Uniquim
Full Member
I said most of the field expected cars to be unlapped. Meaning all the cars. Whether or not all or some of the cars were unlapped didn't make a difference when Mercedes decided to not pit Hamilton.It's difficult to have a serious discussion when so much of your post is misrepresentation or blatantly false. Nobody on the radio expected only the cars between Lewis and Max to be unlapped and nobody else - all of the radio chatter I've heard has been about how wrong it was.
Suggesting that 15.3 allows the race director to ignore any of the other rules regarding the safety car is just bizarre, as if that were the case then the entire rulebook around the SC could be replaced with "race director's discretion". This is the same race director who's on record as stating that the rules require all cars to unlap themselves and the safety car to come in at the end of the lap following the announcement.
We can't agree on your final statement either - Masi knew exactly what would happen, he made up the rules knowing that Max and only Max would benefit, and knowing that it was a guaranteed overtake. Given that he's on record and so had to change his mind to do this, it was either laughable incompetence or maliciousness, either way he should be long out of a job.
I'd much rather see the championship decided within the rules than outside them - punctures, accidents, all these things happen in motor racing. But after all the talk about it being decided on the track only to actually be decided in Masi's office, meh.
I think we'll just stay in disagreement to be honest. I fully believe Masi would make the same decision if Lewis pitted and Max stayed out.
In any case there's no such a thing as a guaranteed overtake between Lewis and Max. It could've easily ended in a crash if Lewis didn't take evasive action, and I'm pretty sure no one wanted a crash given how much publicity that got in advance.
I think Masi give a lot of weight to ending the race under 'green' condition, considering it's a title deciding race, and possibly he forced the issue a bit.
It's not ideal, I'll agree to that. Ideally, there was one more racing lap, the unlapped cars were cleared, and both would have fresh tires. That would've been a lot better, but the bit of whether they had fresh tires is a decision the teams themselves decided, just like Mercedes going faster on the straights is because Mercedes designed the car that way, and Red Bull is faster in corners because they designed their car that way.