Also, can someone explain why Bottas gets a penalty of 5 places for the next grandprix? I mean he knocked some people off the race, but it was a mistake in the first corner of a wet track, I can think of at least 5 reasons why this was more excusable than Hamilton’s little love tap in the previous race.
I think the DQ for the fuel is because they need a liter to be able to do proper testing. Without proper testing they can’t verify that the car ran with legal fuel.
Sucks for Vettel but all the teams know the rules and everyone knows that if you don’t pass scrutineering, you’re DQ’d.
As for penalties for race incidents, there’s no hard and fast rule - they’re all unique and subject to the interpretations of humans. So almost anything goes 
Anyway, fun race from beginning to end. Ham by himself at the restart was a bit bizarre lol.
Agreed. I have never seen that before where there was only one car on the grid! MotoGP came close two seasons ago I think because of a tire SNAFU. Only 3 or 4 bikes started on the grid. The pile up at Pit out was hilarious! But yes, that was indeed pretty strange.
As for Vettel and the penalty, yes that sucked pretty hard. But as they say, rules are rules. They will put more fuel n next time I’m sure. On to the next…
They are only allowed to put in so much fuel, 100 litres I think. If the driver is racing hard or trying to overtake constantly like Seb was then it wastes more fuel.
If there is a safety car or some of the laps are done at a slow pace it allows the driver to conserve fuel and attack hard again without having to worry about leaving a minimum for checks after the race.
There was a race a good few years ago where Seb was asked to stop immediately after the checkered flag as the team saw there was not enough fuel to make it back to pits and have enough left for checks. I’m surprised the team weren’t monitoring it and asked him to stop earlier.
Allegedly, Aston Martin has commented in a report where you said that the fuel pump was defective and that was the reason for the standstill.
According to this, there should still be 1.44 liters in the tank minus the sample.
They will check whether it is really due to the pump.
If so, you could appeal.
Since still the sensor is there where the consumption measures that was ordered, would allegedly be the chances good.
Ultimately, it is and remains a stupid rule.
When I see how other teams are punished in part rigorously and others are not, it makes no fun.
Just like the principles of the Fia.some are so old that they must be reviewed.
Christian Horner has initiated something where he is right.
By the cost capping everyone agreed but if there are accidents and other teams against each other drive in no one pays.This is also point that must be clarified if one decides already cost capping.
Red Bull can say goodbye to 2 engines by the last 2 crashes that were caused.
With all the trimmings roughly estimated 5 million for nothing.just because 2 Mercedes drivers who are paid expensive are too stupid to plug in and maintain.
Mercedes has Red bull so denied the opportunity to continue to make points.
Is that unsportsmanlike?
one would think that 0.3l would be enough to verify the quality/legality of the fuel, but it is a rule… Real shame if Seb loses his 2nd place, especially since this is the teams responsibility, not the driver. Losing the constructors points and a little fee would seem more appropriate since it didn’t really give Seb an advantage as long as the fuel itself is legal…
Some detail on the fuel regs:
1 Like
I don’t know what Vettel has done to be taken apart by the Fia every time.
Something must have happened.
Funnily enough, it started when he was at Ferrari.
Somewhere it started to go against him.
With any other team and driver, they would never have made such a wave, except with Vettel.
That they confiscate the whole car is really awesome and in the next race he has to go back 5 places because of something like that.
That’s so ridiculous, they should just sort it out in the next 3 weeks and prove that there’s enough fuel in the tank.
So much for cost reduction, the “dear” Fia will have to rethink that soon.
They won’t be able to handle it like this every time.
Well that was an exciting end to a great season.
1 Like
Yes it was.
Both deserved it but there can only be one in the end.
In the end, I see it as redemption for Max after losing points in the Silverstone and Monza crashes.
At Monza it was just both of them, at Silverstone I just see that Lewis could have backed off as he still had the race ahead of him.
Then there wouldn’t have been such a controversy and the experience of Monza would have been different.
Max’s action last week wasn’t quite okay, but Lewis did it with Vettel back then.
I find it disturbing that the FIA decides from race to race when there are incidents, and the whining of the teams to the FIA during the race.
What Toto Wolff did there was very arrogant.
It is the race control that gives instructions, not the teams to the race control.
I wish more could be done about that.
That the teams and drivers become calmer.
I thought Max was often at a disadvantage because of the paternalism of the FIA.
He was fairer than Lewis, I have to say.
So I think it was right today that Max is world champion, even if Toto Wolff is still raging with anger.
He is currently looking for a reason to appeal against the result, which has been leaked.
1 Like
It would be terrible if the championship was overturned after this. It would make the sport look really bad to the world.
Something needs to be done about the teams petitioning the race director to get him to look into incidents or to tell when there should or shouldn’t be a safety car to their own benefit. Communication should not be allowed in that direction.
1 Like
yeah if this SC petition changes results the sport will lose a lot of credibility.
1 Like
Yes, I agree.
