Go Lewis Hamilton

[david63]

I thought that there already was electric car racing and if I am not mistaken some electric cars can outperform some F1 cars

[Onelife]

Given the current ecological climate maybe its time to scrap petrol driven F1 and concentrate on electric car racing.
(oh but that wouldn't be so exciting and we would lose lots of fans (money) so that's not going to happen soon.

Hi Alltatc…motor racing without the smell and noise of twenty cars racing round a track would lose its attraction for most I would have thought.

Boys in cars has never appealed to me…much preferred girls

[Kendhni]

There is an all electric racing formula called Formula E.
The cars can accelerate almost as quickly as an F1 car but have a much lower top speed (a little over 2/3 of what an F1 can do). They pipe music and other sounds around the course to try to keep it interesting (otherwise it sounds like a group of fork lifts going past).

During lockdown they actually had some very interesting virtual racing - a lot of accidents and pile ups ... a bit different when you can't get hurt

[oldbluefox]

There would have to be a half hour pit stop to recharge the batteries.

[Kendhni]

There would have to be a half hour pit stop to recharge the batteries.

or a spare car
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DC8orqtUqU

[Stephen]

IMG-20211213-WA0000.jpg

[barney]

B.L.M. now = beaten last minute.

[Mervyn and Trish]

It'll be interesting to see if the Mercedes protest appeal goes anywhere. It seems to me having read a lot about it in the last 24 hours that Masi had two legal options. He could have allowed lapped xars to.pass, in which case the rules say the safety car should complete one more lap. In which case the race would have finished under safety car and Lewis would have won. Or he could have legally decided not to release the lapped cars. In which case Max would have had 5 cars to pass before he got to Lewis who would probably have won. Instead he let the lapped cars go and immediately brought the safety car in, against the regs, which pretty much guaranteed Max the win. I can't see how he can defend that. Maybe he wanted to create an exciting finish but that's not his role. His job is the safe running of the race under the rules.

And, while before the race started both Max and Lewis were potentially deserving champions, once the race started Lewis beat Max off the line and stayed ahead. In the dying laps he was maintaining a lead of more than 10 seconds on antique tyres. I believe he deserved to win and was robbed by an illegal decision whose contrary result was inevitable.

[Kendhni]

When Wolff told Masi that what he was doing was not right, Masi's response was that it was called a motor race ... who was he kidding? That was not racing that was very deliberately setting up a conclusion ... it wouldn't have mattered which driver was in the Merc and which driver was in the RB, the RB on fresh tyres was always going to win, there wasn't even the hope of DRS . I wonder how much did 3-4 laps of Christian Horner bleating away in his ears affect his decision.

Looking at the possibilities, I think Masi should have allowed Hamilton to put on fresh rubber, retake his spot and then added 5 more laps, even if it was just Hamilton and Verstappen on the track. That would have been proper racing and a fitting end to the season for 2 great drivers, not the farce that Masi orchestrated.

I read that Hamilton asked Wolff to drop all appeals, true sportsman that he is, but I am guessing that Wolff has other considerations to take into account. On the other hand Masi is no Charlie Whiting. It is a real shame because both drivers deserved to win this season ... maybe they should have just called it a technical draw and resolved it over a game of Mario Kart racing.

[towny44]

Apparently one other option Masi had was to red flag the race when the Latifi accident happened, which with only 6 laps to go was probably the fairest option, but he would have needed to do it immediately rather than deploy the safety car. Under the red flag all drivers would have been able to put fresh tyres on and there would have been a new grid lane start, which would have been the fairest option, even if Max had beaten Lewis to the first corner, which was likely, Lewis would have had 5 laps to try and retake the lead, which on fresh tyres and with DRS would have been a distinct possibility.

[Mervyn and Trish]

I like Ken's Mario Kart idea. Makes more sense than what actually happened. Or maybe rock, paper, scissors?

[screwy]

Mercedes had the option of putting fresh rubber on Lewis’s car but chose not to in fear of losing grid position, Lewis questioned the decision.Wolfe screwed up, he wanted to win under the safety car.

[towny44]

Mercedes had the option of putting fresh rubber on Lewis’s car but chose not to in fear of losing grid position, Lewis questioned the decision.Wolfe screwed up, he wanted to win under the safety car.

A bit naive that Screwy, if Lewis had pitted under the safety car then Red Bull would most likely have had Max stay out, which with the dubiously biased Masi in charge would undoubtedly have led to the race finishing under the safety car with Max the winner.

