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Formula 1 2021

You could see that comiing a mile away.

Mercedes launch official protest against Max Verstappen after controversial F1 victory​

Mercedes have lodged a protest with the FIA over two alleged breaches of Formula 1 regulations during the closing stages of Max Verstappen's victory over Lewis Hamilton


protest with the FIA after Max Verstappen defeated Lewis Hamilton to win the Formula One championship at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Toto Wolff's team contested the final classification over two alleged breaches of the 2021 FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.
Mercedes believe Verstappen failed to adhere to Article 48.8, stating no driver may overtake during a safety car, during a yellow flag in the closing stages of the race.
They were also aggrieved about the safety car procedure, as a number of lapped drivers separating Verstappen and Hamilton were allowed to pass, presenting the Red Bull driver with a clear run at the Brit on the final lap.
Mercedes principal Wolff refused to speak to the press in the immediate aftermath of the Grand Prix as his team dissected F1 rules and subsequently launched their protest.
Do Mercedes have a valid case to have the classification altered? Have your say in the comments!


Breaking News - Verstappen wins F1 world title​





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Max Verstappen won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix under controversial circumstances
Race director Michael Masi had initially prevented the five lapped cars from overtaking the safety car, prompting a bitter reaction from Red Bull boss Christian Horner.
However, he changed his stance some minutes later and Verstappen emerged on Hamilton's tail as the safety car withdrew in time for one racing lap, during which the 24-year-old passed his great rival on a fresh set of soft tyres.

Regardless of the outcome of Mercedes' protest, the incident at Yas Marina will be talked about for years to come as the divisive climax of an enthralling title battle between two phenomenal drivers.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1/wolff-max-verstappen-lewis-hamilton-25678466
George Russell slams "unacceptable" F1 finale as Max Verstappen crowned champion
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https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1/george-russell-slams-unacceptable-f1-25678452
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David Coulthard admitted stewards are facing a "really difficult decision" as they weigh up the formal complaint laid at their door.
"This is a complex sport. None of us like the decisions taking place in the stewards room when the champagne has been popped," the former Williams, McLaren and Red Bull driver told Channel 4.

"In hindsight, could the stewards have done a tidier job? Yes. Has there been something played out which is controversial? Yes. This is a really difficult decision."
Mark Webber echoed these comments as he questioned the decision making of race coordinators.


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Max Verstappen overtook Lewis Hamilton on the final lap of the race (
Image:
Getty Images)
"We never knew the last lap was going to be so dramatic," the Australian added. "It was like taking a knife to a gunfight in terms of tyres, but Max got the job done.


"At the end of the day though, the refereeing and stewarding was really hard for the teams to understand.
"There was a lot of emotion everywhere today and they started to get frazzled on what the right things was to do to get the win. Emotion got the better of everyone today."
Mercedes now face a nervous wait to learn the outcome of their protest.
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Appeal regarding the "overtake" under the safety car has been rejected. Decision expected shortly on the other half of the appeal.
 
I guess there was some drama! I'll have to watch. Just saw a last lap recap.....
 
And the second appeal has been dismissed.....
 
Java230 said:
I guess there was some drama! I'll have to watch. Just saw a last lap recap.....
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Most of the drama is over the last few laps. Some good racing earlier in the race too.
 
OllieNZ said:
Most of the drama is over the last few laps. Some good racing earlier in the race too.
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I'll see if I can find a recording somewhere. I wasn't getting up a 4am and went skiing anyway 😂
 
Enjoy your stolen win Max. When you have to play dirty and cheat to win you are not a winner. The blocking that Perez did was utter bullshit. Blew a 6 second lead. Then the end. Max had his ass handed to him all day. While F1 has rejected the Mercedes protest I seriously can't understand how they are only following half of the rule. It doesn't say you let just the 5 cars in the way of max winning past. It says all cars. If this is how they want to play why not send a coded message out to bottas to just put max into the wall. :shaking:
 
cheating you mean like the merc car that all of a sudden lost the top end advantage when someone mentioned the wings opening to far?

Blocking? That's racing or does that only work when it's in your favor?

Good race and merc can suck it.
 
Weasel said:
cheating you mean like the merc car that all of a sudden lost the top end advantage when someone mentioned the wings opening to far?

Blocking? That's racing or does that only work when it's in your favor?

Good race and merc can suck it.
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The speed was back the last 2 races. Or did you not watch? :lmao: And bottas has had plenty of chances to block and didn't. What Perez was doing was well past the line. I don't know how you can call that a good race. It wasn't at all. Max screwed up any chance of a good race when he flat spotted his set of yellows on a lap he should have never even been on. Screwed his tire strategy up and got beat the whole race.
 
