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F1 2021

BrianM said:
The logic doesn’t hold up though, just do what they normally do and work your way through the back markers as you normally do??
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Don’t think they had time to get them all through, they just got rid of the relevant ones.


But let’s get this straight there are a lot of posters on here saying it’s dreadful but not because of any real technical reasons .. just their man did not win. Had it been Lewis I am sure they would be content with the decisions.
I don’t remember in my day the FIA getting so much back chat, you could not even have a joke with them. But then Mosely was in charge and Whiting was fair as he had so much experience on both sides of the fence.
 
harpo_72 said:
Probably because it had more opportunity to get messy … it was a difficult decision but in the end the logic of it holds up. They could not have the final race won under the safety car nor could they have back markers interfering in the title decider ..
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I can't see that as being any 'more messy' than it was! Admittedly less (if any) 'racing' involved though. It's consistency that's important, and that was decidedly lacking imo.
 
Foxholer said:
I can't see that as being any 'more messy' than it was! Admittedly less (if any) 'racing' involved though. It's consistency that's important, and that was decidedly lacking imo.
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By messy .. what if a back marker collided with Max, what if they caught up with Lewis and collided with him (Lewis was stuffed the tread gauge was down and he had cold tyres with little opportunity to warm up.. he would have been struggling) .. eiether scenarios would have been Unacceptable.. now we have a situation where a certain fan base says it’s unfair, and another is content with the racing gods .. if you want to find fault it was Mercedes strategy
 
harpo_72 said:
if you want to find fault it was Mercedes strategy
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They messed up not extending the first stint when max pitted. Other than that there's not much else they could do. They were too close to the pit entry for the vsc. For the safety car they would have given up track position. If the regs had been followed the last lap wouldn't have happened and if they had pitted they would have handed the race to verstappen who would have stayed out. I'm not a Hamilton fan, I just like hard clean racing. Imagine how much Horner would have been whinging if the roles were reversed.
 
As a massive fan in the past, I stopped watching around the time overtaking in the pits became the big thing. Early Schumacher era after Damon Hill? So probably around 20 years ago.

As many people have said before on this thread, I too will not be watching again.

Total sh!tshow at the end.

And I'm not even a fan of Lewis, just watching to see if he could make history after his epic comeback this season.
 
The Mercedes strategists had to assume the rules would be applied correctly, that's what they are there for......

1. Wait till the track is clear, then let ALL lapped cars pass the safety car, then one more lap behind the SC. Race ends. Lewis wins.
2. Wait till the track is clear, then one more lap behind the SC. then Max has one lap to try and pass 5 cars and pass Lewis. Lewis wins.

Pitting Lewis would mean Max has track position with fresh soft tyres. Max wins.

When the crash happened, Lewis was 12.102 seconds in front and 5 lapped cars between him and Max, a winning position they had earned.
As you're not allowed to overtake behind the SC, (apart from today as long as it's just a little bit) the advantage should have been recreated after the safety car ended, albeit with less laps to go. Lewis wins.

It was not.

The lapped cars were removed, the time gap was removed and Lewis was a sitting duck.

The bottom line is if the rules had been followed, Lewis wins.
The race director did not follow the rules. Max wins.
 
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harpo_72 said:
I did not watch spa.. but experience of spa is the circuit is long and the weather and conditions differ between the sectors.
It’s usually cold the high points are foggy and drizzly … so if the weather was poor then it’s understandable to keep the safety car out especially when there are points where water pools.
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If you did not watch Spa, you probably want to do your research first as to why it was a farce. It was not a simple case of having a race, and having to finish the past few laps behind the safety car.
 
Foxholer said:
Or simply bad luck that Latifi crashed in a wrong part of the circuit at the wrong time of the race!
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Yes it was unfortunate, but they pitted very early and tried to stretch the race to then end. Which was working, but this is not the first time a driver with heavily worn tyres has struggled with a restart.
 
greenone said:
They messed up not extending the first stint when max pitted. Other than that there's not much else they could do. They were too close to the pit entry for the vsc. For the safety car they would have given up track position. If the regs had been followed the last lap wouldn't have happened and if they had pitted they would have handed the race to verstappen who would have stayed out. I'm not a Hamilton fan, I just like hard clean racing. Imagine how much Horner would have been whinging if the roles were reversed.
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Yes Horner would have grumbled, but he was resigned to losing in the last 7-9 laps anyway … and Mercedes messed up their strategy which may have given them a fighting chance at the end. Had Lewis pitted he would not have had the time advantage, he got unlucky with a safety car. How the safety car was deployed and the back markers were dealt with is what it is … there have a been a fair few occasions where a long stint driver has fallen foul of the safety car coming out. That is the risk of the strategy.
 
harpo_72 said:
Enlighten me
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The 44 lap race was actually 2 laps behind a safety car, red flagged in 3rd lap. Basically, the race could not go ahead due to weather. However, drivers were still awarded points for this "race". Incidentally, it also was a race Max won, which contributed to him being ahead of Lewis going into final race of the season on race wins, as he had one more than Lewis.
 
harpo_72 said:
Yes Horner would have grumbled, but he was resigned to losing in the last 7-9 laps anyway … and Mercedes messed up their strategy which may have given them a fighting chance at the end. Had Lewis pitted he would not have had the time advantage, he got unlucky with a safety car. How the safety car was deployed and the back markers were dealt with is what it is … there have a been a fair few occasions where a long stint driver has fallen foul of the safety car coming out. That is the risk of the strategy.
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Why do you keep blissfully ignoring the fact the race could well have ended behind the safety car? It would have done if normal procedures had been followed.

If Mercedes HAD pitted Lewis, and then ended up in 2nd position at end of race behind safety car, you are exactly the sort of guy who would come on here and criticise Mercedes for a poor decision. Of course, at least your argument would have credibility in that situation. In this case, you really do not have a leg to stand on.
 
harpo_72 said:
Don’t think they had time to get them all through, they just got rid of the relevant ones.


But let’s get this straight there are a lot of posters on here saying it’s dreadful but not because of any real technical reasons .. just their man did not win. Had it been Lewis I am sure they would be content with the decisions.
I don’t remember in my day the FIA getting so much back chat, you could not even have a joke with them. But then Mosely was in charge and Whiting was fair as he had so much experience on both sides of the fence.
Click to expand...

You're wrong, I've limited knowledge on F1 but what happened wasn't right, either let them all through or none.
You shouldn't be able to dissect a procedure when it suits, it should be followed correctly.
If Masi is just picking and choosing himself what to do what's the point in the procedure.
 
Two races this season had horrible, contrived results. Spa and yesterday’s race. Who benefited from very poor decisions? Verstappen is world champion, but only by virtue of two very poor decisions.
 
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