The Farcical 2021 Season

[Nitrodaze]

The season started with Mercedes showing signs of lacking the pace to lead the field this season. Redbull emerged as the car to beat. With their clear advantage, Redbull failed to put a gap between itself and Mercedes while Mercedes was struggling through the first half of the season. At the start of the second half of the season Mercedes turned up with a faster car, They finally got their heads around understanding how to generate speed from their W12 chassis. The Mercedes noticeably now featured a raked car going forward.

Silverstone presented us with evidence that the W12 was now as fast as the Redbull and slightly faster on the straights. This was the first race where Hamilton felt he had the car to properly fight with Verstappen. And this proper battle ended with a crash and Verstappen in the barriers. Meanwhile, Mercedes have managed to be ahead in the constructor championship, but the driver's championship was very close with Verstappen ahead by 33 points at this stage.
[Hamilton penalized for causing a collision for attacking on the inside of the corner]

The next occasion that a proper battle between Verstappen and Hamilton occurred was at Monza. At this point, the W12 had become quite formidable and was favourite to win Monza. Verstappen on his back foot drove a very aggressive race and Hamilton was primed to give as good as he got. And they took each other out. Negating Hamilton's opportunity to reclaim the title lead.
[Verstappen not found at fault for causing a collision by attacking on the inside of the corner]

Then the shocker of the season happened at COTA. A race Mercedes were favourites to win was won By Verstappen. Redbull had done incredible work to find a setup that gave the Redbull better straight-line speed.

With six races to go, Verstappen only needed to win at least three races to be the world champion. He won Mexico with ease, but Brazil which most felt was a Redbull race went to Hamilton. Sao Paolo presented the third controversial race of the season. Verstappen attacks on the inside of the corner, unable to stop runs wide taking Hamilton with him off the track.
[Verstappen not found at fault for attacking on the inside and running Hamilton off the track]

Hamilton wins the three races leading up to the final race in Abu Dhabi. In so doing, levels on points with Verstappen. He effectively wiped out a 28 point deficit. The penultimate race at Saudi Arabia showcased another controversial race. Verstappen overtakes off track on two occasions and was asked to give the place back on both occasions. But on the second occasion, a collision occurred resulting from Verstappen applying his brake suddenly with Hamilton directly behind him.
[Verstappen found to have brake tested Hamilton and caused a collision by so doing]

At this point, there was so much talk about the possibility that Verstappen would try to use dirty tactics to win the championship. A professional foul taking himself and Hamilton out was anticipated. It nearly happened in Jeddah. All eyes were now on Abu Dhabi as it was clear the Mercedes was the faster car.

For Abu Dhabi, Redbull had set up the car for qualifying. Verstappen put down a truly magnificent lap to take pole. At the start of the race, Verstappen had an uncharacteristic poor start and Hamilton took the lead of the race from second. This sets us up for the first controversy of the race. Hamilton in the lead takes an unusually wide line through the first corner, leaving an inviting gap that Verstappen duly drove into. He took the corner at such speed, such that he had very little control to take the corner without collision with Hamilton. Hamilton as if anticipating this took avoiding action cutting the corner both rejoining the race still in the lead.
[Hamilton not found at fault of gaining an advantage by cutting the corner]

Opinions were divided on this decision. Did Hamilton gain enough advantage that would have prevented Versdtappen from overtaking him if both had gone through the corner side by side? Or was it an automatic give up the place if you cut the corner? The stewards correctly found that any gained advantage had to be given back. They did not think there was enough advantage gained for Verstappen to be ahead. And they also took a hard stance on drivers pushing other drivers off the track intentionally.

The race disintegrated into a farce after Latifi of Williams crashed with about six laps or so to go. The safety car was sent out by Race Control and Redbull instantly pitted Verstappen for fresh soft tyres. Meanwhile, the Mercedes pit wall had opted for Hamilton to stay out on very old medium tyres in the lead of the race. Verstappen rejoined the safety car trail in 7th with five backmarkers between himself and Hamilton.

Race Control informed the teams that lapped cars would not be required to overtake the safety car. The Redbull pit wall became animated and asked for the lapped car to unlap themselves. The whole race turned on one phrase by Horner to Masi; "We only need one lap". Soon after that exchange, Race Control did a surprising about-turn and instructed only the cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to unlap themselves, much to Mercedes' constellation. The five cars unlapped themselves and brought Verstappen with fresh soft tyres behind Hamiton with very old medium tyres and created a situation that was by no sense of imagination a contest. It was like taking candy off a child. It was the unfairest lap in F1 history. This was not motor racing as Masi put it. It was a sanctioned mugging.

If we go by the full season, Verstappen was deserving of winning the championship. But deserving does not equate to giving it to him via unfair means. He needs to go up against his opponent and win it fair and square. This was not the case. He won under very dubious conditions which taint his claim to be an F1 drivers champion. He is champion on paper, but he has not earned a place among those champions that have crossed the line with their opponent feeling properly beaten. He has not beaten Hamilton, he was given the championship title on a silver platter. It makes one wonder if this was the only way he was going to win the title from Hamilton at this Abu Dhabi race.

