For sure he would have had we won yesterday. When asked about fighting next year he said “we’ll have to see about next season”. It makes sense with the new regulations coming in.
It’d be painful to see Lando go to Merc though. Was hoping he’d maybe win a title at McLaren.
I'd be surprised if Hamilton retires, reckon he wants that eighth title and will be even more motivated to get it now... Also get the impression with the in season testing that he wants to experience the new regulations.
If Hamilton were to retire though; Esteban Ocon shouldnt be ruled out of the other seat.
Already a race winner (Norris is not), and Toto Wolf is still his Manager - Means again that Piastri can go straight into the spare Alpine seat... Not that any sudden changes to the driver line up will be to simply allow Oscar into F1.
I'd be surprised if Hamilton retires, reckon he wants that eighth title and will be even more motivated to get it now... Also get the impression with the in season testing that he wants to experience the new regulations.
If Hamilton were to retire though; Esteban Ocon shouldnt be ruled out of the other seat.
Already a race winner (Norris is not), and Toto Wolf is still his Manager - Means again that Piastri can go straight into the spare Alpine seat... Not that any sudden changes to the driver line up will be to simply allow Oscar into F1.
Agree on that - maybe he would have called.it a day if he'd won yesterday, but he'll want that 8th title.
I'd be surprised if Hamilton retires, reckon he wants that eighth title and will be even more motivated to get it now... Also get the impression with the in season testing that he wants to experience the new regulations.
If Hamilton were to retire though; Esteban Ocon shouldnt be ruled out of the other seat.
Already a race winner (Norris is not), and Toto Wolf is still his Manager - Means again that Piastri can go straight into the spare Alpine seat... Not that any sudden changes to the driver line up will be to simply allow Oscar into F1.
Agree on that - maybe he would have called.it a day if he'd won yesterday, but he'll want that 8th title.
Suspect it was all said in the heat of the moment. He knows he was well and truly fckd over.
Whatever happens, I hope Red Bull massively cock up the regs and end battling it out with Haas at the back of the grid! Three way Merc, Fez & Mclaren battle please!
I'd be surprised if Hamilton retires, reckon he wants that eighth title and will be even more motivated to get it now... Also get the impression with the in season testing that he wants to experience the new regulations.
If Hamilton were to retire though; Esteban Ocon shouldnt be ruled out of the other seat.
Already a race winner (Norris is not), and Toto Wolf is still his Manager - Means again that Piastri can go straight into the spare Alpine seat... Not that any sudden changes to the driver line up will be to simply allow Oscar into F1.
Ocon would be an interesting suggestion. Had forgotten Toto managed him tbh!
Piastri is an absolute superstar in the making and it's a massive shame he's not on the grid next year just because he's affiliated to Alpine.
I'd be surprised if Hamilton retires, reckon he wants that eighth title and will be even more motivated to get it now... Also get the impression with the in season testing that he wants to experience the new regulations.
If Hamilton were to retire though; Esteban Ocon shouldnt be ruled out of the other seat.
Already a race winner (Norris is not), and Toto Wolf is still his Manager - Means again that Piastri can go straight into the spare Alpine seat... Not that any sudden changes to the driver line up will be to simply allow Oscar into F1.
Agree on that - maybe he would have called.it a day if he'd won yesterday, but he'll want that 8th title.
Suspect it was all said in the heat of the moment. He knows he was well and truly fckd over.
Whatever happens, I hope Red Bull massively cock up the regs and end battling it out with Haas at the back of the grid! Three way Merc, Fez & Mclaren battle please!
I would love it, love it if that happened
Unfortunately Red Bull have Adrian Newey, so for as long as he's around, they'll probably be fine
I'd be surprised if Hamilton retires, reckon he wants that eighth title and will be even more motivated to get it now... Also get the impression with the in season testing that he wants to experience the new regulations.
If Hamilton were to retire though; Esteban Ocon shouldnt be ruled out of the other seat.
Already a race winner (Norris is not), and Toto Wolf is still his Manager - Means again that Piastri can go straight into the spare Alpine seat... Not that any sudden changes to the driver line up will be to simply allow Oscar into F1.
