2021 F1 challenge discussion thread: R10: Britain

Agree that it was a racing incident but I also see why the stewards had to give a penalty due to the serious resultant crash. Severe sour grapes from Horber and Max. When Max almost took out Lewis at the beginning of the Monza race leading to Lewis taking evasive action that cost him the lead, the Red Bull line was that it was hard but fair racing. When the tables are turned but their driver doesn't have time sense to avoid contact it's wreckless driving.

One thing is for sure, the next race between Max and Lewis in Hungary should be interesting!

100% racing incident.

Leclerc drove really well, bit if a shame he lost so much pace on the hard tyres but great to see Lewis on a proper charge seemingly ignoring the risk of tyre wear and just wanting to win. That’s the sort of driving we all want to see.

It’s a shame what happened, but it had a sense of invertibility about it. Hamilton and Verstappen already had two close encounters prior to the clash at Copse. Hamilton was on the inside at Abbey, but backed out of the move on Verstappen. Hamilton was alongside Verstappen into Hamilton into Brooklands, but backed out of that too. What I believe Hamilton took exception to, is being squeezed against the old pit wall. Verstappen weaves too much, never really telling his competitor which direction he will take. I think that annoys other drivers, and Verstappen honestly expected Hamilton to back off – just like practically every driver including Hamilton has done – until yesterday.

I don’t buy the argument that Hamilton should have turned tighter to the apex. That isn’t how Copse is taken anymore in a modern F1 car. In those high-speed corners the drivers deliberately stay off the kerbs to avoid unsettling the car. The stewards’ report afterwards, sounds rather simplistic and naïve. This isn't a touring car or GT3 car, you don't touch the apex full stop at Copse in an F1 car. The fact that someone else crashed out should have no bearing on the decision made, a compensation-culture has crept into F1. This is motor racing, accidents will happen, and if Red Bull find it so shocking, they should stay at home.

For me, the most dangerous thing that Verstappen ever did was block Raikkonen on the Kemmel Straight at Spa when the latter was driving for Ferrari. When the preceding driver has to slam on the brakes in a straight line, that for me is an immediate foul. It was truly dangerous, and could have been one almighty shunt without the quick reactions from Kimi.

Verstappen talks about Hamilton being unsporting. I think Verstappen has been unsporting since he entered F1. You aren’t supposed to reactively defend, you aren’t supposed to weave everywhere, you aren’t supposed to nerf people off the track. It is a bit of sour grapes, from someone who is relentlessly aggressive and refuses to yield. Some might say he is paid to be aggressive, he’s a racer and he entertains. All of that might be true. But sometimes the intelligence of a racing driver is conceding a position, finishing races, and not putting in jeopardy what was a very comfortable championship-position. It was invertible that someone was going to take exception to Verstappen’s antics, and drive in an equally-uncompromising manner. Verstappen's driving is synonymous of todays European blocking and chopping. It has to stop, I think motor racing has been very lucky to not have serious injuries or fatalities considering the driving that sometimes goes on in the junior formula. 

People talk about Hamilton and Leclerc into Copse. Leclerc drove with intelligence and racing etiquette. He didn’t squeeze Hamilton along the pit wall, and he made the decision to allow Hamilton to command the road into Copse. For Leclerc, he knew P2 was almost like a victory for Ferrari.

Apparently the drivers are freer to race these days, what does it mean, how is that defined? The past two races would suggest that the issue of over-zealous penalties still exists. Weaving and changing of direction are two things I would have far less tolerance towards, its plain dangerous in single seaters, especially the offset in speed with DRS.

Helmet Marko has always been a bit of a drama queen. Maybe he should focus on the conveyer belt he runs, churning out drivers who have failed to succeed at Red Bull or the junior team and teach drivers in his academy better race craft. They never dealt with Vettel’s clumsy driving at Red Bull in 2010, and now won’t deal with Verstappen. It can’t be denied that Verstappen is hot property, so they probably don’t want to upset him.

