[Alex Ritchie]

The post-race penalty on Sebastian Bourdais was just outrageous. At the driver's briefing in Fuji the Race Director announced that cars leaving the pitlane have the right of way.

Bourdais leaves the pitlane after his second pitstop to find Massa on his left. He pulls over to the right, putting both right hand side tyres over the kerb to give Massa room. Massa continues to turn in on Bourdais and spins from the contact. Result: Bourdais gets a 25 sec penalty after the race!

It just goes to show that when the organisers want to get you, they will get you. And since the Race Director is the judge of fact, no appeal is allowed. Sweet...

So who gains from the Bourdais penalty, other than Massa and Ferrari, of course. Bernie Eccelstone, the race promoter, as it keeps both championships alive until the final race in Brazil...

...and Max Mosley...remember the nasty things said about his sex life? Mercedes even had the audacity to call him unfit to be the FIA President and asked him to resign. Payback time, big time.

In FIA World the Race Director is given almost absolute authority in running the race and if his integrity is suspect then he can determine the outcome of the races and championships. Obviously the powers that be in F1 have decided that Lewis Hamilton cannot be allowed to win this year's driver's championship and have decided to bend the rules to ensure this. Who cares about the reputation of the series as long as the "right" team wins...

I predict there will be a 25-second "jump start" penalty for Lewis in China or Brazil...

[Ryan104]

as it keeps both championships alive until the final race in Brazil.

Yep, your right, its more like a tv series rather than a racing championship from all the ridiculous penalties just to keep the points closer.

[Gary80]

As formula races are so boring now I suppose the only good thing about it is the chance to have a bet on who will get the penalties each race

[Gary80]

Yes formula 1 is a sad state of affairs.

I remember when it was a race that was won by close racing on the track with any car having a chance to win not like now where it is won in the pits or by not getting penalties

[Alex Ritchie]

This year has been particularly bad. The manipulation of the rules by the Race Director has been blatant and shameless.

In Spa Lewis cut the chicane and got in front of Kimi. He gives the place back momentarily then takes Kimi again under braking for the next corner. McLaren know it is subjective, so they call the Race Director immediately to ask his opinion. He says it is "okay". McLaren, being McLaren, ask him again, it is okay, does Lewis have to let Kimi pass again. The Race Director answers it is okay.

At the end of the race - five minutes later!- the Race Director changes his mind and decides that Lewis's move was illegal...

I wonder who made the telephone call to the Race Director, Max Mosley or Bernie Eccelstone?

.................

The Race Director's pathetic attempt to explain himself:

FIA race director Whiting backtracked on his in-race confirmation to McLaren officials that the manner in which Hamilton had given back the gained position to Kimi Raikkonen was 'okay'.

"It became clear to me after seeing the incident in a more detailed way the whole advantage had not been given back," he said.


Max Mosley's incredible comment on the incident:

"I think there were two mistakes made there," said Mosley about the exchange between McLaren and Whiting. "One is that McLaren should not have asked Charlie. The second is that he should not have answered."

In other words it was McLaren's fault for making it obvious that Lewis was getting shafted!

[JohnKing6]

I wonder also what the penalty on Hamilton would have been if the incident between him and Massa was reversed? I'd guess at least a four race ban to mess him up next year as well. What was the difference between that incident and the one between Schumacher and Villeneuve a few years ago - Massa jumped over 2 curbs and took out Hamilton - there's no other way to describe it.
In light of recent events, Hamilton was dumb on the 1st corner but he clearly didn't aim at another car but the penalty was the same. It's just crazy in F1 now. I'm getting close to the point where I'll protest in the other way I can - stop watching the races.

[Mikko Nassi]

At the end of the race - five minutes later!- the Race Director changes his mind and decides that Lewis's move was illegal...

It's not usually the race director that has been dishing out these penalties, it's the Stewards. Different stewards at each grand prix. He can of course change his mind as well after talking to the stewards or reviewing video. Remember Hamilton's drive-through in Magny? That was imo much more dubious than the Spa incident. Also at that race Ron asked the race director and he said "no need to let him back past" only to have the stewards disagree with the RD and give hammi a drive through.

