Lucky F1 title for Verstappen maybe 'justice' says Alonso
Dec.13 - Dr Helmut Marko admits seeing Max Verstappen become world champion on Sunday provoked "much more intense" emotions even than Red Bull's first ever title with Sebastian Vettel.
"This goes much further than that. The emotions are much more intense," the top team official confirmed to Sky Deutschland.
"The release that came after that last lap is really unparalleled."
Indeed, the 78-year-old Austrian admits he not only had accepted defeat to Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton prior to the last lap, but even before he travelled to Abu Dhabi.
"Yes, I thought it was over, if I'm honest," Marko said.
"Mercedes simply had the best car at the end of the season."
It will go down in history as one of the most emotional and controversial ends to a world championship contest ever.
It has put F1 director Michael Masi in the spotlight for the way he re-started the race with one lap to go and with only Verstappen on fresh tyres.
"Without the safety car, Lewis would have become champion. With the safety car, Max became champion," said two-time champion Fernando Alonso.
"So in that respect, luck decided today, we have to be honest about that. But if you look at the other 21 races, even this one, Max also had a lot of bad luck, so maybe this was justice," he told Ziggo Sport.
Where Alonso sees luck, however, Mercedes sees a breach of Formula 1's own rules about the way in which lapped cars are re-organised before a re-start.
The reigning champions lodged two separate protests, and the stewards rejected them - and so Mercedes is now vowing to appeal.
"It's really not good for anyone that they are doing this," Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said.
"But they can't just take this championship away from us. Nobody is taking Max's title away. But hey, could we have expected a different reaction from them?"
Marko insisted: "We are the moral winners."
Verstappen's father Jos says the way Red Bull took precisely calculated risks with the race strategy on Sunday also needs to be given credit.
"Red Bull has always been very strong when it comes to tactics," he insisted.
"For a long time they didn't have the fastest car, so they had to rely on tactics. But Max was the best driver this year and he deserves the world championship.
"In the end he had one chance, one lap, and he did it. I almost can't believe it," Jos added.
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Justice, LOL.
Regardless of who you wanted to win the race/championship, that has to be one of the most poorly managed races I have seen. Director Michael Masi is probably a nice guy, but he has no business managing races. After the early incident where the quickly announced, they weren't even going to review it, we became completely disgusted and almost did not watch the rest of the race. That incident certainly deserved a review including the time Lewis supposedly gave back. Really poor job. Masi should be washing cars not managing races. I hope he is gone by next season. He really bungled it. And not just this race. No consistency. That said, I am glad to see Max win. Christian Horner did an excellent job.
Ask yourself this: would you react the same way if it were reversed? Probably Red Bull would have reacted the same way. So, let it be. In perspective: finally a new Champ, which the sport needed.
Agreed re Masi, but the stewards are also to blame - that almost instant "no further action necessary" after Lewis clearly went off track, gained a significant (it was at the entry to 6 and 7, the remaining low-speed chicane leading on to the second longest straight - and he completely cut the chicane at high speed, whereas Max stayed on track and of course had to slow to make both 6 AND 7) advantage and completely failed to give any of it back. Compare and contrast to Saudi, where BOTH went off track, yet even before the stewards could say anything, Masi was on the radio to Red Bull telling them to have Max give up the spot or it would go to the stewards - a disgraceful lack of consistency, other than the consistency of the bias against Max all season long - Lewis should've been DQ'd at Silverstone and made to sit out a race for that move at Copse that could've seriously injured (or worse) Max.
All rules after crashes occur should be reviewed and altered. When a crash happens NO ONE should be allowed to pit without taking a penalty. Also no one should loose the lead they have built up. F1 has the technology and all the data so it should be within their remit to do this. Rules regarding re-starts/continuing should be much clearer. Its just ridiculous and I hope that something good comes out of this travesty. Keep your chin up Lewis, you will do it next year.
yeah saftycar sude had won.
I simply apply mathematical logic to this debacle. Hamilton was leading and increasing his lead prior to the crash. His tyres were not efficient and this would have been known to the Stewarts. The excuse provided by Michael Masi for allowing only four lapped cars through past the Safety Car was - to give the fans a last lap race. Masi knew that Max was on New soft tyres. Hamilton was a sitting duck - crucified by the Stewarts’ decision. How on earth could this have been a like for like race to the finish. Scandalous logic. More like anti logic.
what else did you get c in? home economics and dressmaking
Which Stewarts are you talking about? Is it Jackie and someone else?
Mathematic "logic" is all very well, but there are so many other factors - when to pit, when to push, tyre choice, downforce, driving style, tyre conservation etc. - that makes a race more than simply who is fastest. If we wanted to decide on the maths of the stopwatch we could award points based on qualifying laps. But we don't - so much happens in a race.
I do feel for Lewis - he drove a really consistent and faultless race; he is a great driver and will be remembered as one of, if not the, best. I understand his disillusionment. However, when it comes down to one race to decide, you have to expect twists. At least it is better than both drivers going off on lap 1 and the title decided at that point. If this happened in the middle of the season would there be the same amount of debate, discussion, appeal and controversy? Probably not. There would have been appeals by Mercedes, but both teams would say "there are other races, let's get on with the next one". This happened to be the last race and I think Masi, despite his flaws, wanted to finish the race with an actual "race".
If Michael Masi wanted a Race after Latifi's crash & clean up surely the only way was to red flag, all into pits & Lewis could have taken new tyres too. What Masi did was create a situation tantamount to taking 'candy from a baby' not a Race.
Except that under current FIA red flag rules (unlike here in the US, where NASCAR and IndyCar too I think do not allow any work on the cars under a red flag), Lewis would've been allowed to change tires, thus gaining an unfair advantage over Max, whose team played a brilliant strategic move by pitting him prior. Change the red flag rules to prohibit work on the car (including tire changes) and then I would agree.