BennyD
Sea Urchin Pate
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Yep. Max went deep with no intention of leaving room.
That appeals to the female viewers. You wouldn't understand.
Yep. Max went deep with no intention of leaving room.
Like you, I never understood the reason why lapped cars could overtake the safety car. Damon Hill explained it as a 'free' blue flag or to get them get them out of the way from 1st and 2nd. The reason why they held back for a while on this was because there were still Marshalls on the track clearing up Latifi's mess and the lapped cars would be doing race pace to get round to rejoin the back of the pack. Not a safe situation.I know almost nothing about F1, but having watched this by chance, it seems that the rules says that when the safety car is out, you can let the lapped cars through, so that they go all the way round and join the back of the pack. The rule does not seem to explicitly say ALL the lapped cars. A key question is why does that rule exist? Is it just a convenient opportunity to resolve the general problem of slower (lapped) cars being in the way, while the safety car is causing a general delay?
If that is the intent, then how it is done is just a matter of convenience, not an absolute requirement. And the only cars going past that mattered were the ones between the No1 and the No2 placed cars. So to take the time to let them ALL through (not explicitly required, and nor relevant to the outcome) would have just delayed the end of the safety car period and advantaged Hamilton. But to not let any of them through, while the recovery was still going on, would have been not to follow the rule at all, and this would also have advantaged Hamilton. To let the ones in the gap through certainly advantaged Verstappen, but only given the state of his tyres, which is a team tactics issue, not a rules issue, so he got lucky and won fairly.
One solution for the future would be to say that if the safety car is active in the last 3 laps of the race, an extra 3 laps are added to make the finish less arbitrary.
It also seems really unfair that when the safety car comes out all the gaps between the cars are closed up. But nobody seems to moan about that.
I've read the rules now, and it does seem like they are clear that you do have to either (a) let all the lapped cars go by, or (b) not let any of them go by.
If (a) the race would have ended with the safety car still on the track, giving Hamilton the win (which is a bit dull). If (b) Verstappen would have had to get past about 4 lapped cars to get to Hamilton (which is what the rules were trying to avoid).
It seems to me like the Race Director applied the rules with their practical intent; trying to do what option (a) permits, but still allowing for a racing finish. But maybe he should have just stayed at Barça.
I've read the rules now, and it does seem like they are clear that you do have to either (a) let all the lapped cars go by, or (b) not let any of them go by.
If (a) the race would have ended with the safety car still on the track, giving Hamilton the win (which is a bit dull). If (b) Verstappen would have had to get past about 4 lapped cars to get to Hamilton (which is what the rules were trying to avoid).
It seems to me like the Race Director applied the rules with their practical intent; trying to do what option (a) permits, but still allowing for a racing finish. But maybe he should have just stayed at Barça.
Thing is, under the normal ‘rules’, all lapped cars go past the SC and line up in order behind the leader, before the SC comes in. We’ve all seen that before.
Even then max would still have gained a huge advantage over Lewis due to newer tyres, and having had his 11 second deficit reduced to zero, fine, it’s been like that for ages.
However, he would also have to have dealt with a Ferrari and mclaren slipstreaming right up his chuff on the restart trying to pass him for position. He was protected from this worry from behind by masi just letting only the cars ‘in the way’ past and pulling the SC in before they were barely out of sight, never mind letting them get round and onto the back of verstappen for the restart. That is unprecedented.
Plus, all the other drivers/teams could complain were not given the same chance to improve their position in the same way because of this, just max.
I wonder what is going to happen with people who had money bet on the race? Will bookies even take bets on F1 in the future when race directors can dictate the result how they please?
There wouldn’t have been any disadvantage to Lewis if all the cars had passed because the last lap would then have been under the safety car. Tyres would have made no difference. But even if we had one final lap with all the cars passed, the cars behind Max would also had an opportunity to pass Max. It could have been carnage.Thing is, under the normal ‘rules’, all lapped cars go past the SC and line up in order behind the leader, before the SC comes in. We’ve all seen that before.
Even then max would still have gained a huge advantage over Lewis due to newer tyres, and having had his 11 second deficit reduced to zero, fine, it’s been like that for ages.
However, he would also have to have dealt with a Ferrari and mclaren slipstreaming right up his chuff on the restart trying to pass him for position. He was protected from this worry from behind by masi just letting only the cars ‘in the way’ past and pulling the SC in before they were barely out of sight, never mind letting them get round and onto the back of verstappen for the restart. That is unprecedented.
Plus, all the other drivers/teams could complain were not given the same chance to improve their position in the same way because of this, just max.
I wonder what is going to happen with people who had money bet on the race? Will bookies even take bets on F1 in the future when race directors can dictate the result how they please?
Although the debate will continue, the one certainty is that the sport has been demeaned in the eyes of F1 fans, and in the years ahead Verstappen may come to regret the manner in which he was 'awarded' the title. I do hope that FW is wrong about stage management, but unless there's a radical rethink at the FIA it doesn't look too promising in that respect.What a farce. Can you think of another sport where the result doesn't matter a toss and it's all about the the theatrics? Yep, F1 is now the motorsport version of WWF wrestling! Bring on the spandex and masks!
Although the debate will continue, the one certainty is that the sport has been demeaned in the eyes of F1 fans, and in the years ahead Verstappen may come to regret the manner in which he was 'awarded' the title. I do hope that FW is wrong about stage management, but unless there's a radical rethink at the FIA it doesn't look too promising in that respect.