an SC ending and didn't pit. The pit was possible timewise. Had Max not pitted, he'd have to then defend against Lewis, who was driving the much faster car that weekend. Had Max pitted, we'd have the same shootout. Had the SC stayed out everyone would also call for manipulation, why have a clear track closed, with a championship on the line? Look at Monza 2022 how well that went down...and by that point the championship was almost certainly inevitable already. Whatever Masi chose, he'd be heavily scrutinized. He did as the teams asked earlier that year. He was let go as he made too many controversial decisions that year, and with the uproar of 2021 AD, they had to let him go as any decision good or bad afterwards would always be scrutinized. If they didn't sack him for 2021, they would've called for his head in Monza 2022.
Races finish as races finish, least we got to see them racing for most of the race not following the safety car for 2 laps + formation lap and calling it a race so no refunds of fees needed to be exchanged. Seeing football nations / clubs knocked out of cups on penaltys is boring, dont see teams asking the ref to manipulate the rules to make it more exciting though, Fans of football would likely riot too, and not just for thos clubs in the game, all fans from all clubs would protest. a sport with out integrity is a sport not worth watching. Just removing relegation in a super league had the footballing world smashing up stadiums.....
Merc was not pestering Masi, That was done by two? three members of Redbulls pit crew. and they got the result they wanted, they manipulated the end of the race. Not Max and he was deserving ( Even though LH completely domminated the race), but you can not argue the end of the race was not manipulated, because it was, Even the FIA agree the end of the race didnt finish as it should and that Masi broke the rules and changed the out come of the race, That is fact, no opinion can change that, it is official and written into history. those claiming its just Lewis fans saying it are miles off, most fans say it ( Im a Ferrari fan, William is nuatral, do i need to go on? ), its mostly only Redbull / Max fans that try to defend it.. If Masi aplied the rules he was supposed to upheld in the name of the organisation he works for, the would still have his job.
There is no time limit for a Safety Car Period; it takes what is necessary. However a protocol has to be observed according to the rules. The safety car is called to ensure the protection of rescue teams, whilst the driver is evacuated, the wreckage (or stranded car) removed to a safe place, the track cleared of debris, the safety barriers inspected and eventually repaired, etc ... Equipment, facilities and conditions change from circuit to circuit, so there is no "typical" SC period. The safety car bunches the field by imposing a safe pace, and when it is safe to do so, monitor the unlapping of cars that have been overtaken prior to the interruption, under instruction from the race director. When the unlapping is completed (meaning ALL cars that were overtaken), the race director instructs the safety car to do one more lap at higher speed (warm up lap), before signaling that the race will resume. If the race director considers that the cars are in good order, he will instruct the safety car to leave the circuit indicating that the green flag will be waved on the starting line, and the race resumed. If not, the race continues under yellow. In his rush to finish the race under green, Masi didn't allow the complete unlapping of cars, and dispensed with the extra lap. Abu Dhabi was a test case, IMO: what to do when an interruption occurs within the last few laps of a race, when timing become crucial? The race director has a choice: - gamble that there will be enough time to respect the SC protocol and still finish under green. or - red flag the race with no restart, and take the result from the previous lap. Masi took the first option, but didn't execute it properly.
Masi influenced the outcome of a race by manipulating circumstances (cheating). But, wait ... that was exactly the accusation against Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds once the 2008 Crashgate plot was uncovered. The FIA banned them, but in my opinion it's worse when an official does it.
Stop repeating the same arguments over and over again, we already know all of them. We also know that we will never agree on this. Time to move on.
Please no safety car,Toto asking Michael Massi,#f1,#uae,#f12021,#abudhabigp - YouTube Here is Toto manipulating the race. That was as much manipulation as Red Bull did. Funny that actually, Toto said ''it interferes in the race" but he was all too happy to have the race interfered keeping the SC out unneccessarily long when suddenly it suited him. And cutting the track. Hmmm. The boy that cried Wolff. Max is a deserving double world champion with zero asterisks. Grow the **** up everyone.
Neither Toto Wolff nor Red Bull manipulated the race; at most they tried to influence the race director. Masi was in charge, and what happened was his decision. A race director is supposed to resist pressure and uphold the rules. Max Verstappen is a worthy double champion, and there is not contest in that.
I'll write it again ... Verstappen won his first, well-deserved championship in 2021 ... ultimately validated by the FIA (direct quote) ... by passing Hamilton on a racetrack No amount of crying, whining and blaming by Hamilton fans will ever change it.
True, Max is the champ, and nothing ever happened at Abu Dhabi. It's a total mystery why Masi lost his job . It must have been only be a bad dream, I guess.
But there is a typical time. We have mean data that is absolutely valuable to the race director and all the teams to help them make decisions. It's not a case when a SC is thrown that nobody has any clue what to do or how long it takes. Safety Car periods are always rushed, they have to be because they want to resume the race as soon as possible. If it was a bunch of union workers fumblin around at their own pace, it would take 30 minutes to clean up any little wreck. When Latifi crashed and the SC was thrown, pretty much no team or fan was thinking the race was over. Everyone thought the race would resume. It's only after Lewis lost did people start claiming the race should never have restarted. You emphasize "ALL", but remember the rule had "ANY" written it. Which technically does open the door for interpretation. Which among the things that were wrong about what happened.
So whats a typical safety car like? i can give you some averages, but ive never heard of a " typical " safety car before. What is a typical safety car? Its quite typical of people to use bad grammer when fighting a losing point. Any and all in a sport that should be treating all as equals is obvious. The fact Masi him self had already clarified the meaning earlier in the year proves as such, that and the fact its only been wrongly interpreted once since it was first introduced, last year only, so its obviously typical of a race director to change the safety car procedure on a whim, so many precedents of it. ill list them for you ............ ..... .. . Sorry, cant find any......
And Happy New Year to all the others! It’s a new year and every driver starts tied for first. May the best man win!
Seems like you know what I meant. I would rather be guilty of not using the most accurate grammar (not grammEr) than being wrong. Without question, I have noticed a lot of people that when losing an argument, revert to personal attacks and insults. So thanks for shooting arrows at my less than perfect wording. Cheers.
