[Misc] F1 2021

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Hugo Rune

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Feb 23, 2012
23,692
Brighton
Mercedes have withdrawn their appeal and congratulated Max on his world championship. While I don't think they'd have ever got the result over turned I think this is the wrong move and lets the FIA off when there has been a clear inconsistency in how rules were applied this season. I don't hold out much hope of this so called review the FIA have commited too.

No more F1 for me now.
 




Nobby Cybergoat

Well-known member
Jul 19, 2021
8,628
Mercedes have withdrawn their appeal and congratulated Max on his world championship. While I don't think they'd have ever got the result over turned I think this is the wrong move and lets the FIA off when there has been a clear inconsistency in how rules were applied this season and the publicity of an appeal would have put more pressure on the FIA to do something about it. I don't hold out much hope of this so called review the FIA have commited too.

Yeh, it makes you wonder what discussions have gone on behind the scenes
 




pb21

Well-known member
Apr 23, 2010
6,689
It's not in their long term commercial interest to pursue.

They know that nothing would come of it, so whilst they could rightly take the moral high ground and continue, it would end up negatively affecting them too.

They were in no win situation, a bit like a Hamilton on lap 58 on Sunday.
 






Nitram

Well-known member
Jul 16, 2013
2,268
Mercedes have withdrawn their appeal and congratulated Max on his world championship. While I don't think they'd have ever got the result over turned I think this is the wrong move and lets the FIA off when there has been a clear inconsistency in how rules were applied this season and the publicity of an appeal would have put more pressure on the FIA to do something about it. I don't hold out much hope of this so called review the FIA have commited too.

I think it’s the right move, although they were totally robbed by an incompetent race director.
They have taken the high road, the majority- aside from Red Bull and the Dutch - see the last race as a farce and that Hamilton had his 8th championship stolen - increasingly public opinion is against FIA, however prolonging this will do no-one any favours.
Hamilton and his Dad showed how to act with dignity after the event, as they say don’t wrestle with pigs, you both get dirty and the pig likes it.
 


Audax

Boing boing boing...
Aug 3, 2015
3,263
Uckfield
One thing I will say, for the younger/newer/casual viewers out there:

This isn't a patch on 1989. The then head of the FIA (Balestre) acted to get Senna DQ'd at Suzuka and hand the title to Prost. It was controversial at the time, and Balestre has subsequently admitted that he acted in favour of Prost.

1989 was a deliberate act to ensure Prost got the title. 2021 was an act of incompetence. I'm expecting the FIA investigation to result in changes that ensure this can never happen again. At the end of the day, what the FIA cares the most about is the image of Formula 1. They will act to ensure that the there is no repeat of Abu Dhabi 2021, and that will certainly mean there will be tweaks to the regulations to make it impossible for them to be "misunderstood" by anyone - be that the Race Director or drivers, teams, and fans. Masi won't come out of this exonerated, no way known - his communications and decision making process will be examined to the nth degree. Whether he keeps his role or not, I don't know, but if he does keep it he'll find the role will be much more tightly controlled.

There's a ready-baked template set of rules in Indycar that they could borrow. They are both clear, well understood, and fairer than the current F1 rulebook.

I expect Mercedes withdrawing their appeal means they've been given clear-cut assurances from the FIA in relation to the investigation, how it will be run, what will be looked at, etc etc that means they're confident there will be meaningful change as a result.
 


Audax

Boing boing boing...
Aug 3, 2015
3,263
Uckfield
I think that's a very bad misunderstanding of the FIAs intentions here.

Just to clarify, I'm not blaming your for misunderstanding. Having thought on it further, seen Mercedes' statement this morning, and read a couple of articles:

My opinion of the FIA statement last night is that it's been clumsily worded as a result of spending too much time trying to be very careful with the wording. To explain, I think they've spent all their time and effort on crafting the message so that it a) only contains statements of fact, and b) has nothing in it that could be construed as pre-judging any outcomes from the investigation. But the outcome of that is that they've left it wide open to be misunderstood in the way so many are: that they are attempting to pass blame elsewhere, and will ultimately sweep things under the carpet.

I don't think they had any intention to shift "blame" for any misunderstandings onto teams, drivers, or fans. I think they thought they were simply acknowledging the fact that those exist, rather than addressing any potential causes for them existing, and using that as a reason for launching a full investigation into how they came about.
 




JJ McClure

Go Jags
Jul 7, 2003
11,109
Hassocks
So I misunderstood the rules, then badly misunderstood the FIA statement about the fact that I misunderstood the rules and then needed help to understand why I may have misunderstood that statement in to my misunderstanding of how I misunderstood everything. Today is not going well.
 