If the stewards change their mind, the sport is dead for the next few years.
Thanks to Mercedes because they show themselves to be very bad losers.
It’s not enough for them because they have claimed everything for themselves since 2014 with this generation of engines, but now they have to give up the crown for the one time when no Mercedes driver made it.
As it is, it’s actually fair.
Mercedes has lain 8 years, a whole generation engine-technically dominated and 7 times the drivers who were used.
And once they didn’t, that shows what greed can sometimes do to someone.
They both deserved it, but Max was just better with the team today.
While Mercedes acted whiny and hesitant.
That’s actually the reason why they lost the drivers’ title today.
It’s okay to protest about banalities.
But as I said, the FIA must do more to ensure that the teams have less influence and that the drivers are treated more fairly.
Then there is no need for such things.
The FIA certainly has a share in the fact that it has come to this.
Max remains world champion 
.
Unless the sports court decides otherwise in the winter time loool.
After such a dominant engine era, Mercedes is bidding a very disastrous farewell.
And unfortunately they don’t act according to the sporting code, which is a real pity.
I fully disagree with this but that’s fine - we don’t have agree. What I’m pissed about is the ridiculous inconsistencies in how/when/what rules are applied. There has to be one set of rules that applies to everyone, all the time, everywhere. Otherwise, who wins or loses is completely contrived. No matter who you root for, if they didn’t win in the end, you are justified in pointing to shit rulings during the season that disadvantaged “your” athlete. The questionable rulings also diminish the achievements of the winner.
And Red Bull would have been different? Horner is the whiniest person in all of F1 and Marko is simply senile.
Toto is no angel either. This idea that one side is “better” than the other in terms of emotional control and/or actions is just silly. All these people are under billions of dollars worth of pressure to succeed. I don’t care who you put in there, as long they’re human, they’ll do illogical, emotional shit.
To me the racing Gods did intervene. If the 6 car doesn’t crash, Lewis wins. As it was fair that they got one good lap of racing - and Mercedes left Lewis out there with old tires. Toto is raging all right - At himself.
I’m glad Max won it - end of story. To me all the other stuff will be sorted over the Winter. Race direction should look at itself as well.
Regarding the teams’ conversations with race control, it’s always been that way. This is simply the first time we get to hear any of it. It really makes everyone look like amateurs. But, they like us are just humans. When we realize that these people aren’t somehow superior to everyone else (sure they can be better engineers, drivers, etc.), it will be way less dramatic/shocking/whatever.
But I guess most people tune in for the drama. Just another soap opera set against the background of sport 
Anyway, it’s been a fun season not knowing who will end up on top. Hopefully the changes for next year will result in even better competition with more than 2 drivers fighting it out.
1 Like
@A_Jedi
I agree with you about the rules.
But the teams have been saying that themselves since the beginning of the year.
That’s no secret, the drivers are also in favour of it and everyone would benefit from it.
You saw it at the start after Max tried to overtake Hamilton.
If it had been Max, there would have been trouble.
That’s just the way it is.
That is not allowed.
In the end it’s also the case that Mercedes just didn’t react after Latifi’s crash and Redbull changed the tyres.
I see that as Max wanted to overtake Hamilton in lap 1 and it was legitimate and Hamilton insisted on keeping Pos1, that was the sweet revenge at the end.
If Mercedes had also changed and Hamilton had dropped back to Pos2, he would have picked Max up just like Perez.
I think Mercedes had too much respect and fear of Max’s manoeuvres today.
They didn’t take any risks today, they didn’t try anything and they played for keeps, while Redbull played for keeps.
That Mercedes now reacts like this after so many years of dominance, winning a lot, having drivers who are black and white, who have made themselves strong for black live matters and racism, unfortunately they have lost a lot of credibility today, in front of the sport, in front of the fan
I feel that Max did a better job overall this year, although todays victory was mostly due to luck with the saftycar/vsc situations. Max has lead the most laps through out the year, and had the one more victory going into this race, so in that respect the WDC is well deserved…
I feel Lewis and Mercedes has been a bit frazzled by Red Bull this year, especially the first half of the season, and perhaps it has shown a little that they are not used to really fight an even match as they usually have had the fastest car through out the season. This year i think the cars have been quite evenly matched, with some tracks favouring the Red Bull, and som the Merc.
While i really enjoy the team-to-Masi communications, i do also think they put the FIA in a bad light in some cases. Like in the last race where they seemed to bargain about the positions at the re-start of the race. Still, it ads to the “drama” of it all, and at least in some cases they have provided useful information.
Good to see Kimi being voted driver of the race, and sad to see him leave the sport. I was hoping to see him racing one more year, as i would have loved to see him driving the new regulation cars. He certainly would have had the experience to help Alfa develop it, but i guess so will Bottas who replaces him. I’ve been a bit of a Kimi “fanboy” since his debut at Sauber, and especially those early years in the oh so unreliable McLaren he was sooo fast…
1 Like