Neal H

I have high hopes for George! He was sensational in F2 and some of his qualifying performances for Williams have been outstanding. It’s not often you see a driver in a poor car clearly outperforming it. We’ll see whether he’s good enough to regularly take the fight to Hamilton, or whether - like Bottas - he’s about to find out just how good Hamilton actually is on a Sunday.

I think there is no doubt that the FIA and Mercedes have reached an agreed solution and Mercedes have said they welcome the FIA’s decision to hold an investigation and will hold them to account. I’m optimistic that positive change for the better will come out of this, but we shall see. I personally think that the Abu-Dhabi result should be declared null and void as the race result was manipulated. It doesn’t change the fact that Max will still be drivers champion and Mercedes constructors. For the record, I don’t think anyone can claim that Max isn’t a deserved champion this year. He won the most races, he led the most laps, and I’m sure will become a multiple champion over the next 10 years.

Perhaps we’ve got it all wrong by misinterpreting the title “Race Director” Perhaps it’s the same as Film Director - direct the show to produce the best possible entertainment.

F1’s credibility as a competitive sport hangs on what they do next. They can’t (and shouldn’t) overturn the outcome, just as the outcome of a football match isn’t changed because of a catastrophically bad referees decision. If they take on board what happened and make changes to the way the race director operates and come up with a way to make stewards decisions consistent on a race to race basis, as well as making their own racing regulations less open to interpretation then fair enough, but if they want to leave it so that the result or the ending can be deliberately stage managed by the officials then it’s no longer sport - it’s just a Netflix entertainment show. Sport isn’t always entertaining. Some events are really boring across all sports - that’s the nature of competitive sport and as a sports fan I accept this, and all I want is to know that that the event is fair, unbiased and not being manipulated. I don’t believe the result was deliberately fixed in Max’s favour, I believe it was fixed so that they could get a last lap shoot out which is what the organisers, TV companies, sponsors etc really wanted to see. It wasn’t a sporting event in the end.

Farcical ending for sure, but Max and Red Bull did nothing wrong. They’re not responsible for the inept race stewards. The result should stand, otherwise you just make a bad situation worse.

Two doses didn’t stop me catching the Delta variant and feeling really rough for a couple of weeks. I do believe though that it stopped me becoming seriously unwell and possibly hospitalised. I really cannot understand why some people are so reluctant to get vaccinated. Booster appointment is booked.

Just make the penalty system real simple. If the stewards decide a driver has broken the rules give him a drive through penalty. Penalties for rule breaches are far too random. A crash between Verstappen and Hamilton at the final race is inevitable. This championship is going to be decided in a Paris court room some time in 2022.

Max gained an advantage by exceeding track limits. Why isn’t it that simple? Even though Lewis moved well out of his way, Max couldn’t keep his car anywhere near the actual track, thereby keeping Lewis behind him. I’m somewhat baffled by this decision, just as I was by the stewards decision at the time. Clearly I don’t understand F1’s ‘rules’.

It all kicked off between Senna & Prost when they were McLaren team mates in 1988 and were fighting for the championship. Portuguese GP at Estoril Senna leading Prost. Prost gets a run on him down the pit straight and Senna deliberately tried to squeeze him into the pit wall at 180mph to try and intimidate him into backing off. Prost went on to win the race, but was livid afterwards basically saying that if Senna wanted the championship so badly that he was prepared to risk their lives, he was welcome to it. I can’t imagine Hamilton doing that. Max on the other hand…..

Verstappen is cut from the same cloth as Senna & Schumacher - Win at any cost - fair or foul. Some may view that as the mark of a great champion, something that Max will undoubtably become. Hamilton on the other hand is the most successful in history and has achieved it while being scrupulously fair. It’s what sets him apart.

I’m double jabbed. Last Friday I woke up with an annoying cough and by Friday evening I felt terrible. Ordered a PCR test kit and duly sent it off. Positive result. After all this time I finally caught Covid! For the past week I’ve felt bloody awful - like having a nasty dose of flu for the week. I’m just glad I was double jabbed before I finally caught it, god knows how bad it might have been if I got it pre-vaccine. I’m 58, generally active & healthy with no underlying health conditions. I’m genuinely surprised by how hard it hit me.

Just under half of Scots voted for independence last time, so it shows that a significant number of Scots want independence. SNP is the only party in Scotland offering that option, so obviously those people will vote SNP regardless of competence and with that number of votes they’re guaranteed power. If the other major parties in Scotland also offered another independence referendum, would support for the SNP in Scotland evaporate?

Their recruitment process failed miserably in this case, their were loads of signs missed that there could be something seriously wrong with this person. That would be bad enough in a normal company, but for a Police force that’s simply unacceptable. I’ll bet he’s not the only one to have slipped through.

I think the difference between Alonso and Ocon was nicely summed up at Zandvoort. Early in the race Ocon’s behind Alonso and complaining on the radio that Alonso isn’t going fast enough (ie, tell him to move out of the way). End of the race Alonso finishes well ahead of Ocon. Turns out he was conserving his tyres to ensure the best result. You can’t beat experience. I think George will be sensible enough to learn from Lewis in year one and then go for it in year two.

It did seem all very cynical by F1. Especially if it means that the fans don’t get their money back.