SHRISHTI VIDYASHRAM

SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL, VELLORE

ASSESSMENT OF LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS

TERM – II (2021-2022)
ENGLISH
PROJECT WORK

THE CONTROVERSY OF THE ABU DHABI GP

SUBMITTED BY
ALLEN SAM IMMANUEL
CLASS & SECTION
12-A5

SUBMITTED TO
DR.JOHN PAUL
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

DATE OF SUBMISSION
31ST JANUARY 2022
 CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION

This is to certify that Allen Sam Immanuel.G student of

class12-A5 has successfully completed his/her

project work titled

THE CONTROVERSY OF THE ABU DHABI GP

under the guidance of Dr.John Paul

during the academic year

2021-2022.

Internal Examiner

External Examiner Principal

AIM
The aim of this project is to analyse and discuss the controversial race end of the 2021

formula 1 Abu Dhabi grand prix, which decided the 2021 formula 1 championship. The

podcast of David Wishart Hobbs will be analysed and the personal reflection on the podcast

content will be given. This project will also contain a brief introduction for readers who

aren’t familiar with the sport to have a better understanding of the project as it has some

technical terms.
 ACTION PLAN

Step one- Listening to the Podcast

Step two-jotting down the points.

Step three -writing a rough draft.

Step four-introducing the podcast speaker

Step five- Content and discussion of the podcast

Step six- expressing personal reflections

Step seven –concluding the entire podcast and reflection.

Step eight- mentioning sources for the research.

 REPORT

David Wishart Hobbs (born 9 June 1939) is a British former racing driver. He worked as a

commentator from the mid-1970s for CBS until 1996, Speed from 1996 to 2012

and NBC from 2013 to 2017. In 1969 Hobbs was included in the FIA list of graded drivers, a

group of 27 drivers who by their achievements were rated the best in the world. Hobbs was

inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2009.

David joined traction reaction podcast hosted by Steve Zatuke to discuss about the

controversial season finish of the 2021 FIA formula 1 championship. As the host read the

article about the controversy:

Going into the closing laps of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday night, the British

sporting icon seemed to be on course to win a record-breaking eighth title to surpass Michael

Schumacher. However, true to the dramatic nature of the 2021 season, the last nine months of

action all came down to a head-to-head battle between Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

The Mercedes and Red Bull drivers had entered the final race of the season level on points

and everything came down to the final few seconds due to a remarkable late safety car.

Once Nicholas Latifi put his Williams Racing car into the barriers, there was a tense wait to

see whether or not Verstappen would be allowed to overtake the lapped cars in front of him.

AS it turned out, the Dutchman was indeed able to get ahead of the trailing cars in

controversial circumstances, giving him the chance to battle it out with Hamilton fresher

tyres.
As the race progressed the Dutchman caught up with Lewis in the last lap gaining him and

wins the 2021 formula 1 championships.

David commented that after 2008 of the Lewis Hamilton deciding championship last lap this

was the most controversial and the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand prix defeated it.

He stated as that this was the most exciting, edge of the seat, crazy and controversial season

f1 sees in a long time. This season has seen more crashes, fierce battles and the most talented

rivals. The rookie versus the old gun.

As the season was a roller coaster full of controversies the last race would be a bummer if it

was ended as a boring one. As to address the controversy it was a big mistake on the side of

the FIA as they were poor in the judgement as it was seen in the previous Saudi Arabian

grand Prix’s the race director Masi was unable to give proper judgements in the right time.

David also mentioned that due to the pressure of the leading teams it was more pressure for

the race director to take the actions, as both drivers are deserving championship winners

David thinks it doesn’t matter who won, but the racing community and paddock was very

disappointed at the race control and the FIA as they didn’t expect a poor decisions. It was a

great disappointment for the seven time world champion Lewis Hamilton but a miraculous

win for the young Dutchman max verstappen.

As the host read an article stated in Wikipedia about the opposing voices :

Masi's decisions were criticised on social media and by racing drivers as unusual and to

contrive excitement. 1996 world champion Damon Hill commented that the decision

appeared without precedent, stating that it was "a new way of running the sport, where the

Race Director can make these ad hoc decisions". 

