I'm beginning to feel there is something sinister behind the scenes too, well Eddie Irvine eluded to it in interviews when he was at Ferrari, it's well established that F1 is a ludicracy (like a democracy, only sillier!).
Ferrari owning the majority share of F1 Holdings, and a stewards overseer having business links with Ferrari (although i'm sure he is credible because he's a European parliamentary minister and they're never corrupt!) is also dubious.
I've been watching F1 avidly for almost 2 and a half decades and i've seen a lot of bias over the years. F1 has never been run fairly and these scandals are common, mostly the consistent bias over the years has been toward Ferrari - but interestingly before Schumacher joined Ferrari he definitely has the favour of the stewards - but in those days the stewards where always provided by the circuit, perhaps his fame and "reported" brilliance worked in his favour?
Is there something sinister behind the scenes? Well on the face of it you'd certainly be forgiven for believing the first credible conspiracy theory to come along. I know there is more to F1 than meets the eye, but in over 2 decades i've never quite figured out what. I guess the only way to find out is to get involved, but then i'd be even more cynical than I am now and would stop enjoying it.
Without doubt Hamilton deserves to be penalised for not giving position back. Any decent driver (Schumacher, Prost, Senna) would have realised that they were faster than Kimi, so much so that a pass would be easy later on and that whilst Kimi had hung them out to dry (keep your nose clean and you could complain about that) if the best defence you can find is you lifted slightly 'to give advantage back' (set up the pass on Kimi) you really should be shot for it. Both Kimi and Hamilton weaved down the straights, Hamilton has been far worse at doing it in past Grand Prixs than anybody else and never penalised for it.
Personally I think much tougher action should be taken on those who gain an advantage from cut tracking and on those who squeeze people off. IMO weaving and causing unnecessary contact should carry some kind of points penalty and race suspensions for repeat offenders.
its a rarely known fact that ferrari decided to abandon red for the 94 season and go with blue/green instead
irrelevant unless theres a previous precedent of f1 arriving at a new circuit and a non ferrari driver being denied the chance to choose his side
even the itv broadcast which has the most massive hamilton bias possible acknowledged that chandhok ignoring the lollypop to cut infront of a rival was different from massa driving off when the lights went green and lifting off to let a backmarker past
there still might be a penalty but since its completely irrelevant to the results of the race it might take some time and technically i cant see an yellow flags in the video
Don't want to rain on your parade, but the delayed radio transmissions meant that the radio transmission was played at a rather "inappropriate" moment during replays.
oh and about the supposed ferrari bias since forever... did all of you completely forget about the 2005 season which was designed to stop schumachers dominance?
What is the penalty for an athlete being doped? or using steroids?
I think they are expelled...
Why McLaren wasnt last season when there was proof of copying technical data from other team, it's a great analogy for a motorsport and athlete
Yeah, but you do know the real reason for doing that, don't you ?
There used to be a saying that F1 was a business 5 days a week that became a sport every other weekend. (Please note the term "used to be" in the previous sentence)
Hamilton should've just let Raikkonen drive into him at the chicane. He still would've got the drive-through, like Koverlining did, but there were two laps left, plenty of time for him to gain a 25 second lead over the Ferraris before the end and the penalty wouldn't have made a bit of difference.
Schumacher is Mr Ferrari, he made them successful, and I was making the point that the FIA punished him because he blatently cheated on quite a few occasions. I'm not an idiot, and I know what car he was driving, I have a fecking model of it on a shelf above my computer screen.
Fair enough, I chucked that one in there for comedy reasons to be honest, since it was actually common sense to change it.
The difference was that the team were at fault instead of the driver, the complaint is that an incident like that which is actually quite dangerous was treated as something so minor, with a pathetic fine put in place. The punishment for something that is actually dangerous like that should be greater than something that gains a position on track or some kind of small speed advantage.
The yellows are there, and a penalty should still be applied regardless of where he finished because again it's a serious safety concern, thou shalt not pass under yellows!
Hamilton hit the brakes to avoid the Williams, causing him to run wide and off the circuit slightly, then as he looked to come back onto the track, Kimi came alongside him and passed. Therefore he passed under the yellows, and actually caused Hamilton to run across the grass by putting his car in a position that prevented Hamilton rejoining the circuit before the run off area ran out.
As a long time fan of F1, I have had an underlying gut feeling this has been happening for quite a while, last years result for example (although Kimi definately deserved his title) somehow seemed a little bit false, especially the second half of the season.
Todays incident, as well as the decision in the last race regarding Massa's pit exit only deepens this feeling. Make no mistake I am British and would like to see Hamilton win the drivers title, but today I was cheering for a revival drive from Kimi and a survival drive from Heidfeld (btw why did ITV cut the post race conference before we heard from Heidfeld?, bring on the bbc!).
I just think that high profile decisions are being made rashly and always to the benefit of the (as Mackie said) viewing figures, manufacturing a close championship, anyone else have this feeling?
Well actually yes lolz, but not in recent times It used to be that pole started on the inside and the FIA took a long time to come around to the fact that P2 kept leading into T1 ! So I agree with you here.
What did non-bias commentators make of the Bruno Senna incident this weekend?
There is a yellow flag on the right, Kimi doesnt see it because he's too busy rejoining the track after using the non-rubbered "outside (lolz) line" run-off area as race track, contravening article 30.3 and appendix L .... (you get the idea).
