The official Formula One and General Motorsport thread for the 2021 season! Season finale live on Sky & Ch4 Dec 12th 1pm

[Cheeky Devlin]

10 sec penalty given to Max which doesn't change the result, and 2 penalty points. The telemetry showed he hit the brakes hard enough for 2.4g.

Just absolutely incredible that a deliberate act like that can go unpunished in effect.

Is that 2 points off his championship total?

Yeah so Lewis is leading the Championship again. In reality it probably won't make any difference to the last race so it's a bit of a toothless penalty.

[Victor Mildew]

10 sec penalty given to Max which doesn't change the result, and 2 penalty points. The telemetry showed he hit the brakes hard enough for 2.4g.

Just absolutely incredible that a deliberate act like that can go unpunished in effect.

Is that 2 points off his championship total?

No these go on his licence. If you get a certain amount within a 12 month period (they carry over to next year) you get an auto 1 race ban. IIRC it was introduced because Grosean was crashing in to people every weekend when he first came to f1.

[Cuttooth]

It’s not that kind of points penalty, they’re still level. It’s more like a driving license penalty, if you accumulate I think 12 points in the space of a year you get a ban of some kind. I believe this puts Verstappen on 7 penalty points?

[Return_of_the_STAR]

10 sec penalty given to Max which doesn't change the result, and 2 penalty points. The telemetry showed he hit the brakes hard enough for 2.4g.

Just absolutely incredible that a deliberate act like that can go unpunished in effect.

Is that 2 points off his championship total?

No these go on his licence. If you get a certain amount within a 12 month period (they carry over to next year) you get an auto 1 race ban. IIRC it was introduced because Grosean was crashing in to people every weekend when he first came to f1.

It’s not that kind of points penalty, they’re still level. It’s more like a driving license penalty, if you accumulate I think 12 points in the space of a year you get a ban of some kind. I believe this puts Verstappen on 7 penalty points?

Thanks that’s a bit gooseberry fool

Also just listened to the fia/red bull convo on lap 16 after max passed Lewis off the track. RB really are so petulant.

[andretmzt]

Was just making a hot drink and thinking about the general shithousery that has gone on this season and thinking how Max has reacted to it. After these past couple races I now just think Max is a banana split, pure and simple. It's gone beyond being a driven, ambitious driver gunning for victory.

One of the things that made Colin Turkington's first BTCC championship special for me was that despite all the Team Dynamics bullshit all year, even into the final race when Neal was heavily backing Turkington into Giovanardi, he didn't go round bitching and crying at everything and didn't resort to driving like a cock like Plato or Neal. Max and Red Bull are the polar opposite and my view of them has really gone downhill in the second half of the season.

[Cheeky Devlin]

10 sec penalty given to Max which doesn't change the result, and 2 penalty points. The telemetry showed he hit the brakes hard enough for 2.4g.

Just absolutely incredible that a deliberate act like that can go unpunished in effect.

Is that 2 points off his championship total?

No these go on his licence. If you get a certain amount within a 12 month period (they carry over to next year) you get an auto 1 race ban. IIRC it was introduced because Grosean was crashing in to people every weekend when he first came to f1.

Ah right. I assumed it was a WDC points penalty.

That's even more toothless.

[Captain Kinopio]

Complete joke of a penalty again for Max and will only embolden him to keep at it.

If I were Mercedes and Hamilton I would desperately be seeking assurances about what will happen if he just runs him into a wall in Abu Dhabi. The guy has shown at least 3 times now that he is perfectly willing to bin Hamilton off the track regardless of the consequences. How long are they going to leave it before someone is seriously injured.

It was a joke after Monza, now it is a complete strawberry floating farce.

One rule for the banana split , another for everyone else.

[False]

What a mental race

Masi seems just completely out of his depth and has been all season long, dunno how he’s in the gig

Part of me is like just let them race, let them at it, the other knows they’ll deffo do eachother in

Exciting to watch though

[Robbo-92]

So he clearly brake checked him and gets a complete nothing penalty they have clear data he brake tested him on a live racing track and still lack the backbone to DQ him, if they didn’t want to DQ him, a start from the pit lane in Abu Dhabi should have been part of the penalty, he has lost nothing from his actions this race, it’s an embarrassment.

[Vermilion]

What an absolutely bonkers race, and i was amazed at the amount of dirty driving going on.

I can see the Abu Dhabi GP potentially ending in a full blown crash between Max and Lewis after that.

[captain red dog]

Yeah sorry I should have been clear it was super licence penalty points.

I don't know what to say really. In the past guys like Schumacher were punished without clear cut telemetry. Granted some of those transgressions were bloody obvious. But to have the telemetry that he slammed on the brakes, and not to give a severe penalty is just shocking. That's purely done to preserve the show, which is a shame as it isn't a sporting contest when you do that.

By continually going soft on Max, they are just causing him to take more and more risks and it is going to end in tears. That was one of the dirtiest drives I have ever seen from a championship contender.

[Victor Mildew]

FOR ME THIS ISN'T FORMULA 1!!!!!!1111

[Captain Kinopio]

How obvious does he need to be that he wants to take Lewis out of the race. Let them race Just say Let Max cheat, because that’s what you mean.

Lewis has the most phenomenal restraint and maturity I have ever seen on display in sport. Max honestly needs kicking out of F1, biggest twat I’ve ever seen in a sporting context. Not that I’d call what that banana split does ‘sport’.

And he’s going to be rewarded with the title for it because he’ll make sure he completes his job in Abu Dhabi and won’t receive any real reprimand.

[Victor Mildew]

He's just like Senna!!!!

*footage of Senna taking prost out*

WOW WHAT A DRIVER

[Imrahil]

Something truly stinks about all this.

[Victor Mildew]

I see Verstappen fans have now switched from BUT HE DIDN'T BRAKE LEWIS DROVE IN TO HIM, to LEWIS BRAKE TESTED VETTEL 3 YEARS AGO LOOK AT THIS GIF

[Robbo-92]

Doubt Vettel would have got more than a slap on the wrist if that was Max

Edit, or if Max did the same as Vettel did rather.

[Trelliz]

Next weekend isn't going to be a fair duel between the title contenders, it's going to get really ugly and descend into rules interpretation pedantry and giga-karening at the stewards/race director.

[Memento Mori]

I really didn’t think he actually brake checked him, wow! What a dirty strawberry floating cheater.

"We've got the telemetry, Max didn't break!"

[Robbo-92]

I can fully see Max is just going to drive him off, winning the WDC in any scenario, Mercedes may as well just get Bottas to take Max out.