Monday, December 6th, 2021
The Formula 1 lessons of Jeddah
Acute risk of crash at the world championship showdown
Lewis Hamilton again or Max Verstappen for the first time? The duel for the world championship title couldn’t get any more exciting. The rivals go into the last Formula 1 race of the season with equal points. As their uncompromising attitude escalates, full severity must be expected.
The danger of a crash persists
The title fight in Formula 1 is going to the limit. Or even beyond. After Lewis Hamilton’s 103rd career victory at the chaotic and also insane Grand Prix premiere in Saudi Arabia, the motorsport premier class gets its grand finale. The Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen from Red Bull are tied for the final race of the season (369.5). It is not unlikely that Abu Dhabi will crash again in this super-intensive World Cup duel.
In Jeddah, the two exceptional pilots also performed exceptional maneuvers – as far as the uncompromising factor is concerned. Verstappen received a five-second penalty for his toughness in lap 37 and subsequently a ten-second penalty for an action that really upset Hamilton. The 36-year-old Englishman said that the Dutchman was “definitely over the limit”. “I’ve avoided so many collisions with him.”
In the said scene, Hamilton Verstappen raced into the stern. The Red Bull driver had previously left the track without permission and, on the instructions of his team, was supposed to let the Briton pass again in order to avoid a penalty. Hamilton found it “confusing” that Verstappen suddenly slowed down, and raced into his rear. With a damaged front wing, the seven-time world champion managed to cross the finish line before his opponent. “I wanted to let him pass, so I’m on the right side, but he didn’t want to overtake and then we touched each other,” said Verstappen, who currently feels Formula 1 is too fixated on penalties. “I don’t really understand what happened there.” Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko accused the rulers of discrimination. “You can’t measure yourself by two standards. If a seven-time world champion miscalculates, it can happen, but not to our detriment,” said Marko, clearly seeing the mistake in Hamilton.
Hard racing mixes with intrigue, more or less silent accusations and accusations. The world championship fight is intense – and is heading towards its final. With the next crash? “I don’t think it will escalate,” said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. “Today there were so many warning shots for everyone involved that it will and has to come off cleanly. Nobody can afford to come up with a result that was not achieved on the track.”
Should Verstappen and Hamilton fail in the last race of the year, the 24-year-old from the Netherlands would be world champion for the first time because he has won one Grand Prix this season (9: 8) than the seven-time title holder. It would be nice if both ended the season as good sportsmen.
FIA slips away from the title fight
The title fight slipped away from the Formula 1 referees from the World Automobile Federation. In an effort not to decide the championship on the green table, they have lost their line. If Mercedes is severely punished, the concession decision against Red Bull follows almost immediately – and vice versa. Nevertheless, all sides feel constantly disadvantaged. Like in a World Cup final, in which the players do what they want at some point and it degenerates into a wild kick. Max Verstappen often crosses the border himself, but he hits the nail on the head with the accusation that there have been more punishments than races recently.
Vettel’s highlight was the driver training
The best day of the four-time world champion in Jeddah was the media day. On Thursday, Vettel held a kart race with eight Saudi Arabian women. A positive signal in a country where there is still a lot going on, not just in terms of equality. In his Aston Martin, however, Vettel was lost. The green racing car and the high-speed city circuit on the Corniche never came together. In the race, Vettel therefore had to risk a lot on a track where overtaking maneuvers are hardly possible. He collided with Yuki Tsunoda and his old buddy Kimi Raikkonen. He no longer achieved the goal – it would not have been enough for points anyway.
Schumacher involuntarily makes fight spectacular
With his accident on lap ten, the Haas driver set the incredible dynamics in motion in this previously unspectacular race. Schumacher took the mistake of being eliminated. His haas is difficult to control, of course. But it is not the first time that he does not reach his destination on a street circuit and causes considerable material damage to his small team. Keyword: Monaco.