Formula one is a funny sport, what seems to be fairly entertaining race, gets turned into just another of the same old, same old Ferrari victory, now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the team, they've been in the sport since it began and the team do a brilliant job, being the most successful team in the sport, but they way they do it, came under question today.
For many years now, Formula one has been trying to promote overtaking, after the sport got very dull in the Schumacher era, where it was almost impossible to overtake the car in front. Then when we get a race that was nothing short of thrilling, something takes away the excitement, and we have the same old red car winning the race- hardly entertaining.
The very same thing happened today, I try to be impartial to decisions- one of the reasons you don't see me putting my opinion on the front of this site, but today will be an exception, because the outcome was truly ridiculous.
The last four laps of the race were better than any other race I’d seen, watching the drivers struggling to go around corners, where every single second was make or break moment, because of the deluge that occurred less than three laps before the end of the race. It certainly got me on the edge of my seat, and I’d bet it got you on the edge of yours too.
Then, answer me this, what is the point of penalizing the winner of such a great race, yes what he did might have handed him the race, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
Lewis Hamilton was deemed to have gotten an unfair advantage over his championship rival Kimi Raikkonen, though lets assess the situation from where we ALL saw it from. Hamilton was faster than Raikkonen; he was closing down on him every lap, just biting his time to make the overtaking maneuver that would give him race victory.
He tried it, it was looking a reasonable effort from the 23 year old Britain, Kimi didn’t give him room, knowing that it would either end up in Hamilton crashing into him (which would have given Hamilton a penalty, if he’d of been able to keep going).
What did he have to lose, knowing that the chances of him winning the world championship were looking a bit miserable to say the least; he didn’t make it easy, knowing Hamilton would have no option to either stop (something that wouldn’t be possible), or to let Hamilton go down the escape road and give him the place back, which Hamilton did.
Kimi was ahead at the start of the next lap, at which point, Ron Dennis radioed in to Charlie Whiting (race control) to see if that was acceptable form of relinquishing the advantage that Hamilton was deemed to have gotten, Charlie replied back that it was a completely acceptable way to have given that advantage back.
Hamilton though, after having the faster car in terms of raw pace on a wetter track, was able to gain traction on Kimi down the main straight and launch a successful overtaking maneuver into the first turn. Kimi then hit Lewis’s rear after failing to stop the car.
For that, the stewards decided it would be a great idea to have Hamilton given a 25 second penalty… for overtaking- now is it me or is that contradicting what they’re trying to do, to make more overtaking.Lets say that Hamilton didn’t overtake Kimi, the rain would have still have come, and Kimi would still have crashed (as he was on the wrong tires, struggling for grip and was pushing hard to escape from Hamilton).
Therefore Hamilton would have still won, no matter what the outcome. The penalty was very harsh on McLaren indeed, I wouldn’t be surprised if they launched an appeal into the penalty, though doesn’t it strike you as suspicious that McLaren have every harsh penalty thrown at them, when Ferrari get nothing, when they do wrong?
Take Massa’s incident in Valencia, the rules state that you’re not allowed to release a car into the path of another car, which Ferrari did, no two questions about it. So why no penalty? It would only be fair to give Massa a penalty for that little incident, as it was unsafe, launching a 600kg object into the path of another 600kg object.
Just tell me why that doesn’t deserve a penalty, when Hamilton does, after all, Felipe didn’t have to put his foot to the floor, he should have seen Sutil in his rear mirrors and backed off.
Back onto the subject of cutting chicanes, in the future, it might be best to put solid concrete walls where the run off area is, as this would deffinatly ensure that no car can get across the run off, and not gain an advantage, the driver would probably take a few cars out, but no one would gain an advantage- though it’d be unsafe, exactly what the run offs were there to ensure, that if you make a failed overtaking maneuver, you can get away, without ripping a few cars into hundreds of pieces.
Or should the rule be changed, if you cut the chicane, you should have to wait on the circuit for at least 3 seconds, that way, you’ll not gain an advantage over the other car, sure you’d be a liability, travelling at a low speed on the circuit, you could get hit by another car, which could leave people injured- exactly what the sport doesn’t need.
The best method by far would be to just run over the runoff, as that’s what it’s there for, many drivers have used it in the past, and let the other driver through, and slotted behind them accordingly. Would it have made such a big difference, if Hamilton would have overtaken Kimi coming out of the first corner?
He’d arguably still have an advantage, as he was able to gain time on Kimi to overtake him. Where is the fun in F1 anymore, if race results are just overturned at a simple protest, and more to the point why wasn’t the investigation launched in the closing laps of the race, surely, the Stewards would have seen that, and penalised Hamilton during the race, why wasn’t there a notice of an investigation, before the race was finished, surely this means the protesting party had an influence in the situation?
Like they’ve managed to do so many times in the past. Funnily enough this ties into with a new cost cutting idea, how about Ferrari are just given the win, and then they don’t have to compete, saves the sport around $400 Million, oh and since there’d be no point racing for wins and even championships, it’d save the sport billions- after all no-one would want to compete.
It wouldn’t be worth watching wouldn’t it? Tell me how that isn’t any different from today's race.
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Quote:If you are implying Ferrari is the protesting party, it has been clarified that Ferrari DID NOT launch a protest. They were summoned by the stewards after the race in lieu of the investigation. So there was no protesting party.
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Quote:Peter Backhouse
Food for thought on spa results, had the stewards decision been in time lewis could have taken penalty by driving through pits on final lap, therefore taking the flag in the pitlane like a famous german racer driving a Ferrarri did some years ago whilst serving a penalty. Secondly the 25 secs penalty was time taken from entering to exiting pits, surely penalty time should be time in to crossing finish line seeing it was last lap, but that probably wouldn't put lewis behind fillipe would it ?. F.I.A. it now stands for Ferrarri In Action.
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