[Kendhni]

Apparently one other option Masi had was to red flag the race when the Latifi accident happened, which with only 6 laps to go was probably the fairest option, but he would have needed to do it immediately rather than deploy the safety car. Under the red flag all drivers would have been able to put fresh tyres on and there would have been a new grid lane start, which would have been the fairest option, even if Max had beaten Lewis to the first corner, which was likely, Lewis would have had 5 laps to try and retake the lead, which on fresh tyres and with DRS would have been a distinct possibility.

If it was red flagged with 5 laps to go then the race would have been declared to have run far enough to have been ended (another option for Masi) ... which would have probably been the fairest decision, the racing had been done, Hamilton had the race won and was simply controlling the pace and cruising to the finish ... the Verstappen threat had gone.

I would have loved to have seen your suggestion of restarting from the pit lane and had 5 laps of real racing.

[Manoverboard]

At the time of the crash Hamilton was leading by approx 16 seconds therefore ...

Follow the safety car until all is well then restart the race, add two laps and then adjust the times for all the cars when they cross their finish line by the margins that existed at the time of the crash. They have all the figures so it could be done. Seemples

[Mervyn and Trish]

Mercedes had the option of putting fresh rubber on Lewis’s car but chose not to in fear of losing grid position, Lewis questioned the decision.Wolfe screwed up, he wanted to win under the safety car.

Maybe Wolfe naively believed Masi would follow the rules. Maybe he would if Horner hadn't spent four laps bending his ear.

[Kendhni]

At the time of the crash Hamilton was leading by approx 16 seconds therefore ...

Follow the safety car until all is well then restart the race, add two laps and then adjust the times for all the cars when they cross their finish line by the margins that existed at the time of the crash. They have all the figures so it could be done. Seemples

Except none of that is in the rules.

[screwy]

Mercedes had the option of putting fresh rubber on Lewis’s car but chose not to in fear of losing grid position, Lewis questioned the decision.Wolfe screwed up, he wanted to win under the safety car.

A bit naive that Screwy, if Lewis had pitted under the safety car then Red Bull would most likely have had Max stay out, which with the dubiously biased Masi in charge would undoubtedly have led to the race finishing under the safety car with Max the winner.

I wouldn’t say Masi was biased at all, some of the decisions have been equal.He made Max give the place back inBrazil and Saudi,Lewis went charging off into the distance after going off track when Max had his nose in front. To me all the bias is in favour of Lewis who can’t do wrong in the eyes of the commentators.

[towny44]

Mercedes had the option of putting fresh rubber on Lewis’s car but chose not to in fear of losing grid position, Lewis questioned the decision.Wolfe screwed up, he wanted to win under the safety car.

A bit naive that Screwy, if Lewis had pitted under the safety car then Red Bull would most likely have had Max stay out, which with the dubiously biased Masi in charge would undoubtedly have led to the race finishing under the safety car with Max the winner.

I wouldn’t say Masi was biased at all, some of the decisions have been equal.He made Max give the place back inBrazil and Saudi,Lewis went charging off into the distance after going off track when Max had his nose in front. To me all the bias is in favour of Lewis who can’t do wrong in the eyes of the commentators.

You dont think that engineering the safety car period so that Max on fresh soft tyres, was immediately behind Lewis on 45 laps old hard compound tyres was at all biased then Keefie?

[Onelife]

Best wait and see what Screwy has to say about that John

[Manoverboard]

At the time of the crash Hamilton was leading by approx 16 seconds therefore ...

Follow the safety car until all is well then restart the race, add two laps and then adjust the times for all the cars when they cross their finish line by the margins that existed at the time of the crash. They have all the figures so it could be done. Seemples

Except none of that is in the rules.

Exactly ... so change the b****y rules

[screwy]

Best wait and see what Screwy has to say about that John

Screwy say’s

Mercedes had ample time previously to put Lewis on fresh rubber,they chose not to take the chance.Lewis had the fastest car but he twice questioned the wisdom of not bringing him in. Regardless of whether anyone thinks it was rigged, Mercedes screwed up,over confident.

Go Max. Go Masi.



That is my last word.

[Stephen]

Knighthood for Hamilton

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/59666530

[Kendhni]

And well deserved it is

[Onelife]

Driving a well-tuned car round a race track comes well down the list of those deserving of a Knighthood Imo.