2021 Formula 1

[Keavdog]

I won't spoil it for folks that may have recorded the race but WOW!!!!! Great season and an epic finish - congrats to all racing at the highest level of motorsports. Just WOW.

[bbowser]

Agreed, one of the best races of the year and an exciting season.  Can't wait for next year with the new car.

[sjordan2]

When a 13-second lead is nullified to become a one-lap, equal position drag race, I question the fairness.

[Ace-Garageguy]

And when some drivers and teams find it necessary to start with the hypocritical virtue-signaling, I look elsewhere for my motorsports fix.

Edited December 12, 2021 by Ace-Garageguy

[MeatMan]

1 hour ago, sjordan2 said:

When a 13-second lead is nullified to become a one-lap, equal position drag race, I question the fairness.

I agree. That was a goofy way to "assign" a winner. But that's F1 isn't it.

[tktom24]

First last lap pass for the win, since 2014. The most boring racing I have ever seen. They need to bring back, full pit stops.

[4mula1fan]

Mercedes won't  take it gracefully. They're protesting of course. They have been catered to all season and can't stand a good whooping. The sport, with whimpy cars over the last years have been on a slide. It makes me sad sometimes to be the 4mula1fan....

[4mula1fan]

I will however miss Kimi with his antics. 

[Bill Eh?]

6 hours ago, sjordan2 said:

When a 13-second lead is nullified to become a one-lap, equal position drag race, I question the fairness.

You question the fairness of Latifi crashing, or the fact that a Safetry Car was deployed to cleanup the debris? LOL

[Dave Van]

6 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

And when some drivers and teams find it necessary to start with the hypocritical virtue-signaling, I look elsewhere for my motorsports fix.

F1 had a number of issues this year that ALMOST made me stop following after more years than I care to admit.  The F1 got what they wanted....a movie like ending with tons of drama.....not racing.....drama, After I saw the PSA where Hamilton was crying in the back of his $30M yacht about rain forest.....F1 is a show...not a racing series. 

[OldNYJim]

I was pretty disappointed in how they ended it, honestly.  Exciting?  Sure.  But tweaking the safety car rule to manufacture a more exciting finish seemed artificial and absolutely not in the spirit of F1.

Would they have changed that rule and allowed just SOME of the backmarkers to un-lap themselves and bring the safety car in early to give Max a chance at getting by Lewis if it WASN'T the last lap of the last race of the season?  Nope - because they never have in the history of the sport, and that's not the how the rule works.

They shouldn't just change rules and invent new ones on the fly to guarantee (or at least try and provoke) a more interesting result - that's what left a bad taste in my mouth with the whole thing this weekend.  Is Max a worthy champion, based on the rest of the season?  Sure - but if they hadn't messed with the safety car procedure to introduce One Final Lap Of Racing™ then Lewis would be champion right now, and that doesn't seem right to me. 

 

 

 

[Bill Eh?]

Jim, I agree with you. But the stewards did the same kind of tweaking of the rules when Hamilton's Mercedes had all four tires leave the track at turn 6 of lap 1. Was he required to give the place back, as normally would be the case? No, creative interpretation,

Edited December 13, 2021 by Bill Eh?

[OldNYJim]

And that's the problem for me - picking and choosing which rules to enforce and which ones not to.  The rules really should be a binary thing, as much as possible.

Same thing with Max overtaking Hamilton under the safety car on that penultimate lap.  Was it by much?  No, but he did it.  Did he get a penalty?  No.  (Standard penalty for that is 5 seconds, which would put him back in second again).

They're both guilty of various rule infringements throughout the year, but only because they SOMETIMES get away with these things - and if you don't get a penalty for breaking a rule then you'd be giving up a sporting advantage if you DON'T make the most of that opportunity.  I get it - they want to push things as far as they can...but it's wrong, in my opinion, when a blind eye gets turned sometimes and not others and it ends up affecting the results.  I wanna see a fair even fight without the governing body interfering and spicing things up.

