F1 Championship

Yeah, big Max fan here (and happy he won) but I can't help but feel that Lewis was robbed. Feels like today's race was so representative of the entire season though - level on points coming in, decided on the final lap of the final race, determined by questionable and controversial decisions from race control. The FIA needs to take this break to really think about whether there needs to be a change in leadership.

Big Lewis fan here it hurts and he seems a bit robbed. But F1 always does this shit part of the sport. Mercedes played it very cautious so they would take constructors even if Lewis got screwed so its on the team as well. Basically the one scenario Mercedes didnt account for happened.

Max was the better driver during the season but Lewis deserved to win this race and got robbed. Lewis is also an absolute class act for his post race interview. It takes a big person to be gracious in defeat. No chance we would get the same attitude from Max should the situation have been reversed.

Max performed well but Lewis was cheated. Masi is the worst. I get it he wanted a real race but if they want to do an apples to apples race then let him get new tires. I'll probably get MS for this but Lewis performed great considering the age of his tires. He was the better driver that day and was able to outperform from the get go when he had mediums vs Max who had softs.

I am a Max fan so I am a 100% biased but I think race control did a decent job. Mercedes decision not to pit was completely on them. They decided to play it safe and in the end that's what was the deciding factor imo. During both the safety cars they prioritized track position over fresher tires. Red Bull having nothing to risk obviously went for the pits whenever possible. In the end the fresher tires helped Max overtake Lewis.

As far as the last lap safety car goes. Lapped cars are allowed to unlap themselves under the safety car. This is also under the discretion of the race director and I think Massi made the right call here. They were obstructing the race and to make it a fair race there shouldn't have been lapped cars obstructing Max and Lewis. I don't know why there is a controversy around this. It would have been worse if the championship ended with a SC and lapped cars obstructing Max. Yes, I agree he handled it in the most messy way possible. But, in my opinion as soon as the safety car was called, the race was Max's to win if he got close enough before the restart.

Nevertheless, what a fucking season. On the edge of my seat until the last fucking minute. Massive respect to Hamilton who is still competing at the absolute top level.

I think it’s absolutely horrid that many ppl watching don’t have a clue about F1 rules so they just rinse & repeat whatever the biased commentators tell them. many ppl like that in this thread too.

Ferrari fan here.

I am beyond elated that Max won, he deserves it as I believe he was the better driver this year. However, this was the worst way to do it. The FIA needs to take a huge step back and examine their practices. The safety car, moving only 5 lapped cars and then having Max on soft tires was always going to end like that. The FIA botched the end of that race. Lewis had full control the whole time and was pushed out at the end due to some editing of "standard practices" (i.e. letting all cars go through if they were lapped or keeping them in order -- which usually happens under wet conditions).

In my opinion Massi needs to go. The FIA made this season about the clicks, views and narrative instead of the real reason why we watch F1; the passion. I loved seeing a tight F1 championship run for the first time in years but this will smear the sport for the next 5 years. Props to Lewis for handling it with absolute class (even though I hate him), he was partially robbed and if I was in his position I would have gone straight upstairs to smack Massi back to Australia. 

The FIA, decided to break their own rules and give the championship to Max, who failed to show superiority in the last race of the season. I believe Senna, went through with the FIA against Prost.

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I don’t get why so many people think Mercedes made the wrong call. I think the strategy works good. No one expects last minute safety car and Mercedes was going to win.

Pretty heart breaking for me to see the end result

How the F is it fair for Hamilton to have to pass all those cars that were lapped but they're automatically removed for MV ?

Hamilton deserved to win this race but MV was obviously the better driver the whole season. LH was doing his best and MV was ahead quarter of a second in some races. 

Having said that, MV is a prick and still obviously not at the level of an Alonso or Hamilton.

The true test of an apex predator is the ability to dog fight neck to neck and not even touch the contending car. You get that when Alonso and Hamilton go at each other. MV's history is full of crashes, scrapes, and stupid overtakes.

You do not get crashes scrapes or stupidly calculated overtakes with an Alonso or a Hamilton.

MV is quick and deserves his WC which he would've got earlier if it wasn't for the Silverstone crash but let's be honest he's still a child compared to Alonso or Hamilton. They are so professional and so clean when going at it neck to neck. With this Max guy all you get is people being pushed out on apexes or scrapes. 

Also I'd like to add since we're all into finance.

I wonder how much F1 being owned by a private equity investment group has to do with it being a business to the extent where the race director manipulates it for max (no pun intended) publicity.

Think about it. If you owned the Formula 1 business. Would you want Hamilton to win or MV. MV winning in a controversial way would make maximum headlines and talk worldwide. GOod for business.

Not enough people in here talking about that defending masterpiece by Perez

As Lando said, "I am not so sure." 

This ending of the race really destroyed it for me. Merc obviously did not want to pit HAM, when they saw lapped cars would not be aloud to overtake.

To suddenly FIA changing that decision made it impossible for Merc to do anything. It was a disgrace to a race that could have been so good. 

I am not a fan of either, just a fan of good racing. This Grand Prix was not a good race, just a conclusion of a season with a lot of questionable decisions made by FIA.  

Interesting to see everyone giving opinions on the SC situation here. I'm assuming you all read the latest sporting regulations of the FIA right?

This last GP was just the highlight of what happened all throughout the season. Inconsistent decision making to keep the drama alive until the end.

It seems to me that this is a direct consequence of the Netflix series that has put the spotlight on this sport, I just hope that we will get to keep this as a sport and not an entertainment. FIA should just be doing what is fair even though it ends title contention 1,2 or 5 races before the end of the season. 

On Mercedes' side, I think they lost to themselves, They decided to keep Bottas this year which failed to protect Hamilton multiple times, on top of the risk averseness during this last GP, Hamilton was really fighting alone.

On Red Bull's side, they were lucky in this last race but put themselves in a position to win if they had the slightest chance to do so, Checo did an incredible Job, and Max drove at an amazing level even though he probably felt that the odds were stacked against him after the Hamilton incident at lap 1. Great mental resilience, he really has the mental strength of a champion.

Hamilton is truly a class act, Max got to this level thanks to him who is always driving at a very high level making little to no mistakes each season. People saying Max is a douchebag should just stop watching Netflix and make up their own minds. 

 

I heard Mercedes are taking the decision to court - do decisions like this often get overturned?