Grand Prix thread ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX 2021

Meh, as far as I'm concerned Max has the tainted WDC his dirty driving deserved. He should've been dq'd in Brazil for what he tried to do in T4 and his later blatant weaving.

 

I am just trying to get over it and thereby justify it. Of course it has been manipulated, the stewarding poor. Who can deny.

 

Sad part for him is that he played no part in that debacle. I doubt that bothers him at all though since he was already feeling victimized.

What this does put to bed though is the suggestion that the FIA we're somehow favoring Mercedes for the title.

Whoever won at the weekend, I just wanted to able to sit back and think, wow... That was amazing!

Instead I'm just left wondering what the point is, because that wasn't sport at the weekend.

 

I'm just waiting for Masi to announce that the young drivers test is actually worth 396 points, so in fact De Vries is the 2021 champion.

 

i personally think merc and hamilton have been setting up and bad mouthing verstappen for a long time. The lad's a bit of an idiot TBH

In just about every incident between the two you will see that hamilton places himself on the outside so he can jump on the radio after and scream pushed off the track. this seems very tactical to me but it seems that it worked on masi and it materially affected things as we went on.

Hamilton has seemingly decided to make sure he is on the outside and able to bail out and get on the blower., Verstappen seems to fall for it every time.

We all know Verstappen is a lunatic, but how many of the moves have been him deliberately not giving room or crashing into people really? people really?

look at the evidence:

Bahrain: Stewards decides Verstappen exceeds track limits after passing Hamilton and stewards say give it back or take a penalty and red bull force him to give it back.

Barcelona: Hamilton passes and wins race. Verstappen weaves like mad and then tries to push Hamilton more wide but Hamilton sails by under drs. (do we want this stuff to be outlawed really??)

France: Hamilton tyres go off and he is passed by Verstappen, he makes his one move which is ok but squeezes Verstappen but again he is by.

British GP: big impact in turn 1. this time its much closer and both go in at once. Hamilton is on inside and Verstappen turns in anyway. the guy on the outside of a massive high speed corner is always coming off worse. Hamilton is given 10 second penalty but Verstappen loses out most as he DNFs

Italy: another massive incident. Hamilton is on track after stop and is cold tyres. and Verstappen has a **** stop before and has lost the head on the radio as above. Hamilton squeezes hard to try keep ahead into chicane and Verstappen refuses to budge. This is a classic big pressure incident made look worse but the kerb bouncing Verstappen up. Seriously dangers as it could have killed Hamilton but for the halo. stewards punish Verstappen and then the political machine starts big time.

Austin: Hamilton goes wheel to wheel in FP2 with Verstappen trying to wind up.

Brazil: Hamilton is DQ in quali. he gets to 10th in sprint then charges through field in race . Hamilton gets past clearly on straight but brakes earlyish on the racing line which is outside. Verstappen piles down the inside in his only chance to stay ahead for then and has no hope of not washing out, he does and both go off and the radio chatter starts hugely. the stewards let the thing go. no penalty.

Qatar: someone waves a double yellow with no other indication on sterrling wheel or lights and verstappen gets a 3 place grid penalty

Saudi a blip on the system flashes double waves yellow signal at Hamilton . he gets a warning only.

Saudi: Verstappen planks the car in quali but the a mad start puts him in p1 and all sorts go on with Verstappen on wearing tyres. Verstappen repeats the same incident as per brazil. Hamilton passes but is on racing line and Verstappen brakes late on inside and sticks nose in front and again washes out. Hamilton has a big whine and this time masi gets involved and decides Verstappen must "give the space back" then they confuse it and the cars hit as Verstappen is told by Horner to do it "strategically" The stewards then decide to give 2 penalties for the hell of it just to show they did something but it doesn't affect final outcome.

The abu dhabi finale: Hamilton is on the outside at the opening having had good start and Verstappen sticks car down the inside and stays on track (this is the third time this similar incident occurs) Hamilton turns right and completely cuts out a full corner and gets no penalty having screamed he pushed me off again.)

After the big safety car incident the same thing happens again. Hamilton doesn't close the door. Verstappen dives down the inside but this time Hamilton isn't off the road so the more or less same hit me or back out message comes across. The cars then dice in two more corners in close racing but Verstappen comes out on top.


We are seeing inconsistencies right across the decision making. over lenient stewards in brazil? over reacting stewards in Saudi for political reasons and a rather effective tactic that set up verstappen as the bad guy.

