Comments on: What the rules say (or rather, what they don't say)

By: Welcome to Formula None, where racing is illegal » vee8 - a Formula 1 blog

Welcome to Formula None, where racing is illegal » vee8 - a Formula 1 blog — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:10:38 +0000

[...] postsWhat the rules say (or rather, what they don’t say)Forza Minardi! Bravo Sebastian!More bad luck for Räikkönen as Trulli triumphsMosley misses the [...]

By: FIA clarifies corner-cutting rule — but is there still a loophole? » vee8 - a Formula 1 blog

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:36:06 +0000

[...] two weeks ago — but team principals could find no written record of the rule. It has already been established that neither the Formula 1 Sporting Regulations nor the International Sporting Code mention what a [...]

By: Alvin

Alvin — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:41:49 +0000

Vee,

Totally agree with you. At the end of the day, it’s about the racing and how the rules have destroyed that. Fan of teams and drivers will never agree with one another anyway.

By: Ponzonha

Ponzonha — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 07:26:33 +0000

Well, it is clear that you and me, as F1 fans, tend to have a love for the “Sport” above pilots or teams. But I was thinking in The Mass. Situations like this call for a serious debate from serious people, and not a mere online petition signed by the same people that will turn their backs to F1 as soon as England starts to play better football. The time is now for the teams and owners to force a change or to shut up forever.

By: Pink Peril

Pink Peril — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:53:39 +0000

Ponzonha, I still get mad over Monza 2006 !
And not just because I am a huge Alonso fan either, I’d be mad if if had’ve been anyone else. Maybe not so much though

I think what has prompted the huge outcry this time is that we’ve seen plenty of dubious penalties in the past, which seem to be awarded to any team not in red. But this a rare instance of a dubious penalty being designed to deliberately alter the outcome of a race.

It’s just that it happens to be Hamilton in this case, but I think there’d be an outcry whoever the driver was.

By: Clive

Clive — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:12:48 +0000

Great post, Doctor, yet again. I’m in a quibbling mood so I must point at this paragraph, however:

“But you can also argue that Hamilton braked later than Räikkönen knowing that the escape road was an option that he could take. Conversely, you can argue that Räikkönen braked earlier than Hamilton simply because he was not coping well in the wet conditions, as is evident from his sector times leading up to the incident.”

No, you can’t argue that. Hamilton was half a car’s length ahead as they hit the braking zone for the chicane. Raikkonen was actually later on the brakes (locking the wheels for a brief moment as well) and so managed to be a nose ahead by the time they hit the apex of the first section.

And I would like to point out to Ponzonha that I was incensed by both instances of monumentally awful judgements by the stewards in both cases he mentions. I wrote several posts decrying those injustices at the time (Monza 2006 was on a previous blog of mine). Contrary to the supposition of so many non-British observers, many of those British commentators who get so annoyed with the stewards’ inexplicable decisions are not doing so because they want McLaren and Hamilton to win every time but because they care about the sport being fairly and consistently administered.

I am heartily sick of being accused of nationalist bias by commenters from other countries and can only suggest that they go look for Italians who feel that the penalty at Spa was unjustified. They exist, but in tiny numbers, I can assure you.

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:17:56 +0000

Yeah Mosley got a heck of a grilling from Brundle over that. And like Vee, I thought Alonso’s penalty was disgraceful as well (http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2006/09/09/dubious-rule-scuppers-alonso/). The change of rules afterwards pretty much proved they’d got that horribly wrong.

Vee, you’re bang on the money. The rules are a joke and most of the assumptions we make about what a driver can do to avoid a penalty aren’t written anywhere. This will happen again and again unless they sort the sporting regulations out.

By: doctorvee

doctorvee — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:54:49 +0000

Ponzonha, I totally agree with you. All of the incidents you cite are examples where the FIA probably got it wrong. I was furious about Monza 2006, and a lot of people in Britain were as well as I recall. In fact, Martin Brundle on ITV really pressed Max Mosley quite hard about it.

Update: Oh, and objectivity is the right word. Thanks.

By: Ponzonha

Ponzonha — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:51:31 +0000

I totally agree wiht your analysis vee, and the proofs that you attach are conclusive. I think that the key lies in your last paragraphs. But I have a big BUT with all this controversy.
I wish that English fans and media had been so rabid when Alonso was penalised in Monza 2006 during qualification. (Remember, ALO said then that he didn’t believe that F1 is a sport). I wish that this had occurred in Hungary last year, when a team affair threw Fernando to the fith row when there wasn’t even a rule. Furthermore, I wish that Hamilton had been penalised in Fuji last year.
This comment is not agaisnt you, since you have a proven objectivity (does this word exist?), but I fear the responses It’ll get in other forums…
We need a fair competition, we deserve that. Even when it can go agaisnt our countries’ paladins.