Prominent bookie pays out bets for Hamilton title win

In the annals of motor racing, the result of the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP will forever stands as a fix, like the 1935 Tripoli GP was in its time.

 

Nope.

Sir Hamilton pressing the wrong button on his steering wheel will forever stand as the bonehead move of...forever. With the possible exception of Copse at Silverstone...

 

LOL, an Irish sports book getting all butt-hurt over an Englishman losing.

 

I am talking about "fixes". You mention racing errors: who has never made some?

 

Alternative title: Bookie takes opportunistic and relatively cheap move to create a larger client base.

 

Like F1/Liberty Media creating a farcical scripted ending of a F1 race for more viewers?
Entertainment valie should never trump true sporting competition.....

 

In what possible way could you even script this?

Latifi crashing
Merc not pitting
Red Bull pitting
1 lap shootout

And why would you intentionally do this, only to risk alienating a significant portion of fans?

 

And that's what Masi chose to do!
He alienated me from F1 going forward. I have followed F1 since about 1986/87.
And creating the last lap farce/drama has ended my love affair with F1. No need to get up early (4/5 am, or stay up late to watch qualifying and races). I am fine with Max winning, but not the Masi deliberate manipulation deciding the outcome for drama/ratings. If I want contrived B.S. "racing", I could follow NASCRAP.

Sadly the FIA has sold out completely, and is just entertainment. Not purely the highest form of motorsport, it used to be.....

 

As has been repeated ad infinitum over the last month, Masi was in an unwinnable situation:

Don't allow to overtake = hand Lewis the title
Allow cars to overtake = give Max a shot, albeit him being on faster tyres

Toto requested NO SC during the first VSC, when Merc didn't pit and Red Bull did, and he got his wish.
It was Horners' turn after that and he got his wish.

If ALL cars could've overtaken, would you guys still moan? I'm 100% convinced you guys still would.

Mercedes could have pitted. They didn't want to take the risk. FIA isn't to blame for that. At the time that everyone pitted, Mercedes should've anticipated that the race could've gone ahead with the laps remaining still. After years of having the FIA listen to their every word, it finally backfired.

 

Regards myself I can assure you, you would be a 100% wrong with that statement, as I have said from the onset were the roles reversed I'd totally understand anybody's point of view to believe it was in no way a fair and satisfactory end to the seasons title race. However it is your prerogative to believe otherwise.

As regards Masi's options, all he had to do was follow the usual established procedure and official way in such circumstances, it may not have been great for the show, but we will never know that, instead he choose option farce, that has now highlighted and cast doubt on the credibility of the sport as a whole.
And since when did bookies start liking paying out!, that in itself says alot.

 

But see, whether all cars or some cars are allowed to unlap, that changes absolutely zero to what happened between Max and Lewis in that final lap. The outcome would've been identical.

I still say the vast majority of lewis fans would moan that Max got help from the FIA and that's their way of saying the championship wasn't won legitimately. In reality that only a few cars where unlapped is a small caveat if all cars where unlapping themselves. Even if those cars that couldn't unlap themselves where able to unlap, in the grand scheme of things, none of them was able to do make an impact on their outcome in the championship or even gain a prestigious position. Sainz wasn't making a place up, and even if he did, it would've been 2nd at best. Tsunoda wasn't impacted and didn't get 3rd anyways. Perhaps, at a push, Ricciardo could've closed of his disappointing year with a 10th place. That wouldn't have made an ounce of difference to him or indeed his or the teams' finish.

Nothing changes. Nothing.

 

I hear you and do not totally disagree with all of that, the problem is, it's Max's fans (who feel that Max did nothing wrong) v Lewis's fans (who feel he was robbed because of the mess Masi created).

Then of course there will be folk who couldn't care less either way who won, who thought it was a joke of a decision and F1 has turned into a WWE fake contest but don't care, and or some maybe think Merc should just suck it up and take it on the chin, as long as Lewis lost and they are fed up of Merc dominance, I have no real answer for that, however both being understandable view points.