Agree on that - maybe he would have called.it a day if he'd won yesterday, but he'll want that 8th title.
Suspect it was all said in the heat of the moment. He knows he was well and truly fckd over.
Whatever happens, I hope Red Bull massively cock up the regs and end battling it out with Haas at the back of the grid! Three way Merc, Fez & Mclaren battle please!
I would love it, love it if that happened
Unfortunately Red Bull have Adrian Newey, so for as long as he's around, they'll probably be fine
Rumours are that Mercedes are well ahead in developmnent of the 2022 car. Their 2021 car is a low-rake design and that is the way 2022 cars have to be designed whereas Red Bull car is high-rake so they need big changes to their design to make it work.
I'd be surprised if Hamilton retires, reckon he wants that eighth title and will be even more motivated to get it now... Also get the impression with the in season testing that he wants to experience the new regulations.
If Hamilton were to retire though; Esteban Ocon shouldnt be ruled out of the other seat.
Already a race winner (Norris is not), and Toto Wolf is still his Manager - Means again that Piastri can go straight into the spare Alpine seat... Not that any sudden changes to the driver line up will be to simply allow Oscar into F1.
Agree on that - maybe he would have called.it a day if he'd won yesterday, but he'll want that 8th title.
Suspect it was all said in the heat of the moment. He knows he was well and truly fckd over.
Whatever happens, I hope Red Bull massively cock up the regs and end battling it out with Haas at the back of the grid! Three way Merc, Fez & Mclaren battle please!
I would love it, love it if that happened
Unfortunately Red Bull have Adrian Newey, so for as long as he's around, they'll probably be fine
Rumours are that Mercedes are well ahead in developmnent of the 2022 car. Their 2021 car is a low-rake design and that is the way 2022 cars have to be designed whereas Red Bull car is high-rake so they need big changes to their design to make it work.
Ground effect will play into Neweys hands though - seeing as he was probably designing cars the last time they were around!
I'd be surprised if Hamilton retires, reckon he wants that eighth title and will be even more motivated to get it now... Also get the impression with the in season testing that he wants to experience the new regulations.
If Hamilton were to retire though; Esteban Ocon shouldnt be ruled out of the other seat.
Already a race winner (Norris is not), and Toto Wolf is still his Manager - Means again that Piastri can go straight into the spare Alpine seat... Not that any sudden changes to the driver line up will be to simply allow Oscar into F1.
Agree on that - maybe he would have called.it a day if he'd won yesterday, but he'll want that 8th title.
Suspect it was all said in the heat of the moment. He knows he was well and truly fckd over.
Whatever happens, I hope Red Bull massively cock up the regs and end battling it out with Haas at the back of the grid! Three way Merc, Fez & Mclaren battle please!
I would love it, love it if that happened
Unfortunately Red Bull have Adrian Newey, so for as long as he's around, they'll probably be fine
Rumours are that Mercedes are well ahead in developmnent of the 2022 car. Their 2021 car is a low-rake design and that is the way 2022 cars have to be designed whereas Red Bull car is high-rake so they need big changes to their design to make it work.
Ground effect will play into Neweys hands though - seeing as he was probably designing cars the last time they were around!
True - Newey is a genius aerodynamicist - hence his 10 milliion a year salary! But I think it's very complex to change the design so dramatically and all of the knock on changes. They will do it - but think Mercedes definitely have a head start.
Becoming very clear that the F1 community is strongly behind Mercedes / Lewis on this. My co-director (an ex F1 driver) put a LinkedIn post out asking for opinions on the race (and naturally loads of responses from key stakeholders in motorsport). Away from the rabid Max (or lets be honest anti LH) fans - they are basically universally panning the decision and saying Lewis was robbed.
As I say this is a large cross section of people directly involved in the sport.
”There’s a requirement in the sporting regulations to wave all the lapped cars past,” Masi said.
