Yep was just about to mention this in the other thread.
Seems really unfair to me. He innocently entered the pitlane, was fined $10,000 and given a grid penalty. Barrichello gets innocently baulked by Nick so aborts his lap and gets a $10,000 fine for entering the pitlane. And Trulli spins it on the pit straight, drives the wrong way round the track towards a very very fast blind corner, pulls into the centre of the track to pull a U-turn into the pitlane, and gets a $10,000 fine.
The only consistency here is the money the FIA are making out of it. They should just put a toll booth at the pit entrance to save any unnecessary paper work.
I didnt see the incident but read a description of it and it does seem a very strange situation. It seems to me that the person who should be fined is Tilke? Firstly for a dangerous pit entrance, secondly for crimes against race fans.
Dunno but, apparently being a bit German helps. Guaranteed grid penalty if thats the case.
But if you're an ex Ferrari driver or an Italian National then no matter what you do or how dangerously you do it, you'll get no worse than a few pennies taken out of you're multi million dollar wages. No conspiracies here then...move right along please.
Why is it the past two years the FIA have been so ridiculously inconsistant and ammatuerish?
Could it be that they can't handle a competetive championship, it was alright when either Micheal of Fernando won everything, but now the racing is closer than ever they seem to have just given up and decided on handing out penaulties by the role of a dice?
... Heidfield couldn't have done anything else... The pit entry is pretty stupid... The rest of the track is brilliant though. Anyways, let's see if Heidfield can climb his way back to his original position.
It is indeed problem with the track, but rules are rules and they cannot just give impression that in Singapore it's fine to do something like this just because it's track's fault.
By the way, penalties in F1 don't seem that harsh after watching some other races. On Koni challenge race I watched last night, driver got "stop-and-go + 60 seconds" for driving over a hose that his mechanic didn't pull out of the way, thus dropping him from 1st to last.
Why not put this into already existing Singapore F1 thread?
I think the FIA set a dangerous precedent when they gave Massa a 10k fine instead of an (un-appeallable) drive through penalty in Valencia. It appears since then the FIA have been a bit reluctant to dish out punishments for safety rule breaches because of that.
I like Trulli, but if I was race director he wouldn't be racing today. Driving backwards on the main straight is one of the worst things you can do. Unless you HAVE absolutely no choice and it is vital you drive backwards the punishment should be exclusion imo. I am almost offended by a 10k fine.
Heidfeld was only dropped 3 places, instead of 5 which may be slight asdmission of guilt about the track design. It is silly. Heidfeld said the GPS wasn't working properly (which they do in built up areas from my experience). But rules is rules
Heidfeld's penalty is a joke, but Barrichello's is fair game. Heidfeld didn't break any rules, he was just entering the pitlane. Barrichello wasn't inside the designated pit entry lane so he shouldn't have pitted. This, of course, would not have happened had the track had proper pit entry and exits. Hopefully for next year...
Heidfeld impeded Barrichello and that's a fact. But he had no where to go to be honest. Pit entry is as stupid as it can get. The only thing that's a joke is the track (Tilke included) and yes, we can blame it. It might be an exciting race because of crashes and stuff, but that's really not what makes a race "a good race". Sutil got bruised while driving because the track is so bumpy. I mean there should be more strict requirements for the track and not only Behrneis "YES" or "NO" when he thinks it's going to be profit or not.
I am just wondering if there will be any crashes at the pit exit today, it is way to dangerous as the pit exit is just after turn 1, may be some accidents there today.
Its right before T1 and there was no incidents. However many cars had to slow down because of cars leaving the pits. Pit entry is the main flaw of this track and I think that Heidfield's penalty is unfair and that whoever designed and agreed to keep that pit entry should split the fine in 2 and pay it.