2021 - Race 19 Brazil

[Firstgear]

Something stinks here. New info (on board footage) is found but they don't want to look at it because it may change a previous (uninformed) decision?????????

[Bagwan]

So , I think it would have been hard for any of the stewards to not have seen the missing footage now , so it may be that despite not officially re-opening the investigation , it may just be that they were un-swayed by it .

As I said before in an earlier post , Lewis had another option other than following the dive-bomb around the outside .
He could have out-braked him inside at that kind of speed differential .

It all became a bit academic a when Lewis got by easily later , anyway .

But , expect Lewis to get him inside next time .
He will have learned .

[Nitrodaze]

So , I think it would have been hard for any of the stewards to not have seen the missing footage now , so it may be that despite not officially re-opening the investigation , it may just be that they were un-swayed by it .

As I said before in an earlier post , Lewis had another option other than following the dive-bomb around the outside .
He could have out-braked him inside at that kind of speed differential .

It all became a bit academic a when Lewis got by easily later , anyway .

But , expect Lewis to get him inside next time .
He will have learned .

I think a huge crash is due to happen at this rate, Verstappen can afford it, but Hamilton cannot.

[The Black Knight]

So , I think it would have been hard for any of the stewards to not have seen the missing footage now , so it may be that despite not officially re-opening the investigation , it may just be that they were un-swayed by it .

As I said before in an earlier post , Lewis had another option other than following the dive-bomb around the outside .
He could have out-braked him inside at that kind of speed differential .

It all became a bit academic a when Lewis got by easily later , anyway .

But , expect Lewis to get him inside next time .
He will have learned .

It's not academic because a 5 second penalty for Max would have demoted him to 3rd, a 3 point swing that could be crucial in the outcome of the championship. It's like a goal being disallowed for offside and the team not making the knockout stages by one goal difference. It matters and Mercedes has every right to feel aggrieved.

[Firstgear]

So , I think it would have been hard for any of the stewards to not have seen the missing footage now , so it may be that despite not officially re-opening the investigation , it may just be that they were un-swayed by it .
.

If that's the case, they should open the investigation for the sake of transparency and for future clarification of what is and is not acceptable driving. I also agree with BK about a possible penalty of 5 sec making a difference.

[Nitrodaze]

So , I think it would have been hard for any of the stewards to not have seen the missing footage now , so it may be that despite not officially re-opening the investigation , it may just be that they were un-swayed by it.

Steve Wonder would see the error in Verstappen's driving if he were in the steward's office at the time. Now, they were confronted with two equally unpleasant outcomes if they admit Verstappen was in error.

Firstly, to say Verstappen was in error, they have to admit that they have incompetently arrived at their decision, since they should have waited for all necessary video feeds to be collected and reviewed all of them carefully before arriving at a decision. Unfortunately, they arrived at a decision prematurely and created an aberration to the rules concerning racing conduct while defending at a corner

Secondly, doing the right decision at this late stage has become political and more punitive than if it was done during the race which would have allowed Verstappen the opportunity to recover from it. He was never going to win the race, but he could have recovered back to second in spite of the penalty.

In my eyes, they are crap and not worthy of any respect.

[Zico]

It's not academic because a 5 second penalty for Max would have demoted him to 3rd, a 3 point swing that could be crucial in the outcome of the championship. It's like a goal being disallowed for offside and the team not making the knockout stages by one goal difference. It matters and Mercedes has every right to feel aggrieved.

Regardless of them not having the onboard footage of Max (which incidentally didn't look particularly damning IMO) it was still clear that Max passed illegally and so should have been made to give the place back.
If the stewards had done their job correctly Max should have been ordered to give the place back immediately but because they didn't do that, they would probably have to have given a retrospective 5 sec penalty which would have put him in 3rd... which would have been the Stewards fault for not ruling on it straight away.

If Lewis hadn't won I absolutely would support a retrospective 5 sec penalty now but Lewis went on to win so its no longer an issue in my eyes.

The only real harm done is the Stewards thought process's and refusal to investigate rightly being called into question which makes them appear to be biased which is obviously not good for the sport.

[airshifter]

Right of review denied. No surprise but I think they need yo be consistent now moving forward. Their decision to not even investigate Max is embarrassing and laughable.

Agreed.

They have been inconsistent in the past as well, but now they seem to be putting a stamp on the absolute right to be inconsistent.

With the amount of information they have available these days any such incident should be investigated. Most of the decisions should be relatively quick and any penalty applied should be consistent as well.

[Nitrodaze]

Agreed.

They have been inconsistent in the past as well, but now they seem to be putting a stamp on the absolute right to be inconsistent.

With the amount of information they have available these days any such incident should be investigated. Most of the decisions should be relatively quick and any penalty applied should be consistent as well.

I feel they are damaging the formula. If they cannot adjudicate the rules in a consistent and fair manner, they turn the whole show into a joke. The application of the rules correctly is a very important component of the enjoyment of the show. We have a very high standard of engineering and driving in "state of the art" racing cars. And we couple that with sub-standard reasoning in the interpretation of the rules and enforcement of the driving standards. How is that not farcical.

Somebody should sack Masi and his bunch of jokers.

[Bagwan]

If Max had managed to stay on track , I believe he would have gotten a penalty , or , at least have been asked to "give the place back" .
I put that in quotes to denote that it isn't really clearly that way , as Lewis was only momentarily ahead as they came in .

Max was actually ahead as they passed the apex of the corner , and that is generally seen as giving that driver priority , as long as he leaves room for his opponent if he knows he is alongside .
But , not only did he not give room , he drove straight on , eventually leaving the track .

And , that's the catch . Had he not been ahead , Lewis would have likely turned in , and Max may have taken him out .
But with Max ahead and seemingly obviously too fast to make it without leaving the track , his last ditch effort was to run deep and hope Hamilton followed him around , instead of ducking inside .

I wonder if it would feel better to all of you if he had locked them up on the way through steaming up the inside .


I would also submit that Max might have driven differently to escape a time penalty had one been applied before the end .