Formula 1 2021
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Normally I believe once ALL lapped cars are unlapped, the safety car comes in at the end of the following lap, I guess to give these cars time to get around to their rightful position at the back. In this instance, the following lap was the last lap, meaning the race would end under safety.
There was certainly some contriving of the rules; the race director also had the power to bring in the safety car when he wants, which is what he did. This seems to contradict the other rules though.
MV had no chance of winning. LH was easily holding him at about 12 seconds and MV had that and 4 cars that were racing each other, to overcome ( even though they would’ve been under blue flag and obliged to let MV through. There was no driver error or poor strategy decision from Mercedes, it was handed to Red Bull. And that sucks.
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Right, I just rewatched it. I don't think there was any sort of conspiracy. I think Michael Masi had a Wayne Barnes moment. Here is what I think happened:
Latifi crashes, 6 laps to go. Red Bull immediately looks at the whole situation and realises if all cards go their way they have a chance. So they pit Max immediately and put him on softs - 2/3 seconds a lap faster than Hamilton. Being behind Lewis was an advantage, as they could box him after it was too late for Mercedes to do so. Mercedes should have done the same thing, no question. But once they hadn't, they had to stay out. As Lewis is stuck at Safety Car pace, whilst Max can fly around to catch up after the pit, this means that Lewis will now likely lose track position if he pits.
Now Red Bull made their decision on the fact that lapped cars are allowed to pass the SC, right? So once Masi says they aren't, Red Bull are (rightly) furious and on the phone to Masi putting extreme pressure on him. To not allow is breaking the rules, in Lewis favour. Red Bull were bang to rights here. So here's Masi options now:
- Let through all the lapped cars. But then it's likely time wise he will run out and they'll have to finish the race under a safety car. This is a shit look for him as it effectively hands the race to Lewis as he had the safety car out longer than what was necessary.
- Don't allow any lapped cars through. But then he's broken the rules. Thats an even worse look for him.
- Let through those that are interfering with the real race (only 4 cars) and allow a last lap or racing. This really was his best option.
Ultimately though, he shouldn't have been in this situation.
If he'd allowed all the lapped cars through at the safety car commencement then there would be less controversy, and major praise for Red Bull's superior strategy in the heat of the battle.
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@majorrage said in [Formula 1 2021](
Now Red Bull made their decision on the fact that lapped cars are allowed to pass the SC, right? So once Masi says they aren't, Red Bull are (rightly) furious and on the phone to Masi putting extreme pressure on him.
As Martin Brundle alluded to at the time, I don’t think there is any firm rule around this. It’s at the race directors discretion (on safety grounds) whether lapped cars are allowed through. Historically it’s been 50/50, so quite a big grey area.
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@davesofthunder Agreed. Good point.
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@scribe said in Formula 1 2021:
@majorrage said in [Formula 1 2021](
Now Red Bull made their decision on the fact that lapped cars are allowed to pass the SC, right? So once Masi says they aren't, Red Bull are (rightly) furious and on the phone to Masi putting extreme pressure on him.
As Martin Brundle alluded to at the time, I don’t think there is any firm rule around this. It’s at the race directors discretion (on safety grounds) whether lapped cars are allowed through. Historically it’s been 50/50, so quite a big grey area.
I've been doing a bit more reading on it, and you are correct that it's not a rule and is at the Steward's discretion. However, given everything was satisfied (safety car coming in, track cleared up) if he hadn't let cars through, then Red Bull would now be doing their own legal challenges and to why this wasn't done.
to be honest, reading the official write up on F1.com throws my whole thesis above up in the air.
Monday Morning Debrief after the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Unpicking the Safety Car period that turned the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on its head – and Mercedes’ protest explained | Formula 1®
Was this the most dramatic and contentious conclusion of a world championship finale in the sport’s history? It’s certainly a contender, right up there with Brazil 2008 and Japan 1976.
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@majorrage said in Formula 1 2021:
Right, I just rewatched it. I don't think there was any sort of conspiracy. I think Michael Masi had a Wayne Barnes moment. Here is what I think happened:
Latifi crashes, 6 laps to go. Red Bull immediately looks at the whole situation and realises if all cards go their way they have a chance. So they pit Max immediately and put him on softs - 2/3 seconds a lap faster than Hamilton. Being behind Lewis was an advantage, as they could box him after it was too late for Mercedes to do so. Mercedes should have done the same thing, no question. But once they hadn't, they had to stay out. As Lewis is stuck at Safety Car pace, whilst Max can fly around to catch up after the pit, this means that Lewis will now likely lose track position if he pits.
Now Red Bull made their decision on the fact that lapped cars are allowed to pass the SC, right? So once Masi says they aren't, Red Bull are (rightly) furious and on the phone to Masi putting extreme pressure on him. To not allow is breaking the rules, in Lewis favour. Red Bull were bang to rights here. So here's Masi options now:
- Let through all the lapped cars. But then it's likely time wise he will run out and they'll have to finish the race under a safety car. This is a shit look for him as it effectively hands the race to Lewis as he had the safety car out longer than what was necessary.
- Don't allow any lapped cars through. But then he's broken the rules. Thats an even worse look for him.
- Let through those that are interfering with the real race (only 4 cars) and allow a last lap or racing. This really was his best option.
Ultimately though, he shouldn't have been in this situation.
If he'd allowed all the lapped cars through at the safety car commencement then there would be less controversy, and major praise for Red Bull's superior strategy in the heat of the battle.
Alonso’s radio chat is interesting. He’s one of the cars let through. He thought the unlapping should’ve started earlier (I presume by letting them go faster in the unaffected sectors?)
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I've never understood why they can't make safety laps just void laps - i.e. pause the lap count. Appreciate you can't do it for too long, and if obviously forces a strategy change and for you to think on the fly the longer the car stays out, but it seems much fairer to effectively pause the race with positions in tact?
I assume I'm missing some obvious reason why the don't do this?
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@duluth said in Formula 1 2021:
Fuel is heavy. They are loaded for a certain number of laps. Extending the race would basically make it a compulsory pit stop
Yeah, I did think of that, but how much do they burn when cruising around after the safety car with no accelerating or braking?
we have seen cars run out of fuel before in the home straight though so they do cut it pretty fine!
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@duluth said in Formula 1 2021:
@toddy said in Formula 1 2021:
TV schedules?
There's already a max race time. It comes into play occasionally when there's a red flag and the race gets stopped and restarted after a long break
Imagine this in rugby, you're down 2 points and some French flipper goes down and milks the max game-time rule.
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Apparently Masi used the same rule in the opposite direction last year:
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The more stuff that comes out on how Masi managed this race the worse it looks for F1.
There is no rational reason for allowing some cars to unlap but not others unless you are trying to contrive a finish. Furthermore to state that no cars will be allowed to unlap and then change your mind after a protest from one team and adjust that decision to benefit that team and that team only just stinks.
No blame attaching to Red Bull here, they’re trying to win, but the handling of this race and the finish in particular was pretty poor. Very exciting though and maybe that is the rationale. But it’s not fair.
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Masi really made a messy but if talking outcomes you have to go back to decisions by everybody and whether they had the rug pulled from under them at the time.
Mercedes had shit bad luck with the crash. By being in front they couldn't pit. If they had the RB would cruise past. Any talk that they thought Masi was going to close the race under a flag or that they were safe is rubbish if you listen to theradio talk. It was a decision made on track position. It wasn't even as if they thought the lapped cars may stay in place if they dropped back. You can hear them within moments confirming to Lewis that he would probably have Max up his exhaust on freshies at a restart.
RB did take a gamble on the expectation that the lapped cars would be removed with a lap to go, hence the pressure they placed on that happening.
It is only after the fact that it can be seen that if Masi followed the rules the way he had previously the race would have likely
finished under caution.
Masi twisted himself in knots to get one lap of racing. Because he did all the cards fell RBs way.
The smoking gun that exposed Aussie at centre of F1 title chaos
