Which just goes to show how open-ended the definition is.  If we’re considering Virginia to be “the South” then I suppose DC is as well, which means our nation’s capital was fighting for the losing side in the Civil War.  My holiday-adjusted brain can’t make sense of that, so I’m going to say Virginia is officially…

For this discussion, places that do not normally receive large amounts of snow.

Nah, they could have, but they jumped the gun on “cars can’t pass” and it took them a while to change their mind. I don’t believe there is anything in the rules that says they can’t pass with marshals on the track, and I’m sure I’ve seen it happen before. It’s up to the race director’s discretion when to let them…

Is this where we make fun of southerners for not knowing how to handle a few inches of snow?

Yes, I’m sure all of the kids checking out Niagara Falls won’t have any lingering issues from seeing a dead body in a car floating down the river.

They were waiting for the track to be cleared to let them through, but I think it got cleared faster than the expected.  Initially they said nobody could go through, probably expecting it to take too long to clear the track.  Then they say the track was cleared and decided they could let some of them through but if…

Yes, I understand their reasoning, they were hoping the race would end under yellow.  It didn’t, and they’re grasping at straws.  I remember Verstappen losing races in exactly the same way (bar 3 lapped cars not being allowed to pass), sucks more when it happens to you, I guess.

I’ve watched every race for the last 5 years, and the only time I can remember it is when conditions are incredibly unsafe such as Spa (although nobody was lapped that race).  Races that have finished under caution don’t let them through usually because the track hasn’t been cleared yet.  I believe they had enough…

They should have let the lapped cars go through earlier and never made the first announcement that they couldn’t unlap themselves.  We’d end up with the same result and I guarantee Mercedes would still be crying because they made the wrong call to stay out.

The real screwup was not letting the lapped cars through a lap earlier, in which case we would have had the same result but maybe with less complaining.  Masi realized he screwed up by not letting the lapped cars through, then he changed his mind and made what he thought was the best call given the circumstances. …

So they want to settle it on track unless there’s a crash with 6 laps to go and they decide not to take new tires because they’re hoping it finishes under yellow?  Because let’s be honest, their hope was that the race finished under yellow.  That was literally the ONLY reason for them not to pit for new tires.  They…

Loved that game!  Although I was terrible at it since I was maybe 10 at the time.

What?  But... that’s exactly what F1 does ever safety car.  The only difference this time is there were 3 cars they made stay put.  They should have let them all through and let them through earlier, then we wouldn’t be having this discussion, but the result would be the same.

A bad take on Jalopnik?  Unheard of.

They insisted they wanted to settle things on the track, so of course they won’t take it to court.

Pretty much my take.  Best option would have been to let the lap traffic through a bit earlier, and let all of them through.  We get the same end result, but with less whining.

Nope.  The lapped cars should have been allowed to pass earlier, they never should have shown the “lapped cars not allowed to overtake” message at all.  We’d end up with the same end result, but nobody would be able to argue that anything was unfair, just bad luck that hit Mercedes at the worst time.

Actually their argument is that if ALL of the lapped cars had been allowed to pass, as they usually are, the race would have ended under yellow. Basically they are complaining because they weren’t handed the win under yellow, despite all of their whining in the last week that they wanted to settle it on the track in a…

Actually Latifi crashing and Mercedes deciding not to pit for new tires decided the finishing order. They were betting on a slow cleanup process forcing the race to end under yellow, and they didn’t get it. Too bad.

This.  Best case was they released ALL of the lapped cars earlier, and then we’d end up with the same result.  Worst case was they release no lapped cars, we don’t get a race, and Mercedes is gifted the win.  What we got was the best they could do after initially screwing up the release of the lapped cars.