Michael Masi gets fired/replaced?

If your trying to say Hamilton's dirty driving compares to Verstappens, give it up. I never heard any F1 driver in past or present say anything of the sort. In fact they say the opposite.

 

Great post. SC rules should be handled considering safety alone. Not because the race director wants the 2 top drivers to provide excitement.

 

Oh dear ****.

Lets roll back a tad. Latifi crashed. Masi didn't do this. Red Bull pitted, as did plenty other drivers/teams. Mercedes did not. Mercedes realized their error instantly. Forget the amount of cars unlapped for a bit. Cars unlapping themselves is quite normal, and should totally have been expected to happen (and it did, just a moment too late for the Merc pit crew). Merc lost the race on strategy.

What? Gifted points? Max finished P2, and didn't get given any extra points at all. Both cars went off track. Lewis got passed. Job done. I assume you're now back to Abu Dhabi again. Take it to court, go all the way. The way the rules are written, Mercedes would still lose in court and look even more like sore losers.

Come on then, what did horner say to incite hatred? Are you now carrying a crystal ball as well that can predict alternative history as to what Horner or Marko will say?

Newsflash, a formula 1 season is longer than 1 lap.

The way the rules where written allowed him to do what he did. He didn't break any rules.

 

One thing I find a little frustrating in this debate is the extreme revisionist history that is being applied by many to justify what happened at the final race. Prior to Abu Dhabi there was none of this. Everyone seemingly accepted that both Max and Lewis arrived at the final race tied on equal points. Yes if you look closely mistakes and FIA 'intervention' affected this but in reality two real titans battled it out all season and everyone was all set for a one race showdown. It's a little disappointing to see all of these good feelings prior to the race evaporate as they have. I for one thought that on a balance of things the two drivers being tied was both exciting and near enough fair that there was no reason to complain either way. I'm not about use the past to justify or make me feel better or worse about what I saw happen in Abu Dhabi.

 

They are running out of excuses for Masi's behavior. They bring up past races and incidents. Which has nothing to do with Abu Dhabi.

 

Wrong as per usual. We called out the FIA and Masi for a long time, YOU guys always ignored it and waved it off as if there is no issue. Now it happens to your idol and Masi needs to be hung and quartered. Doesn't fly. Sorry.

The past races are brought up because this is a title fight for a season, not for a race. I know that's a concept that's apparently very hard to grasp for you.

 

They say Max drove better all year (which he hadn't, Hamilton drove better latter part) so he deserves to be champion. But they won't say Lewis drove better the whole last race, so he deserves to be the winner.

 

Show me where you called out Masi for unlapped cars? This and the SC car rules in general have been consistant all year. This is one place where Masi was consistant. So that excuse didn't fly. Sorry.

Second. Why did you condemn Masi previuosly anyway if he acted within the rules?

 

You know full well the first comment doesn't exist anywhere prior to Abu Dhabi as this situation hasn't happened You will however find a comment on me immediately after the flag dropped condemning Masi. It's been pointed out in several discussions before. And no, strictly speaking, Masi and the SC rules haven't been consistent. Again, plenty of examples all over this thread and others that you are involved in. Not my problem you decide to ignore them (as it doesn't help your narrative).

FIA/Masi have been condemned by us plenty of times for changing things on the fly to make the championship more interesting.

 

Yeah, both you and I know full well that situation didn't happen. Because the SC rules were consistant. Particularly the unlapping and SC duration. You just said this situation didn't exist. Again why did you condemn Masi in ealier races? Its ok if he didn't break any rules right?

 

Still haven't learned to read comprehensively I see. Go back to the post, you'll see the answer already given.

If you want more answers on any question that comes up into your head, as you've asked them all a million times before and received the answers, have fun digging through the posts.

Nothing to gain in engaging with you any further.

 

Meanwhile....

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It seems you are infact having a hard time reading comprehensively. I'm dsicussing handling of the SC. Masi hadn't previously made decisions on the fly with the SC.

 

Much more subtle than a big 'Thanks Michael' banner

Just teasing

 

ham should replace Masi

 

I will comment on the use of Safety Car vs. Virtual Safety Car (VSC) as I have quite a bit of experience with each.

