(Alert - this is a bit of an essay - and also gets a little soppy in places. I apologise in advance.)
Without wishing to appear like some mystical prophet, I just sensed that after the first race of the season that this was gonna be a season to remember. I had a proper grin on my face after Bahrain, because, it seemed like we could well have ourselves a real championship battle between the 2 best drivers, in the 2 best cars, with barely anything between them.
Yes, it hasn't ended perfectly. I hoped that once the flag fell that we'd have absolute certainty over who the champion was and who wasn't, but it seems that Mercedes are intent on appealing again after their original appeal was thrown out. It's frustrating how they and Red Bull have behaved at times this year, perhaps not helped by the stewards and inconsistent decisions. But maybe that's just the way this sport is - looking back through history at some of the very questionable decisions made which affected titles (I'm thinking 1989, 1990 and 1994), it's an inevitability of it.
The race director and the stewards have a nightmarish job. The rulebook is colossal, and even then, (enforced by the nature of the sport where no two incidents are ever quite the same and so many variables can be in play), the rules can be interpreted a number of different ways. From the most trivial thing such as giving Robert Kubica a black and orange flag at Monza in 2009 (yes, I know I'm a massive sado for remembering that) right up to this evening's incident, it can be endlessly argued as to how the rules should be interpreted. However, something needs to change. I'm not quite sure what, but we surely can't have this level of uncertainty and "winging it" with the rules so many times as has been the case in recent races. Hopefully brains more clever than myself can figure out a solution and us fans can enjoy the racing with a little more clarity as to what is allowable and what isn't on the racetrack.
To focus on tonight's incidents: firstly, the lap 1 incident. I think they were correct to say that Lewis was forced off track by Max - I get Martin Brundle's viewpoint, but it was such a divebomb from Max that there surely comes a point where the guy getting passed is allowed to try and take the corner rather than jump out of the way. What I don't get is that the stewards said that Lewis had no lasting advantage - didn't look like he dropped back close enough to Max again to me.
The decision to bring out the safety car for the Latifi crash - spot on. It wasn't serious enough for a red flag, but was too serious for a VSC. Max "passing" Lewis just before the restart - again, don't see an issue here, it's not as if it affected anything. The contentious issue is obviously the "lapped cars" matter. I applaud Michael Masi for trying to get the race restarted in time - at the end of the day, provided that it is safe to do so, we want to see racing laps and not safety car laps. Brundle has commented in the past (and I totally agree with him) that it is a daft rule that not only do the lapped cars get to unlap themselves, but also catch the back of the pack as well. But the decision to only let some of the lapped cars go was a mess. They should have done it earlier on lap 57 to allow all of the lapped cars to go through and get out of the way. However, this is an error by the race director and not Red Bull, so I don't see how they or Max can be punished for it. Sure, they may have applied pressured to get the decision overturned, but Toto Wolff did exactly the same earlier in the race demanding that a full SC wasn't thrown.
As I said, it's a real shame that we still don't fully know who the champion is. But I'll let that slide. Because, as I've said recently (and tonight has cemented it), I have been watching Formula 1 for over 20 years, and that is the best championship I have seen BY FAR. No contest. I struggle to see how any title battle from years gone by can rival it either, although of course I can't definitively say that given that I couldn't watch all the races. But for competition, rivalry, drama and sheer sporting theatre, that was colossal. Epic. F**king magnificent. Not only have these two great drivers been involved in sensational wheel to wheel battles/incidents in Bahrain, Silverstone, Monza, Brazil Saudi Arabia and UAE (6 races!), there was also Imola, Portugal, Spain and France where they were side by side for the lead. Almost half the races in the season where we have had a memorable moment between the two - and where you compare that with other rivalries from seasons gone by, it blows them all out of the water.
Tied on points going into the last race, and a championship lead that changed hands on the very last lap of the season! Yes, 2008 did that as well, but for drama throughout the season rather than just in the final race, 2021 easily trumps it. I think that I barely drew breath in those final two minutes - as I said, pure sporting drama at it's finest.
You have to be patient as an F1 fan sometimes. Sitting through seasons where one team/driver is utterly dominant is so frustrating. But again - that's the nature of the beast. Any ridiculous fabricated rules to try and "force" the drama is tacky and would make me lose interest (such as reverse grids or the utter drivel that is the Formula E "fan boost"). Sometimes, it could be argued that F1 strays a little too close to that line (such as DRS, plus (arguably) tonight's actions from the stewards (although I personally disagree - I think it was an error rather than a "forcing or drama")). However, on the whole, it stays clear of it. Therefore, some years, a driver or team will dominate - and that's fine.
That said, the near-decade of Mercedes dominance was becoming frustrating to watch. We needed some competition. We needed a team and driver to rise to the challenge and bring them down. Yes, Ferrari/Vettel got close a few times, but Merc/Hamilton always came out on top. Therefore, it's been so fantastic for the sport that Red Bull and Max brought it to them this year. It's not always been the cleanest of racing, and Saudi Arabia was bordering on silly, but generally, the battle has been everything I wanted - intense, closer than close on the stopwatch and impossible to call, right up until the last moment of the season.
That's why I love Formula 1. And in the future, I know that there will be more seasons where a driver dominates. There will be more seasons where questionable decisions are made and maybe even the future of the sport is thrown into doubt. But I hope it'll always be in a state where I love it as much as I do now.
I actually feel a bit down this evening now that it has finished. Because surely nothing will ever top that. I think I have just watched the greatest season of Formula 1 there has ever been. And maybe the greatest season that there ever will be.
