The Climax
I am not much of a sports fan but I always had a keen interest in motorsports. I grew up watching Formula 1 and Michael Schumacher was my hero. This year F1 had the most intense rivalry ever seen in recent times as Lewis Hamilton who was aiming to grab Title number eight to surpass Michael's records, had his mirrors full of upcoming Dutch talent Max Verstappen who was gunning for his first. It was unusual for a season to end in the month of December but thanks to newer races, we had the climax in Abu Dhabi in the second week of December. What makes it even spicier is the fact that both the drivers would start the race level on points with Max having an edge on the number of wins secured until that point. The deal is simple, whoever wins or finishes ahead of the other would take the honours and go home as the champion.
The lights went out and Lewis took the lead into turn one and sped off n his Mercedes. Just six corners into the race and the challenger Max dived down the inside trying to squeeze past but he failed as Lewis took the escape route (controversially for some). They remained that way for three-quarters of the race and it looked like Lewis had this one in the bag. I switched off the TV with some twelve laps to go as I had got bored with Lewis winning all the time (I know I enjoyed that when Michael did it lol).
But then when I wasn’t watching a car at the back of the pack driven by rookie Nicolas Latifi crashed heavily bringing out the safety car. With the safety car in the picture, drivers could get into their respective garages and opt for fresher tyres. Max did so but not Lewis and that proved to be a costly mistake. Then more drama and confusion as controversially, the race director instructed the five lapped cars between leader Lewis and second-placed Max to unlap themselves. And that was the problem, only those five cars were allowed leaving the remaining three lapped cars behind Max to stay where they were. The race resumed with one lap to go…one last chance for Max to make a final lunge for the championship and with fresher tyres, he did just that and the championship was robbed from reigning champion Lewis. People were talking about the climax for the days that followed and the internet went nuts with conspiracy theories with some even suggesting the race director was bribed.
Personally, I feel sympathetic for Lewis because it would be so painful to experience that last lap no matter who you are. It has been an excellent and thrilling season and certainly, he deserved to win it but you got to take things as they are. I think his team Mercedes just got their strategy wrong as they had two opportunities to switch to fresher tyres and they opted not to. I say this because I was observing that final lap and there was no DRS. Max overtook Lewis because he had the luxury of having new rubber but more importantly Lewis tried to fight back and he did get close but any race fan could tell that if he had at least 5 laps fresher rubber on his, then he could have regained that position. When I saw the race again I noticed that he had ample amount of time when Max made his second stop, all Merc had to do was pit Lewis on the same lap and we could have had a different but tighter outcome but in favour of Lewis. All that said, the most unfortunate part of this season is that a good majority of the public would look at this and say Max is just a lucky champion. But then again, in racing you do need just that.
Note: I am not a sports writer nor am I anywhere close to being an expert in sports. I am just a fan who enjoys motor-racing. Everyone will have an opinion and I shared mine. Cheers!