Formula 1

[Crazyskier]

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!

I believe the most talented (if not yet the most consistent) and fastest F1 driver this season won. I backed him for his spirit, and Lewis's hypocrisy and am thrilled for Max.

Toto Wolff (who is actually named Christian, BTW) will be seething, and I take a perverse pleasure from that.

CS

[Crazyskier]

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!

I believe the most talented (if not yet the most consistent) and fastest F1 driver this season won. I backed him for his spirit, and Lewis's hypocrisy and am thrilled for Max.

Toto Wolff (who is actually named Christian, BTW) will be seething, and I take a perverse pleasure from that.

CS

PS - Goodbye to Kimi who was also magnificent in his time / Ferrari.

[Trader Pat]

Nicholas Latifi is Verstappen's Timo Glock

And Mercedes won't be chuffed that he effectively cost Lewis the Championship.
He'll be as popular as a fart in a spacesuit next year in a Mercedes powered/gearboxed/hydraulics Williams.

Never thought of that!

But nontheless. there are so many twists and turns in F1 (lol) anything can happen.
The real issue was Max is fast, perhaps even the fastest. Probably not the best overall package of driver/car. But they got it. A terrific season.
F1 is a procession? Perrhaps not!

When the dust settles and the post mortem is being done I think Lewis can legitimately blame his team for costing him this title. They started the season with their eyes off the ball and were focused more on next season. I think they thought they could just turn up and cruise to another double championship. They eventually got their act together and had the fastest package but they left it too late, just!

[greenmark]

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!

I believe the most talented (if not yet the most consistent) and fastest F1 driver this season won. I backed him for his spirit, and Lewis's hypocrisy and am thrilled for Max.

Toto Wolff (who is actually named Christian, BTW) will be seething, and I take a perverse pleasure from that.

CS

PS - Goodbye to Kimi who was also magnificent in his time / Ferrari.

Echo that. Why are Finns so taciturn? And then make great racing drivers.
But Kimi's post-race interviews made me chuckle.
Get in a car, drive as fast as you can and often faster than anyone else. Big deal!

[Trader Pat]

Toto Wolff (who is actually named Christian, BTW) will be seething, and I take a perverse pleasure from that.

I take no pleasure in seeing Hamilton heartbroken but I'm enjoying his Twitter followers losing the plot and strangely enough there is a perverse pleasure in seeing Toto pissed off!

[greenmark]

Mercedes lodging challeges to the way the unlapping under the safety car happened.
F1 is regs-centric. But PR-wise concluding the season via a regs argy-bargy would be a BAD idea.

[firlandsfarm]

Mercedes lodging challeges to the way the unlapping under the safety car happened.
F1 is regs-centric. But PR-wise concluding the season via a regs argy-bargy would be a BAD idea.

But what do they expect to gain from their challenges? Max and Red Bull are not to blame so how can you even think of disqualifying him? How can they reverse the positions with a full lap to go ... anything could have happened! And if they do I'm sure Red Bull will take it to the judicial courts and argue the FIA's actions were not lawful. Just abandon the race as a result and Max is world champion because he was level on points before the race but had won more races! It seems the challenge is only for pride and ego! Wonder what Bf will do re settling their markets?

[Shaung89]

PS - Goodbye to Kimi who was also magnificent in his time / Ferrari.

Bit frustrated his car let him down.

I'd backed him for fastest lap at 225 everywhere. He went off as short as 8/1 with the expectation that he wasn't competing for anything and may want to go out with a fastest lap trophy for fun.

Unfortunately the exchange market wasn't really liquid enough to make any giant strides (30/110 at the start)...

[bennyboy351]

I don't trade Formula 1 and in fact since the 'show' moved to commercial t.v. I haven't really watched it. I don't believe I'm missing anything to be honest, from what I've read/heard/seen!

'Back in the day' - when the BBC had the coverage - it was all about the best cars/teams/drivers. These days, it seems its all a load of political/woke B.S!

In ALL sports/games, rules are there to make the sport/game actually playable. Okay, sometimes there are rule ambiguities which temporarily give players/teams an 'edge' - which often prevail - until such issues are sorted by the rule gurus, but - on the whole - the rules make the 'playing field' as level as possible.

THEN along comes MONEEEEEEY!!!!

Once money comes into ANY sport, that sport is - IMHO - DOOMED! No longer the love of the sport or the spirit of the game, now we have the desire to make as much as we can - as easily as we can - from the sport/game we are backing! Sad really - but Human nature I suppose! And we traders cannot be excused from a certain amount of culpability!