Verstappen is well known for weaving, moving under braking and being hard to pass and he certainly has developed a tactic of undersetting off but as far as i can see tactics on the other side where the wsie heads are leaving it wide open for the kid to dive in stupidly and then get on the blower to gain massive advantage.

For me if the stewards had dealt with this at brazil correctly day 1 and not just shrugged and said the result in the end was all right etc then maybe we wouldn't have this masi masi situation .

 

Great post.
I must say I am surprised that Lewis keeps leaving the door open on the inside when we can all see that Max takes a late lunge and then understeers on purpose to push any opponent wide knowing his defence is that he had understeer - apart from he induced it by taking too much speed and then too much steering angle.

I think FIA and Liberty need to get their heads together and sort out the rules so everyone is clean and understands where they are.

 

Interesting article on BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/59643988
OK so it is by Andrew Benson but it's quite interesting.

 

The American owners of F1 Liberty (quite appropriate for what they have taken this year) are not interested in sportsmanship or fair play, they are only interested in a spectacle that might make them even more money and I guarantee they had the major part in that decision

Michael Messy HAS to go before the next season and be replaced by someone who is knowledgeable enough about what F1 should be and be strong enough to resist inside OR/AND outside interference

I hope Mercedes and Ferrari combine next season to prevent Red Bull from even a podium let alone a race win

 

Imo they've decided that they could influence penalties and avoid contact. Hamilton can see him coming and has amazingly only done it where theres loads of run off. 4 occasions where it's happened and 3 timed hamilton has gone off track and avoided contact. Coincidence theres large run off.

First time stewards shrugged as the result was unchanged.
Second time verstappen is punished
Third time hamilton is let off completely cutting the corner.
The 4th time verstappen gets round with all 4 wheels on track and hamilton doesn't scream he pushed me off..no doubt the shock of the fit up was dominant in his mind.

If that turn 5 last lunge was just regular racing imo hamilton would have done for verstappen

 

I think trying to attribute blame to Hamilton for Max's driving style is quite a stretch. Max has been a hot head since entering the sport. Be that just the way he drives, or a symptom of his lack of experience in skipping so much in the junior categories, I don't know... But Max is responsible for Max.

 

all i'm saying is they've exploited his driving style. Nobody is to "blame" for max Verstappen pushing the limits by max Verstappen. As i said he can be a lunatic.

Mercedes do love using the radio to gain advantage. they did it with vettel when they were sort of close and thye are doing the same.

and others do the same but really it drives me potty when teams scream murder about a bit of racing to get stewards to look at it when in fact its going to happen anyway or is marginal

 

Article here: https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-...er-michael-masi-nico-rosberg-red-bull-f1-news
Suggesting Ross is going to make it so no team to Masi 'chats' in 2022!!!
Looks like Masi will stay in his position!

 

They can't get rid of him, if they do it's an admission that Masi cheated Lewis out of a WDC

 

I would be interested to know if this makes the sport more popular or less. A lot of whimsicals may follow for a month or two next year and fall away after the first few races when they realise not every race is as dramatic while us regulars have a bad taste in our mouths and want to see justice, if not off the track then on it.

 

They should have nipped this in the bud when it started to happen .
As Brundle said , this is the first year this has been broadcast , but is it the first time these discussions have taken place ?

Either way the powers that be look stupid .

 

I think it's possible that the nature of those conversations may have changed somewhat since they were broadcast. Now teams aren't just asking questions of the race director, they're also lobbying the viewers. It's how propaganda slogans like "let them race" are now rife on social media, regardless of the circumstances.

This in itself adds pressure on the race director and stewards. So maybe those conversations shouldn't be aired.

 

I agree , but for Brawn to say this will stop , puts up another barrier / doubt .

 

The problem stopping it is we don't actually know they have stopped it just that they will stop broadcasting the 'chats'!!!

Masi should be only one allowed to initiate a conversation, not the teams but it should be broadcast!!

 

Yes well said.

The steward should steward.

The clerk of course should tell the teams about safety, timing and such

The race director should sit aloof and direct.

I say keep broadcasting the chatter, let's hear the whinging at stewards and hear the responses so we know it's at least consistent application of rules.

 

They can as of Friday. The FIA president election is Friday, so in theory a new broom could sweep out Masi or change his authority and make it a committee effort etc. That way 'FIA can't get blamed' just a new person changing how things are run, so no admission of a failure to follow rules?