Grand Prix Rejects

1. Williams. A pathetic double retirement, Latifi's crash indirectly deciding the championship, capping off a rough end to the season. They'll be glad to have banked so many points during the summer, because they were battling with Haas for the wooden spoon

2. Alfa Romeo. A pathetic double retirement consigning them to 9th in the WCC.

Masi / Race Control
Making it up as they go along.

The FIA. Michael Masi.

They let exactly the cars between Hamilton and Verstappen through, and then green-flagged the race. Couldn't have gift-wrapped the championship any better if they had wrapped it in shiny paper and tied a bow from a ribbon around it.

(1) Michael Masi - poor inconsistent decision making and communication. When Race Control decide the outcome not of a race but of a championship then there is something fundamentally wrong with the oepration of the sport.

1) The FIA and Michael Masi: No matter how you go on the Hamilton versus Verstappen battle, that was one of the most farcical ways to finish the championship and inconsistent from a rules precedent as well. Michael Masi has proven once again that he is not competent for his role.

2) Alfa Romeo: Both Kimi and Giovinazzi's races fizzling out with ignominous retirements. And with Zhou finishing third in his third season in Formula 2, I can't say they've chosen a particularly great replacement for Giovinazzi either.

Dishonourable Mentions: Valterri Bottas - slow pace all day; Williams - double retirement, with one of them leading to the farcical end of the Grand Prix and the season.

The Formula One Season of 2021 - unbelievable, I thought Formula E's annus horribilis was the lowest motorsport would sink to this year. I was wrong. This sport, man ... just, this sport, man.

Michael Masi - idiot.

1. Michael Masi. What a joke. As he has been all season. He can't even follow his own bloody rules.

2. Toto/horner. I have had enough now of both of them.

Hm Alfa Romeo/ Willams. Double dnf for both teams. Bad all round

Hm Bottas. Yeah that is the reason why you have been kicked out of Mercedes. Simply you are not good enough.

Hm Aston Martin. Nowhere near the points again.

IceG wrote:(1) Michael Masi - poor inconsistent decision making and communication. When Race Control decide the outcome not of a race but of a championship then there is something fundamentally wrong with the oepration of the sport.

I think there is an argument that Masi broke the sporting regulations with that restart decision when you look at Clause 48.12 of the sporting regulations.

If you read that article, with regards to which cars should unlap themselves, the instruction is "If the clerk of the course considers it safe to do so, and the message "LAPPED CARS MAY NOW OVERTAKE" has been sent to all Competitors via the official messaging system, any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car."

According to that rule, there is no provision to only allow certain cars to unlap themselves - it is either all lapped cars or no lapped cars, but not an intermediate number of cars. What is not clear is if the cars between Hamilton and Verstappen were the only lapped cars - but, if they were not, then somebody hasn't applied that rule correctly.

Further on in that same article, it then says that, if lapped cars are released "Unless the clerk of the course considers the presence of the safety car is still necessary, once the last lapped car has passed the leader the safety car will return to the pits at the end of the following lap.".

If race control gave the instruction to those cars to overtake on lap 57, then the safety car should not have returned to the pits until lap 58 - in other words, on the last lap. If the safety car was pulled in on the same lap that those cars were told to unlap themselves, then it could be said that race control has broken that same article of the sporting regulations twice.

Race Control. I can't believe the ineptitude I just watched. First, they let Hamilton get away with cutting the chicane which even baffled the famously unbiased British commentators. But that first error pales in comparison to the last five laps, making rules up as they go along (as they did last week already) and handing Red Bull the championship on a silver platter. A worrying tendency of ineptitude in race control reached its unfortunate peak today. This finale leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

I think Michael Masi’s just upgraded himself from potential ROTY to favourite for ROTY

Mercedes strategists: why on earth did they not pit under that final safety car? They’d already had the warning from the VSC and it’s certainly been one factor as to why they’ve lost the drivers title.

Alfa Romeo/Williams: discounting the COVID stricken Mazepin they made up all the retirements. Neither Alfa driver finished their last race and one of Williams’s triggered the conclusion of the championship.

