I think thats as far as the FIA are concerned as it’s the prize giving ceremony, this means they have to do their appeal with the ICA or whatever they’re called(The FIA’s courts of appeal) before Thursday and it all has to be concluded by then. As for CAS if they lose the ICA appeal, i’m sure that CAS hold more power than the FIA so the Thursday deadline is pointless. If it goes to CAS after the ICA then we wont get an answer for months, if they ICA uphold the current results then Thursday will go ahead.
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Ah, looks like I rewrote my reply several times and ultimately de-emphasised one of my points:
- I don’t expect the result to get overturned. Whatever happens, it would arguably be unfair now to strip the championship from Max (who as I have repeated noted, has personally done nothing wrong in this race).
The s*** I speak of being cleared up is largely clarifying the rules, with a small part of either replacing Masi or creating new staff race/steward positions to insulate him from interference by any of the teams during a race.
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It’s a shame we can’t have this discussion without being personally rude about specific individuals. Puts me off any further contribution. It weakens every point being made because it just reveals the personal biases of the authors.
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Agreed.
Circus-antics aside:
- Lewis is the current F1 king (despite recent events). No question. Insanely talented and still hungry but getting older
- Max is a naturally gifted race driver with an open future - and he has age on his side
Evolution.
I remember the Hunt/Lauda days… and since then we’ve had some INCREDIBLE racing moments. Mansell, Hill, Button (and I’m only giving home-grown names there!) - it’s a sport. A compelling one, with a huge globally passionate following, and this recent turn of events makes it even more interesting.
Evolution.
No more appeals. That’s the end of it.
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I suspect deals where done, the FIA statement yesterday was part of it, and Masi sacking is probably incoming any time soon
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Anyone know what Geri thinks?
Agree that deals were done, similar to the Ferrari engine saga, we’ll never know but I have lost so much respect for the sport and for Mercedes it’s unreal. Nothing will come of the commission, it’s just to silence people, and Masi won’t go anywhere.
I’m really shocked at how this has all played out, I can’t help thinking as much as I dislike Christian Horner, he’d have taken it all the way.
Max and Lewis both deserved the title, I’m not sad Max won it, just the circumstances in how, for me an appeal wasn’t about getting it overturned but it was about forcing meaningful change, now we’re back to square 1.
At this point in time, I can’t see me tuning in next season, and that’s a real shame for me.
There has already been meaningful change, Ross Brawn has said that team principals won’t be able to communicate directly with the race director next season (so no more “No safety car please” or “We only need one racing lap” pestering).
Even if the commission is a whitewash, the teams have laid down a very clear marker that they want to race under consistently applied rules, so a situation where the race director makes rules up on the fly should never happen again.
I think Masi should go. I think he may yet go. But if he doesn’t, I think changes will be made to his role to take some of the decisions and the pressure away from him (effectively demoting him). At the very least, I don’t that think he’s getting away scott-free.
Mercedes have made the right choice at every step of the way she nce the race; they had to appeal after the race for the sake of the sport, and then have to drop their appeal now for the sake of the sport.
There absolutely will have been deal-making from the FIA to make Mercedes happier, but I’m reasonably sure that Mercedes position will not have been “We want a deal that gives us an advantage” but “We want a deal that restores the integrity of the sport.”
I suspect th fact that Lewis has been so gracious in defeat is also something that has tempered any actions Mercedes may have wanted to take.
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That’s not enough though, whilst he was pestered, he still made the decisions he made. Whilst I agree team principals should not have an open channel to the race director. It’s only a small part of the problem.
Have they though, as far as I can tell all other teams have stayed disappointingly silent about all of it because they’re too scared of the FIA. There’s been comments from a small amount of drivers, a lot of the clips of which F1 themselves have been issuing takedown notices of, whoich in itself is disgusting.
We’ll see but I think Brawns comments are about as far as it goes for anything to do with him. Doing anything to Masi is the FIA admitting fault and they will not do that, even their statement yesterday basically blamed it all on a misunderstanding from drivers and fans. They needed to admit fault.
I agree up until today, people say it’s for the good of the sport, I disagree. I think for the good of sport it needed to go all the way. I hope i’m wrong, I really do because I love F1, but nothing will change, it’ll get swept under the carpet and hope fans forget.
I completely agree, I’ve read reports that he asked them not to appeal, but at this point i think it’s about the sport and not Lewis.
It’s just my take on it all anyway. I’m just disappointed in everything.
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It’s also not their fight. If they were caught out because of it, then they’d be fighting too.
Chelsea don’t get angry at the FA because Southampton got a penalty against Everton. It makes zero difference to them.
It is though, especially for the likes of Ferrari and McLaren, they were both disadvantaged by it.
But did it make any difference to where their drivers finished in the table or constructors?
Almost makes the whole thing looks worse as so blatantly obviously a deal has been done behind close doors. But they couldn’t admit fault without changing the result which was clearly something they were never going to do.
Mercedes aren’t mad at Red Bull, they’re mad at the FIA.
Literally the whole of last season was people getting mad at the referees/FA over inconsistent application of VAR and rulings. Which is the actual analogy here.
Exactly. That’s why I said “Angry at the FA” because I meant for other teams to get involved.
It sounds like Lewis was very against them doing so, because he didn’t want to win a title in such circumstances.
I actually think given the situation he’s been incredibly gracious and very classy. It’s just one of the reasons he’s probably the greatest sportsperson of my lifetime.
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Agreed - what do you think Max would have done if reversed. Although a fairer analogy is probably what would have Lewis have done if it stopped him winning his first title in 2008?
Huge Bond villian vibe going on here, but he’s bang on
Lewis of 2008 is a very different person to the Lewis of today. I just hope Max matures in a similar fashion…