https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qlI...p_dQgOz75/view

30 minute highlights of the final race that I picked off of Reddit

MODS PLEASE REMOVE POST IF IT VIOLATES ANY RULES

That FIA decision pretty much says race director can do anything they want. What makes it fair when the race director can clearly decide who wins? It's pretty unfair they let only the cars between Lewis and Max go, what about the other lapped cars?

One second it's lap cars can't overtake and next second, lap cars can overtake. This has been a pathetic and inconsistent showing by the FIA. I really don't know how the protest will go, CAS possibly? I'd be happy for Michael Masi to get fired and let's head into 2022.

I doubt Lewis wants to win WDC 8x like this and now Max has an * for his WDC. Pretty shit situation all around, FIA is a joke.

Edit: Once the cars unlap themselves, doesn't the rule state safety car will be in the following lap and not right away?

Why not unlap the cars in front of the guy in 3rd spot as well and make it a 3 way battle? Doesn't giving a guy on fresh tires with no chance of anyone behind him being a concern not show a bit of bias? I would be a bit choked if I were the teams behind Max that didn't even get a chance

Exactly...why not have Sainz send it down the inside on fresh tires?

This whole season has been a clusterfuck of dubious, inconsistent and arbitrary decisions by the race director and stewards, and this race is no exception.
What unfolded in the last few laps were manufactured tv drama, not racing (it's not racing when the race director arbitrarily clears the traffic out of the way for Verstappen, who's running new soft tire while giving him a full lap to pass Hamilton, who's on hard tires that are over 40 laps old)

There's not enough time to move all the lapped cars out of the way and then restart.
So that leaves really only 3 options here.

1 - Finish the race under SC
2 - Restart with the the lapped cars in the way
3 - Move as many lapped cars as he could out of the way and then restart, giving the leaders clean air to the finish

If you were Masi in that high pressure situation, what would you have done? In the moment! Not after spending time online reading the steward's decision and rulebook word for word, and then debating online with strangers. In the moment!

I'd have picked 3 probably.

Red flag the situation. That's the easiest choice, give them 4 laps or so to fight on fresh tires.

If the options were handing someone a win to make for good TV or keeping the integrity of the sport then that's their call I guess. Don't all these teams spend millions of dollars to do this? If it becomes less of a sport and more contrived to make things interesting then you're basically redefining what you're selling. Who wants to spend huge coin to compete in something that is orchestrated on a whim?

Like I said earlier this is more of a soap opera for me, even the wife likes DTS on Netflix. When it comes to real sports though the best drama is when it's natural and not someone pulling the strings behind the scenes.

I would have picked option one, because it would have been the most consistent based on past safety car occurrances. This decision would have also guaranteed the win and championship for Hamilton, but he would have won anyways if Latifi didn't crash/cause the SC to be deployed.

Option three is basically Michael Masi gifting the win/championship to Verstappen. Mazespin in his Haas with new soft tires could have passed Hamilton at that stage of the race.

I read someone say that rule 48.12 or 48.13? Stipulated only the lapped cars that crossed the line when the SC came out needed to be unlapped, and those were the ones that were allowed to unlap themselves, not sure tho, that was just from reddit

SC was the option they went with

All options would've resulted in ppl bitching n complaining n calling for Masi's head and accusing the FIA of shit, every situation

Masi decided as he did /shrug

Yeah that's kind of where I'm at.

I believe that he would have done the same thing if the situation was reversed.

If there was a chance the track would be clear enough to allow a return to green, then he would have been obligated to go green or else that'd be unfair to Max. The only controversial thing was allowing the cars in front to unlap themselves, which I guess like they have ruled is up to the Race Director's discretion.

That was a total farce of a finish. The inconsistency of the officiating throughout the year led us to this - the race director choosing whatever rule he wanted to follow and entirely inconsistently with prior precedent. Of all the different options he could have chosen he chose the one that gifted the win to Red Bull - the team that hadn't led a single lap in the race.

The red flag like they did in Baku would have been the one that caused the least tipping of the scales, alternately you finish under SC which has prior precedent and would have left the running order as it stood in a situation where Red Bull wasn't close to Mercedes anyways so no foul either.

I really wanted Honda to close out with a championship (and mostly wanted Verstappen to win this year until his unsportsmanlike driving just soured me so much) but this was an ugly way to win a championship.

c'mon guys, all of you complaining that Masi bends the rules, and then you choose RED FLAG?

Red flag is ONLY used for situations when track conditions are too dangerous to continue even under SC. If he waved the red flag, then it would a total OBVIOUS misapplication of the rules.

If this was any other race they probably would have just ended it with the safety car no? Is it normal for them to change things and let certain cars unlap and then pull the safety car early for a last lap one on one showdown?

Not every Stanley Cup final or World Series is some game 7 nail biter right till the end. When you start going off script to fabricate something that shouldn't have been then you're blurring the lines between sport and entertainment.

Masi's goal was to make it some grand finale to increase dramatics (hence not finishing under SC and letting only 4 car pass), wouldn't the red flag be at least "fair"? What happened was already an "OBVIOUS misapplication of the rules" lol

Letting Max on fresh soft tires attack Lewis's 40+ lap old hard tire seems like handing the WDC to Max on a silver platter.

