Last Sunday, I was left feeling betrayed by the sport that I love. A sport that I started watching before I could talk and that I have now followed passionately for over a quarter of a century.
I was left questioning whether it really is a sport at all, after the latest in a worrying trend of decisions made with the focus clearly on entertainment rather than pure sporting fairness.
Last year I decided to leave my regular office job behind and pursue a career as a sports (specifically F1, where possible) journalist.
It has been going quite well: I own the fast-growing website on which this is posted, write for another more-established F1 publication and co-host their podcast, whilst also freelancing for Eurosport. David Croft and Damon Hill even read out a statistic I came up with during Sky F1’s broadcast at Abu Dhabi.
Nonetheless, as I lay in bed awake on Sunday and then Monday night, I was genuinely left questioning my decision. I asked myself whether I still wanted to devote my life to writing about Formula 1, when it appears to be heading in a direction which I’m not sure I can support.
Of course, I have been thrilled by the increase in popularity in recent years, which comes courtesy of an increased social media presence and Netflix’s Drive to Survive series. I love being able to talk to friends and strangers about F1, having spent decades being the only child/teenager/young adult I knew who cared about it.
Those changes have done wonders for the sport. But in arguably its biggest moment in decades, Formula 1 undermined all of that.
I was watching the race with four friends who have historically varied between a passing interest and absolutely no interest in F1, but they ended up invested as it progressed. As the chequered flag dropped, they were left somewhere between confused and disappointed.
I have waited a week to write this, to ensure I have fully processed all the events, allowed emotions to settle down, and given the F1 powers-that-be time to deal with the aftermath.
“The circumstances surrounding the use of the Safety Car following the incident of driver Nicholas Latifi, and the related communications between the FIA Race Direction team and the Formula 1 teams, have notably generated significant misunderstanding and reactions from Formula 1 teams, drivers and fans…”
The bitter taste in my mouth that had slowly started to subside in the subsequent days came back with a vengeance as those in charge shifted the blame onto the entirely innocent drivers, teams and fans. In effect, Formula 1 gaslighted its own fans.
There was no misunderstanding. Every fan knows exactly what happened and why it happened.
There is, of course, no way of knowing if the instruction to do so came from someone higher up – ahead of time or as events came to pass – but Michael Masi sacrificed the integrity of the regulations to tee up one final dramatic, headline-making, Netflix moment. And, in doing so, tainted F1’s best title battle in a generation in the space of one lap.
Ironically, in his desperate attempts to provide entertainment, Masi actually denied the sport one of its greatest comeback stories.
After Verstappen’s domination in Mexico, the consensus was that it was his title to lose. After Hamilton’s disqualification from Brazilian qualifying, the title race was declared over on social media. And yet, here we were, a little over three kilometres away from history being made – a record-breaking eighth World Drivers’ Championship earned the hard way, against a fearsome competitor.
That competitor and the ensuing competition had tested F1’s rulebooks more and more frequently as the season reached its climax, and ultimately showed that sweeping changes are required.
I do not envy Michael Masi’s job. But after the final-lap debacle, he has surely lost the already-wavering respect of the teams and drivers.
As has been well pointed out, his panicked decision to restart the race in an unprecedented manner not only screwed over Hamilton, but many other drivers.
Ferrari‘s Carlos Sainz was unable to fight for a maiden win, with numerous lapped cars in between himself and the front two. McLaren‘s Daniel Ricciardo saw the points-paying positions in front of him drive off into the distance as he was stuck behind the leading pair on his redundant, fresh tyres in a situation he described as “pretty fucked up”.
Aston Martin‘s Lance Stroll was stuck slightly further back and spent the entire lap being intermittently told to push and move over for blue flags, displaying exactly why the ignored regulation exists.
Another extract from the FIA statement reads, “The FIA’s primary responsibility at any event is to ensure the safety of everyone involved and the integrity of the sport.”
Red Bull argued that “any” does not mean “all” when defending themselves in Mercedes‘ post-race protest regarding Article 48.12 of the Sporting Regulations, which states “any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car”.
Formula 1 clearly also took “any” not to mean “all” in the previous statement.
Masi’s radio message to Toto Wolff at the end of the race came across as spiteful and malicious. Those are adjectives that should never be mentioned in the same breath as the name of a referee in any sport.
His position, in my eyes at least, is now untenable. And ahead of next season an entirely new structure of overseeing and adjudicating races should be put in place.
The FIA can no longer continue to police itself; that is not how the rest of the world works. There must be some accountability and an independent party involved when the FIA is challenged or investigated.
Even more so than ever before, the F1 social media circle is now a cesspool of vitriol, bitterness and sadly often racism, as a divided fanbase wages war against itself.
