There was something very very peculiar about that collision. The manner in which Max slowed down was not ‘normal’ to my eyes - the placement of his car was all wrong to allow Lewis to pass, if that was his intention. The way he moved his line at the last moment made me wonder if he had a change of heart at the last second like it was just too much for him to concede the place. And the DRS line further up the road no doubt added another ingredient to what could have been a catastrophic incident. Just my imagination running wild but I suspect the intention was to slow Lewis down sufficiently that if Lewis made it past, Max would have been straight on the throttle in a low gear to catapult straight past him. The whole string of pieces was just plain wrong and blooming dangerous. Max it’s not a video game - people will ultimately get badly hurt if these antics continue and I’m afraid Christian’s posturing will not help reign him in - maybe that’s the only way he can compete but I seriously hope in a year or two he will find a better balance. Then he’ll smash the world championship rather than his competitors.
Having said all that I’m still hoping the stewards don’t hand Max a penalty which kills the final grand prix and the drivers world championship - but he does not make it easy for anyone!
I would expect the stewards to do Sweet Francis Adams, even if they find Max guilty.
Why?
Because the situation as it stands is “manna from heaven” for the money men.
This season was far from boring and today’s race may have been the most eventful so far. In fact, the two contenders having the same number of points with just one race to go is usually something that only happens in Hollywood films. The sponsors of F1 must be very content.
I can’t believe the horse trading that was going on between the race marshal and red bull in asking if they were happy with the suggested outcome of MV breach of driving regs, simply never heard that ever.
The whole are you happy if Max is behind Ocon and Lewis, Christian? Else if we go to the stewards they might not be as nice as me. And then the arrogance for Horner to say “give me a minute and I’ll get back to you”.
Just seems to compromise the whole impartial role any official is supposed to take.
The stewards could give him a one point penalty which would mean he couldn’t win the Championship just by crashing both himself and Lewis out next time. One point penalty would have no impact on the result of the final race unless both are well down the points.
Otherwise I think he might just do what @Xanthe said earlier.
It was a bit embarrassing to listen to the race director having to confess that he’d forgotten about Ocon when trying to ‘negotiate’ with Red Bull as to whether they would mind awfully having Max swap first and second place - which would still have left Lewis in third place!!
Whatever the situation between Lewis and Max, I do believe they need to take a look at this race for next season and figure out how it can be made less daft.
Beforehand everyone predicted there would be incidents and lo and behold we get two red flags, at least one safety car and I think 3 or was it 4 VSC’s, I lost count, which is frankly ridiculous. This was no race per se, just a series of wacky races style sprints.
Agree with that. Trying to please too many people too much of the time. Surely this was the job of the stewards to determine if Max did anything wrong and only then act if needed.
Max can still win the championship simply by taking out Lewis: he doesn’t even have to be subtle about it. If neither finish the race MV is world champion no matter what penalty the stewards apply (unless the FIA change the penalty rules for next race to allow retroactive points penalties to be applied).
I (too) thought the whole thing was a bit of a farce (as in theatrical), as this is supposed to be the elite level of motor racing which was reduced to an on & off-track shambles. Specific thoughts:
1- the track lay-out invites major issues, as was seen in the other races (esp F2). The F1 boys couldn’t even sort out qualifying space. This track was Monaco with so much more added danger.
2- Masi needs an assistant/someone who actually watches what’s going on and can communicate properly - this isn’t the first time he’s got mixed up this season. The negotiation with Red Bull was embarrassing and simply wrong IMV. It seems someone (who’s obviously not a fan of him) has been playing with his on-line profiles!
It comes across that the teams/cars et al have advanced greatly over the years but the real-time governance of the race hasn’t - not helped by the rules not being updated and allowing for ambiguity.
3- MV lives to collide, sorry I mean fight, sorry I mean keep running off the track to overtake/maintain position, another day.
Somewhere around the middle of yesterday’s 2 1/2 hour debacle, I started wondering why it’s worth watching F1 if it continues to descend in to chaos like this.
Better watching the delectable Penelope Pitstop and the Ant Hill Mob, which delivers intentional comedy, than watch something which purports to be the pinnacle of motorsport but cannot deliver satisfactory & fair on-track racing, and it’s not as if this is the only time this has occurred this season. Obviously YMMV.
Unless Max or Lewis scamper away from pole in AD and are out of sight, I can see an accident coming.
It certainly seems that Max feels he just cannot let Lewis past, whatever the situation. If Lewis comes up the inside, Max turns into him, claiming the corner was his and he had nowhere to go and was at risk of running off the track otherwise. Or indeed he does run off the track and forces his way back in front!
If Lewis comes up the outside then Max just doesn’t turn in enough, claiming he braked late from a ‘let them race’ position and was otherwise risking an accident, spinning into Lewis if he turned too much into the corner, the upshot being the corner was his and he had no chance of leaving enough room for the car on the outside and thereby Lewis is at fault because he left the track!
On a tangent, is it just me who detected a slght edge to Max’s engineer and Cristian Horner’s comments yesterday? Almost a ‘Here we go again, defending Max’s track based antics, ffs…’ feeling. I also sensed they were mighty pissed off when Max knew he was so far ahead on his final qualy lap that he had no need to push so hard and making that error on the last corner, yet still did so. Essentially gifting the advantage to not only Lewis but Merc in the constructor’s points too. Nothing they explictly said, just the way they said it.
Hi Jamie, yes I too had the same impression, not so much what they said but the tone of voice.
And yes it was clear in a number of places that he was turning late & in one case (can’t recall what lap) it was blatantly obvious the RBR front wheels were turning right as he pushed the Merc wide on a left turn bend.
Horner & Co have a problem.
It also has to be said the race officials had a real bad day yesterday.
I caught a comment from his engineer on the radio said in a slightly despairing tone of voice “you didn’t need to do that”, which spoke volumes to me
I think your analysis of Verstappen’s driving is spot on - he’s perfectly happy to cause a collision if it will benefit him.
Nothing is ever his fault - it’s always the other driver’s. A couple of mo the ago I did a search for him apologising for his collisions. Only found two - one to Perez (current team mate) for a collision in a previous season (when not team mate), and another which was Albon I think (his team mate at the time). So only apologises to team mates. Whereas I found Hamilton had apologised on several occasions to people. It wasn’t a scientific search or particularly extensive or definitive, but I think it is revealing
David Coulthard’s pro red bull bias was fairly clearly on display on channel 4, unfortunately
Of course the Max fans can dismiss all of this by saying I am biased
Well the bias seems to extend to other drivers. Lewis has not been among their favourites in the past but I feel they are concerned about Max, especially from Brazil on.
Max intentionally caused a crash. He had nothing to lose. If it had been done in a lesser race series he would have been disqualified, potentially given a ban. He is debasing the sport, or is being allowed to by the FIA.
Massi is acting inconsistently and weak at best, or with an agenda at worst.
Max is a good driver on the edge of greatness. He is throwing that away by bringing cheating, bully boy tactics into F1.