Horner/Wolff: Said it many a time but these 2 need to be slapped with harsher punishments. Sadly it’s felt like they’ve been running the races more than the stewards for months now

mario wrote:

IceG wrote:(1) Michael Masi - poor inconsistent decision making and communication. When Race Control decide the outcome not of a race but of a championship then there is something fundamentally wrong with the oepration of the sport.

I think there is an argument that Masi broke the sporting regulations with that restart decision when you look at Clause 48.12 of the sporting regulations.

If you read that article, with regards to which cars should unlap themselves, the instruction is "If the clerk of the course considers it safe to do so, and the message "LAPPED CARS MAY NOW OVERTAKE" has been sent to all Competitors via the official messaging system, any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car."

According to that rule, there is no provision to only allow certain cars to unlap themselves - it is either all lapped cars or no lapped cars, but not an intermediate number of cars. What is not clear is if the cars between Hamilton and Verstappen were the only lapped cars - but, if they were not, then somebody hasn't applied that rule correctly.

Further on in that same article, it then says that, if lapped cars are released "Unless the clerk of the course considers the presence of the safety car is still necessary, once the last lapped car has passed the leader the safety car will return to the pits at the end of the following lap.".

If race control gave the instruction to those cars to overtake on lap 57, then the safety car should not have returned to the pits until lap 58 - in other words, on the last lap. If the safety car was pulled in on the same lap that those cars were told to unlap themselves, then it could be said that race control has broken that same article of the sporting regulations twice.

Not only that, but then the drivers take the chequered flag without any overtaking.

The race itself/Masi/FIA/whatever: What an anticlimax. A very disappointing way to end a season, a lot of questions will be asked.

Where do i even start?

Honestly, i'd have to nominate 'inconsistent application of rules and everyone involved in that process'

This is probably the worst possible ending I could imagine to what is the best title fight. A deliberate crash by Max would have stung far less than this farce. Totally ruined a great season of racing between two of the best drivers in the history of our sport. Max doesn't need to win like this , he's perfectly good enough to win in a straight fight.

I've been willing to give Michael Masi the benefit of the doubt but when he can't stick to his decision then he is totally out of his depth - and rip up is own rulebook.

If Lewis had pitted at the last SC would he have made the same call?

If you ask me the fair thing , and what I would have expected would have been to have a red flag and then 3 laps of racing on the restart like what happened in Baku this year late on.

Article 48.12 says -

"Unless the clerk of the course considers the presence of the safety car is still necessary, once the last lapped car has passed the leader the safety car will return to the pits at the end of the following lap."

Let's see what the Court of Arbitration for Sport says about this.

I agree that Merc played it too conservatively on the tyre front at the end - however, they made a gamble based on the assumption that (some of) the lapped cars wouldn’t be allowed through. Had the rules been applied correctly, Hamilton would’ve had a lap on old tyres whereas Verstappen would’ve had to have cut through the traffic on his newer ones. Therefore, whilst their strategy was too cautious, I can’t really blame them for making the gamble based on the parameters available.

There’s only one nominee for me - Michael Masi and the FIA. The officiating has been horrendously inconsistent all season, up to and including the opening laps today, but they really outdid themselves at the end. As has already been pointed out, you either allow all cars to unlap themselves, or none. Not a seemingly random amount that just so happens to throw the two title protagonists together. All cars, or no cars. Secondly, once the lapped cars have unlapped themselves, there’s one final lap under the safety car. Again, this rule bathplug out the window so we could have the last lap showdown. There’s been a lot of whisperings about F1 appearing to ditch the sporting element in favour of contrived competition, and with that in mind the ending to today leaves an even more bitter taste in the mouth. Not only was the decisive final lap possible because of incompetence, it was contrived incompetence.

I agree that Max was the better driver this season, but I think it’s hard for any fan of the sport not to agree that this has left a very bitter taste in the mouth. Masi, and the standard of the officiating, a clear cut ROTR and ROTY for me.

1. Michael Masi.

But hey, "that's called a motor race, Toto!"

Yep. Masi. Way to ruin what should have been a great finale. It's either let all the lapped cars through or none at all.

The trouble is, Mercedes are right to protest but you can't reverse the champion after the celebrations.

I didn't mind which driver was champion as long as it was decided fairly and cleanly and we didn't get that.