As you say it changes nothing, so folk thrashing it out on keyboards it makes no odds, a fruitless excercise. But I'd like to think to an extent that we all could agree that Masi has a lot to answer for, in his off the top of his head decision making, especially in that final showdown race, in fact I can pretty sure we could agree on that because I noticed Andrew(neurobeaker) garned alot of likes( yours included) with his reply to my post in another thread in which Andy said : "yes in isolation the last race was a ********" <pick your expletive) so had Masi not done that but just adhered to normal practises there wouldn't be all this mud slinging and the boards would have been a hell of a lot quieter, whether thats a good thing or not, is another debate

 

Yes, I do agree that Masi and the stewards have a lot to answer for. Not just this race. Their mindblowing inconsistency is an absolute joke at the supposed top class of racing. I think one of my first posts right after the race finished was that Masi needs to go, but clearly saying after his farcical handling of most any situation. He's clearly out of his depth.

I also said that Lewis was quite unlucky to lose this race as he was faultless (if not a bit lucky/opportunistic on lap 1 whichever corner it was). But I also feel that, looking at the grand scheme of the whole season together, Mercedes received quite a lot of convenient assistance to even let him be in contention till the end of the season.

Max and Lewis where both FAR clear of anyone else this season. It wasn't even funny. I found the on and off track handling of situations by the FIA atrocious and do not yet look back fondly on this season.

What genuinely pisses me off is a lot of Lewis fans [preditably] ****ting all over Max's championship, all based on the actions of the FIA in the very last lap of the season. It's far fetched to a) call it manipulated and b) to call Max a fake champion. If anyone looked at the full season with their eyes wide open, consider all decisions made by the rule makers, the unfortunate coming together of the Mercs with Max's Red Bull (not saying either collision was intentional), we have the correct winner of the championship.

I think it was at the end of last season that Abu Dhabi complained publicly that they where annoyed that they rarely get to host a title deciding race. One can look at that statement and think whatever they want. I for one think that if it wasn't for pointless FIA interference all season, even if the title decider happened a few races earlier, people would look at this season more fondly. And I include some Hamilton supporters in that as well.

Masi needs sacking, toto his mouth glued shut, sanity brought back with the FIA stewarding.

 

Fair enough, I'am glad we can find some middle ground.

 

I agree with all of this. My addition would be that had Masi not said 'no cars are allowed to unlap', then followed up with 'only the cars between Max and Ham can unlap' then brought in the Safety Car 5 secs later, we wouldn't have this mess. It seemed like a WWE move in how it was delivered.

Had all cars unlapped themselves and Max went on to win a last-lap shootout, I would be saying the same thing I have already said "Congrats to 2021 WDC Max Verstappen". The only difference would be I wouldn't say the end of the race was farcical due to an indecisive and capitulating Race Director.

 

Yeah because the Irish are known for their love of the English.

 

There are a lot of English who have Irish blood, don't you know?

 

@william
Nope, in a “fix” the result would have to be engineered from the outset, and known in advance to the parties executing it. Rarely in sports is an outcome “fixed” by officials. It’s usually done by the players themselves. “Fix” also implies that the loser…in the present case that would be Hamilton…intentionally and overtly acts to hand the victory to his rival, presumably in return for some form of remuneration. Is that what you’re implying?

Or do you believe that Masi is dishonest or corrupt and maliciously gave the victory and the championship to Verstappen?

Because when you allege a “fix” you aren’t just implying, you’re asserting, some form or degree of dishonesty or corruption on the part of one or more of the parties involved.

 

I agree completely!

 

It looked to me that the Latifi's crash, so late in the race, created a situation that Masi didn't fully mastered.

It's possible that he was overtaken by events, and became under pressure from Horner and Wolff yelling at him and telling him what to do .

Masi first hesitated and then out of spite, reasserted his authority by making a controversial decision, probably knowing it could be protested later.

It was done in the spur of the moment, more out of exasperation than anything else. "The hell with you lot!" kind of thing.

PS: Some of the radio communications between crews and drivers are broadcasted;
Maybe the same access to communications between the teams and the race direction should be also given?

 

Not true. With so very laps remaining, If every single one of the lapped cars were allowed to unlap AND the safety car returned to the pits at the end of the FOLLOWING LAP (i.e. as ALWAYS happens except at 2022 Abu Dhabi), the clock would've simply run out and the race would've finished with no time remaining to go Green. I'm sure this very much entered Mercedes-AMG F1's strategy calculus to NOT call in LH for a tire change.

 

Yes, releasing some cars allowed for just 1 lap under green.

Releasing all the cars could have led to the end of the race.

I too, think that was Mercedes' calculation. Masi over-turned that.

 

I take that as a withdrawal of your assertion that the race was “fixed.”

 

I dont see any relevance of that answer.