No F1 thread?

[Mito Man]

They’ve just appealed it. As expected.
Edit - well given notice that they are.

[Maurice]

Exactly the right call, IMO. I didn't really care who won ultimately, only that they were actually racing. And a one lap duke it out for a championship title is a good result in my book. It was even a clean overtake by Max.

The post-race whining and protesting can get in the sea.

Agree entirely.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Exactly the right call, IMO. I didn't really care who won ultimately, only that they were actually racing. And a one lap duke it out for a championship title is a good result in my book. It was even a clean overtake by Max.

The post-race whining and protesting can get in the sea.

I think a better approach might have been to red flag it and then restart with 3-4 laps. As soon as I saw the crash I knew it was Verstappens title so I've no issue with him winning.

But making stuff up on the fly is bollocks

I don't want to see the result changed. But I do hope there are some significant ramifications for Masi and the stewarding as it's been shambolic at several times this season

[jamcg]

I think Massi will have to walk or get sacked to make this go away

[Pete_]

Exactly the right call, IMO. I didn't really care who won ultimately, only that they were actually racing. And a one lap duke it out for a championship title is a good result in my book. It was even a clean overtake by Max.

The post-race whining and protesting can get in the sea.

Agree entirely.

Might as well just have a one lap shootout on hugely unequal tyres to decide every race then. Masi chose to operate outside the framework of the rules in a way which removed the advantage that Hamilton had built up by being faster all race. And he did so knowing that Verstappen would benefit from his decision. That's not actual racing IMO.

[mik]

Interesting that Sainz was denied the chance of trying to take 2nd, so Max didn’t have to worry about defending.

I won’t lose any sleep over this, but shirley rules have to be maintained. I’m sure it would be interesting in the closing minutes of a tied-on-goals World Cup final for the ref to declare that biting and eye gouging were allowed until the end….

And to suggest that “any” doesn’t mean “all” is pathetic. So if they demanded that “any driver under the age of 30 must come to the race directors office” I suspect they’d probably want all of them to turn up as opposed to a subset

[Mito Man]

Some changes I’d like to see:
- Masi needs to go.
- Teams can only message race director with a 140 character limit twice per race - listening to them whinge is painful and clogs up the radio.
- All steward’s decisions to be decided by the final lap of the race. None of this shit that takes 4 hours after the race.
- Bin the safety car and just have a red flag followed by standing start. Most races are shitty processions so this is at least exciting and everyone gets new tyres.

[Pete_]

Some changes I’d like to see:
- Masi needs to go. Agree
- Teams can only message race director with a 140 character limit twice per race - listening to them whinge is painful and clogs up the radio. I like hearing them whinge and would much rather we hear what goes on in those conversations than have it behind closed doors. But need a race director who doesn't take the BS.
- All steward’s decisions to be decided by the final lap of the race. None of this shit that takes 4 hours after the race. Agree it needs to be made sooner but what if it's about something that happens on the last lap?
- Bin the safety car and just have a red flag followed by standing start. Most races are shitty processions so this is at least exciting and everyone gets new tyres. Agree with bin safety car, unless in exceptional circumstances (e.g. I thought it was appropriate in Saudi), today should have been VSC and they shouldn't be allowed to change tyres during red flag periods.

[Mito Man]

I think the telehandler was out for Latifi, and you can’t have a VSC if there’s heavy machinery on track, so it had to be a full safety car?

The reason the stewards decisions take so long now is because Masi has introduced so much ambiguity. If you use the following rules - ‘the track is between the white lines’ and ‘you must leave your competitor a cars width if they’re alongside you’ all of the crap we’ve had the latter half of this year would be resolved in seconds…

[Gwaredd]

Super exciting, and I have a happy daughter as she loves Max, but I feel a bit like England has just lost on penalties.

I find it ludicrous that a car 11 seconds in front has to give that lead up under yellow flag conditions with cars in between. Hamilton showed he was clearly faster all day today , but a shambolic end handed the victory to the wrong guy imo.

Mercedes have to shoulder some of the blame by playing too cautiously.

Bitter pill for us Ham fans to swallow, but I'm sure Max feels he's justifiably won it.

On to next year!

[nuttinnew]

How much was Latifi paid?

[Mito Man]

Bet Mazepin was glad he missed the race

[Delphi]

What a fucking shitshow.

Masi: “Lapped cars will not pass”

Masi: “Actually, lapped cars will pass”

Masi: “But just the ones between Max and Lewis, nobody else. Oh, and as they’re passing we’re going green as well”

Honestly, these last two races have been a disaster from Masi and race control. They need to enforce the rulebook as it’s written, regardless of who the offender is, how many laps are left, etc. None of this crap would have happened on Charlie Whiting's watch.

Adapting the rules for the sake of the show isn’t a good look.

[dinny_g]

Good analogy on Sky News this morning...

"For Mercedes, it's like you're winning 4:0 in the World Cup final and at 90 mins, the ref randomly says "OK, Next Goal Wins" and then immediately hands the other team a penalty"

[Ascender]

I find it ludicrous that a car 11 seconds in front has to give that lead up under yellow flag conditions with cars in between. Hamilton showed he was clearly faster all day today , but a shambolic end handed the victory to the wrong guy imo.

That's the bit where the rules fall down, albeit the stakes were much higher than they'd normally be. Although maybe there should be some sort of rule whereby if it happens within x laps of the finish, then an extra y number of laps will be raced.

[mik]

Have we discussed Perez yet?

I though he did a great job - fighting really hard in a slower car, and generally making himself a right pain in the arse, but in a way that left room for that to happen.

[Pete_]

Have we discussed Perez yet?

I though he did a great job - fighting really hard in a slower car, and generally making himself a right pain in the arse, but in a way that left room for that to happen.

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But yes I agree, he did his job perfectly

[mik]

Oh yeah - sorry - it got lost in all the confusion.

[Marv]

Perez has always been pretty good at wheel to wheel racing.

Unlike Bottas

I hope Russell can play the foil next year and mix things up between the Hamilton/Verstappen dynamic...providing RBR & Merc are still the fastest...

[duncs500]

I think LH probably would have taken Perez a lot earlier in normal circumstances, but you could tell he was acutely aware that at that stage RB had little to lose and any penalty for taking him off wouldn't have prevented MV from winning the title, unlike if MV did it himself.

As admittedly a fan of LH in general, he has been phenomenal this season on and off track, and the way he conducted himself after the race was exemplary. I hope he does get his 8th title at some point, he deserves to be out there on his own on world titles.