Max has more form for forcing his way through and he was probably surprised that Lewis would keep his foot in knowing what a cunt Max is in these scenarios. Max forgot however that it was Silverstone, Lewis’ home race and there was no way he was letting his crowd see him concede. The comments from LeClerc and Alonso are most telling: Charles was a grandstand spectator in 3rd and said it was a racing incident where Lewis was not going to hit the apex but Max was too aggressive; Alonso went further saying Lewis had over half a car alongside and he can’t just disappear, and it’s worth nothing that when it comes to taking the karting outside line to overtake no one is better than Fernando. 

The stewards gave a lenient penalty but could have given none, instead saying that Lewis had the greater portion of blame. First corner in Budapest will be worth watching. 

It's very hard to feel any sympathy for Verstappen, he comes across as an arrogant spoiled child.

Its a very light contact and I'm sure he could've given a bit more room but I don't think that's his style, however he's been involved in plenty of moves that appear to be a lot more aggressive than this one.
Horner's comments about it not being the place to overtake are easily proven to be wrong since Hamilton managed it during the race without incident.

I didn't think Verstappen was too bad on the old pit straight, certainly not compared to some of his antics in the past.

Horner really annoyed me after the race.  When he was interviewed by SKY, he said Lewis was ‘desperate’ and he hoped he was really proud of himself after putting a competitor in hospital.   Errrrr, he only went to hospital as a precaution and (thankfully) being winded was the worst of it and he was well enough to be having a pop on social media.  Apparently Lewis was being disrespectful and unsportsmanlike celebrating the win when he was in hospital…..

The pair of them need to get a grip.

Some of the reasoning from the weekend was bizarre. Apparently you can’t overtake into Copse anymore, where has this rule come from? And Helmut Marko, wanting a race ban for Hamilton. If that were to take place, we should pack up and go home.

I agree with Ed, Hamilton saw red mist to an extent. It’s always Verstappen leaning on someone, or Verstappen chopping someones nose off entering a corner, and coming out on top. After Barcelona and Imola 2021, plus previous years, I think Hamilton decided that if he got half a chance, he wasn’t going to backdown. Its slightly ironic hearing Horner and Marko claiming that Hamilton is dangerous, with the previous antics of Verstappen. Verstappen is super, very exciting to watch. But undeniably, the only reason why more collisions haven’t occurred with him over the years is because the other driver involved has backed off. Back when he was colliding with Vettel, Raikkonen, his teammate or whoever, he didn’t have much to lose. Now he has someone to lose, and the desperation to either retain or gain every position at virtually whatever cost could harm him.

I don’t understand the obsession with determining blame all the time. It’s an open-wheel car with a huge front wing, make contact and it will probably result in damage. That is the biggest penalty and deterrent of all. The drivers don’t go about trying to get involved in collisions, accidents happen, it’s always been part of racing – yesterday, today and tomorrow. Do these penalties stop people trying to go for moves? Verstappen is the biggest chopper and weaver of all – someone at some point was always going to take exception with his driving.

Stefano Domenicali is someone who could make the difference in future. When Domenicali was chair of the FIA single seater commission, there were three European F3 races at Monza. He cancelled the final race, because the driving in the first two races was so reckless. It was like 20-odd Verstappen wannabe’s weaving and chopping each other off, resulting in some nasty accidents. Domenicali needs to work with the FIA to determine what dangerous driving is. So Lando Norris in Austria against Perez was not dangerous, and applying penalty points that contributes to a race ban wasn’t right – the wider punishment didn’t fit the crime. If we just let the driver’s race, I don’t think there would be many issues. That weekend, I liked Domenicali’s direction. He took a stance against genuinely dangerous driving. Not the trivial stuff now penalised in F1 now.

F1 is now a democracy with committees and everything. It’s evident that the stewarding system needs overhauling, but how can it be enacted, who is responsible? This won’t happen, but I would take away stewarding from FIA, and transfer it internally to FOM. You just need a few competent people on a consistent basis to make decisions, no more merry go-rounds of stewards and the obsession with portioning blame everytime. And no more automatic penalty points.