Formula One ( F1 )

Surely if all lapped cars were allowed to overtake then H and V would be together anyway?

Commentary said if they let all through there'd be no more racing laps, H wins. Might have meant an extra sc lap as per rule 39.12, open to interpretation?

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Surely if all lapped cars were allowed to overtake then H and V would be together anyway?

That would've required another lap, ending the race under the safety car.

Tyvm! Dramatic indeed. My heart was racing and I'm sad I only tuned into the season at the end.

I haven’t watched much of this season, but thought I’d tune in for this.

That’s me done with F1, it’s an absolute fucking joke.

Surely a slam dunk for Mercedes at CAS

100%. I'm no legal expert but this isn't even open to interpretation, reg 39.12 was contravened.

Massi to Toto: “it’s called a motor race”

Also Massi: makes a decision that goes against regulations and overturns previous 57 laps of racing

Thought I’d watch this. The ‘sport’ is about as credible as WWE.

I know he's probably a bit biased, but George Russel has given his opinion on Twitter: "THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!!!"

Be interesting to see what other drivers say.

That's the shit part. By deciding that a racing finish was more important than crossing under safety, he's just shat all over the integrity of the sport.

The guy is a fucking halfwit.

After max had basically called them all a bunch of cheating cunts two laps earlier

Coming up in 2022: Offside rule abandoned after 89 minutes of the F.A. Cup Final.

The comments are pretty one sided:

https://twitter.com/fia/status/1470053491829878790

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https://twitter.com/chainbear/status/1470054675294703619

Interestingly the dispute lodged by Merc is on Reg 48.8

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Congratulations to Massi for winning his first Driver's Championship for Red Bull.

Not sure if this is legit but surely that’s evidence of corruption on the FIAs part of accurate.

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Regarding the track changes, reckon they've done a half-decent job (shite -> semi-shite track), though would've preferred the old penultimate corner. This current iteration feels like a bit of a non-corner compared the previous iteration. Still think it's a damn shame that it's played host to championship deciders over places like Interlagos & Suzuka (obviously the latter isn't applicable this season)

Like many, had given up on F1 a long time ago but found myself gripped over the last few races (actually since watching that race when Norris got stuck on the wrong tyres in the rain and the drama of hoping he'd bring it home) - genuine question, is there a reason they can't release cars from the safety car as close as possible to the gaps they had before the introduction of the safety car? I appreciate it would be tricky, but stick some lights on the back and basically make it a rolling staggered re-start? It just seems insane that for an event the sole aim of which is building gaps on the road to win/place in a race, when a safety car is required all those hard-won advantages are just lost and everyone comes back together. I appreciate its the same rules for everyone and should even out over a season blah blah, but feels rather suboptimal for a sport that is SO high-tec that they can't effect a solution that to a greater extent preserves the spirit of the event...

Trying to maintain/reinstate 19 gaps where having 1 car moving to close a gap opens up a bunch more, seems next to impossible IMO. Even struggling to keep everyone holding the same speed under VSC seems difficult/unlikely.

The earlier virtual safety car did just that, although there wasn't debris to be swept up at that point. Having the field bunched up makes it easier & safer for marshalls to work around the race. Even at 40% speeds would be fatality if collision with a marshall.

Thanks both - I totally get the need to bunch the field when there is debris to clear etc, my point is that surely it must be possible to restart in a way that at least allows for an approximation of the gaps pre-safety car rather than just the instant loss of everything they had worked for over the race to that point. Maybe 19 safety cars that could ensure the gaps were reintroduced, or a lights-based released system from the back of the lead safety car....? Can't believe it's beyond them and it seems to make a mockery of the race when it introduces such randomness. Like in football - a team has worked really hard to get to 3-0 up, but because of an injury in the last 5 minutes with a long stoppage the scores are reset and you get a frantic end to the game. Clearly not entirely analogous, but I just find the whole thing really unsatisfactory and in the run-in to this season it seems a really frequent occurrence....

Still think it's a damn shame that it's played host to championship deciders over places like Interlagos & Suzuka (obviously the latter isn't applicable this season)

Other than being far superior tracks, what those two have that Abu Dhabi doesn't have is the potential for weather. Takes a big factor of unpredictability out of the equation.

Should it matter where it happens in terms of time? The last race should be just as equal as all others

Bleh. What a mess. While we're on on it, not making Lewis give back the lead in the first lap or two was annoying as well. Perhaps if Mercedes HAD given the place up they'd have been in a better position later on.

The more I think about it the more I think Mercedes bottled it to an extent. There was every chance there would a full s/c at some point after the first VCS. They chose to keep track position by not pitting when they had the opportunity, so they were always going to be massively vulnerable if there was a late SC.

I does feel perverse that you can be running almost (but not quite) a pitstop ahead purely on merit and effectively be disadvantaged because you can't afford to hand track position to the cars 15 seconds behind you, but there you go.

This season has been great in many ways, but i'm so disheartened that so much of if has been all about controversial inconsistent race director and steward calls. Hard to feel excited about next season after that farce.