Sport

F1 cook up stinking final lap formula to deny Hamilton world title

Kenny Archer

Kenny Archer

Kenny is the deputy sports editor and a Liverpool FC fan.

Sheikh it off? Mercedes may appeal after their driver Lewis Hamilton was denied the Formula One title by some strange decisions from the race director at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Sheikh it off? Mercedes may appeal after their driver Lewis Hamilton was denied the Formula One title by some strange decisions from the race director at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Sheikh it off? Mercedes may appeal after their driver Lewis Hamilton was denied the Formula One title by some strange decisions from the race director at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

What's the Dutch for 'asterisk'? Is it 'Verstappen'? And the Dutch for 'permanent asterisk'? 'Max Verstappen'?

His orange-clad, Red Bull-fuelled fans and backers can say what they like, but Max Verstappen is a tainted Formula One world champion.

I'm far from being an expert on that sport/ fast-moving advertising display method, but as my late father was wont to say, 'a blind man on a galloping horse could see' that there was something seriously wrong with the finale of the season-defining race on Sunday.

Full disclosure, I only watched the last third of the contest, sitting in my dad's old seat, struggling with my mother's remote control to find something watchable. Flicking away from TG4, I settled on Channel 4's coverage of the F1.

Motorsport has never appealed to me the way it gripped my dad and employs my brother, but even I knew the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix could be dramatic with Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton locked in a wheel to wheel battle for the F1 title.

Further disclosure, it's so long since I watched much of any Grand Prix that I actually typed 'Jos Verstappen' earlier in this column - that's Max's dad…

Even so, I still have a better grasp of fairness and sporting integrity than race director Michael Masi.

His decisions in the closing stages of that race were mind-bogglingly unfair.

Hamilton held a lead of around 12 seconds on lap 53 of 58 when a crash forced the safety car to come onto the track.

That may appear an unsurpassable lead but the British driver was on old, worn, hard tyres, while Verstappen had replaced his - and replaced them again with new soft tyres when the safety car was announced.

Hamilton couldn't take the risk of pitting as he would probably have lost the lead to his rival, but his team Mercedes were also running another risk, hoping that his tyres would see him through until the chequered flag.

A few observers have drawn fanciful analogies with a soccer side leading 5-0 in the last few minutes of a match being pegged back to 0-0, then forced to play with heavier, slippier boots than their opponents.

Hamilton wasn't that far ahead; his advantage was more akin to seven or eight points in hurling. He was almost certainly going to win - but the state of his tyres meant that he could falter before the line and perhaps be caught because of a blow-up.

Still, Hamilton was the clear favourite - until Masi acceded to Red Bull's complaints and, in contravention of their own regulations, allowed Verstappen to close the gap to Hamilton - but then didn't allow third-placed Carlos Sainz Jr to do likewise, who could have put pressure on the Dutchman.

Hamilton would surely have pitted to change tyres if he'd been told in fair time that Verstappen would be allowed right next to him on tyres in far better condition.

Instead, he was left as a sitting duck and Verstappen duly passed him to 'win' the race and the world title.

The increased audience due to the free-to-air coverage on Channel 4 may have been excited by the last lap drama, but they will surely have been much more infuriated and baffled by the clear unfairness of the 'battle' between the top two.

F1 money men may cling to the Oscar Wilde adage that 'The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about', but as we say here, that was wild.

The outcome stank beyond belief. The stench wasn't produced by that aforementioned 'galloping horse' but by the excretions of a bull. Perhaps a red one.

Red Bull's pretence that their man Verstappen had won fair and square is ludicrous, utterly unconvincing.

Sure, they and he had cause for complaint about how Hamilton held onto his lead on lap 1, the Briton not penalised for leaving the track as Verstappen brilliantly undertook him, and there have been other dubious decisions throughout the season - but the last lap shenanigans were laughable.

A fair contest on the track would have involved a re-start with five-and-a-bit laps of racing and Hamilton still having the time advantage he’d accrued before the late crash by Nicholas Latifi, with neither Hamilton or Verstappen having changed their tyres again.

With understatement worthy of ''Allo 'Allo', Ferrari's Charles Leclerc called the decisions "a bit weird". McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo said: "I'm honestly just speechless. I don't know what to make of all that, I really don't. I need to see how it all came about."

Don't we all, Daniel, don't we all.

The sophistry and semantics used to excuse the unfairness against Hamilton, the breach of regulations, may yet be exposed in a proper court.

Until then, Verstappen can hold on to his prize handed to him like a spoilt birthday boy playing 'pass the parcel'.

F1 may mostly be the preserve of rich kids - look at Verstappen, Sainz Jr, Mick Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen - but Hamilton battled his way to the top.

Some of the criticism of Hamilton is obvious dog whistle racism - 'cocky' is code for 'uppity'. Besides, if Hamilton is cocky then what is Verstappen?!

There's a sense that Hamilton has been punished for challenging F1's cosy 'gentlemen's club'. How dare a mixed race man speak up on issues such as Black Lives Matter and the ill-treatment of LGBTQ people in the Gulf states?

Having won the preceding three Grands Prix, Hamilton was on course to win a remarkable, record-breaking eighth world championship - and overtake the legendary Michael Schumacher.

Instead, the race organisers effectively held him back and pushed Verstappen through to a hollow crown. Hamilton reacted with immense dignity, behaving far better than those who manipulated a farcical finale.

The very next day another sporting authority also exuded no authority whatsoever, or at least none that merited any respect from anyone sensible.

Uefa's mis-handling of the Champions League last 16 draw was astonishing. Surely they didn't need a computer to tell them that once a pairing of Villarreal and Manchester United was not allowed (because those teams had progressed from the same group) then the Red Devils' ball would have to go back into the pot.

Yet there was no need to re-start the whole thing - although F1 might have been better doing that in Abu Dhabi.

All that we knew for certain about the re-draw - as we did before the first draw - was that Chelsea would get Lille.

It was understandable that Atletico Madrid didn't want to face Bayern Munich if they didn't have to, but the Spanish champions might yet regret their apparent desire to take on Manchester United instead. That could be a fascinating pairing.

And at least those soccer matches won't involve one team playing in slippers while their opponents wear football boots.