He had fresher tyres, if they had started the race as they originally informed the teams. He would have passed the backmarkers and be behind Hamilton before the end of the race. If he would be able to pass to take the lead is what we do not know. But that would have been normal racing and the outcome would have gone down well with everyone.

But l felt a more exciting opportunity was missed by the dim Masi. He could have red-flagged the race and have a four-lap race to the end from a grid start. A mini race within the race. What excitement that would have generated. He would have been celebrated as a fantastic mastermind.

Which begged the question, Was fair wheel to wheel racing Masi's real intention? What we saw was a clear case of handing it to Redbull. There was no real contest for the title in that last lap.

[copperend]

This was so obviously fixed by the officials wonder how much money they were bribed with. Think how much some one could have made by betting on Verstappen with 5 laps to go. FARCE just doesn't cover it. CHEATS CHEATS CHEATS. The new rules allow the whole race to be manipulated we want racing but it has to be fair. The first incident where Verstappen blatantly tried to drive Hamilton off the track or even cause a crash was unsavoury and the stewards got it their response right.
F1 has joined the sad set of sports where Cheats proper. It has been obvious from the start that Mercedes were targeted by the new rules and people in authority had decided that they had dominated for too long. That they got so close was a miracle of teamwork and the awesome driving of probably the best driver of all time.

[Sulland]

Verstappen has been overtaking like this since his early karting days. Same as many other racers, but he is just bolder and most times gets away with it. Just saw a fight yesterday where he leaned several out of the track. Until one driver gave him his own medicine, and leaned him out.

If this is something that is not allowed, then jurys should have told him, flagged him so he is disqualified.
But he is very good at it, and most people like racing overtaking, not because you have a superiour car.

Lets see next year where downforce will be less, and racing will be closer, and hopefully better. Rules need to be simplified to even out the playingfield also for the poorer teams. (It is still allowed to dream)

[denkimi]

This was the best f1 season of at least the last 20 years. Usually f1 gets perhaps half a page in the newspapers here, now it was the full first 3 pages.
Bar's were streaming the last race here, which has never happened before.

Despite al the weird decisions, they have attracted millions of new fans. People talk about it like never before.

[Nitrodaze]

This was the best f1 season of at least the last 20 years. Usually f1 gets perhaps half a page in the newspapers here, now it was the full first 3 pages.
Bar's were streaming the last race here, which has never happened before.

Despite al the weird decisions, they have attracted millions of new fans. People talk about it like never before.

I agree, it was a sensational finale to the season. But up to the last lap. The coverage was probably the highest in F1 history. But that does not mean it was not a farce.

[denkimi]

What we saw was a clear case of handing it to Redbull. There was no real contest for the title in that last lap.

I rewatched that last lap and i feel there could have been a lot more contest if hamilton would have been more agressive.

It almost looks like he had given up, he doesn't even try to defend. It's not like verstappen just passed him with drs on the straight, he was still far behind at the end but just braked later. If hamilton had done like verstappen did in the first lap i feel he could have managed to hold verstappen back.

Especially after seeing how perez was able to hold lewis back.

[denkimi]

I agree, it was a sensational finale to the season. But up to the last lap. The coverage was probably the highest in F1 history. But that does not mean it was not a farce.

As soon as Latifi crashed it was always going to be a farce. Ending behind the safetycar was even worse than this.

The best thing they could have done was redflag the race, but even then the fans of the one who lost would have complained about it.

[Nitrodaze]

As soon as Latifi crashed it was always going to be a farce. Ending behind the safetycar was even worse than this.

The best thing they could have done was redflag the race, but even then the fans of the one who lost would have complained about it.

People will always complain about something. But F1 would have attracted a lot of praise and gratitude for a great race if they had red-flagged the race. We would have been writing on this forum about what a great race it was and how brilliant the winner was. We are doing no such thing. Everywhere you turn on the internet, you would find accusations levied at the FIA and Masi for fixing the driver's title for this 2021 championship season.

Some use very strong words like "stole".

[Nitrodaze]

All l am interested in at the moment is whether Masi is just a lemon or is he a crook? Did he sell the driver's championship to Redbull?

[Zico]

I rewatched that last lap and i feel there could have been a lot more contest if hamilton would have been more agressive.

It almost looks like he had given up, he doesn't even try to defend. It's not like verstappen just passed him with drs on the straight, he was still far behind at the end but just braked later. If hamilton had done like verstappen did in the first lap i feel he could have managed to hold verstappen back.

Especially after seeing how perez was able to hold lewis back.

Yep, I couldn't believe he didn't cover the inside forcing Max to take the outside, which would at least have given him some defensive options... compared to none. Strange indeed.