The 2022 season should be the most exciting prospect in years, with brand new cars and a feeling that anything can happen. I had been excited about it for a long time, but now cannot seem to shift an unsettling feeling.
The simplest metaphor I can find for the feeling is that of having stayed with your partner after finding out they cheated on you.
A profound love is still there – and always will be – but you just can’t quite look at them in the same way anymore.
A record four drivers – Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel and Hamilton – were in contention for the World Drivers’ Championship coming into the decider at Yas Marina in 2010
The track has a number of unique features: a tunnel is part of the pit-lane exit and the Yas Viceroy Hotel straddles the circuit between turns 18-19.
Yas Marina has an advanced track design with six different configurations to suit different racing series
Red Bull have never failed to get both of their cars through to the final part of qualifying at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
The Weather
The Quotes
Lewis Hamilton | “Honestly I think it’s such a hard job that the stewards have and Michael [Masi] has, and they have done an amazing job given everything that is thrown at them, every scenario is always different. Whether you agree with every decision or not, they have such a tough job.”
Max Verstappen | “I get treated differently to some other drivers. I end up with a penalty where others do the same thing and don’t get one. I don’t know why that is. You have to ask other people that question.”
Christian Horner | “I have a respect for Mercedes, I have a respect for Toto [Wolff]. That doesn’t mean I have to like him. Whoever comes on top out of this championship, either one, will be a deserving champion.”
Toto Wolff | “If things go against the team, against the two drivers, I can get quite emotional with the moment and Christian has his own way in dealing with it, as he said we’re very different personalities.”
Enough drama and controversy for an entire season.
Image credit: Daimler AG
Lewis Hamilton eventually took a crucial victory at a highly eventful Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, to set up a final showdown with rival Max Verstappen at Abu Dhabi.
After two red flags, three standing starts, numerous Virtual Safety Cars and even more flashpoints, Hamilton took the chequered flag ahead of Verstappen meaning they will head to the final race level on points.
The drama started on Saturday when the Dutchman, having reached the final corner of his final qualifying lap with a 0.2-second advantage and set for pole, hit the barrier and was forced to settle for third behind Hamilton and his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.
When the lights went out, all three leading drivers got away evenly and settled into a holding pattern. The first 10 laps, if anything, were actually quite dull.
But then Mick Schumacher hit the overworked tyre barrier at Turn 22, bringing out the Safety Car and setting up the first piece of controversy for the day.
The leading Mercedes pair pitted for hard tyres. Red Bull decided to roll the dice and leave Verstappen out on his aging mediums.
Image credit: FIA
Their gamble paid off as three laps later the red flag was produced, giving the championship leader a free change of tyres.
The race would restart from a standing start again and Hamilton, feeling a little hard done by, used all the tricks at his disposal to ensure his tyres were warmer than those of his rival.
His plan worked and he got a far better start, clearly past Verstappen as they approached the first corner. But, with characteristic bloody-mindedness, the Red Bull driver tried to hang it out around the outside, leaving the track and rejoining in Hamilton’s path.
An opportunistic Esteban Ocon, who had started fourth, took advantage to briefly lead before being almost immediately re-passed by Verstappen.
Only Leclerc’s car survived and Race Director Michael Masi showed another red flag.
During the pause, a bizarre situation ensued where Masi came over the radio to offer Red Bull a particular spot on the grid – initially second place as he seemingly forgot Ocon existed, before clarifying that he meant third, behind Ocon and Hamilton.
They accepted and the drivers lined up for a third time – having ticked off just 16 laps – with Ocon on pole position.
Red Bull decided to gamble again, fitting Verstappen with the medium tyres and again it worked – at least in the short term – as he used his extra grip to make a brave lunge down the inside and lead out of the first corner.
Image credit: The Guardian
Hamilton made slight contact with Ocon as he avoided the Red Bull but survived and regained second place at the end of the lap.
And so, we were faced with the prospect of yet another Hamilton-Verstappen scrap for the lead. They are rarely dull.
For a number of laps, car number 44 got agonisingly close to the DRS window but was never quite able to break into it and was frequently interrupted by a VSC to allow marshalls to pick up debris.
Eventually, as they started lap 37, Hamilton broke the one-second barrier and used DRS to fly past on the straight. As we could all have predicted, however, Verstappen wasn’t going to just sit back and take it.
With shades of Turn Four at Interlagos, he braked very late and failed to make the corner, forcing both drivers off the track. Things were about to get even sillier, though.
Red Bull radioed Verstappen, telling him to give the place back, but to do so “strategically”. He obliged, slowing as they approached the DRS detection point.