He's saying Hamilton left the circuit because Kimi came blasting through under yellow, I have to say I agree. It looks like Hamilton had to break to avoid the Williams, then the camera cuts and we dont get a great view but it appears that Kimi forces his way in between Hamilton and the Williams, so he's monopolised on a driver taking evasive action under yellow flag and forced that driver off the road. At least, that's what seems to happen - but the untimely onboard camera angle on the footage makes it hard to be 100%.
I made that comment, but I didnt say since forever, I said most consistently. Before the swing to Ferrari it was with Benetton, and before that it was with McLaren, and before that it was with Ferrari - as I remember it. My point though was that the FIA has always made inconsistent decisions, and whilst the swing has been predominantly with Ferrari in the time i've been watching F1 it has moved around - but always has been inconsistent.
The new stewarding protocol was supposed to prevent that, and it worked for a year until they got somebody with Ferrari ties to be the stewards overseer.
McLaren got caught, that's the only thing they did differently to Ferrari.
I'm in two minds about the penalty, ruins what was otherwise a great race. Hamilton clearly gains an advantage and was not forced off the track, he drove himself off the road. Did anything stop him backing out and sloting behind Kimi? Probably the knowledge he'd lose a lot of time in doing so, if that was gravel he'd never have even tried hanging on. Remember the difference guys, if you decide to do the walk of death around the outside you will always drive yourself off the track. Kimi's move into the first corner was hard but fair, he moved once to defend and then back to the racing line. Perfectly legit.
Hamilton on the other hand was weaving down the straight to stop the rocket slipstreaming him down the straight. Not the first time he has done that either...
Also whoever it was claiming Kimi overtook under yellows, get a grip. Hamilton was off the track, what was he supposed to do? The rule of overtaking under yellow is where a driver deliberately takes a place by fighting for it on track. I bet the yellows weren't even waving when the two of them entered that sector.
Gutted for Kimi, a class drive all out the window with 3 laps left. Was cheering for Alonso, was hoping he could get in there!
to make it remotely interesting again by giving someone else a chance to win the season?
the point is that nerfing ferrari and their best driver for a whole season shows that there is no bias regardless of why they did it
the point is like you said the team is at fault and not the driver so a fair punishment would be to not gain any constructor points from that race but not penalise the drivers (somewhat like what the fia did to mclaren last year although in that case the drivers did gain an advantage from spying on ferrari)
wheresas nearly being hit in the face by a lollypop you ignore to cut infront of someone youre fighting for position is very much the drivers fault and should be penalised in a way that costs the driver
thanks to becky i was ably to see that there were indeed yellows
however technically hamilton was at that point himself one of the reasons for the yellows and afaik its legal to pass cars that cause yellows and are off track
i know what you meant i was just riling you up a little since the sentence did not make sense the way you wrote it
judging by the only video i have (kimis onboard) the speed difference should have given hamilton more than enough room to slot in behin kimi while still on the tarmac runoff
I'm not sure that conclusion can be fairly drawn, at least from the footage i've seen. It looks like Hamilton broke hard on the approach as he didnt know what the Williams would do, and then elected to round the Williams on the outside (behind its direction of travel), and then Raikonnen dived in between him and the Williams, this is the point the footage I watched switches to Kimi onboard, the next thing we see is Hamilton taking a very risky route over the grass, pressumeably in avoidance of Kimi? No driver would elect to take the grass out of choice, it's bumpy, slow, and risks throwing your championship away. It wasnt a tarmac run off there.
no idea
i only watch gp2 if the brilliant english eurosports guys are commenting
race 1 or 2 btw? ill see if i can find a german or english non itv tv rip
hamilton was already very much off before kimi was alongside him
i disagree (images from the video jb kindly provided... yes i know its badly interlaced)
1. shows hamilton already being pretty much off track before kimi has any overlap at all
2. you can tell from the transition between those 2 pics (iirs 4 frames between them) that haimlton went fully outside the white lines and thus off on his own
3. the last we see of him with with kimi going by very fast and lots of tarmac runoff still left
not sure what the regulations say but it could go either way for kimi either passing a car causing a yellow or kimi passing hamilton under yellow
the only consistent thing about the fia decisions is inconsistency
well tbh that deserves a penalty on the grounds of stupidity and incompetence
you can see a yellow flag waving on the tv footage... but its only visible when the drivers are already right next to it this making it impossible to see for them
you cant tell whether or not it was waving when they had a chance to see the flag though
i think youll change your view after looking at the screen grabs
This happens all the time in F1. Nothing to do with Schumacher.
The decision was made because the pole position was at a disadvantage. Nothing to do with the driver, any driver could have had the same request granted.
This happens all the time in F1 and almost nobody gets penalised for it. When a penalty is usually handed out it would be a fine. Sutil's race was of course not compromised at all.
The track was wet. Did Ferrari and the FAI hose it down so that Kimi could crash thereby proving beyond all doubt that there is a crazy conspiracy at play?
He wasn't forced to cut the corner, he was forced to yield, which he did too late. Then he took up off the road and gained plenty of momentum before letting the Ferrari past. It was deemed that he gained an advantage from cutting the corner, which he did. That's the rules.
If you think that somehow Kimi was wrong to drive like that, you might want to watch a few of Hamilton's races first.
If there's a job going with the British Press, you should definitely apply.
You should apply for a position in the British government with logic like yours, how do you gain momentum by lifting on a straight and having a 6mph deficit as a result going into the next turn?