Herr Marko is threatening to pull his teams from F1 again. Doubt it will happen.

https://wwos.nine.com.au/motorsport/f1-2021-red-bull-helmut-marko-threatens-to-quit-formula-1-after-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-max-verstappen-lewis-hamilton/5583aa6e-c603-445a-8674-6e46984ab88f

I have grown to hate Marko. Honestly, I don’t know what he brings to the team.

Not sure, but at that level you have to be aggressive to be successful. His **** with calling Mercedes sore losers for doing exactly what he would do in their position is just so fake and tiresome, though. The RB leadership just has this very aggressive, litigious attitude all of the time that is plain annoying.

Some people may not know that Marko was a Porsche factory driver, back in the heyday of the 917. Back then, I had some respect for him, but he wasn’t of particular interest when compared to people like Siffert, Rodriguez, Elford and others. Those guys are the true heroes, Marko was just a co-driver. My humble opinion.

So, in the early days with Red Bull, I just assumed that he was some sort of driver coach. I don’t know what he was able to impart to Red Bull’s drivers, but I would make the observation that the key drivers that found success with Red Bull can drive circles around Marko and he couldn’t teach them much of anything. I mean really, what’s he going to teach Sebastian Vettel?

So I don’t know why he remains within the team, other than he is perhaps the resident *******. I guess every big team in Formula One needs to have one.

Anyway, in the unlikely event that I ever secure a meeting with him, I will be sure to bring a baseball bat with me.

I've had a couple of days to let my temperature cool.
Still calling bullshyt.
The best call would have been a red flag when to crash happened.
Everyone to the pits. Everyone tweaks their car, gets new tyres and settles in for a standing start to determine the winners all the way through the field.
A real shoot out not a turkey shoot.
Michael Massey should be taken out back, shot in the head and left for the hogs....figuratively of course.

I keep seeing the red flag idea come up, and while it could have been "best" for racing there was no justification for it based on safety. If they were to modify the rules for safety cars at the end of the race, sure, but as is it's just not there.

I recall hearing that Masi stated to the teams he wouldn't red flag for incidents at that corner, even, but I don't remember where.

Edit: Not knocking the idea I just know that people would be furious if there were a spurious red flag five laps before the finish as well. It would be an obvious manipulation of safety rules to accommodate spectacle.

I'm ok with red flags, however, I believe they should change the rules surrounding them. No fixes to the cars and certainly no changing of tires. It is simply halting the race to clear an obstruction. You do the rest of that stuff under green conditions.

There have been too many races where one driver or another gains a huge advantage by not having to stop during the race at all or at least for a second/third time.

There is certainly some things that FIA, Masi, and stewards need to tighten up. I believe if they did so it would remove a lot of the controversy.

Masi himself said "it's a motor race". So let them race to the finish. Doesn't have to safety related. It can be competition related to stop and restart. There had been enough slow laps that they had fuel to run five more laps on the current fuel loads. "Spectacle"? Isn't that what racing is supposed to be?

Yeah but if you're Mercedes (or any team) how much money do you put into a sport where regulations are second to spectacle? Either the regulations mean something and can be planned to or it's not an actual sport.

But regulations and spectacle can both exist. It's done all the time. Regulations have to be reviewed and evolve.

Actually, no. It’s a contest of skill.

WWE wrestling is a spectacle, air shows are a spectacle, Christmas parades are a spectacle. Like that.

What part of making one decision, followed by angry outburst by one team, then doing something different in line with what that team asked for, did you miss??

Java, just can't help yourself can you, always have to throw in a insult.

High speed, loud cars, planes flying over, pretty people, fabulous locations, bright lights, etc. etc. No that's not a spectacle. LOL

Which part was the insult?

I’m asking if you don’t know the whole story.

So then, there’s no point to the actual race? Just drive around in circles for two hours and put on a spectacle. Everybody wins? Everybody gets a trophy, they just have to take their turns?

All the off track crap may be a spectacle, and the on-track stuff may be spectacular, but it’s still a sporting competition, first and foremost.

Having watched F1 racing for 50 years, let’s just say I miss the good old days.

Here, a breakdown of what went down. No mention of red balls radio call but the rest is there.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.explained-understanding-one-of-the-most-chaotic-controversial-title.4B98awxwP7JPgBWxIt5KnL.html

How can Masi tell the teams one thing, then change his mind and tell them something else opposite that?

If he’s going to let lapped traffic unlap themselves, why just a few of them and not all of them?

His recent poor decision wouldn’t look so bad if it wasn’t in a position with what he previously stated about a similar situation.

But the big problem is the Red Bull radio call in between the two communications he had with the team. I wonder if anybody from Liberty Media had a vote in that…

And how is it we have a race Director with his background?

Hey Reg,

I've never known a season likes this, been very exciting, closely fought, full of drama, conspiracy and lots of controversy

I'm actually not with RBR but with Honda, been with them for the last 3yrs, also another 6.5yrs previously, there is more Honda in me than Ferrari :D

Sad news when Honda announced they were leaving, was expecting things to wind down but Honda went aggressive turning everything up to 11 :cool:

Going to try and carry on my Man Cave R&R until next summer, after that not sure really.....

RB Powertrains looks interesting, brand new from the ground up project, I'm intrigued to find out what manufacturer will take claim of the name, will it be Porsche, Audi, VW or someone else, place your bets now :confused: