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So uh, whatcha think about that F1 finale?

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Ludachris

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Lots of controversy. Lots of rejoicing. Lots of criticism. All of it makes perfect sense to me.

I think the better decision would have been to have Masi make his intentions known to both teams right as the safety car went out, making it known he was considering not allowing all the lapped cars to rejoin the lead lap, so that both teams could prepare accordingly and make decisions based on that information. Be transparent about wanting to have the two title contenders battle it out on the last lap and doing something unprecedented - only allowing a few lapped cars to move up. Then again, I don't think he knew what the hell he was going to do right up until he did it. It's a shame it ended in controversy, but would you expect any different?

Can't wait for the next season of the Netflix show to come out now!
 

Ludachris

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Lucky for Masi, this was only for the drivers championship, not the constructors. Can you imagine the pressure and chaos if it was for the constructors?
 
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Yeah what the heck was that last lap decision to clear the back markers?! Gives Verstappen clear track ahead on new full Softs! Of course he could haul down Hammy on his old Mediums. That was NOT a level playing field.
 

Ludachris

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Of course he could haul down Hammy on his old Mediums
Old "hards", not even mediums. Again, I think if Masi at least communicated what they wanted to do, having the two contenders up front with no lapped cars in between them, we would have seen Merc go in for tires. A last lap battle with those two both on a fresh set of softs would have been epic!

Nevertheless, was an exciting race and a pretty entertaining season with the momentum swings.
 
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It was a farce like the 6 michelin runners in shumacher's time at Indy. They need to review the rules. At this level they should know them. What the front office did was cluster F a decent race and stole it from Hammy. I'm not a hammy fan at all but I am for fairness. This is the top motorsport going back to the 50's. They should have just about every rule for every situation. Everyone should be able to figure out what will happen at all times like if red flag you can change tires. They had plenty of time. They could have redflagged then figure out what the right thing to do. Instead they let the laps tick behind safety car and make a rash decision. This is F1. It is a chess match yet the refs are playing checkers.
 

xr7

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I didn't see the race so I'm going to withhold comment on this race. In general F1 isn't very high on my list anymore. I used to watch every race but the whole thing has gotten too political and some of the technology was too bizarre. That active wing aero crap from a few years back was really dumb. Like Indy car's push to pass crap. I'll settle for the local stuff and sports car racing.
Who thought allowing the race teams to yell into the chief stewards ears during the race was a good idea?
 
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F1 has a chance next year to "fix" what is now, essentially three absurdly lopsided classes racing under the same Eccelstonian (dictatorial) rules. Next season will tell it all...new cars and sprint qualifying might bring good racing...OR might make it worse...more reality TV bs targeted at the new-to-F1 Netflix audience. Good commercial strategy...failed racing...unless you are a die hard Max or "Sir Lewis" fan.

I'm betting on more of the same, sadly...

Good news is that NASCAR is improving...new, more relevant cars plus more road-racing. Better yet, the Aussie Supercars series livestreams about a bajillion hours per race weekend of some of the best racing anywhere for about 60 bucks a season...and the VLN (Nurburgring) provides their entire series for free via youtube.

F1 ain't all that and a bag of chips anymore imho, sadly. :rolleyes:.
 
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If Hamilton had actually given back the distance he picked up in his off track drive, he wouldn't have been that far ahead to begin with, Mercedes boxed themselves in a corner tire wise, which made sense at the time, but the crash at the end negated that. I've seen so many races hosed up by having lapped cars between the contenders, that I'm glad they're moving them out of the way. Red Bull played every card it had, and one finally worked out in their favor. I used to be a fan of Hamilton but once he brought politics into the sport, he's just another wanker to me now. I will say however, that he was a stand up guy at the end with Max and during the interview. From my (tire guy) perspective, this entire years was a very interesting tire war, from guys coming in to get new stickers to try and rob the points from another team with fastest lap, to the longevity, to the last race pit stop by Max.
 
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F1 has a chance next year to "fix" what is now, essentially three absurdly lopsided classes racing under the same Eccelstonian (dictatorial) rules. Next season will tell it all...new cars and sprint qualifying might bring good racing...OR might make it worse...more reality TV bs targeted at the new-to-F1 Netflix audience. Good commercial strategy...failed racing...unless you are a die hard Max or "Sir Lewis" fan.

I'm betting on more of the same, sadly...

Good news is that NASCAR is improving...new, more relevant cars plus more road-racing. Better yet, the Aussie Supercars series livestreams about a bajillion hours per race weekend of some of the best racing anywhere for about 60 bucks a season...and the VLN (Nurburgring) provides their entire series for free via youtube.

F1 ain't all that and a bag of chips anymore imho, sadly. :rolleyes:.
I think NASCAR realizes that the Aussie V8s are the better series when they ran at COTA a few years ago. so now they've become the "American Aussie V8" series
I still watch F1 because that is about the only place any serious technological improvements are happening, although, even they are limited.
 