Former world champion Nico Rosberg felt that Masi "did not follow the rules", and said

that Christian Horner demanding "one more lap of racing" to Masi via radio was

inappropriate, but sympathised with Masi, commenting: "He's got the whole world watching

and he has to decide in the next 15 seconds what he’s doing." Writing for Fox Sports, Jack

Austin stated that Formula One "engineered" the finish to increase viewer excitement.

Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic echoed a similar sentiment, suggesting that Masi's decision

was to ensure that "Netflix gets another juicy storyline for the next season of Drive to

Survive", and also questioned his capability in effectively officiating a race. 

Writing in The Times, Matt Dickinson said that protests of injustice were coming from a

British perspective, and that fans in other parts of the world did not share the belief Masi's

calls had been unfair to Hamilton. Although Dickinson agreed the officiating process should

be thoroughly reviewed, he rejected complaints that the decision could have been made for

entertainment on the grounds that "rules in sport are contrived — and frequently tweaked to

make a sport more entertaining — and we should not pretend that there is only one

perspective of justice, or that sport is an endless pursuit of fairness."

As the host finished the reading David commented that he agrees with the social media that a

legendry sport was turned into a circus for mere entertainment.

 REFLECTION

I agree and respect the views and comments of David , there couldn’t be a more experienced

person both in the field and the racing paddock to discuss about the controversial night of the

Abu Dhabi grand prix.

As for the readers of this report who may not be familiar with the motorsport I would like to

elaborate in more simpler language, formula 1 is the pinnacle of motorsport where high

performance divers compete in a race around the world driving at the average speed of 290

km/hr. Teams and car manufacturers from various part of the world compete to take the

glorious championship as the formula 1 has a very rich history it is seen as a top most honour

for a car manufacturer.

FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) is an association established on 20 June 1904

to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. To the general

public, the FIA is mostly known as the governing body for many auto racing events, such as

the well-known Formula One. The FIA also promotes road safety around the world. This

association manages the rules and basically controls the race.

The past 7 seasons was a bit underwhelming as the Ace Lewis Hamilton without any serious

opposition wins the Seven championships. The 2021 season proved him wrong as the young

flying Dutchman Max verstappen opposed a serious threat both to Lewis Hamilton and his

team Mercedes PETRONAS F1 team. The red bull supported driver showed serious pace and

a rivalry was born between Lewis and max. there were controversies , fights as David

mentioned in the podcast as it is obvious when there is a serious rivalry. The rivalry and the
controversies travelled with the drivers till the last race and to the last lap of the season

where the two can win the race.

The controversy at this point is that the race director deliberately rigged the race so that the

young Dutchman can win the race and stop the consecutive victories of the seven time world

champion. i do not agree with this argument and side with David’s comment as the both

drivers deserved the championship, and I don’t think it was a rigged race because anyone

would’ve won on the last lap as they were battling it out fair and square as the last duel and

the best defender won.

I agree to the point where David mentions that it was a shameful act in the behalf of the FIA

as it was a poor judgment from the race directors, they are trained to act under immense

pressures like this but they failed, as it was the exciting seasons the association was more

keen on their advertisement of the sport by creating controversies rather than to respect the

age old sport and to judge fairly. Even though it was a poor decision it all was fair and square

at the last lap and the best driver won.

 CONCLUSION
I conclude this report by agreeing with the opinions of David Hobbs as he gave insightful

and unbiased and mature opinion on the controversial season end.As mentioned before both

drivers deserved the championship, but the governing body was at fault for making a

legendry sport into a circus show for mere marketing,but this controversy makes the next

2022 season more competitive and exciting and I hope this sport reaches people and remains

to be competitive rather to be dominated by a single person.I hope the governing body

corrects itself and makes fair racing people love.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY

● https://podcasts.google.com/feed/

aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8xNzY5Nzg3LnJzcw/

episode/QnV6enNwcm91dC05NzE1OTgx?hl=en-

IN&ved=2ahUKEwiHguiZt8r1AhXaTmwGHSFIBQIQjrkEegQIAhAL&ep=6

● https://wmtram.com/episodes/david-hobbs-discusses-the-crazy-end-to-the-f1-season/

● https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hobbs_(racing_driver)

● https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fédération_Internationale_de_l%27Automobile