MotoGP opened its season with a first-time winner, just like IndyCar, but it was Enea Bastianini's night in Qatar and it was Gresini Racing's first MotoGP victory since the 2006 Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril with Toni Elías. Speaking of IndyCar, the mob went after Will Buxton. The FIA World Endurance Championship and Europe Le Mans Series are losing G-Drive Racing and Romain Rusinov, and I don't think we are going to shed a tear. Haas has dropped Nikita Mazepin, and we could be getting an American driver in that vacant seat. Speaking of Formula One, testing is upon us, but there is something else we need to talk about. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
Why Can't Fans Let It Go?
This Formula One offseason has been unlike any I have experienced before. After a season finale never seen before, that shouldn't have been a surprise.
I am used to silly season, drivers changing teams, cars being unveiled, testing, junior drivers announced, sponsors being revealed and other personnel changes taking place during the winter months. I am used to people reflecting over the season before and what will happen in the new year.
I was not ready for the obsession over the 2021 season finale, and not at the level we saw this winter.
After the controversial finish to the season, we were bound to hear about it. Race director Michael Masi's decision at the end of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to not follow restart protocols but restart the race anyway with one lap remaining was going to be discussed and dissected. We were bound to see changes from the FIA. There was even a protest Mercedes filed and then an appeal of the initial stewards' ruling, at one point leaving the finish to the season and the World Drivers' Championship in limbo.
Mercedes eventually dropped the appeal. Max Verstappen kept his victory and world championship. The result might have been finalized, but emotions have not necessarily settled. People were always going to be outraged with the outcome, how race control handled the finish and the inconsistencies from race control, but the level of vitriol over nearly three months is exhausting.
On a daily basis, there are individuals treating the finish to the 2021 Formula One season as the greatest injustice in human history, and that is saying a lot considering what has been happening in the world in the last two weeks let alone the last three months.
From claims of manipulation, demands for the FIA investigation to be released and the Abu Dhabi results to be change, standing with Lewis Hamilton, and so on, people haven't moved on.
But it is time to let it go!
Race control got it wrong. It haphazardly restarted the race, ignoring the rules, and Lewis Hamilton lost the championship. Hamilton got the raw end of the deal, and he has all the right in the world to be upset, but Hamilton has moved on. Hamilton isn't stomping his feet around shouting for justices. He hasn't chained himself to the lamppost outside the FIA office in Paris and gone on a hunger strike until the results are changed. He is looking to the future, the 2022 season, and the next chance at the championship.
You cannot be more upset than the aggrieved party. Hamilton and Mercedes are the aggrieved parties. The fans are just fans on the side. I understand if you didn't like how Abu Dhabi ended. I didn't like how Abu Dhabi ended and how race control said one thing and then did another, but this isn't the greatest crime against humanity.
Hamilton is one of countless sports people to have lost because of a poor officiating call. He wasn't the first and he will definitely not be the last. It is a glaring blemish the type we have never seen in Formula One, but this error can just be an error. Do thinks need to change in race control? Absolutely? Does there need to be blood? That is a drastic claim.
This wasn't some great race manipulation from race control. The decision wasn't made because it was Lewis Hamilton in the lead. There wasn't some great charge to prevent Hamilton from winning the championship. Michael Masi made another questionable call. He had done it all season. It just happened to be the last race of the season, the last lap of the season to be specific, and the championship swung from one party to another because of it.
In another time, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix wouldn't have been restarted and Max Verstappen would have been the winner after the count back due to the red flag. In another time, the Belgian Grand Prix would have never taken place, Verstappen wouldn't have received 12.5 points for completing two laps behind the safety car and we wouldn't be starting 2022 with a completely revised set of regulations for handling races that do not reach the scheduled distance. In another time, we would not have had seven red flags in a season. In another time, there would have been no sprint qualifying, allowing an extra three points to be awarded at three races.
We have to stop the blinded tribalism behind a Formula One driver or team. You can root for a driver. You can have a favorite. You can experience a great wave of exhilaration watching that driver win and you can experience a crushing pain when that driver loses. There is nothing wrong being a fan, but let's be reasonable. If your favorite driver loses a race, you cannot be more upset than that driver. If that driver moves on and does it with humility, follow that example.
It is the temperature of the room at the moment, the 21st century, social media era we live in. It is not enough to be a fan, but a zealot constantly fighting for that driver and never admitting they did something wrong. Most of the drivers have these folks. It is not just Hamilton and Verstappen. Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, Daniel Ricciardo, Mick Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, they all have these people.
I don't get it. I don't understand the slavish devotion. It is beyond fandom. It is making every post about said driver, treating every photograph as some type of iconography and incorporating the driver into every part of their life. It is ok to have another interest and it is ok to admit the driver had a bad day. I wonder if these people actually like Formula One, as in like the motorsports series, or they have found an individual to identify with and this driver fills in a piece of identity this person could not fill on their own.
I love motorsports. It is one of the few places I have felt comfortable being myself. But I do not understand this new generation of fan. It isn't just the Hamilton fans who cannot let Abu Dhabi go or the Verstappen fans who think he is more infallible than Jesus Christ, but it is also the people who made death threat toward Nicholas Latifi and Masi.
There should be some level of common sense to observe a race and be able to healthily digest it. A viewer should be able to watch a race and see it is a race. The participants are no different from those watching it. They are human beings. They make mistakes. Some mistakes are indefensible, but we should realize none of these mistakes matter in the grand scheme of the world. And none of these mistakes means someone should die!
Latifi got into the barrier. It set off the dominoes that eventually saw Hamilton lose the title. Big whoop. Latifi doesn't deserve threats over it. Masi said the race wasn't going to be restarted and then decided to only remove the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen and immediately restart the race when the rules says that wasn't the correct protocol. Masi should be fired, but he shouldn't be chastised for the rest of his life and worry about some deranged moron harming him or his family.
We need to be better and maintain a level perspective as the 2022 Formula One season approaches. There are two new men in race control. There will be a difficult calls to make. Some we will agree with. Others we will not. Hopefully, no decisions are bafflingly incorrect. But we cannot treat this as life or death.
We must be able to let go of the questionable decisions, and we must let go of our irrational fandom toward one individual. It is healthy for everyone and will lead to a better environment for everyone watching.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Enea Bastianini, but did you know...
Celestino Vietti won the Moto2 race from Qatar, his first Moto2 victory and his first victory since France 2020 in Moto3. Andrea Migno won the Moto3 race, his first victory since Mugello 2017.
Eli Tomac won the Supercross race from Daytona, a record sixth Daytona victory, and Tomac's fourth victory of the season.
Shane van Gisbergen and Chaz Mostert split the Supercars races from Sydney Motorsports Park.
Alex Bowman won the NASCAR Cup race from Las Vegas. Ty Gibbs won the Grand National Series race. Chandler Smith won the Truck race.
Coming Up This Weekend
NASCAR is in Phoenix.
Supercross is in Detroit.
The Daytona 200 will be held for anyone who cares.