I'll be perfectly honest, I didn't think Michael Masi could stoop any lower than what happened at Spa. How wrong was I.
Any chance Masi will be replaced before next season starts? After all, he in did inherit the job after Charlie Whiting died. Not sure if he was promoted based on merit.

No, Masi's goal was to make every effort to restart the race and not finish under SC. How is that different from any other race, in any other form of motorsport? Indycar, Nascar, etc. The goal is always the same: minimize caution periods and maximize racing, and especially avoid finishing under SC if you can avoid it. The wrinkle here was that he only unlapped a portion of the field, and there's no precedence for that.

Not a misapplication, and certainly not obvious. https://www.fia.com/sites/default/fi...t.%2048.12.pdf

That's such a stretch. Red Bull gambled with the pitstop and it paid off, but it also could have backfired. Him having fresh tires has nothing to do with Masi.

My comments in this thread, that race, the championship, and the thread that's followed.....

https://media4.giphy.com/media/VM01S...1bSF/giphy.gif

I've been reading various interpretations of the rules on r/F1Technical and mostly it reads as two types of things:

1) The rules are inconsistent in what they say can and can't be done.
2) Some rules imply that the racing director can do whatever they please.

For example: https://www.reddit.com/r/F1Technical...g_regulations/

My argument for calling it a farce is the inconsistency of how they have applied the rules this year - from how Spa was run to the lack of penalties for Verstappen for driving people off track to even the use of the red flag in Baku. It's been a clown show by Masi and today he inserted himself into the result for two drivers who did nothing wrong to have their work muddied.

Verstappen's win will never been seen as a clean win and Hamilton will be considered by some to have had an 8th championship stolen from him.

Be consistent with the application of the rules so the drivers and teams know what the situation is - don't declare one set of rules (no cars to un-lap themselves) and then declare a new, unused one 6 turns before the start of racing.

For consistency it should have been one of the following:

1. All lapped cars unlapped and SC comes in the lap after. This could have been done a lap sooner so there was still 1 lap left, Masi just left it too late. Verstappen wins.
2. No lapped cars unlapped, SC comes in with 1-2 laps left. Hamilton wins.
3. Red flag with 4 laps to go. Either Hamilton/Verstappen wins. Fair fight.
4. Finish under the safety car. Hamilton wins.

All of these are reasonable applications of the rules with prior precedent (the red flag has the least precedent and one that is arguably questionable) and the winner gets to win fair and square. Instead a half pregnant rule is applied that only affects the top 2 runners and they are only notified 6 turns before racing resumes. How come Sainz in 3rd didn't get a chance to have a shot at Verstappen? Or maybe Sainz could have had a shot at Hamilton for 2nd in scenario #1.

It's total absolute bullshit - this was WWE racing.

Notably, the half pregnant action to allow Verstappen a shot at Hamilton was due partly to lobbying by Christian Horner to Masi - he was lobbying for all cars to be unlapped as soon as the safety car was out and Masi told him to bugger off as he was busy dealing with the crash. Masi ended up doing part of what Horner wanted and left it late enough that Mercedes was unprepared for it.

Questionable decisions both for and against Lewis and Max throughout the season. Steward decisions and race control have been inconsistent all season.

Happy to see a new WC. Don't mind the drama as it adds excitement to what was a pretty boring past few seasons. Just look at the amount of new F1 fans and ongoing discussions and memes entering the fray nowadays.

One thing is for certain - DTS season 4 is going to be epic.

Didn't catch this live but absolutely loved Albon being the first to scream at Max after he crosses the line:

If they red flagged it n restarted that would be gifting the race to Hamilton/Mercedes because it would give them a free tyre change when they put their bets on not changing the tires

And it would be a precedent too bcuz the track wasn't in a poor enough condition which required a red flag

Could you imagine all the people bitching then? It may or may not be you bitching, but there would still be a shit tonne of people bitching

Same if they ended the race under the safety car

Why was that Masi's goal though? Whiting would've ended the race under SC, as he did numerous times before. That's the thing, he couldn't avoid it while following the rules, instead he made his own rule(s) up. That's the consistency aspect of things, he fucked up bad and the best outcome is having Masi fired and bring in someone more competent, and make the rules much more clear for 2022 and on wards.

Because as Masi stated during the hearing, that's what Toto, Horner et al wanted (look back at Great68s post where he posted the transcript)

Sometimes a race will end behind a SC, because an accident happens with a few laps left.

It doesn't mean you meddle with the race in order to get a "race finish".

Again, it all comes down to contrivance, and making the sport look like a farce. Which is fine if you accept that - coming from a pro wrestling fan, it can be really fun. But call it like it is if you do. Don't use a poorly written rule book that can be left to interpretation in order to say why you're right. Might as well argue about the Bible in that case.

Also yes this resulted in Max winning, and if the roles had been reversed, they likely would have done the same thing. Nobody is saying this was done to give Max the win (OK I said that when I was really mad, but I took it back). It's the meddling with the race that's an issue, not who got the win in the end.

Red Bull look like geniuses changing tires, not because they knew the stewards would fuck with the race in their favour, but they knew that it could happen, and were ready for it when it did. Mercedes took an approach as if the race would be run in a consistent way.. I guess you could argue that was a mistake in itself.

If that's the type of strategy you like, fine. All sports can be a bit fucky, and strategies come out in order to take advantage when they do. But meh... Just be consistent is all I'd ask for if you're talking about an actual sport.