Hello and welcome back!

Today’s blog post is a special one. In order to give everyone a small break in between learning all the logistics of F1, and having to remember all the drivers and teams on the grid, I have chosen to make the topic of today’s passion post the 2021 World Driver’s Championship. This is, without a doubt, the most controversial WDC decision in the history of the sport. It only happened a few months ago but has yet to leave people’s topics of discussion. I won’t scramble on too much, let’s get right into it:

The World Drivers Championship 

The battle for the WDC last year was very intense, and switched back and forth between Verstappen and Hamilton almost every race, as they were THAT close in points. Over the course of the last season many decisions were taken by the FIA which were controversial, for example: allowing Verstappen to speed during a yellow flag, but punishing Hamilton for doing it, or the other way around by letting Hamilton go wide in the turns but not allowing the same for Verstappen. Overall it was handled very badly by the race director — Michael Masi. Though he might’ve been able to keep his job if he didn’t do what he did during the final race, and the championship decider of the season, which was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen someone do in sports. But before you find out what that is, here is how the race went down: It was the Bahrain Grand Prix. A nighttime race, as always. Max starts from pole position (which means he’s at the very front when the race starts), though Lewis is very closely behind, as he starts from 2nd. When the race takes off Max gets an amazing start, and with that, ends up taking the lead in the race. Not very long after, in one of the first corners of the track Hamilton goes wide and is able to overtake Verstappen OFF-TRACK. This is illegal based on FIA rules, though Michael Masi does nothing, and lets Hamilton keep the spot. This leads to Hamilton being able to keep the lead of the race until 5 laps before the race ends. That is when Nicholas Latifi hit the wall, which changed everything. Masi decided to deploy a safety car to make sure the crashed car gets removed from the track safely. During a safety car the time you lose during a pitstop is less than what you’d normally lose, which is why Redbull decided to pit Verstappen for fresh tires, in case the race restarts. Mercedes was unable to do so with Hamilton as that would’ve caused him to lose the lead of the race. There were 5 cars in between Verstappen and Hamilton by the time Verstappen came out of his pit stop, which Masi announced were not allowed to un-lap themselves due to the race needing to start. Though after the Latifi’s crashed car was cleared, race control decided to let ONLY the 5 cars in between Max and Hamilton to un-lap themselves, meaning that Max and Hamilton will be right behind one another by the time the race restarts. Race control then decided to bring the safety car in right away to ensure that there will be one whole racing lap left. This ultimately meant that Verstappen would start the final lap right behind Hamilton, and on much fresher tires. This lead to Verstappen winning the race, by overtaking Hamilton and keeping the lead of the race throughout the final lap.

Okay, I know that was a lot to take in. I apologize, but I had to cram lots of important information into one paragraph.

My Opinion

I believe that the race was doomed the second Masi allowed Hamilton to overtake Verstappen illegally, off-track. Verstappen would’ve kept the lead of the race if that wouldn’t have happened, and might’ve been able to score a victory that way. Instead, Masi allowed the overtake and then decided to restart the race in a very idiotic way to give us fans at least one last lap of racing action. I honestly understand why he did what he did, because he did not want the WDC to be decided by a safety car incident, but sometimes circumstances can’t be changed and he should’ve just let it play out. OR he could’ve waved the red flag, made all cars come into the pits and have an entire restart for the last lap which honestly wouldn’t have been as controversial. He did lose his job after that championship, which I think is very much right since throughout the entire season he’d made horrible decisions. But back to the race… I understand the controversy, and why everyone is so upset, but I think both drivers were hindered in some way of getting that championship title, and it just happened to play out in Max’s favor in the end, because one of them had to win. So I do firmly believe that Max earned that championship the best possible way he could, as neither driver’s were at fault.

Let me know your opinion on this. Obviously if you’re a Hamilton fan you don’t even need to comment, I know you’re very upset by this decision, and I totally understand that. But I’d like to hear someones opinion on this matter who has no idea about F1.