[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by shabih

No particular offense to you brother but I don't understand this. F1 fans were complaining when Ferrari refused to intervene between Sainz and Leclerc and now I see complaints from people for RedBull intervening.

Tifosi are fed up with nobody winning.

Red bull fans are fed up with only max winning.

Merc fans are fed up with the whining.

[Joeboy]

It has been an easiest of World Championship victories for Max this year. Max has the best car and has driven exceptionally well this year. Sadly Ferrari flattered to deceive and Mercedes did not get it right with the new regulations this year and have a slow car. So it did not go to the wire like last year which kept the viewers on the seat edge unlike last year. Hopefully Ferrari and Mercedes will get it right next year and give some fierce competition otherwise Max will win a 3rd title easily next year.

[shabih]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Tifosi are fed up with nobody winning.

Red bull fans are fed up with only max winning.

Merc fans are fed up with the whining.

Couldn't have summarised it better

[AutoConsultant]

Originally Posted by Cyborg

Having said the above, I still feel Max was not a deserving champion last year, it was gifted to him, he surely didn’t deserve the final victory which made him champion. Sure he drove amazingly last year as well but the way Lewis came back under pressure in the last 4-5 races, he was easily more deserving of the title than Max.

Cheers

While we can have our personal opinions on who was the better driver last season (Max IMO as he committed lesser mistakes, didn’t have a massively superior car at any point and was fighting the statistically greatest driver), I don’t think we should say either Max or Lewis was undeserving to win the title. They both did whatever they could and the mess up was by the FIA so we shouldn’t be diminishing that championship win by Max by saying things like it was gifted to him.

Both of them fought hard and mostly fair and in the end Max was declared champion. We should accept that and move on, sorry for bringing it up again

[shabih]

Originally Posted by AutoConsultant

While we can have our personal opinions on who was the better driver last season (Max IMO as he committed lesser mistakes, didn’t have a massively superior car at any point and was fighting the statistically greatest driver), I don’t think we should say either Max or Lewis was undeserving to win the title. They both did whatever they could and the mess up was by the FIA so we shouldn’t be diminishing that championship win by Max by saying things like it was gifted to him.

Both of them fought hard and mostly fair and in the end Max was declared champion. We should accept that and move on, sorry for bringing it up again

You know I am somewhat divided myself on this. I really admire Max and somewhat dislike Sir Lewis Hamilton.

I often find myself wondering if I were a promising athlete engaged in a 100-meter sprint race with the best sprinter in the world, running side by side, and just 10 meters before the finish line, someone comes and puts a stick against this world's best sprinters foot, giving me the opportunity to take the lead and win the race. Am I really the winner here, despite being a very promising athlete giving a tough fight to the reigning champion?

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by AutoConsultant

Both of them fought hard and mostly fair and in the end Max was declared champion. We should accept that and move on

Well said. Historically, there have been several championship fights that have gone down to the wire with different reasons pushing the win into the lap of one while excruciatingly taking it away from the other one at the last minute.

Hamilton is not new to this - he'd remember his first F1 Driver's championship back in 2008 that was literally taken from Massa's lap on the last corner, of the last lap of the last race of that year. In fact Massa (and the Ferrari team) were already celebrating Massa's win in the Brazilian GP and his seemingly driver's championship win for that year as he crossed the finish line 1st; but Hamilton, by overtaking Toyota's Timo Glock on the final corner, finished in the required 5th position to move ahead of Massa by 1 championship point.

Post-race, Massa's face was unbelievable. It was his home race, he was the star of that weekend, the poster-boy of Brazil; the 'answer' to the gap left by Senna. And he led that weekend from the front, clinching pole position during qualifying and literally led the rest of the pack in 1st position for the majority of the race (IIRC). He did everything perfectly that could have been done so that weekend. And yet he lost the championship at the last turn of the last lap, well after he'd finished the race a minute ago.

That's how brutal this game is sometimes. As rightly said, sometimes, it's just best to accept the game as it is and move on.

[AutoConsultant]

Originally Posted by shabih

I often find myself wondering if I were a promising athlete engaged in a 100-meter sprint race with the best sprinter in the world, running side by side, and just 10 meters before the finish line, someone comes and puts a stick against this world's best sprinters foot, giving me the opportunity to take the lead and win the race. Am I really the winner here, despite being a very promising athlete giving a tough fight to the reigning champion?

See, that analogy would make sense if the entire season had only 1 race - Abu Dhabi. We should look at the entire season, admire the masterclasses both Lewis and Max put out and accept the end result however controversial it may be.

There were a lot of other errors committed by FIA throughout last season, a lot of them went against Max also but we just focus on the last one.

Umpiring errors are unfortunately part of each sport but that shouldn’t lead to undermining the efforts of the winner.

[venkyhere]

Originally Posted by Akmal

Checo deserves the best supporting driver award in Redbulls' efforts in making Max the two time world champion. RB's strategists have never shied away from sending the "no fighting" messages over the radio whenever Checo was leading and Max was challenging him. Perhaps, the championship outcome may not have changed even with no holds barred contest between the two RB drivers, but it did rob us (the viewers) from some pure racing moments. I'm hoping RB plays it fair next season and we see a champion rise up to victory without favors from teammate or instructions from the pitwall.

I hope you are joking. Compared to Schumacher era or Hamilton era, where there was always a Barrichello/Massa or a meek Bottas, who were forced to comply and never allowed to finish ahead of the numero uno (unless the numero uno had car trouble) , what RedBull are doing with Verstappen and Perez is next to nothing.