This is the thing - he knew if he went by the sporting regulations, Hamilton would win. So he decided something not in the sporting regulations to manufacture a win for Verstappen (as in Spa).
Everyone knew the moment he pulled out those 5 cars (contrary to the regulations) and pulled the safety car in a lap early (contrary to the regulations) that Verstappen would get past Hamilton on the soft tyres. Mercedes knew it and Masi knew it. Any notion he was going to create a race was farcical - just like running cars around Spa for two laps was a farce. He made a decision to ignore the regulations and hand the race to Verstappen.
What a farce. I hope Mercedes do appeal and win even if it has to go to the CAS. If it's just there for the TV audience, the teams should get paid to compete like any other guests of a TV show.
I think the only winner Sunday was Netflix. Hopefully Lewis and the Mercedes team are on the ball next year and win all 20 odd races, that will make riveting viewing.
What a farce. I hope Mercedes do appeal and win even if it has to go to the CAS. If it's just there for the TV audience, the teams should get paid to compete like any other guests of a TV show.
From what I've been reading, the Mercs have a very strong chance in winning the appeal as RBs counter claims in the official doc were weak as hell and regs were clearly not followed despite this "race director has over ruling authority" stance. Just hope the end result isn't a null and void race as previously mentioned.
That would be massively unfair on Max, as none of this is his fault but it is what it is...I very much suspect if it wasn't for Horner, Marko & his old man enabling his petulant ways he'd be a lot more likeable.
Masi would say that he was trying to engineer racing (excitement) when there wouldn't have been. I think he is a limited yes man for American F1 owners and Americans, generally, don't get sport in the same way as we do. He clearly wasn't told not to interfere with the processes after the Saudi race which speaks volumes.
Had Max let Hamilton win, he would have started to create a special legacy for himself and revised many opinions. I am not blaming him, I doubt a young Hamilton would do it. But this Championship will be a double edged sword to him over time I suspect.
Like I said even if they win the appeal, I don't get what it will change, only thing they can do is throw out the race, they can't change the result of the race to reflect Hamilton winning and Verstappen finishing second, and if they throw out the race Max still wins the WDC
I don’t see how the result will be changed. The wording of the rules were justwishywashy enough for the FIA to claim it was ok. With this in mind, I hope Hamilton comes out and says he doesn’t want the title this way. Let Red Bull have the tarnished title and it’d cement his legend further.
Apologies for quoting myself, but I said this yesterday morning. I think it’s what will happen. Its a shame for Verstappen that this title will always be tarnished, but to be fair, it should never have been handed to him anyway.
Like I said even if they win the appeal, I don't get what it will change, only thing they can do is throw out the race, they can't change the result of the race to reflect Hamilton winning and Verstappen finishing second, and if they throw out the race Max still wins the WDC
They could easily count the result as of one lap early given that the safety car should have been out for another lap.
If they do throw the race out, like you say, Max still wins and Masi will still get his life time supply of RB because of the farce that was Spa.
If Mercedes want to be petty they could continue with the appeal, but when they win simply state they don't want the result overturned, they just want an asterisk next to the 2021 drivers championship result that says something like "Result invalidated on appeal". I think that might actually piss off Horner more than losing it.
And I agree with earlier comments, I don't think there's anyway Hamilton wants to win on appeal, especially for his record breaking 8th. He'll want to win it on the track next year, whilst Mercedes will use this to get Masi replaced by somebody who will be less influenced by RB (and probably easier for Mercedes to influence),
I don’t see how the result will be changed. The wording of the rules were justwishywashy enough for the FIA to claim it was ok. With this in mind, I hope Hamilton comes out and says he doesn’t want the title this way. Let Red Bull have the tarnished title and it’d cement his legend further.
Apologies for quoting myself, but I said this yesterday morning. I think it’s what will happen. Its a shame for Verstappen that this title will always be tarnished, but to be fair, it should never have been handed to him anyway.