Hamilton, however, had had not yet been informed he was about to be handed the place. The pair slowed together and bizarrely made contact, Verstappen then driving off in the lead as Hamilton was left with a damaged front wing.
Image credit: Red Bull Racing
With the incident still under investigation, Verstappen let Hamilton past at the same spot five laps later, but immediately dived back down the inside to reclaim the lead.
At the same time, the 24-year-old received a five-second penalty for ‘leaving the track and gaining advantage’, seemingly for the initial Turn One incident, although at this point it was hard to keep up.
Either way, at the end of the lap, Hamilton again passed Verstappen on the run to the final corner – this time, seemingly without the Red Bull slowing to allow it – and made sure he stayed ahead by running his rival wide.
With Verstappen’s medium tyres finally having given up, Hamilton was able to streak off into the distance and set the fastest lap despite his broken wing. The gap back to the battle for third wasn’t sufficient for Red Bull to bring their man in for a new set of tyres to respond.
That battle for third was between Ocon and the recovering Bottas.
The Frenchman held off the faster Mercedes commendably in the dying laps, but was cruelly denied his third career podium as the Finn outdragged him to the line on the final lap, finishing just one tenth ahead.
But far up the road, it was an eighth victory of the season for Hamilton and the 103rd of his career, astonishingly leaving both championship protagonists on precisely 369.5 points, almost rendering the first 21 races pointless.
Even more incredibly, the total time for the two drivers in the races in which they have both finished now looks like this:
More than a solid day of racing over more than 5,000 kilometres and they are separated by mere seconds.
To put that in perspective, they have raced a little less than the distance from London to New York – more than 1/8th of the way around the entire planet – and arrived nine seconds apart.
Breaking Down the Controversies
So, where to start?
At the beginning, I suppose.
Lap 10-13: The Safety Car/Red Flag Drama
Image credit: Getty Images
Whilst it is understandable for Hamilton and Mercedes to feel a bit hard done by, there was no FIA conspiracy to give Verstappen the championship here.
Perhaps the call for the red flag could have come earlier, but it is far from unprecedented for one to be called after a period behind the Safety Car.
After all, Schumacher’s stricken Haas had to be removed from the barrier before its condition could be assessed.
The bigger question from this situation was why tyres are still allowed to be changed under red flag conditions. It was perfectly clear after the 2020 Italian Grand Prix that it effectively creates a lottery which punishes drivers at random.
Maybe now that it has (nearly) produced significant implications for the title fight, it will be addressed.
Lap 15: The First Turn-One Drama
Image credit: LAT Images
This one is pretty clear cut.
As the lights went out for a second time, Hamilton got the better start and was clearly ahead going into the first corner. Verstappen was then run out wide – as he himself has done to Hamilton numerous times this season – but rejoined in the Briton’s path and kept the position.
Although the manner in which it happened was quite bizarre, Red Bull were subsequently offered the option of produced allowing Hamilton back past, just on the grid, after the second red flag of the day had been called.
They accepted, and the drivers lined up on the grid for a third time.
Lap 37: The Second Turn-One Drama
Image credit: LAT Images
Having finally broken into the DRS window after 20 laps trying to do so, Hamilton got a run on Verstappen down the start-finish straight and, once again, arrived at Turn One ahead of his rival.
Verstappen braked very late and failed to make the corner, forcing both drivers off the track, before once again continuing on with the lead.
The post-race Red Bull narrative that only Verstappen was punished despite both drivers leaving the track is frankly a bit embarrassing, as they know full well that Hamilton was left with nowhere else to go and was clearly on a line to comfortably make the corner.
Whilst the goalposts were moved by the stewards’ inaction in Brazil – and the waters seemingly muddied in the discussions thereafter – this should be a simple case of either allowing the other driver past or taking a five-second penalty.
The Red Bull pit wall clearly acknowledged that on this occasion and radioed Verstappen to allow Hamilton through, thus leading onto…
Lap 37, Part Two: The Slowing to Pass Drama
Image credit: Getty Images
Now, this is probably the most complex of the race’s many controversies.
In his message to Verstappen telling him to give the place back, Race Engineer Gianpiero Lambiase told the Dutchman to do so “strategically”. Verstappen obliged, slowing as they approached the DRS detection point.
Hamilton slowed behind him, though, and with Verstappen now approaching a crawl in third gear, 200 km/h down on the usual speed at that area of the track, the pair collided.
Verstappen’s goal here was pretty clear – to ensure his rival passed him before the DRS detection so he could attempt to get back past immediately, whether or not that would have been legal (more on that later).
Hamilton’s part in the situation is a little more complicated. He was informed that Verstappen would be letting him past around a second after the contact.
