Hooniverse Asks: What do you think about how the Formula 1 season ended?

Jeff Glucker

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Max Verstappen is the 2021 Formula 1 World Driver’s Champion. He passed Lewis Hamilton on the final lap of the final race of the season to take the win. That all sounds like a thrilling end to a season that captured the hearts and minds of new fans the world over. There’s a problem though, and it lies with F1 Race Director Michael Masi. Many feel he was inconsistent in his delivery of the rules in this race, and in other races this season. This resulted in a close finish that shouldn’t have been as close as it was and some feel that 2nd place finisher Lewis Hamilton was denied the win along with his 8th WDC.

Racer and automotive writer Robb Holland (and Shift Talker’s guest of course) breaks it down very nicely over on The Drive. The key thing that fans of motorsport keep returning to is that Verstappen is an amazing driver and he is the world champion for this year. The issue lies directly with the FIA and Masi himself. And these are calls that affected the race and ultimately the season.

Do you agree with this? Do you think Hamilton was robbed? Or is this all posturing BS and Verstappen is the rightful F1 king of 2021? Sound off below

About

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Hooniverse.com. He’s often seen getting passed as he hustles a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero up the 405 Freeway. IG: @HooniverseJeff

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10 responses to “Hooniverse Asks: What do you think about how the Formula 1 season ended?”

  1. bill Avatar
    bill

    let them race

    Reply
  2. Idaneck Avatar
    Idaneck

    I don’t think Hamilton was robbed of this win anymore than Verstappen was robbed of wins/points in other races.

    F1 tried to create drama and disorder, all season and didn’t let them all race. With that said, I was pulling for Honda to get a win as they go out.

    I also think Hamilton is like Kapernick, better at creating controversy than putting their heads down and working. If he truly wants to better mankind, love as an example- and racing high dollar cars won’t solve race inequality, climate crises or poverty.

    Reply
    1. Rover 1 Avatar
      Rover 1

      Where the hell have you come from? Please stay off Hooniverse with your poorly formulated and mis-spelled political polemic. You are not welcome here.

      Reply
      1. Idaneck Avatar
        Idaneck

        I’m sorry, please help me formulate my opinions next time.

        Reply
    2. Lokki Avatar
      Lokki

      Actually, you nailed it. There has been a huge fight between Mercedes, Formula One, and Hamilton regarding his rights under his contract to express personal political opinions while “on the job”. He displayed a tee shirt expressing a personal opinion, once, on his tee shirt while on the podium last year. After that incident, he was told to keep both his race suit and mouth zipped. That was fully in accord with his, and every F1 driver’s contract; a standard “comdition-of-employment” clause saying while working you represent your team, your sponsors, and F1. He wanted this removed from his contract so he could use his “Bulky-Pulpit”. This dispute is the reason Hamilton “got CoVid” after he secured the championship last season (to remind the team how much they need him) but miraculously recovered so quickly after Russell drove the wheels right OFF Hamilton’s car (by which Mercedes suggested to him that perhaps they don’t need him). The compromise was a one-year contract, with slightly less restrictive limits on Hamilton. F1, being American owned is very aware of the potential impact of allowing politics or social justice issues to enter the sport. Ask the NFL what happens. Ask the NBA about China. F1 is international business and does not want to get dragged into ANY issues except racing ones.

      Rover, where do you come off being offensive to someone for expressing an opinion, and trying to chase from a place you don’t own? You are free to have and express your own views, but I don’t believe telling someone they have to leave because they are guilty of intolerant wrong-think is very tolerant. However, beyond that I leave the issue to the Site Administrators. They get to decide who can say what, and who must leave.

      As for the end of the F1 season… the officiating over the whole season was a mess. There were simply too many inconsistencies and bad calls. I think this must be fixed. In the last race, Hamilton clearly gained an advantage in the first lap and should have been made to give up the position. While that was later made moot, the Stewards’ decision made was wrong. At the last lap of the race, well, I understand the Race Director’s desire to end the season racing under a green flag. I am not crazy happy about it, but Hamilton could have changed tires if the team chose to do so.

      I would like to propose a system somewhat like American professional baseball uses, where each team would get one protest per race over any stewards’ decision to be reviewed within (say) two minutes maximum by an FIA (et al) review committee. If the call is sustained, the challenging team retains the ability to make another protest. If overruled they have no more protests for that race.

      Reply
      1. Lokki Avatar
        Lokki

        Sigh… auto-correct is annoying. Apple chose to type “Bulky Pulpit” which is meaningless, when the term I intended was “ Bully Pulpit”

        Here is a link to the definition of “Bully Pulpit”

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bully_pulpit

        Reply
    3. William Byrd Avatar
      William Byrd

      lol, one of the greatest (the greatest imo) drivers of all time who had to work his way through the system (vs. having daddy buy a seat) and he hasn’t put his head down and worked? That’s an amazing load of bullshit. He’s done a ton of work on all of the items you mentioned vs. just “love and racing cars”. At least google it first…

      Reply
    4. wunno sev Avatar
      wunno sev

      lol what? Hamilton can’t put his head down and work? ok buddy.

      Reply
  3. outback_ute Avatar
    outback_ute

    I have a bit of sympathy for Masi, having to make the decision on the fly and can see how the “just let the cars between P1 & P2 past so we can go racing again” came about. I suppose I would have preferred to not wave past lapped cars because it compounds the disadvantage to the leader on top of losing whatever gap they had, but that train left the station long ago.

    On the championship outcome I don’t have a preference for either driver, and it did make for an exciting finish to the season. It was very strange that Hamilton didn’t defend his position when Verstappen overtook him – surely he could see it coming. Yes Verstappen had a big grip advantage, but with the championship on the line I would have been blocking for all it was worth with one lap to go, copying Verstappen’s move from lap 1 for example, “parking the car on the apex”, etc.

    Having the team bosses whinge to the race director has to change! Presumably the race direction will get sorted out, but I don’t think the genie can be put back in the bottle for track limits or having drivers leave racing room vs push rivals off the track. Not referring to MV lap one there, Lewis probably had the opportunity to “over and under” him.

    Reply
    1. PapaVanTwee Avatar
      PapaVanTwee

      They are getting rid of the Team boss ability to talk to the race director during the race directly. I’m sure they will be able to file protests, or something similar.

      As for overtakes, there are rules for it. If you are on the attack, you have to pull at least half way of the person defending to have right of way. Verstappen’s first lap pass was clean, except Hamilton went off track and kept position.

      My wife is Dutch, so I was happy to see Max win, so I may be a bit biased. But earlier in the year when Hamilton did a similar move, and wrecked Max out of the race, was surprised he only got a 10 second penalty, which didn’t harm him. But Spa was a joke with no green flag racing, giving Max a win and the tiebreaker, and I thought that was BS (I live near Indy, so I remember the tire race in 2005 all too well). People can point to the Race Director for “ruining” the season, and Max’s championship not being legit, but it was a tough year considering. And I’ve seen people cry foul about not enforcing the rules correctly, then when the new F1 boss penalized Mercedes recently for not showing up at the awards ceremony (a clear rules violation), they thought that was BS, so I don’t pay them much heed anymore.

      Reply