It's not Max or Bernie handing out the penalties. If anything Bernie would profit more from Hamilton winning the championship than anyone else winning it, and he's already profited a lot merely from Lewis being around. Max on the other hand doesn't profit, he gets paid precisely $0 dollars to work in the FIA.

For Hamilton I guess if he would've been a model driver all year he might not have gotten any drive through for the start antics, but because he's been on the edge and had a lot of complaints from other drivers I guess it was easier for the Stewards to give him a penalty. His style is good though because it makes for more entertaining races.

Btw there is Video on the Formula1.com website with unseen angles of the incidents in Japan, I haven't seen 'em yet.

For the Massa-Hamilton incident my opinion is that Lewis is 0 percent to blame, but Massa certainly didn't make contact on purpose either, he just misjudged it. For the Hamilton start it was a bit rude and very close to creating a lot more damage but again don't think a penalty was really justified. Haven't seen the Bourdais incident yet.

[Mikko Nassi]

Bourdais incident - Bourdais had a bit of an oversteer moment which just pushed him wide enough to clip Massa's rear wheel. Without the oversteer moment Massa would've been easily ahead, and was a fair bit ahead heading into the braking area. Certainly nothing intentional from Bourdais there, but can't really blame Massa for it too much either.

[Alex Ritchie]

Yes but at the driver's briefing the Race Director said the driver coming out of the pits has right of way. Massa had no business being that close to Bourdais, going by the Race Director's briefing.

Bourdais's "oversteer" was because Massa squeezed him over the kerb!

[JohnKing6]

[quote="Mikko Nassi"[For the Massa-Hamilton incident my opinion is that Lewis is 0 percent to blame, but Massa certainly didn't make contact on purpose either, he just misjudged it. [/quote]

I really disagree with you Mikko - a misjudgement is where you go a bit hot into a corner or brake a bit late. Massa slide wide in the 1st part of the corner, got passed by Hamilton and then accelerated into the next part, had his outside wheels over the inside curb and was never going to do anything other than hit Hamilton. I'm not saying it was premediated but it was equally as bad as anything Michael Schumacher ever did.

Lets put it this way - if someone went completely over curbs to hit me in a kart race, I would be more than a bit pissed

[Alex Ritchie]

The FIA Sporting Regulations:

16.1 "Incident" means any occurrence or series of occurrences involving one or more drivers, or any action by any driver, which is reported to the stewards by the race director (or noted by the stewards and referred to the race director for investigation) which:
- necessitated the suspension of a race under Articles 41;
- constituted a breach of these Sporting Regulations or the Code;
- caused a false start by one or more cars;
- caused a collision;
- forced a driver off the track;
- illegitimately prevented a legitimate overtaking manoeuvre by a driver;
- illegitimately impeded another driver during overtaking.
Unless it was completely clear that a driver was in breach of any of the above, any incidents involving more than one car will normally be investigated after the race.

16.2 a) It shall be at the discretion of the stewards to decide, upon a report or a request by the race director, if a driver or drivers involved in an incident shall be penalised.

The Race Director has the ultimate authority to decide whether an "incident" has happened. The Stewards may report an incident to the Race Director, but if he says "No" that's the end of it. The Stewards cannot impose a penalty without the approval of the Race Director.

Once the Race Director says "Yes" then the Stewards decide what penalty should be imposed.

In 2006-07 there were three Stewards for each GP - Tony Scott Andrews, the permanent chief steward, one steward appointed by the FIA and one steward appointed by the ASN of the host country.

In 2008 this was changed, ostensibly to "speed up" decision making. The current system has four stewards - three, including the permanent chairman, appointed by the FIA and one by the ASN. All must hold FIA Super Licenses, so the list is small. Intriguingly, from this year there is an additional post - a stewards advisor. This is currently Alan Donnelly, who reports directly to Max Mosley. Presumably he "advises" the stewards to make the "right" decisions.