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by AutoConsultant

I don’t think we should say either Max or Lewis was undeserving to win the title. They both did whatever they could and the mess up was by the FIA so we shouldn’t be diminishing that championship win by Max by saying things like it was gifted to him.

What you have said is exactly my point. Both surely drove well through the year but Max won the last race because of the mess up by Michael Masi’s wrong decision which was covered up by the FIA at that point which shouldn’t have been done.

If it was not a cover up at that point they would never have sacked Masi. Masi’s sacking is the ultimate proof that Max’s championship was gifted to him because without his ridiculously unfair safety car decision Max would have come second when the race finished under safety car conditions. Lewis who was cruising to a win would have deservedly and fairly won the race and championship because they started the last race level on points.

Cheers

[reignofchaos]

It was a great race marred by the weather and then that crane on the track incident with Gasly. The latter is simply unforgiveable.

Finally Max's championship came in really weird circumstances due to a booboo in the rules that FIA itself published recently.

While Ferrari were faster at the beginning of the season, Redbull simply out-developed them through the season and were a far superior, well oiled machine in terms of race strategy.

Finally Max barely put a foot wrong while Charles kept fumbling around and made mistakes at crucial times which swung the momentum to the Redbull side.

[SilentEngine]

Max was on a different level this season. Who would have thought he would wrap up the championship so easily after scoring two DNFs in first three races!

Btw, the FIA rulebook is a joke. Race did not complete the 75% distance, but yet they decided to award full points because of ambiguously written rules. If not for full points, the fight (though just mathematical) would have gone to the next race.

Originally Posted by Cyborg

Having said the above, I still feel Max was not a deserving champion last year, it was gifted to him, he surely didn’t deserve the final victory which made him champion. Sure he drove amazingly last year as well but the way Lewis came back under pressure in the last 4-5 races, he was easily more deserving of the title than Max.

Debatable, both were evenly matched and over a season Max was just a probably notch above. Season is won over the entire season, not just last few races.

Hope Ferrari don’t shoot themselves in the foot again and manage to give Charles a car and strategy support to fight for the championship. A three way or six way (both drivers competing from the big three) championship fight would be extremely interesting for us.

One way how Ferrari can prevent Max domination for next few years is by signing him to drive for them

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Hamilton is not new to this - he'd remember his first F1 Driver's championship back in 2008 that was literally taken from Massa's lap on the last corner, of the last lap of the last race of that year. In fact Massa (and the Ferrari team) were already celebrating Massa's win in the Brazilian GP and his seemingly driver's championship win for that year as he crossed the finish line 1st; but Hamilton, by overtaking Toyota's Timo Glock on the final corner, finished in the required 5th position to move ahead of Massa by 1 championship point.

Post-race, Massa's face was unbelievable. It was his home race, he was the star of that weekend, the poster-boy of Brazil; the 'answer' to the gap left by Senna. And he led that weekend from the front, clinching pole position during qualifying and literally led the rest of the pack in 1st position for the majority of the race (IIRC). He did everything perfectly that could have been done so that weekend. And yet he lost the championship at the last turn of the last lap, well after he'd finished the race a minute ago.

Those scenes from both the garages won't be forgotten. The premature celebrations form Massa camp, then Nicole jumping in joy and finally the Ferrari mechanic head-butting the wall and the letters falling off the wall! It sounds comical now, but it was hard to take as a fan rooting for Ferrari back then.

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

Debatable, both were evenly matched and over a season Max was just a probably notch above. Season is won over the entire season, not just last few races.

Please see my post #24 above, both drivers went into the last race equal on points. Normally what you say is correct but in this particular case we can forget the year or whatever happened earlier because of this mathematical equation = equal points. In this case the last race was the decider of who could be champion.

The way the race unfolded, Lewis was cruising to a victory and becoming a 8 times world champion if not for Michael Masi’s wrong/flawed judgement call during the safety car period. And I say wrong/flawed because the FIA has confirmed it themselves by sacking Masi because of what happened. There can be nothing more to be said beyond this.

I am nobody’s blind fan or anything like that, it just is what it is.

Cheers

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by Cyborg

in this particular case we can forget the year or whatever happened earlier because of this mathematical equation = equal points

Championships are won over a season - Max had great luck with the SC in Abu Dhabi but terrible luck in other places. Every race counts equally so you can't forget the year and only look at once race.

On the whole, he was a notch above Hamilton in terms of performance as a driver.

[Joeboy]

Originally Posted by Cyborg

Please see my post #24 above, both drivers went into the last race equal on points. Normally what you say is correct but in this particular case we can forget the year or whatever happened earlier because of this mathematical equation = equal points. In this case the last race was the decider of who could be champion.

The way the race unfolded, Lewis was cruising to a victory and becoming a 8 times world champion if not for Michael Masi’s wrong/flawed judgement call during the safety car period. And I say wrong/flawed because the FIA has confirmed it themselves by sacking Masi because of what happened. There can be nothing more to be said beyond this.

I am nobody’s blind fan or anything like that, it just is what it is.

Cheers

I suspect the FIA did it deliberately to give a chance for Max to win as they think that having a new world champion would do a world of good for the sport. If Lewis had pitted for fresher tyres then Max might have stayed on used tyres and then the FIA would have finished the race behind the safety car for Max to win.

[Hatari]

Superb drive this year and utter dominance.

The 2X WDCs and above are an elite club of the very best of F1.

Hope we see a 3 way fight next year between the top 3 teams for the Driver's title.