Was he genuinely confused and wary of passing? Or was he aware of the situation and also trying to ensure that he didn’t reach the detection zone first?
With all the yellow flag dramas we have seen recently, there is certainly the chance that he was fearful of picking up a penalty for passing illegally.
But one would suspect it was more the latter. Hamilton surely knew that it was likely Verstappen would be asked to give the place back, and has been around long enough to know the game that his opponent was playing.
Verstappen was eventually given a 10-second time penalty and two points on his licence after the race for “braking suddenly (69 bar) and significantly, resulting in 2.4G deceleration.” So, it would appear Hamilton was correct in saying that he had been ‘brake-checked’ and Helmut Marko’s protestations that Verstappen had not braked at all were proven to be, well, characteristically unfounded.
The generally unbiased and analytical Karun Chandhok agrees with the stewards’ decision, saying “it’s quite clear he deviates (wrongly) from the racing line to the middle of the track and brakes unexpectedly”.
Either way, Verstappen drove off, Hamilton carried on minus a bit of front wing, Toto Wolff slammed his headphones to the floor, and the saga continued.
Lap 42: The Re-passing Drama
Image credit: Formula 1
As previously mentioned, Verstappen then let Hamilton past at the same spot five laps later, before immediately diving back down the inside to reclaim the lead.
This one was somewhat forgotten about in the grand scheme of things, with so much to already decipher and – more importantly – Hamilton finally getting the job done one lap later.
If he had not done so, the stewards would surely have been forced to intervene once more.
There are pretty clear rules about allowing a reasonable time before attempting to re-pass a car, with a precedent, in fact, set by an incident involving Hamilton some 13 years ago.
Verstappen is surely aware of this and it is hard to know exactly what his plan was by passing mere seconds after having ceded the position, but it was rendered moot when Hamilton successfully passed on lap 43.
In one final bit of drama, the seven-time world champion was warned for the manner in which he did so, Masi letting the Mercedes pit wall know that it was ‘almost a black-and-white flag’.
Image credit: Getty Images
And so, the two rivals head to the final race tied on points, and with Verstappen having shown he will do whatever it takes to win.
One can’t help but feel that we haven’t yet seen the final moment of controversy in this titanic championship battle.
The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 60 Seconds
Answering the Burning Questions
So, does round 21 go to Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen? It was a fight that packed some punches but Hamilton took it in the end.
Will Mercedes or Red Bull prove to have the stronger package around the world’s fastest street circuit? Until Verstappen’s error it looked like Red Bull on Saturday, but the Mercedes seemed to have the edge on race pace.
Can McLaren do anything to keep their fight against Ferrari for third alive? They narrowed the gap very slightly but not enough.
Will Mercedes or Red Bull prove to have the stronger package around the world’s fastest street circuit?
Can McLaren do anything to keep their fight against Ferrari for third alive?
The Track
The Stats
Track Length: 6.174 km
Laps: 50
Race Distance: 308.450 km
Maximum Speed: 330 km/h
Lap Time at Full Throttle: 72%
First Grand Prix: 2021
Race Lap Record: n/a
Outright Lap Record: n/a
Most Driver Wins: n/a
Most Constructor Wins: n/a
The Trivia
Jeddah features a calendar-high 27 corners, four more than the previous record at Singapore
In 1970 – the final year that Spa-Francorchamps was run as a true ‘road course’ – Chris Amon lapped at an average of 244.7 km/h. Whether you regard the old Spa as a true street track or not, Jeddah looks set to be comfortably quicker than that, and all of the other street tracks on the 2021 calendar
The track is one of only three on the 2021 calendar to feature three DRS zones
The Weather
The Quotes
Lewis Hamilton | “Do I feel comfortable here? I wouldn’t say I do. But it’s not my choice to be here. The sport has taken the choice to be here. If anyone wants to take the time to read what the law is for the LGBTQ+ community, it’s pretty terrifying. There’s changes that need to be made.
Max Verstappen | “We just have to try to put a good car on the track, and then of course you need to get comfortable driving as well because the track layout is very quick and not a lot of room for error. It’s a special track. We don’t really know what our competitors are going to do. We always try to do the best we can.”
Fernando Alonso | “I felt that we were building something even before the podium because the team had some weaknesses that we saw very early in the year. We worked on those throughout 2021 and I think we’ll be more ready in 2022. The podium for sure brings an extra boost for everyone.”
Stefano Domenicali | “[Sir Frank Williams] was a true giant of our sport that overcame the most difficult of challenges in life and battled every day to win on and off the track. We have lost a much loved and respected member of the F1 family and he will be hugely missed.”
