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Yep. FIA dropped many balls this season, and there have certainly been many moments where the outcome favored one team over the other. But there is no reason to ascribe intent to that (if just for the notion that in the first half of the season most decisions fell towards MB, so if they would be favoring a team, they cannot make up their mind which one :p)TNTHead wrote: ↑13 Dec 2021, 08:51Somehow I see some resemblance with the covid discussions, with posts like above: whatever happened, the suspicion is that someone is directing the outcome on purpose. Some say that's a complot theory? I guess it's part of the information age where data is abundant, but wisdom and truth is hard to find.
It's hard to understand how Merc gained so much race pace since Brazil. One reason for RB could be that the engine life was different between Merc and RB. What was strange was, in abu dhabi sector 3 where RB was around 3 tenths faster in quali, wasn't having such pace in race. My only conclusion was that, with the new engine Merc had a lot of power (don't know how so much power output was possible without an upgrade) to then bolt a lot more downforce, that made them faster. The W12 was back to the Barcelona type of characteristic while following a car and all the progress that RB16B had made since Barcelona to Zandvoort was all gone.Juzh wrote: ↑13 Dec 2021, 13:52Still puzzled at more than 0.5s relative performance swing from qualifying to race in both jeddah and abu dhabi. Both weekends verstappen was by far the fastest in Q3, only to then have no chance on sunday. Even when both Ham and Ver had same age hard tyres after first pitstop it was obvious Verstappen can't keep up, and even after second stop he only made up ~5s deficit (with hamilton going trough traffic, losing him time).
In my opinion Verstappen was making that red bull looking waaaay better than it really was. Basically on pure pace no one can come close to him, I mean just look where perez is these last few races compared to him. 0.85s slower in abu dhabi, would have been 0.7s at least in saudi arabia and was 0.9s in qatar. Those are some insane margins, even when looking at how hamilton was handling bottas.
But inevitably you can't perform miracles trough entire race distance, especially so it seems when your car is configured with lower DF configuration. It's a moot point now with season over anyways, I just found it interesting because pace difference was so unusually large.
Do not over complicate this season. It was all Mercedes to lose.Ryar wrote: ↑13 Dec 2021, 14:04It's hard to understand how Merc gained so much race pace since Brazil. One reason for RB could be that the engine life was different between Merc and RB. What was strange was, in abu dhabi sector 3 where RB was around 3 tenths faster in quali, wasn't having such pace in race. My only conclusion was that, with the new engine Merc had a lot of power (don't know how so much power output was possible without an upgrade) to then bolt a lot more downforce, that made them faster. The W12 was back to the Barcelona type of characteristic while following a car and all the progress that RB16B had made since Barcelona to Zandvoort was all gone.Juzh wrote: ↑13 Dec 2021, 13:52Still puzzled at more than 0.5s relative performance swing from qualifying to race in both jeddah and abu dhabi. Both weekends verstappen was by far the fastest in Q3, only to then have no chance on sunday. Even when both Ham and Ver had same age hard tyres after first pitstop it was obvious Verstappen can't keep up, and even after second stop he only made up ~5s deficit (with hamilton going trough traffic, losing him time).
In my opinion Verstappen was making that red bull looking waaaay better than it really was. Basically on pure pace no one can come close to him, I mean just look where perez is these last few races compared to him. 0.85s slower in abu dhabi, would have been 0.7s at least in saudi arabia and was 0.9s in qatar. Those are some insane margins, even when looking at how hamilton was handling bottas.
But inevitably you can't perform miracles trough entire race distance, especially so it seems when your car is configured with lower DF configuration. It's a moot point now with season over anyways, I just found it interesting because pace difference was so unusually large.
I agree on Checo's assessment. It's hard to see him struggle so badly. Though he did well on a few occasions, but more was needed from him.ME4ME wrote: ↑13 Dec 2021, 15:50Been thinking about that as well.
To me it seems Red Bull can't nail both Q and R setup. It was a long long time ago they did.
Not even in Mexico did they nail both. They disappointed on saturday but then had great race pace on sunday that weekend.
Also Hamilton has often had the ability to go longer.
Seems Mercedes has a better read on the tires.
Hate to point fingers but I wonder if Perez' slow starts to the weekends disadvantages Red Bulls data retreivement. Bottas is on pace much more quickly and is therefor more usable in that respect.
https://verstappen.com/en/article/4611/Max Verstappen crowned world champion after winning Abu Dhabi GP: 'Unbelievable'
[ ..... ]
‘It’s unbelievable’, a visibly emotional Verstappen says after the race. ‘I kept fighting throughout the whole race and then that opportunity in the last lap is incredible. It’s insane I don’t know what to say. Sitting in the car it was a load off of my shoulders. It’s been a long season and the pressure was always on. I think the realization will come later on today.’
According to Christian Horner a miracle was needed to help the Red Bull Racing-driver claim title with still ten laps remaining. Max realized that himself: ‘Up until the final lap everything was going wrong and nothing was working out for us.’ But the miracle came: ‘Finally a bit of luck for me. You know that you only have one shot and you need to go for it. We grabbed it and that is unbelievable. I also want to say a big thank you to Checo, he was driving his heart out today. It was great teamwork and he is an amazing team mate. Also because of him I became a world champion today.’
Max is commending his team that helped him achieve the title this year: ‘To my team I think they know I love them and I hope we can do this for the next ten/fifteen years together. There is no reason to change ever. I want to stay with them for the rest of my life, I hope they let me. Christian and also Helmut, trusting me to be in the team since 2016. Our goal was to win this championship and now we have done just that.’
[ ........ ]
Max Verstappen on his first worldchampionship title: 'Couldn't have been better'
Max Verstappen has written history today by becoming the first ever Dutch F1-world champion. After an intense season of no less than 22 races, the championship was decided during the closing stages of a nail biting Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Verstappen overtook Lewis Hamilton on the final lap to take home the win and also secure his maiden world title.
‘It’s insane’, the extremely happy Red Bull Racing-driver noted. ‘When I was little my goal was to become an F1-driver. You hope for wins, you hope to be on the podium and when they play the national anthem you hope one day they will play yours. And now standing here and when they tell you you are the world champion, it’s something incredible.’
Shortly after the race, beautiful images were shown of a special moment between Max and his father Jos, the one who supported his son throughout his whole career: ‘All the things come back through your mind, the years you spent together travelling for that goal. And then you are here together and everything comes together in the last lap. All these people, my whole team, my family, my friends, the people I grew up with go-karting, the ones who pushed me to where I am today, most of them were all here. It just sounds amazing, honestly. I have even lost my voice, haha!’
Verstappen also has a message for his Orange Army, they came in droves to Abu Dhabi: ‘It’s incredible to see all this orange here and also around the world. The fans were supporting me, throughout my whole career, and especially of course in Formula 1 the support is just incredible. And I hope I can do this for a very long time with the support of my great fans.’
Max is known to be someone who can handle pressure extremely well, but a day like today was exciting for everyone: ‘Of course you are nervous for today, but on the other hand it’s just another race where you want to do well. But the outcome can determine if you are first or second in the championship. Throughout the whole race I tried to keep on pushing, I tried to keep believing in it even though it didn’t look like it. And then sometimes miracles happen.’
The new world champion concludes with some positive words for his competitor Lewis Hamilton: ‘Lewis is an amazing driver, an amazing competitor. They made it really hard for us, and everyone loved to see that. Of course the two teams were fighting each other. We had some tough times but I think that’s all part of the sport. It’s also emotion, everyone wants to win, and it could have gone either way of course today. But for sure next year we’ll come back and we’ll try it all over again.’
