Needless to say, Mercedes is pissed.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/59686315
Lewis Hamilton is 'disillusioned' after Abu Dhabi, says Toto Wolff
Toto Wolff is a good team manager, but some of his quotes in this article make me wonder whether he missed out on a great career in writing dialog for the screen. They push every button.
Sample, short clip out of many:
Hamilton was "robbed" of the title and the decisions made over a late-race safety car "still feel like a nightmare", Wolff said.
He said he could not guarantee if Hamilton would continue to race in F1.
Guaranteed that if Mercedes had lucked into the win, Red Bull's manager would be saying something almost identical.
Obviously. Wolff is playing to the cheap seats here. As a team manager, he would be expected to stick up for his own people. HOWEVER, he speaks truth as regards F1 decision making in the recent season. It's always been iffy, but this season's drama gave global scrutiny to a fairly introverted sport descended from a pastime of European aristocracy, as infiltrated after WWII worldwide by Elon Musk types and finally by global corporate conglomerates. In the case of race control, it was clearly revealed by the greater illumination that F1 leadership was not ready for the big time. The last race made it look more like something the NCAA would do, only worse. Not so much bias as just ineptitude by people out of their depth.
Here's the underlying issue:
Charlie Whiting ran the races forever, but he shuffled off this mortal coil before this season started, and they never really found a competent replacement. The first few races were anarchy, and the last few were organized chaos. This is not my personal judgment, but that of every expert who writes about F1. Personally, I just liked all the drama.
This isn't the NFL, so only about 3 people seeing this will care, but I had to address those few anyway.
"We must remember that we cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation." --Liz Cheney, Republican, 7/21/22