Hugo Rune

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Feb 23, 2012
23,692
Brighton
Toto has said that he is not sure if Hamilton will ever race in F1 again.

I wouldn’t blame Lewis for walking out, if one man has the power to ignore rules with the direct effect of costing you the World Championship and the FIA do not fix the situation retrospectively (as well as in the future), why would you stay?

Infact I’d encourage Lewis to quit F1. Hopefully he’d race in the e-series rather than Indy Cars or Sports Cars.
 






GREASED WEASEL

New member
Dec 10, 2017
2,893
One thing I will say, for the younger/newer/casual viewers out there:

This isn't a patch on 1989. The then head of the FIA (Balestre) acted to get Senna DQ'd at Suzuka and hand the title to Prost. It was controversial at the time, and Balestre has subsequently admitted that he acted in favour of Prost.


Balestre & Prost both being French :wink:

Senna was robbed,no doubt about that

But so was Hamilton

Just as controversial as the other
 




Icy Gull

Back on the rollercoaster
Jul 5, 2003
72,015
Balestre & Prost both being French :wink:

Senna was robbed,no doubt about that

But so was Hamilton

Just as controversial as the other

Except this time it was cheating/incompetence/weakness of character played out in front of the world
 




Seasider78

Well-known member
Nov 14, 2004
6,011
Personally think he’s made of sterner stuff than that. He will be seriously pissed at being robbed and I expect him to come back with a point to prove.

We’ll see..


https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/59686315

His comment about it being manipulated on the last lap was very telling he then sat in the car composing himself for some time at the end of the race. When he had driven a perfect race it must be tough to take to feel like the industry he races in choose to lose him the title he would have secured up to the point of the decision. He is bound to take that decision personally and question why they handed MV such an obvious advantage

However quitting it not in Hamilton makeup and with Toto equally fuming at the injustice of it all I can see a fiercely determined Hamilton and Mercedes coming back to wipe that smug grin off Horner’s face next season.
 


Seagull58

In the Algarve
Jan 31, 2012
8,516
Vilamoura, Portugal
If Hamilton decides to continue next year with the aim of grinding Red Bull into the dust I would applaud him for doing so. I'm not sure, if I was him, that I could commit to that if Masi stays in position though.
Equally, I would applaud him if he walked away from F1 having been outrageously robbed of a record-breaking 8th title. I would applaud him even more if his decision to walk away was accompanied by a statement castigating the FIA and Masi.
 


Icy Gull

Back on the rollercoaster
Jul 5, 2003
72,015
His comment about it being manipulated on the last lap was very telling he then sat in the car composing himself for some time at the end of the race. When he had driven a perfect race it must be tough to take to feel like the industry he races in choose to lose him the title he would have secured up to the point of the decision. He is bound to take that decision personally and question why they handed MV such an obvious advantage

However quitting it not in Hamilton makeup and with Toto equally fuming at the injustice of it all I can see a fiercely determined Hamilton and Mercedes coming back to wipe that smug grin off Horner’s face next season.

Especially as Mercedes were also mostly concentrating on rule changes for next year as Red Bull threw everything at this season..allegedly
 
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Hugo Rune

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Feb 23, 2012
23,692
Brighton
Especially as Mercedes were also concentrating on rule changes for next year as Red Bull threw everything at this season..allegedly

Potentially, Mercedes have got themselves Masi sacked, a new team manager coms process (you can’t have ****ing Karen ringing the race director and saying stuff like “we just need one racing lap”) and a re-writing of the rules to ensure a driver can’t be sportingly disadvantaged if the race director starts making up the rules as he goes along.

Maybe Hamilton will stay if Mercedes have got a good deal but for me, I’ll be giving F1 a miss for the foreseeable future. I’m still angry about Schumacher getting away with stealing Hill’s title by creating a crash. It’s going to take me a long time to get to grips with the way Hamilton was robbed.
 






Icy Gull

Back on the rollercoaster
Jul 5, 2003
72,015
Potentially, Mercedes have got themselves Masi sacked, a new team manager coms process (you can’t have ****ing Karen ringing the race director and saying stuff like “we just need one racing lap”) and a re-writing of the rules to ensure a driver can’t be sportingly disadvantaged if the race director starts making up the rules as he goes along.

Maybe Hamilton will stay with that but for me, I’ll be giving F1 a miss for the foreseeable future. I’m still angry about Schumacher getting away with stealing Hill’s title by creating a crash. It’s going to take me a long time to get to grips with the way Hamilton was robbed.

Bollocks, you’ll be back as soon as the new season starts :smile:

Post bookmarked :wink:

Come on Lewis!
 


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