DHMs - Latifi - this year's Glock. (unwitting championship decider)

Bottas - mired in the pack and in no position to help, could have made a difference as it would have given Mercedes more options strategically with red Bull did having Checo in there.

Londoner wrote:1. Williams. A pathetic double retirement, Latifi's crash indirectly deciding the championship, capping off a rough end to the season. They'll be glad to have banked so many points during the summer, because they were battling with Haas for the wooden spoon

2. Alfa Romeo. A pathetic double retirement consigning them to 9th in the WCC.

This, essentially. With an HM for Race Control for (for the nth time in the past few weeks) being completely out of control.

1. Michael Masi. Ignored the rules

2. Alfa Romeo. Not a single technical DNF until this race and now they had two, ending Kimi's final race early and prevented Giovinazzi's 100% finishing record for the season

Klon wrote:The Formula One Season of 2021 - unbelievable, I thought Formula E's annus horribilis was the lowest motorsport would sink to this year. I was wrong. This sport, man ... just, this sport, man.

And yet, you'll keep watching, for the same reason we all keep watching: Stockholm syndrome. There can't be any other explanation at this stage.

You can all have your say on ROTR - I can't be bothered.

Yeah, I've defended Masi here over the season, and I stand by what I said at the time, but letting only a few lapped runners through, but not all just isn't cricket. I think that was a mistake, just bad officiating, ROTR. That said, I'll be curious to see the postmortems by some of my favorite journalists to put it all together.

When it comes to the team principal's cajoling the race director, it's not a good look, but I'll bet that's been going on since the advent of pit radio, but it's just now being broadcast, so we all know how Machiavellian those guys are now.

There's also the rule which says that after lapped cars get let through then they have to do another lap before green flag conditions recommence. Mercedes do have a genuine case here so this could get very ugly.

That said I was impressed by Hamilton's reactions afterwards - 10 or even 5 years ago I bet he wouldn't have even gone to the podium. And said stuff like he only lost because of a complete fluke and he's the real champion!

1. The FIA Formula 1 World Championship: the second race in a row that I have nominated it, the reasonings herefor have already been outlined better by earlier posts in this thread.

Yeah, I think pretty much everything has been mentioned between this topic and the 2021 discussion topic. There's only one winner: Michael Masi, Liberty Media and the FIA.

Outside of that, I will say that Mercedes shot themselves in the foot multiple times with some very weird strategy calls, that Williams were utterly appallng (both their cars were running behind Mick Schumacher before they retired) and that the double retirement by Alfa Romeo was just the summary of their season: a whole lot of nothing.

Guess who and what...

To nominate anything from yesterday as a Reject Of The Race denigrates the Holy word 'Reject' and all those heroic triers that have come before so, no. Papayas is all yesterday deserves.

I'm also DHM-ing Christian Horner. Even has to have a pop at the opposition even in victory. Mercedes have a genuine case against the FIA here so don't call their appeal pathetic. I find him and Marko far worse than Toto and that's saying something - it goes back to their Vettel/Webber days.

The increasing flashy explosive entertainmentisation of F1. This isn't about a single race control decision or a single rule.

Second place goes to Alfa Romeo.

James1978 wrote:I'm also DHM-ing Christian Horner. Even has to have a pop at the opposition even in victory. Mercedes have a genuine case against the FIA here so don't call their appeal pathetic. I find him and Marko far worse than Toto and that's saying something - it goes back to their Vettel/Webber days.

I’m actually quite impressed that, given everything that went down yesterday, Hamilton has been far more gracious in dubious defeat than Horner or Marko have been in victory. Two utterly odious personalities.

Christian Horner / Toto Wolff - For their pathetic attempts to influence race control decisions. (And probably my ROTY no.1 candidate)

Williams - Beaten by the single Haas on track, poor showing overall and, to top things up, Latifi's accident swinged the WDC and prompted the show that happened at the end of the race.

Michael Masi, he actually broke his own rules, it has since emerged.

Michael Masi. Get the **** out of this "sport".

tc3j3r wrote:Michael Masi. Get the **** out of this "sport".

In the former days of this forum, the phrase would have been, "Go home, Masi!"