MattS said:
Enjoy your stolen win Max. When you have to play dirty and cheat to win you are not a winner. The blocking that Perez did was utter bullshit. Blew a 6 second lead. Then the end. Max had his ass handed to him all day. While F1 has rejected the Mercedes protest I seriously can't understand how they are only following half of the rule. It doesn't say you let just the 5 cars in the way of max winning past. It says all cars. If this is how they want to play why not send a coded message out to bottas to just put max into the wall. :shaking:
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Whilst I agree Hami definitely had the faster car, Redbull played a far better team game all weekend and Bottas was nowhere in sight.

Apparently the FIA have stated in their rejection of Merc's appeal that there is another overriding rule that gives the race director sole discretion on when and how the safety car is deployed/withdrawn.
 
OllieNZ said:
Whilst I agree Hami definitely had the faster car, Redbull played a far better team game all weekend and Bottas was nowhere in sight.

Apparently the FIA have stated in their rejection of Merc's appeal that there is another overriding rule that gives the race director sole discretion on when and how the safety car is deployed/withdrawn.
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I guess we will see. They are appealing it. My problem with it is there was a message sent out that said no overtaking. Then RB cries like a baby and they get what they want. If that was the plan all along then Hamilton would have come in for other tires. Then there would have been actually a race at the end if that's what they really wanted. Even if Max was in 1st place with 1 lap left with everyone on fresh tires. Best man wins. Not the trash we saw. What we got was a bait and switch and a 100% guarantee to who was going to win.
 
MattS said:
I guess we will see. They are appealing it. My problem with it is there was a message sent out that said no overtaking. Then RB cries like a baby and they get what they want. If that was the plan all along then Hamilton would have come in for other tires. Then there would have been actually a race at the end if that's what they really wanted. Even if Max was in 1st place with 1 lap left with everyone on fresh tires. Best man wins. Not the trash we saw. What we got was a bait and switch and a 100% guarantee to who was going to win.
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My understanding was the race director was waiting until the track was clear before letting the lapped cars past but he should have communicated that to the teams better. Merc were in an impossible position they could have pitted but they didn't want to in case the race finished under safety car.
IMO the race director should have red flagged it, let them all change onto softs and given them the remaining 4-5 laps to go at it.
 
OllieNZ said:
My understanding was the race director was waiting until the track was clear before letting the lapped cars past but he should have communicated that to the teams better. Merc were in an impossible position they could have pitted but they didn't want to in case the race finished under safety car.
IMO the race director should have red flagged it, let them all change onto softs and given them the remaining 4-5 laps to go at it.
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How about this possibility?

How would they know how long it would take to clear Latifi? So everything stayed put. No overtaking due to safety. As soon as it looked like Latifi's car was cleared then overtaking happened.

FIA will release what happened so we can all see their response.
 
MattS said:
You want his job?
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Fuck that :laughing:
Hindsight is 20/20, the race director was in a shit position where he was damned if he did damned if he didn't. They really need to make the team communication with the race director one way or at least no speaking unless asked a direct question. The teams being able to lobby the director is bullshit and just makes his job that much harder.
 
Dookey said:
How about this possibility?

How would they know how long it would take to clear Latifi? So everything stayed put. No overtaking due to safety. As soon as it looked like Latifi's car was cleared then overtaking happened.

FIA will release what happened so we can all see their response.
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That's pretty much my understanding of what happened. It was deemed unsafe for the lapped cars to pass until the track was cleared.
 
I’m not sure that I cared at all if either driver won.

I was disappointed with the end of the race. I realize the strong desire to end the race actually racing. I do not think splitting a norm was an acceptable means on getting there though. How can one strategy team possibly succeed if race control pulls a move thats not understood to be an option?

Red Bull would be pissed as well if the shoe was on the other foot.
 
Bacho said:
I’m not sure that I cared at all if either driver won.

I was disappointed with the end of the race. I realize the strong desire to end the race actually racing. I do not think splitting a norm was an acceptable means on getting there though. How can one strategy team possibly succeed if race control pulls a move thats not understood to be an option?

Red Bull would be pissed as well if the shoe was on the other foot.
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Agree. And it looked like Max briefly went ahead of Hammy before they went green, shouldn't he be fully behind the lead car at the restart? These guys are bending the rules in ways that are not safe and not in the spirit of the sport. Rules should be consistent, and it shouldn't be up to the race director to make sure the championship is decided under green, they had 22 races to decide who would be champ, if it ends under yellow, or with lapped traffic in the way so be it. It not as exciting as what happened on that last lap, but as Matt said it's a hollow victory.