Who'd want to win a World Championship after an appeal
FWIW. When the safety car came on, hamilton was crusing to a win. Verstappen took the opportunity to change tyres, so it was known if the race restarted, he would have an advantage. The big if for me is all those cars he had to overtake. If the rule is that they can go past so that he can race straight with Hamilton - well, the rules is the rules. Hamilton loses his 11 second lead and Verstappen is brought into his neck with better tyres and the rules say it's fair. But if everyone was supposd to hold position, and that is what happens in any other situation, that should have happened here. Hamilton was ahead and Verstappen had a lap to overtake a number of other cars and if it didn't happen, well, hamilton had won anyway. I'm guessing the second is the usual way these things get decided, and since Masi knew Verstappen had new tyres, his decision was to basically give the race and the championship to Verstappen. I'll go with everyone else here and say the most Mercedes should do is seek to overturn the result, and Hamilton will probably opt not to chase this, leaving Verstappen and the Orange army with a hugely tainted championship. But Formula 1 took another big hit with this. You set out the ground rules and stick with them. Once you change them to suit a TV finale, you have reduced the sport to a level of 'It's a Knockout' type circus. After years of criticising the people who run the sport I love, it has it's charm that the FIA have proved to be equally inept, but in my opinion, it sadly cost Hamilton a championship he had won. That's not sport - it's farce.
Comments
Classic SJH.
For sure he would have had we won yesterday. When asked about fighting next year he said “we’ll have to see about next season”. It makes sense with the new regulations coming in.
It’d be painful to see Lando go to Merc though. Was hoping he’d maybe win a title at McLaren.
If Hamilton were to retire though; Esteban Ocon shouldnt be ruled out of the other seat.
Already a race winner (Norris is not), and Toto Wolf is still his Manager - Means again that Piastri can go straight into the spare Alpine seat... Not that any sudden changes to the driver line up will be to simply allow Oscar into F1.
Whatever happens, I hope Red Bull massively cock up the regs and end battling it out with Haas at the back of the grid! Three way Merc, Fez & Mclaren battle please!
Ocon would be an interesting suggestion. Had forgotten Toto managed him tbh!
Piastri is an absolute superstar in the making and it's a massive shame he's not on the grid next year just because he's affiliated to Alpine.
Unfortunately Red Bull have Adrian Newey, so for as long as he's around, they'll probably be fine
As I say this is a large cross section of people directly involved in the sport.
https://www.motorsportweek.com/2020/10/13/masi-explains-reason-for-late-eifel-gp-safety-car/
”There’s a requirement in the sporting regulations to wave all the lapped cars past,” Masi said.
That would be massively unfair on Max, as none of this is his fault but it is what it is...I very much suspect if it wasn't for Horner, Marko & his old man enabling his petulant ways he'd be a lot more likeable.
Had Max let Hamilton win, he would have started to create a special legacy for himself and revised many opinions. I am not blaming him, I doubt a young Hamilton would do it. But this Championship will be a double edged sword to him over time I suspect.
Its a shame for Verstappen that this title will always be tarnished, but to be fair, it should never have been handed to him anyway.
If they do throw the race out, like you say, Max still wins and Masi will still get his life time supply of RB because of the farce that was Spa.
And I agree with earlier comments, I don't think there's anyway Hamilton wants to win on appeal, especially for his record breaking 8th. He'll want to win it on the track next year, whilst Mercedes will use this to get Masi replaced by somebody who will be less influenced by RB (and probably easier for Mercedes to influence),
Masi chose to ignore that simple option.
I'm guessing the second is the usual way these things get decided, and since Masi knew Verstappen had new tyres, his decision was to basically give the race and the championship to Verstappen. I'll go with everyone else here and say the most Mercedes should do is seek to overturn the result, and Hamilton will probably opt not to chase this, leaving Verstappen and the Orange army with a hugely tainted championship. But Formula 1 took another big hit with this. You set out the ground rules and stick with them. Once you change them to suit a TV finale, you have reduced the sport to a level of 'It's a Knockout' type circus. After years of criticising the people who run the sport I love, it has it's charm that the FIA have proved to be equally inept, but in my opinion, it sadly cost Hamilton a championship he had won. That's not sport - it's farce.