[kongmw]

I think Hamilton has the most penalty this year around.

[yenchen23]

There's a photo from autosport.com that describe exactly my feeling.


That cracks me up! FIA = Ferrari International Assistance

Don't get me wrong, I like Raikkonen, Massa, & Domenicalli. But Ferrari as a team... I couldn't find another team that's remotely as arrogant and self-righteous as they are! Especially their president Luca di Montezemolo. He labelled Singapore GP as Disneyland!! Was it because they screwed up bad in the pitstop or because Merc outsell 'Fellari' about 100 to 1 in Singapore?

[mlange]

Especially their president Luca di Montezemolo. He labelled Singapore GP as Disneyland!! Was it because they screwed up bad in the pitstop or because Merc outsell 'Fellari' about 100 to 1 in Singapore?

To which Bernie E. was quoted to respond,

“If the Ferrari president is right about the Singapore Grand Prix being a circus,” 77-year-old Ecclestone asserted in an interview with Britain's Mail on Sunday newspaper, “then we have to be grateful to him for providing the clowns.

[Alex Ritchie]

Bernie Ecclestone can be accused of many things, but being a hypocrite is not one of them. He may say some amazing things when he is trying to gain a bargaining position but, by and large, he is a straight-talker. To his credit he has not made his fondness of Ferrari hush-hush. He believes that Ferrari, because of its image, heritage, tradition and tens of millions of fans around the world, is the most important team in F1. F1 would not die without Ferrari but it would be severely damaged. [I suppose it would be like the English Premiere League without Manchester United and Liverpool...]

The F1 Concorde Agreement is negotiated individually between Bernie and each team. While the exact terms are a closely guarded secret, it is no secret that Ferrari get the most money from Bernie every year. In Bernie's world, where money is so important, I suppose that is the most sincere expression of his fondness for the red team.

The street runs both ways. When the road car manufacturers in F1 wanted better terms from Bernie and threatened to start their own breakaway series, Ferrari signed up with Bernie. Bernie got a couple of independent teams to commit and that was the end of the "revolt".

For those who are still not convinced, consider Brazil 2007. Lewis started with a 7 point advantage, he only needed to finish 5th and one place behind Alonso to become World Champion. Lewis had a messy race and finished 7th.

In the meantime the F1 permanent Technical Delegate had noticed that the BMW and Williams teams were chilling their fuel too much, a clear infringement of the regulations. He reported the matter to the Stewards. The Stewards, perhaps realising that if they correctly penalised Rosberg (4th), Kubica (5th) and Heidfeld (6th), then Lewis would finish 4th, one place behind Alonso. Lewis would be World Champion! So they decided that the regulations should be ignored. Kimi and Ferrari win.

McLaren, being McLaren, don't know when they are beaten. They decide to appeal the Stewards decision to the FIA's International Court of Appeal.

The day before the appeal is heard Bernie makes an astouding statement:
Bernie Ecclestone is not expecting the championship results to be altered in tomorrow's hearing of the FIA Court of Appeal.

But the Formula One supremo has warned that he would consider retiring from the sport if the verdict gave Lewis Hamilton the title.

"I don't think that the Formula One fans would like a championship to be won because the temperature of the fuel, which can't be measured anyway, is possibly 5C out," Ecclestone was quoted as saying the The Times.
...

Ecclestone, however, reckons nothing will change.
"I don't think anything's going to happen if it goes through," Ecclestone added. "In my opinion, they don't have to change the results of the race - it's an infringement of the regulations.


In other words, even if McLaren win the appeal we are not going to change the results. The "right" team won, therefore the regulations are to be ignored. Kimi and Ferrari are world champions. Full stop.

The next day the ICA find a simpler way out. According to the Court, McLaren did not have standing to appeal against a stewards' decision, therefore there was no necessity to discuss the case.

It just goes to show that he who has the gold makes up the rules as it goes along. Mclaren and the other teams are allowed to win a few races and championships to keep the fans interested but the majority of them should be won by Ferrari!