you have to assume Haas were paid to put Mick in the car, be interesting to know whether that covered the cost of the crashes!
that would be an interesting table to see....the net cost of the driver with salary+crash costs offset against personal sponsorship, prize money and backing etc.
redbull will have the slight aero development advantage over merc as constructors champs have less time than others...but maybe from a merc perspective they perhaps focused more/earlier on 2022 than RB who maybe saw winning 2021 season as more important?
i think much more interesting could be the results and potential fallout from the FIA investigation: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/59987230
Hammo seemingly still to decide whether he will return...though hopefully that's more of a smokescreen to put pressure on the FIA as otherwise you'd think merc would be flapping looking for a potential replacement
Good read that and his words make sense. But it’s clear from their initial review of Abu Dhabi, their response after and the timing of this inquiry that they do not have the self-awareness or humility to accept they have done wrong. I don’t expect this to be any more effective than Sue Grey’s report into Tory parties.
i reckon merc have prob given up on changing the result*, they know it would cause too much fallout.
what they'll want is some cast iron rules to show what was done was wrong though, and have it in stone what would happen in future...ie. all lapped cars have to be released and SC in lap after, or no lapped cars released. they might also use it as leverage to get some harder rules clarified on the way max defends/overtakes. and they'll want Masi blamed and fired.
* so long as they get what they want in terms of rule clarifications/changes
I don't actually think this is the smoking gun Twitter seems to believe it is. Massi saying "understood" is shorthand for "I've heard what you said now fuck off so I can figure out what to do", not "I will follow your commands master".
And as loath as I am to defend Wheatly, he's right, the lapped cars don't have to catch the pack. You can restart the race on the following lap wherever they are, rather than having several more whilst they make their way round and Martin Brundle explodes into rage. The only problem with that of course is if the time they were let through was the earliest opportunity they could have been let through you still finish under a yellow flag. In that case Red Bull would have been better off with no lapped cars going through and gambling that the tyres would make the difference.
It doesn't add anything we don't already know. Everyone was bombarding Massi, and he then made up a halfway house of various rules.
Essentially red bull applied pressure Masi caved - I still feel the damage was done much earlier in the season when they failed to reign in Verstappens aggression - to the point where Mercedes where so fearful of Hamilton having to over take him
They got to
Obsessed with track position.
I like to think I'm a CAN DO kind of guy... And the number of cans I can normally do is 12.
"Masi failed to correctly apply the rules in a late safety car period and had a direct impact on the outcome of the title race."
"After Masi failed to correctly apply the rules in two ways - over the management of lapped cars and the timing of the restart - Verstappen used his fresh tyres to overtake Hamilton on old ones and win his first world title."
It won't affect the title which for 2021 remains tainted, but it confirms that Masi handed it to Red Bull on a plate.