Michael Masi gets fired/replaced?

Amazing.

Never fails to disappoint.

 

denialism is a person's choice to deny reality as a way to avoid a psychologically uncomfortable truth. Denialism is an essentially irrational action that withholds the validation of a historical experience or event, when a person refuses to accept an empirically verifiable reality.

 

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/996496/1/latifi-reveals-hamilton-support-after-abu-dhabi-f1-abuse

 

Last i checked, no one but Mercedes dictated their own tire choice.
Last i checked, LH was still in the lead after the safety car period ended.

And, the only thing that really matters ... last i checked, MV won the championship by passing LH on a racetrack

(everything else really is nothing more than background noise)

 

Did you have time to check on Masi?

 

GREAT post ^^^ thank you!

Even Mercedes agrees with you completely, by the way ... that is, if they're honest enough to be held accountable to the position they held before the last race of 2021.

 

FIA released the bombshell conversation between Wheatley and Masi ...2 days after MB withdrew their complaint .Just saying.

 

While everyone is talking Masi and HAM, I posted pic of the Ferrari in the Ferrari thread…

 

These conversations are available to all teams the moment they get said. The radio is public so to say.

 

I will say politely that this opinion is lacking in a true understanding of how big the tire delta was between the two cars. I'm not here to argue about strategy or the earned right to tires, etc. What I will say with absolute certainty and from a position of experience that Hamilton had no chance of defending against Max over one full lap. Even if he weaved all over the track erratically, Max had the luxury to brake many car lengths later or drive around Lewis at several parts of the lap. Guys you can argue all kinds of points but to believe that Lewis somehow cracked under pressure and did not defend well is absolute lunacy to those intimately familiar with racecraft and the importance/value of tires in motorsport.

Just because two cars are not bouncing off of one another does not mean that a driver is not defending well.

 

But that is what MV fans have been led to believe these last few years with that plee" Let them race ". its why the drivers are confused as to what the racing rules really are because they get punished for stuff max doesnt even get a warning for.

 

The counter point to your argument, i think, is based on a couple of observations during that last lap:

- Hamilton did not appear to make even a single defensive move against Verstappen, in the moments leading up to the critical pass.
- In the first few turns after the pass, Hamilton did a GREAT job of hanging-with, even pressuring ... almost passing ... Verstappen, to re-take the lead.

The point is, it sure seemed like Hamilton had the tires to put-up a better fight (against the critical pass) than what we saw.

 

There was a lot of brilliance in Lewis' last lap that is not immediately apparent to the casual observer. As I stated previously the biggest advantage to Max in the new tires would come in braking zones. Lewis' advantage was in straight line speed. The only hope Lewis had was for Max to make a mistake and he did everything he could to try and create that situation.

Going back to the last lap, Max's pass was aggressive and not surprisingly under braking. Hamilton did two things that were impressive. He concentrated on his exit while compromising Max as much as possible. Had he focused on blocking Max, then Max would have both the benefit of fresh tires to launch onto the following straight and the benefit of Lewis being compromised on his exit greatly hurting his straight line speed. The second thing he did was squeeze Max on the hopes of hesitation (admittedly a long shot on a driver as good as Max) which would further compromise him on the straight.

All of this came good on the straight where Lewis got very close to Max in the hopes of again forcing an error in the braking zone. Realistically it would only be a massive error from Max that would have helped Lewis but he fought well to make the most of even slim odds in his favor.

Despite the tire delta we were treated to two world class grand prix drivers at their best. Just because there was not a trail of broken carbon fiber in their wake should in no way lessen both of their performances.

 

Yes Liberty must have been sooooo disappointed that there wasn't a huge crash to boost their viewing numbers! Masi did his best to set up a one lap WWE show for his mates at Liberty (which is actually NOT in his job description working for the FIA)

 

I hear you, honestly ... but it can be argued that a single defensive move ... to prevent a position change! ... would not have compromised his exit speed any worse than the driver he's defending against.

"I'll let him pass me now, but plan to catch him later" just doesn't sound like a winning strategy ... especially since it's clear that Hamilton had not only the straight-line speed, but also the tires to fight hard in first few turns after the pass.

As i'm sure we all know ... catching-up-to, and overtaking, are very different things. NEVER give-up a lead position (!), seems to be a pretty good rule in these circumstances ... no?

 

Mario Andreti desagrees with you.
I do not question your experience...but i have no reason to doubt Mario,opinion.

 

I totally agree that defending track position is generally the very best thing to do. In this instance Max had a big advantage under braking so not aggressively defending the overtake and focusing on the exit is a very smart play and shows a lot of experience. A much younger Lewis would have been more short-sighted and fought the corner more likely being involved in an accident.

I have also heard the argument that Lewis 'left the door open' and was caught by surprise by Max and that is plausible so I will not discount that as an option. That said, had he compromised his entry in order to block Max that it would have hurt him more on balance at the end of the following straight. Looking at the big picture (ie. more than one corner) and with the benefit of hindsight, Lewis chose a very good defense considering all the things at his disposal.

 

He did....he had good speed on the straights, but there was no contest once he got to the braking zones. Also, remember that he had to finish the race while Max did not...so any divebomb or hyper-aggressive defense would have screwed him anyway. There's an endurance driver on here who has tried to explain ad infinitum that 40+ lap old hard tires are no comparison to brand new softs.

 

I think it's great that everyone has various opinions for and against on this, but I really cannot be doing with outlandish often blinkered posts, brought on (usually because of a serious unhealthy dislike of a driver)

My point is when the likes of Nuvolari (Rob) who obviously has the pedigree to comment on racing, and surely has the experince and a good knowledge about the finer details of close up racing, and IIRC has no axe to grind with either driver in question, so personally I certainly wouldn't be questioning it as a arm chair expert with only a little racing experience, however that is my view, I'd rather like to think I know when I'am out of my depth ..

 

Depth-wise that was a DEEEEP post Krafty

 

yes…I wanted to emphasize Rob as a racing driver. Great insights by him that really adds to the forums credibility.

 

Thank you guys you are all very kind. I have dedicated my life to racing cars and am happy to share in my knowledge and experiences with the group. While we all have our favorite drivers and inevitable biases I try hard to offer information as impartially as I can.

 

I'm sure there's a reason for every move, offensively and defensively, on that last lap. But still, if these were Hamilton's choices:

- allow Max to easily pass, and instead just protect your exit speed to increase your chances of catching him later
<or>
- execute one allowed blocking move, to protect the position ... with the awareness that your straight-line speed will compensate later, if your exit speed was somewhat compromised (compared to Max) by the block

I just don't see how option A is the right choice? I would argue that keeping your lead position is paramount in this scenario.

I'm not saying this with 20/20 hindsight: NEVER give-up the lead easily, especially on the LAST lap of a championship race!!

But I do agree that there had to be some reason why Hamilton gave-up the position so easily. Was he sulking? Was he expecting the stewards to come to his rescue? Did he make a bad strategy choice? Was he just not expecting the pass? We may never know.

 

LOL, I suppose it was so behave Dave , I am more worried about these storm winds in the UK right now, we are getting battered, it's not my marbles am loosing, and I hope its not loose slates ..

 

Yes be strong. I saw the weather report on BBC today. A bit strong all that is. All the best!