The use of the safety car really only came into effect in F1 the early 90's. That is not to say that it was never used before but its use started to be more mainstream at that time. Before then red flags were used albeit very infrequently for a really big incident that blocked the track and just about everything else was covered with a local yellow where the driver was merely expected to breath on the throttle while going through. Let's not forget this was 30+ years ago when there was zero speed limit in the pits and cars were doing sometimes over 200kph near mechanics wearing shorts. It is a miracle there was never a really big disaster. The Imola tragedies had everyone looking at all aspects of safety and things like a faster safety car and increased use of it in the races. In those days it was only starting to be understood as a means of affecting the outcome and teams were remarkably slow to catch on to the tactical considerations of its deployment. Nowadays the use of the safety car and that of the red flag is almost the part of a regular GP (I personally hate it) and is a very real piece of the tactical equation. Personally I think this is also a Liberty Media thing where they realize the added drama of bunching or re-setting the field; something US racing series have been doing for decades.

The full and even partial VSC is a fairly new phenomenon that is only made possible with the advent and close monitoring of vehicle positions and speeds. There is no point arguing that the safety car is the way 'we've always done it' because with the VSC it is a much fairer way of handling an on-track incident while not penalizing drivers for their efforts. Also VSC allows for even a segment of the track to be isolated thereby maintaining the pace of the race as a whole. It really is a great system.

That said F1 has now gotten a taste for the US way of 'keeping things exciting' and it will be interesting to see which system will dominate in the future. One is technically superior and maintains sporting fairness while the other is better for TV and can be cloaked under the guise of 'Safety'.

 

Thanks, that was exactly my point a few pages back. We can't have both VSC and SC. It needs to be one or the other, because we've seen it time and time again that something that could easily be solved under VSC, got done under full SC, and the only logical explanation is to spice up the racing at the front.

 

I've got a simple question.

The Hamilton fans seem to finally be coming around to the idea that Masi did, indeed, follow the rules ... but that the application of those rules resulted in the WDC being "unfairly gifted" to Verstappen.

When Masi made the unlapping decision to give us all one final lap of racing under green, how could he be sure that Hamilton wouldn't "silverstone" Verstappen, again, if and when Verstappen tried to pass?

For all we know, Masi was expecting ... and in fact hoping for ... a repeat of Silverstone. While Max is executing a legit pass, leaving enough room for an alongside driver near apex, Hamilton shunts him. Max crashes out, the stewards give Hamilton a soft little slap on the wrist. Verstappen goes to the hospital, and Hamilton goes to the podium for his 8th WDC.

That's a scenario of reasonable, if not high, probability ... that i'm sure was front and center in Masi's mind (don't even try to argue that such a scenario could never, would never, happen).

Masi "gifted" us one lap of RACING, with a VERY uncertain outcome (given the past events this season). The bottom line, though, is that Verstappen was gifted nothing.

 

A good point, Especially considering that Lewis said he'd do the same again.

 

Exactly!!

If you pander to the TV channels, they will ask for more "bunching" of the field as they provide more spectacle.

If the field stretches too much, or don't offer constant wheel to wheel battles, the race is deemed boring for some TV executives.

I read in a US magazine, that since IMSA (an endurance series) came under the control of NASCAR, safety cars are called far more often, needed or not.

That's no surprise since pace car periods are the "bread and butter" of NASCAR, where they like to keep excitement up to the last minute.

The joke is that people don't look at a whole stockcar race on TV anymore, but switch their set just to watch the last 5 laps !

The irony is that now the advertisers are complaining they loose their TV audience !!!

 

Not really true. Plenty were screaming all season long about Silverstone. I was screaming for a long time about Saudi Arabia.

Many who don't drink the Hamilton koolaid were plenty tweaked (with some measure of justification) that we arrived at Abu Dhabi tied on points.

 

If the outcome was so uncertain why was Horner screaming to let cars unlap? Nothing is uncertain about Max's advantage on softs against 40 lap old tires. Horner was screaming because he was certain of Max's advantage. Not uncertain.

 

Verstappen won his first WDC by passing Hamilton on a racetrack.

If we follow the arguments of the pro-Hamilton crowd, nothing before that moment in time matters. Doesn't matter how they got there ... to that same position on that track, in that moment.

Verstappen won his first WDC by PASSING Hamilton on a racetrack.

 

Why did he wait to the last lap? He had plenty time to do in the first 50 laps.

 

I don't think many will deny that.

However some will consider it wasn't a fair fight.