Ludachris

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Mercedes boxed themselves in a corner tire wise
Controversy aside, shouldn't Merc have left Lewis out on the medium tires and allowed him to run way longer on that first stint? The whole advantage of him starting on the mediums and Max on the softs was erased when they pitted Lewis immediately after Max. I realize the common thing to do in that situation is to react to what the other team is doing and match them to stay ahead, but it seems like they could have played that differently and been in a far better situation. It's like when teams play "prevent" defense in football. That has a way of coming back to bite you.
 
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F1 has been slowly adopting the NASCAR/George Carlin business model since leadership changed hands 4 or 5 years ago.

Nearly there...staged rivalries, lucky dog yellow flags, Larry Strohl buying a team for his B-level kid (coulda said Mazepin lol), billionaire Tut-tut Wolf smashing his headset...and yesterday's clown show pretty much sealed it. Rules and consistent application of same do not add youube hits or sell Redbull, Mercs...ed meds...

Waiting for Biffle and Harvick to drive for Haas...and start duking it out after the race while being interviewed by Danica. Boom...Days of Thunder.
 
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Controversy aside, shouldn't Merc have left Lewis out on the medium tires and allowed him to run way longer on that first stint? The whole advantage of him starting on the mediums and Max on the softs was erased when they pitted Lewis immediately after Max. I realize the common thing to do in that situation is to react to what the other team is doing and match them to stay ahead, but it seems like they could have played that differently and been in a far better situation. It's like when teams play "prevent" defense in football. That has a way of coming back to bite you.
I think that was the whole idea, they were following Red Bull's lead, and if there was no yellow, they had the exact right strategy
 
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Agree with the comments about the decision making, dealing with the crash at the end and then trying to get the leaders together to duke it out for 1 lap, which with the tire situation was a huge disadvantage for Hamilton.

Question though. On the last lap, where Verstappen passed Hamilton, why wasn't Hamilton defending the position on the inside? It just seemed like he hung on the outside, tapped the brakes and waited for Verstappen to take the position. Then for the next several corners, Verstappen was in full defensive mode, until Hamilton gave it that last attempt, seemed to go wide and not get drive. Then Verstappen was gone.

Could Hamilton have gone defensive or would that have brought out the Stewards and protests for blocking? Were his tires that bad that he had to stay wide?
 
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Agree with the comments about the decision making, dealing with the crash at the end and then trying to get the leaders together to duke it out for 1 lap, which with the tire situation was a huge disadvantage for Hamilton.

Question though. On the last lap, where Verstappen passed Hamilton, why wasn't Hamilton defending the position on the inside? It just seemed like he hung on the outside, tapped the brakes and waited for Verstappen to take the position. Then for the next several corners, Verstappen was in full defensive mode, until Hamilton gave it that last attempt, seemed to go wide and not get drive. Then Verstappen was gone.

Could Hamilton have gone defensive or would that have brought out the Stewards and protests for blocking? Were his tires that bad that he had to stay wide?

Good question, I was surprised that Hamilton didn't defend harder, but remember this, if they had crashed, Max would've been the world champion based on his number of wins, so Mercedes not only boxed themselves in tactically, but strategically as well. I was wondering that at the start of the race, if Max would simply spear Hamilton in a giant lunge and it would all be over (Senna vs Prost).
Let's not forget, Mercedes had this totally under control until the crash, then Red Bull pulled the magic of stickers out of their bag of tricks, which was the only playable card they had, Mercedes, on the other hand, if they had pitted, would be behind Max, (or wrecked, if they wanted to get into a shoving match) either case, they would lose the championship, they only had the one card left and it was a loser.
 

Duane Black

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My opinion..... not necessarily on just the last race, but everything.

Max is no doubt a deserving champion. He finished 1st or 2nd in so many races. He won more races. He led more laps than the rest of the F1 grid COMBINED!

A few factors kept him from wrapping it up earlier. He crashed out at Baku with a tire failure, he was crashed out by Lews in Silverstone, he and Hamilton had a racing incident at Monza, and he got damage from Bottas in the Hungaroring when Valterri went full send in T1 in the damp.


That said, in those last 4 races or so, Hamilton was by any measure a better driver. His drives in Brazil were that of legend. He took control and had to re-take control in Saudi Arabia. On worse tires, he took the lead on the start and led every lap but the last one in Abu Dhabi. Even on older tires, he was faster than Max until that safety car came out. By any measure CERTAINLY in Abu Dhabi, Hamilton was a faster driver and deserved that win.



I do agree that F1 is seeing the marketing potential of rivalries and taking a NASCAR style approach to itself anymore. That saddens me. I hope they don't go full NASCAR with some Chase BS.

I mean, some years the World Series is over in 4 games. In other years it comes down to extra innings in Game 7. I've never felt cheated in any instance though.


And, most unfortunately of all, no matter which side you are on, one must admit that steward decisions played too many key roles in this season in general.
 

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