A bit late to this one....I've been ruminating on my love for F1 since the last race.
too many overuling rules, within the rules and giving one person the opportunity to manipulate the result of a race.....which is what masi did
Can anyone think of another sport where there is a race director who makes seemingly random, oft contentious decisions on the fly and meets with criticism offering the defense along with the governing body of "because we/i can and because we said so"
Article 15.3: "The Race Director shall have overriding authority in the following matters and the clerk of the course may give orders in respect of them only with his express agreement...
... e) The use of the safety car."
However "the use of the safety car" is managed in other articles. So he can say when the safety car goes out and comes in, but this triggers the respective articles according to the circumstances, which includes restart procedures and unlapping procedures. Those other articles do not have a clause stating "unless otherwise directed by the race director", so once triggered should be completed. On Sunday they weren't.
I think what we are seeing is that the rules are overlapping with no hierarchy.
I think Hamilton has handled the situation very well. I don’t see any evidence of a sulk. If rumours are to be believed he instigated the withdrawal of the protest.
Wolfe is understandably pissed off.
They sent a senior engineer to collect the trophy. So there was some team representatives there.
One of Hamiltons flaws that I have seen throughout his career is that he can be a bit lacking in mental strength, toughness or resilience. Its been evident earlier in his career when he was with Shirtswinger, when he was getting his oats and all was going great he was on fire on track, when they had mither he was off form. If things in general don't go his way he can get a bit of a downer on. Though I think that Aussie lass, his "office" mum, Angela? Has helped with that.
He's probably feeling dispondant, down and fed up, I can't blame him. We've hall had bad days or times at work. Sometimes we get over it, sometimes we cut ties and move on. So I can appreciate where Lewis is coming from.
Toto is pissed off, he does pissed off really well.
I think he'd actually make a really good race director in a decade or so.
Boycotting the end of year gala that's mandatory looks a lot like an epic sulk from here and thats both of them.
An adult needs to win and lose with dignity to get my support.
I fully understand why they didn't want to go. It'd be like a kick in the nuts again. Not sure I'm comfortable with an awards ceremony with a mandatory attendance list though.
All they needed to do was claim covid.
Regarding Verstappen's racing style, I read elsewhere that Senna used to do exactly the same. Martin Brundle described how Senna would throw his cars into corners and force the other driver to make a decision - back out or crash. After that, all Senna had to do was put a wheel inside at a corner and he was through. The problem came when Senna came up against Mansell who chose the crash option, repeatedly.
When Senna was breaking through and beating Prost, the British media backed Senna and all we heard about was the nasty tactics and mischief-making of the French driver who became the villain. Against Mansell, the British press did a volte face and switched to "Good old Nigel" against the foreigner.
The narrative for this entire season has been about Lewis good guy, patron saint of little lambs and good causes "Just wanting to race safely" Sir Hamilton OBE Godblessyouguv against the big bad Max foreigner who stood in the way of our hero gaining godliness. I think this has been a quite deliberate campaign on Mercedes' part, putting doubt in the mind of the race director and trying to influence decisions. When Verstappen lunged inside at lap one, he was doing the same as Senna but Masa inexplicably allowed Lewis to keep the place despite cheating to get it. Perhaps the season-long cries of Verstappen the dangerous aggressive driver weighed on his mind. And maybe, the decision at the end was him levelling things up again. Not so outrageous - it's very common to see football referees do this in a game.
As the season has worn on, certainly post Imola I think Lewis has become much more wary and risk averse towards Max. That might be due to his championship position meaning some points are better than no points. I hope it's due to this because if it's not it means Max's dangerous let me by or crash approach has won out and that's a dangerous precedent.
VW and Porsche would love this. Open door.
Buying Mercs IP and what was Ilmor would be the only option here.
But I don't really see Merc going yet, another season at least to see how the land lies.
Mohammed Ben Sulayem, a man with a lack of self awareness when he said "At the end of the day, rules are rules."
You couldn't make it up.
Raised my eyebrows too. Wonder what Mr Masi's annual appraisal with the boss will have in it. "Please access and complete the FIA Rules are Rules e-learning package before 28/02/2022?"
In terms of penalising Hamilton and Merc. I don't see Merc being penalised they sent someone, I can see Hamilton getting some sort of financial penalty or other nonsense. Simply because the FIA seem to like the approach of when they have egg on the their faces applying more egg to hide the face and own embarrassment.
Oh man, I have this vision of Lando Norris baking cakes now...
Funnily enough Lando was the first I thought of when this was suggested.
Obviously Max would make something really dangerous like Raw Pork Pie with Hot Red Bull Custard?
You're probably about the fifth of sixth person to flag that one up for me... 
