English Sports Columnist, Martin Samuel says Red Bull’s Max Verstappen’s win in Abu Dhabi was a stolen victory.
Gatekeepers News reports that Samuel has argued that the victory of Verstappen over Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton at Abu Dhabi appeared to reverse over the concept of fairness, of sporting justice, and a level playing field.
The Sports Columnist said although the racing was billed as Formula One’s greatest climax, “it did a wheel spin on the rulebook and decided the title on the need for the promised drama and spectacle. And, watching, we loved it.
“Sober reflection on how Max Verstappen came to be 2021’s champion driver is leaving more than a few observers feeling nonplussed, not to mention a little queasy.”
Samuel further wrote, “Here was orchestrated action, strings pulled, plot-line and drama almost scripted from the director’s chair, a hasty late rewrite. Whatever the teams and their drivers signed up for this season, it surely wasn’t The Truman Show.
“Red Bull were happy on Sunday night but would be up in arms if this happened to them.
“There was a reason that on the balcony of the Paddock Club at turn one of the Abu Dhabi circuit, stood Paul Harris of Monckton Chambers. If Formula One was just about having the fastest car, Mercedes wouldn’t have felt the need to engage the Barrister of the Year for 2021, as awarded by the Litigation Tracker team of The Lawyer.
“Forget, for a moment, whether Verstappen deserved his prize over the year. Forget whether it is good for motor racing to have a new champion, to have broken the domination of Lewis Hamilton. Forget even that anyone who loves sport thinks finals and titles should be decided in the arena in the most dramatic way possible — and this was.
“It still doesn’t make it right. By trying to shape and deliver the finish the season deserved, Masi may have decreed instead that it gets decided in a court of appeal or arbitration.”
The Columnist added, “What happened prior to the final lap in Abu Dhabi on Sunday will be picked over, the way F1 fanatics still discuss the rights and wrongs of the Senna-Prost era, or of Michael Schumacher’s dirtiest tricks. But first, it may be debated by silks and independent arbiters.
“Not that sharp practice gave Verstappen the drivers’ championship against all odds. He did that himself over one season and one very special final lap here. How he came to be level with Hamilton for that lap, however, is the issue that will concern Mercedes’ legal team and maybe that of the FIA over the coming days. The watching world may have revelled in the spectacle of a single lap shoot-out for the drivers’ championship, but the way that was set up was as unfathomable as it was seemingly unfair.
“Mercedes immediately lodged two protests, which they unsurprisingly lost given the body considering the appeals had already presented the trophy and sent celebratory fireworks into the night sky.”
According to him, the quick capsule review is that Hamilton was 12 seconds ahead on lap 52 of 58, Nicholas Latifi of Williams bunged his car into a wall at turn 14 one lap later and the race continued under a safety car, during which Verstappen pitted for new, fast, soft tyres. Then when it reconvened with a lap to go, the Dutchman was allowed to start ahead of all the lapped traffic that would have sat between him and the leader.
“Hamilton had to go through those cars in real-time, Verstappen didn’t. He even admitted that had the race played out without Latifi’s misjudgment, there is no way he would have caught Hamilton. It became the finale F1 wanted, except Hamilton’s tyres were older and slower and he was at a huge disadvantage.
“Meaning Verstappen won — the race and the championship. Crazy, yes. Exciting, yes. Dramatic, yes. The way a sporting contest should ideally be decided? Undoubtedly. But fair? Correct? Logical? Reasonable? It is mighty hard to argue that case, even if the Barrister of the Year wasn’t staring daggers at you across the room.”
Samuel said although “It was a stolen title — by the stewards, by the race director, by the need for drama,” “that’s not Red Bull’s fault.” He continued, “They, Verstappen, did nothing wrong. He just wasn’t the best driver on the day. And this was all about being the best on the day. If it was fair.”
Although he acknowledged that Verstappen has “had a brilliant season.” “Prior to the race a lot of his contemporaries — and not just those with an axe to grind against Hamilton — said he was the driver of the year. He’s been the man most likely to challenge Hamilton’s domination for some years. He’s brave, he’s bold, a little reckless on occasion, and young. It’s an exciting package,” he added.
The Sports columnist noted that “Verstappen had to find a way past Hamilton and did. He is the first driver since 2008 to win the title in a lesser vehicle because Mercedes claimed the constructors’ championship. In 2008, that was Hamilton’s first title. Verstappen was 11 at the time.
“It can also be argued Red Bull’s strategy was a huge factor. Hamilton was questioning the wisdom of Mercedes keeping him out on hard tyres long before misfortune made that a mistake.
“With a different strategy that single lap shoot-out would have been more of a contest. Verstappen maybe did the adjudicators no favours by making it look so easy.”
Samuel quoted Masi saying “It’s a motor race, we went motor racing,” when Masi snapped at Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff when he first protested about the final lap. And that’s a valid observation.
He wrote further, “A procession of drivers behind a safety car all the way to the chequered flag would have been a thoroughly unsatisfactory end to a wonderful season, but it would have delivered the just result on the day
.
“Hamilton deserved to win the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and, if doing so made him drivers’ champion, that was how it should be.
“Yet Masi appeared to consider the optics. The eyes of the world on Formula 1, wanting to witness a great race and a wonderful piece of high octane theatre. After so many years when F1 was decried as dull and predictable, this was his sport’s great chance, truly its drive to survive. So Masi decided to offer that instead.
“And we get it. Just as we get that football would be a lot more exciting if, with five minutes to go, the referee decided to hand two goals to the losing team, send a player off from the other side, and announce next goal wins it. We’d all be glued to that finale. Doesn’t make it fair, though. Doesn’t make it sporting. Doesn’t make it right.
“In Abu Dhabi, Formula One crossed the divide between competition and the reality shows.”
On Sunday, Gatekeepers News reported that Verstappen is the new Formula 1 (F1) world champion after racing past seven times Champion, Hamilton to win the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and F1 World Championship.
