On Saturday before qualifying, an extended family member asked me
why I enjoyed Formula 1.
I answered that, "Because it mimics real life".
"How is that?", they asked.
I responded, "Because it is rarely fair and the rules keep changing".
So in that regard race director Micheal Masi making a series of
unprecedented calls just prior to the final lap did not disappoint.
The mechanism of the end of the Safety Car period was like no other
we had ever seen. Initially, lapped cars were instructed that they
would stay in place. Then in the penultimate lap, the decision is
reversed but with a brand new twist made up on the spot that
we have never seen before. Just the five cars between HAM and VER
would get out of the way but the others remain in place.
But it got even better. For years there have been calls to speed up the
end of the Safety Car period whilst we tediously waited for lapped cars to unlap
themselves and join the back of the pack. So at this championship
deciding race, the race director decides they will do that for the first time.
It turns out the rules really do mimic real life because they are full
of contradictions.
Article 48.12 states that "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".
My highlight. "At the end of the following lap". No, we have the Safety
Car this time come in immediately.
On appeal, the FIA's "out" turned out to be rule 15.3, which says :-
Quote:
The Race
Director shall have overriding authority in the following matters and the clerk of the course may
give orders in respect of them only with his express agreement:
...
e) The use of the safety car
|
At its heart F1 is a technical sport. The decision of how to design the
car's aero package and engine and the minutiae of strategy and so on
are computed, estimated and guessed as best they can.
The events of the race act as the joker in the pack. Do you cover
an undercut, do you pit for fresh tyres, do you pit under a virtual or
real safety car and so on.
It seemed to me that it wasn't so much Mercedes making a bad call on
whether to pit for new tyres when the Safety Car came in, it was
they appeared to estimate how long it would take to clear the wreckage
on average plus the time it would take for overlapped cars to join the back
of the pack would exceed the number of laps remaining.
In other words, the race would end behind the Safety Car.
This technical estimate was based on years of prior experience based on how the
rules and procedures had been followed in the past.
But what they didn't take into account was my original comment about how
in F1 the rules are rarely fair and they keep on changing.
It is understandable that the race director is in charge of safety.
But at some point he decided to put on a racing spectacle by contriving
how the safety car period would end.
The weakest point of soccer is the penalty shootout. It only happens
when there is a draw.
But in this instance the director took upon himself to have a penalty shootout
when there was no draw and one player has availed himself of a pair
of brand new boots.
Even if the slowest car in the pack was given a set of fresh softs and
allowed to have a sprint against the Mercedes with a set of now really worn
hards, the underdog would have more than likely won.
So it was fait accompli.
If Latifi had crashed, say, on the final lap, it would have been a completely
different outcome.
It certainly will be controversial for many years to come.
In any case, the most dramatic, melodramatic and exciting season
for years is over.
There's that wonderful 1965 movie The Great Race, where the handsome
hero played by Tony Curtis, whilst kissing Natalie Wood in front of the
finish line at the Eiffel Tower, allows the villain played by Jack
Lemmon to win the race.
The Jack Lemmon character at first is jubilant because he has won, but
then calls for a re-race when he realises his final victory was hollow.
It has been an incredible and well deserved season for Max, but if it
were me, not how I would have liked to have finally won it.
BBC commentary on the events by Andrew Besnon here :-
https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/59631665