F1 circus is right.
 
I didn't like it.

and I'm not heavily invest in either driver and I'm not an F1 super fan.
The whole thing just seemed pretty janky.
not mad at the blocking, that's just racing and that's a common team strategy. Was it aggressive? yeah. Too aggressive? maybe, but that's racing right?
 
MattS said:
The speed was back the last 2 races. Or did you not watch? :lmao: And bottas has had plenty of chances to block and didn't. What Perez was doing was well past the line. I don't know how you can call that a good race. It wasn't at all. Max screwed up any chance of a good race when he flat spotted his set of yellows on a lap he should have never even been on. Screwed his tire strategy up and got beat the whole race.
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how is a teammate putting up a good fight against the other team past the line? thats the WHOLE POINT of being on a team. Why would he let Lewis breeze through to a championship? I'm cannot understand your logic there. Was Alonso wrong when he did it for Ocon? Bottas just hasn't been good at holding people up, but has tried to do the same for Lewis if he's ever in a spot to do so

I agree Lewis had it in the bag. I am also not a fan of how it ended and it feels a little BS how they flip flopped on the safety car handling/passing. but on Checo defending you are wrong flat out. That defense was epic, sucks he lost P3 with the car issue.


edit: think i'd have rather seen it finish under the safety car. the comments above are probably right about overtaking / safety / etc and i'm sure we only got bits of the overall picture, but it just feels hokey. and Merc HAD to stay out, if they pitted and it finished under yellow Max walks to the win. If they don't pit and it restarts, Max wins. If they stay out and it finishes under yellow, Lewis takes it.
 
Roc Doc said:
Agree. And it looked like Max briefly went ahead of Hammy before they went green, shouldn't he be fully behind the lead car at the restart? These guys are bending the rules in ways that are not safe and not in the spirit of the sport. Rules should be consistent, and it shouldn't be up to the race director to make sure the championship is decided under green, they had 22 races to decide who would be champ, if it ends under yellow, or with lapped traffic in the way so be it. It not as exciting as what happened on that last lap, but as Matt said it's a hollow victory.

F1 circus is right.
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Anyone who's worked in setting up or running a race quickly realize that something is going to screw up your race "rules". You can't have rules for ever single thing that might happen. Then you'd have to stop the race and have a research team research the rule book. And there isn't time to have a team debate either. That's why it's goot to leave it to one person and to not second guess that person.

budget76 said:
how is a teammate putting up a good fight against the other team past the line? thats the WHOLE POINT of being on a team. Why would he let Lewis breeze through to a championship? I'm cannot understand your logic there. Was Alonso wrong when he did it for Ocon? Bottas just hasn't been good at holding people up, but has tried to do the same for Lewis if he's ever in a spot to do so

I agree Lewis had it in the bag. I am also not a fan of how it ended and it feels a little BS how they flip flopped on the safety car handling/passing. but on Checo defending you are wrong flat out. That defense was epic, sucks he lost P3 with the car issue.
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This is where I am at. You should pull over instantly if someone is behind? That's not racing. If you want the pass then bump or get your nose up into the corner. And they swapped places several time and both cars passed each other back and forth.

edit: think i'd have rather seen it finish under the safety car. the comments above are probably right about overtaking / safety / etc and i'm sure we only got bits of the overall picture, but it just feels hokey. and Merc HAD to stay out, if they pitted and it finished under yellow Max walks to the win. If they don't pit and it restarts, Max wins. If they stay out and it finishes under yellow, Lewis takes it.
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Isn't that race strategy though? There been more then one race that team were screwed by where they were at when the safety car came out. I mean that's why there are several different compounds and sets of tires. They had a couple sprint earlier this year and that sounds like what someone want but others complained that they were dumb.
 
Weasel said:
Anyone who's worked in setting up or running a race quickly realize that something is going to screw up your race "rules". You can't have rules for ever single thing that might happen. Then you'd have to stop the race and have a research team research the rule book. And there isn't time to have a team debate either. That's why it's goot to leave it to one person and to not second guess that person.
unds and sets of tires. They had a couple sprint earlier this year and that sounds like what someone want but others complained that they were dumb.
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Except this wasn't uncharted territory, the championship status yes, but it's dumb to re-arrange the order on the track to make "better" racing. How much time did Hammy have on Max when the crash occurred, 4+ seconds? Then race director puts him right on his ass with fresh softs and Hammy can't pit for new rubber because the race might end in yellow whereas Max has nothing to lose so he grabs fresh softs and is placed right on the MB trans, how is that fair? The whole thing stinks.
 
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