Formula 1 Round 22 Abu Dhabi GP

One thing I'll say about this is it's always a more difficult decision for the lead car. Look at Lando in the Russian GP this year. He decided to stay out because he didn't want to give up track position. Lewis pitted as it was essentially a free hit for him.

Mercedes absolutely gambled by leaving Lewis out. And I have to say he was incredibly unlucky. But the difference between some cars unlapping themselves no cars doing it isn’t the defining reason he lost the race.

Merc did anticipate a safety car. Not too long before it happened there was comms broadcast between Lewis and Bonno discussing what tyre to pit for in the event of a safety car and Lewis said either work fine (M or H) So clearly it was something they were thinking about.

I don't have to give you examples.

People are complaining about rules and when you point out some admittedly obscure rules of F1, they complain about something else or try to focus selectively on the rules like Mercedes are doing.

There are a lot of rules to F1, hundreds if not thousands.

But the over-arching one appears to be that that race director has the final say. This is the main one. F1 races happen at over 100 miles an hour. Race Directors have to think fast and on their feet.

Masi was within the rules to pull in the safety car whenever he wanted. Everything after that is probably secondary. The reason for allowing cars unlap themselves is so they don't get in the way of the front runners competing. This is perfectly fair and within the rules as is pitting under a safety car.

If they allow pitting under a safety car, then they have to allow cars to unlap, otherwise it puts the second car at a huge disadvantage.

Mercedes complaining about rules not being followed is massive sore loser stuff.

Even with the safety cars and cars unlapping Hamilton had a number of chances to win the race, particularly on the final lap. He had the straighline speed. But he always wants to go on the outside rather than risk going on the inside and in fairness Max put him out there. Verstappen is a better driver imo in a slightly inferior car.

There's been little mention of Hamiltons gaining a huge advantage on the first lap. And as for Mercedes sticking a new engine in the car every so often, taking the 5 place penalty but gaining almost a second a lap on everyone else, it makes a mockery of fairness.

The problem with Mercedes is they like to have F1 titles handed to them on a plate with a huge advantage and to have it practically sown up mid season. With a massive budget, all they are doing is buying titles left right and centre. Great for them, but terminal for the sport of F1.

No, I’m not certain. That’s not important though, these sort of decisions win or lose races and Mercedes made the wrong decision. It doesn’t matter if I say that with hindsight or not.

Mostly from a health and safety point of view, they don't refuel anymore. You don't really want to rush a fuel stop and there was plenty of examples of it going haywire.

Also the cost - pit teams having to dress in fire retardant gear, practising etc.

They've put bigger tanks in the cars now and lengthened the cars to take them. Personally I don't miss the refueling. And some drivers ran out of fuel on the lap while trying to gain an advantage.

The result doesn't sit right with me at all and i'm a big fan of both drivers and F1, Horner seemed to influence what happened in getting the race going again which doesn't seem right but i'm sure Toto would probably have done the same.

But that's F1, there's a history of dodgy calls and decisions and i guess max is the more marketable F1 star going forward, coincidence ? i'm not sure. One thing is for sure, the gloves will really be off next year.

Why should I have to give examples?

Who on earth wants the tightest F1 championship in history decided behind a safety car? If they do, just give F1 a miss and find some other sport.

This championship was decided by two drivers going man to man and one driver losing his bottle while the other driving brilliantly. That's how we want it decided.

The rules have been inconsistantly applied all season, most people agree on that. That's because F1 is a fast sport. But the rules and mistakes even themselves out.

We can go back over numerous examples where one team or another benefitted.

Mercedes being allowed put a new engine in for the last 4 races is just a joke for example, but within the rules. They got a 5 place penalty which Hamilton made up in a couple of laps and then went on to win the race at a cantor.

In the last race, Verstappen is asked to give up his position after going off the track. When Hamilton goes off he's not asked to give it up.

Ultimately it was fair and right, with all the rule inconsistances that the two front runners were allowed to race it out. Hamilton had ample opportunity to win on the last lap. Verstappen had one opportunity to pass and took it. Hamiliton had 2 or 3 and failed to take any.

Better driver won. I know that won't go down well with people who wanted it decided by the lawyers, but who cares.

It didn’t sit right with me when Toto called for no SC to Masi when Giovanazzi retired - that was bad form.

And then he wants the race to finish under the SC?!

The lead driver is regularly at a disadvantage under a SC condition - the old track position vs fresh tyres predicament. Lewis lost out on this occasion and accepted it gracefully.

Toto was doing exactly the same. Mid race a car parked up on exit of T9 I think. Toto was on race radio telling the RD not to put out a safety car. So who was influencing who?

So the lesser of two evils is to throw out standard procedure that would have favoured Hamliton, in favour of making up rules to favour Max.

Speaking of ignoring, why not answer the question?

Why did Masi not take the logical step of no cars unlapping and just restarting the race?

This is it exactly. Most don't have a problem with Verstappen winning. In fact he, or the team, didn't put a foot wrong yesterday. It's the way Hamilton was left a sitting duck at the restart that's the problem. Race control would have known this would be the case and went ahead with it anyway despite the rules being stretched.

You can say the rules allow this, but safety car rules are there for safety, not manufacturing a finish. Also, the teams were ok with restarting with the lapped cars in place. This would have given Verstappen a more than fair chance at the win, when you consider he was out paced all race and had already done well out of the safety car.

Just because it hasn’t happened before doesn’t mean it’s not allowed. It’s fairly clear that Masi was within his rights to make that call and he did!