Script perfect

In Abu Dhabi yesterday, Max Verstappen tore the Formula One world championship out of Lewis Hamilton's hands on the last lap of an amazing and boisterous season, and now my inner conspiracy theorist stirs.

"F1 couldn't have scripted it any better!" I say.

Inner Conspiracy Theorist smirks.

"Exactly," he says.

And into the dark places we go.

Oh, surrrre. Think F1 wanted Lewis Hamilton to win AGAIN? Think again, Gullible Boy. They managed to make it come down to the last race of the season, so why not the last lap? And Verstappen on fresh rubber? That's why race director Michael Masi, after Nicholas Latifi's crash with four laps to go, allowed the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to pass the Safety Car, putting Verstappen right on Hamilton's rear wing on the restart. Because F1 WANTED Verstappen to win.

For the record, the Blob does not believe any of that.

What it does believe is F1 did want there to be a dramatic finish to an ultra-dramatic season. And that's just smart business.

So Masi made, let's face it, a NASCAR kind of move, and let the purists howl. Really, you'd rather it come down to Hamilton merely puttering away to the checkers with a cushion of lapped cars to protect him? After a season in which he and Verstappen had staged such a riveting battle for the title?

How much more fun was the way it ended, with the season coming down to one last desperate lap?

"But Mr. Blob," you're saying now. "The last desperate lap was completely orchestrated, mostly by Red Bull boss Christian Horner, who kept hectoring Masi to do what he did. In fact, if you really want to get conspiratorial, you could say the orders actually came down from Netflix, because it wanted the Hollywood ending to next year's season of Drive To Survive. And F1 went along with it, because how good has Drive To Survive been for F1?"

Well ... pretty darn good. This is true.

 But Gullible Boy here prefers to believe F1 simply wanted to give the fans a properly thrilling ending to an incredibly thrilling season. And what's wrong with giving fans what they deserve?

Because let's face it, F1 so often doesn't. So bravo for doing it this time.