When we add in the 'race card' though - as has been so superbly played by SIR. Lewis Hamilton (Knighted by Her Majesty the Queen don't forget, a lady who must surely represent one of the most prolific exploiters of SIR Lewises forebears (well, half of them at any rate) then I feel that its time to say enough! And fear not; as a proud Englishman, I am more than willing to accept that much of our past history isn't particularly glorious!

I'm not going to go into the 'race' issue here, but suffice it to say, if you don't like the heat, then PLEASE leave the kitchen! PLEASE don't try to re-invent the wheel! If you're unhappy, go and set up your own sport/games/way of life - and leave those of us who want it, to play ours...

[greenmark]

Mercedes lodging challeges to the way the unlapping under the safety car happened.
F1 is regs-centric. But PR-wise concluding the season via a regs argy-bargy would be a BAD idea.

But what do they expect to gain from their challenges? Max and Red Bull are not to blame so how can you even think of disqualifying him? How can they reverse the positions with a full lap to go ... anything could have happened! And if they do I'm sure Red Bull will take it to the judicial courts and argue the FIA's actions were not lawful. Just abandon the race as a result and Max is world champion because he was level on points before the race but had won more races! It seems the challenge is only for pride and ego! Wonder what Bf will do re settling their markets?

The BF thing is very pertinent. Their T&C's ar very well-defined (if only from the point of view that they have final say over everything).
Any challenge from Merc would have to have legal standing. The FIA aren't going to buckle in any other scenario.
And it would be very bad for the sport if they had to.
It's perhaps a prompt for the FIA to review their regs and make them more watertight.
Don't get me wrong. Max won. Simple as that. You could review the season and find all sorts of anomalies, I imagine, but who cares? It came down to a 1 lap shoot-out and Merc were out-smarted by Red Bull. And, on balane I think it's a fair result.
Whether Lewis has got any more left vs a rampantly talented driver remains to be seen.
Roll on 2022!

[weemac]

I stopped watching F1 in disgust after Coulthard pulled over to let Hakkinen win 23 years ago, but watched this race and totally failed to understand the end. The last lap was kinda exciting though.

I'll maybe come back again in another 23 years.

[firlandsfarm]

Mercedes lodging challeges to the way the unlapping under the safety car happened.
F1 is regs-centric. But PR-wise concluding the season via a regs argy-bargy would be a BAD idea.

But what do they expect to gain from their challenges? Max and Red Bull are not to blame so how can you even think of disqualifying him? How can they reverse the positions with a full lap to go ... anything could have happened! And if they do I'm sure Red Bull will take it to the judicial courts and argue the FIA's actions were not lawful. Just abandon the race as a result and Max is world champion because he was level on points before the race but had won more races! It seems the challenge is only for pride and ego! Wonder what Bf will do re settling their markets?

The BF thing is very pertinent. Their T&C's ar very well-defined (if only from the point of view that they have final say over everything).
Any challenge from Merc would have to have legal standing. The FIA aren't going to buckle in any other scenario.
And it would be very bad for the sport if they had to.
It's perhaps a prompt for the FIA to review their regs and make them more watertight.
Don't get me wrong. Max won. Simple as that. You could review the season and find all sorts of anomalies, I imagine, but who cares? It came down to a 1 lap shoot-out and Merc were out-smarted by Red Bull. And, on balane I think it's a fair result.
Whether Lewis has got any more left vs a rampantly talented driver remains to be seen.
Roll on 2022!

Agreed

[Trader Pat]

It's perhaps a prompt for the FIA to review their regs and make them more watertight.
Don't get me wrong. Max won. Simple as that. You could review the season and find all sorts of anomalies, I imagine, but who cares? It came down to a 1 lap shoot-out and Merc were out-smarted by Red Bull. And, on balane I think it's a fair result.
Whether Lewis has got any more left vs a rampantly talented driver remains to be seen.
Roll on 2022!

I think the stewards and race director have made some questionable calls this season that have affected both drivers so they need to go away and get their house in order for next season.

With the new cars Lewis will potentially have a lot more than Max to contend with next season; maybe another team coming out of the pack to challenge and I'm really looking forward to seeing the dynamic between him and his new teammate. I've been really impressed by Russell, he's outperformed his car for most of the season could be a Hamilton Alonso situation

I've no idea how you could top this year for talking points and action but as long as next year season is competitive then I'll be happy. The sport really has a duty to be a proper spectacle especially after this year so I hope the new cars deliver.

[Euler]

PS - Goodbye to Kimi who was also magnificent in his time / Ferrari.

He was always a character despite having no character.

[Step93]

Hamilton won a world championship against Massa (Ferrari) in 2008 in the same way he lost it this year ... This is karma!