[Bill Eh?]

I can see a lot of discussions taking place, behind closed doors re the stewardship of races in the coming season. LOL

[dublin boy]

The problems would never have happened if Charlie Whiting was still around as race director, and yes Jim they are making it a show rather than a race.

Charlie was tough but fair, this new chap needs to go.

[Dave Van]

1 hour ago, CabDriver said:

I was pretty disappointed in how they ended it, honestly.  Exciting?  Sure.  But tweaking the safety car rule to manufacture a more exciting finish seemed artificial and absolutely not in the spirit of F1.

Would they have changed that rule and allowed just SOME of the backmarkers to un-lap themselves and bring the safety car in early to give Max a chance at getting by Lewis if it WASN'T the last lap of the last race of the season?  Nope - because they never have in the history of the sport, and that's not the how the rule works.

They shouldn't just change rules and invent new ones on the fly to guarantee (or at least try and provoke) a more interesting result - that's what left a bad taste in my mouth with the whole thing this weekend.  Is Max a worthy champion, based on the rest of the season?  Sure - but if they hadn't messed with the safety car procedure to introduce One Final Lap Of Racing™ then Lewis would be champion right now, and that doesn't seem right to me. 

 

 

 

 

I feel the changing of the rules on the last lap was in a way to make up for ignoring rules on lap one.  On lap one Hamilton advanced his position by missing a turn and going ahead of Max. NORMAL rules are if you give the position back all is good. Hamilton kept the advance and Stewards did not call him on it. So to make up for that miss......they did a 'Even Steven' on the last lap. 

Did F1 create drama for the sake of it....YES....it's not called 'The Circus'  for no reason! 

Just IMHO only....thx

In keeping with a model car forum....Senna Lotus!

 

 

Edited December 13, 2021 by Dave Van

[OldNYJim]

3 minutes ago, Dave Van said:

Did F1 create drama for the sake of it....YES....it's not called 'The Circus'  for no reason! 

Exactly.  I find it interesting enough though without them doing that, personally...but look at all the headlines they got by doing something controversial.  It figures, they're a business, they're trying to get eyes on screens and get people talking about them.  I'd be pretty upset if I was the guy who finished second yesterday tho.

Cool Lotus!  I wanna build some F1 kits - I always wanted that Tamiya Williams from the Mansell era, but last time I looked they were seriously not-cheap.  That little Fujimi (I think?) Senna kart kit is a cool semi-F1 related piece too.  There's a really nice resin kit of this year's Mercedes that I wanted, but that was crazy expensive too...

[Vince Nemanic]

One thing is being ignored here. Mercedes had the opportunity to pit LH for new (or at least less worn) tires but chose not to. You make your choices and live with them. Most of their strategic choices over the years have worked out for them- this one didn't.

[OldNYJim]

1 hour ago, Vince Nemanic said:

One thing is being ignored here. Mercedes had the opportunity to pit LH for new (or at least less worn) tires but chose not to. You make your choices and live with them. Most of their strategic choices over the years have worked out for them- this one didn't.

Not being ignored at all...if they'd pitted, Max was close enough that he would jump Lewis and take the lead - and with only 5 laps to go and a car smashed all over the track, likelihood is they wouldn't have had a chance to regain the position.  And they were right - if things had followed the normal procedure, the track was clear and ready to race with one lap - but the one lap that the regulations require to let lapped cars loop round to the back of the pack before the safety car comes in would've taken them to the flag.

Of course, that's based on the FIA following their own rules and not cutting the safety car short...

[Dave Van]

I did work for a BIG NASCAR promotor back in the day.  I got to know him pretty well. He told me if the show was getting really bad NASCAR would come on the radio and sk their track guys to find 'Marcel'.  'Marcel' was Marcel Bebris.......IE we need a caution to mix things up. 

F1 is no different.....just add Wine and Cheese. 

[OldNYJim]

Marcel Bebris ?