Maldonado's punishment, Spa 2011

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What do you think of Maldonado's penalty?

He shouldn't have been punished
6
8%
It is a fair punishment
12
17%
He should have been sent to the back
8
11%
He should have had a race ban
33
46%
He should have had a 3 race ban
9
13%
He should have been banned for the rest of the year
2
3%
He should have had his superlicense revoked
2
3%
Other (leave comment)
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 72

n_anirudh
28
Joined: 25 Jul 2008, 02:43

Re: Maldonado's punishment, Spa 2011

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ringo wrote:[
F1 is racing, it's not ballet school.

Any driver has the right to school the other on track.

....
That statement is either funny or plain stupid. and yes..Hamilton has been schooled by the stewards at almost every event this year

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ringo
227
Joined: 29 Mar 2009, 10:57

Re: Maldonado's punishment, Spa 2011

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He must be a little slow in the brains then.
Doesn't seem to be learning much from the stewards.

I got to admit. The guy does attract trouble for some reason.

I want to see what Pastor does when he is overtaken tomorrow. See how he responds.
For Sure!!

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strad
117
Joined: 02 Jan 2010, 01:57

Re: Maldonado's punishment, Spa 2011

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My question..Would he be so willing to bash into another car without feeling so safe? ;)
To achieve anything, you must be prepared to dabble on the boundary of disaster.”
Sir Stirling Moss

dave34m
-1
Joined: 04 Aug 2008, 10:46

Re: Maldonado's punishment, Spa 2011

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n_anirudh wrote:Sorry the above link does not work (for me! :()

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qek88QxYbW0[/youtube]

Why was Hamilton trying to move to the right and drastically showing down on a cool down lap? IMO, he was trying to instigate and provoke Maldonado? It was not called for and I believe both driver should have taken a 10 place penalty

Shame Nigel Mansell is the steward
I'm glad you're not the race steward, it would be even a bigger joke. Theres no way Hamilton deserved a penalty here, its just plain crazy.
I will be interested to see what happens with Maldonado career now,

User avatar
Ray
2
Joined: 22 Nov 2006, 06:33
Location: Atlanta

Re: Maldonado's punishment, Spa 2011

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How they came to the conclusion of giving Lewis a reprimand is mind boggling. He didn't even need to talk to any official, it was blatantly obvious Pastor was being a moron. A dangerous moron at that. What a joke, and what a waste of Lewis' time to go see them.

Lycoming
106
Joined: 25 Aug 2011, 22:58

Re: Maldonado's punishment, Spa 2011

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ringo wrote: People want to get Hamilton in a bind so badly. But that cheeky and cocky kid keeps eluding them, and they just can't get full satisfaction when he keeps sliding though the gaps and only walking away unscathed with those useless reprimands.
Did these people not get their fill in monaco? You'd think that would have been enough to keep them satisfied for some time.

and why are so many people convinced that Hamilton moving to the right is a great unpunished evil? the track curves to the right... the run down to eau rouge is not straight.

FemiA
0
Joined: 12 Jan 2011, 15:11

Re: Maldonado's punishment, Spa 2011

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n_anirudh wrote:what is Hamilton waving for at the start of the above video?? why not have both hands on the steering wheel??
He was waving the driver behind on and that driver whoever he was did just that.

n_anirudh
28
Joined: 25 Jul 2008, 02:43

Re: Maldonado's punishment, Spa 2011

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FemiA wrote:
n_anirudh wrote:what is Hamilton waving for at the start of the above video?? why not have both hands on the steering wheel??
He was waving the driver behind on and that driver whoever he was did just that.
If Hamilton was slowing down and waving for the other driver to get past...he should have stayed completely behind him, not go side by side..weaving to the right.

Anyways..both drivers have been penalised, one more than the other.

myurr
9
Joined: 20 Mar 2008, 21:58

Re: Maldonado's punishment, Spa 2011

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@n_anirudh - Hamilton was presumably waving to voice his displeasure at Maldonado holding him up on his flying lap. Pastor aborted his lap and still tried to turn in on Hamilton on the last lap, a move that in itself was worth a 5 place grid penalty.

Image

Look, plenty of room in front, left a large gap to the left, and was travelling slowly enough that Hamilton was able to steam up the inside.

Image

Then tries to turn in and run with Hamilton through the entire corner. Remember the flag was out so they couldn't get another lap in and Hamilton was currently in 11th place and needed to set a time. Pastor had aborted his lap, as evidenced earlier in the sequence by being on the gearbox of the car in front to having that massive gap as in the first picture above.

That Maldonado tried to follow Hamilton around the outside causing minor contact was reason for him to be penalised for impeding another driver during qualifying and was the cause for Hamilton's hand waving later on.

Hamilton managed to get ahead and blasted down the straight to cross the line and make it in to Q3. He then ran wide in turn 1 on the cooling down lap, whereas Pastor did not and carried more speed through the corner. This gave him the run on Hamilton down the proceeding straight. Lewis started to move back to the racing line as Maldonado started to come past, before realising another car was there and moving back offline. That is what you refer to as his 'jink to the right'. It was nothing more than a move back to the racing line before seeing the other car and moving out of their way.

Seeing it was Maldonado Hamilton then raised his hand to voice his displeasure about the incident two corners ago - not particularly necessary but nothing wrong with it, and certainly other drivers seem to be prone to doing that and suffer no reprimands. As evidenced by the on board footage where you can see Hamilton's steering wheel, he holds a constant radius gentle turn to the right following the curve of the track.

Maldonado then chops across his nose and high speed damaging both cars. Pastor was off the racing line and moving away from it, so it wasn't a case of following the track - he deliberately crossed the width of the track in order to hit Hamilton's car.

At best I can believe that Maldonado intended to chop across Hamilton's nose missing both cars, but badly misjudged it. But in reality I think it was an incredibly stupid and dangerous move where Maldonado deliberately hit another competitors car.

Jink or no jink, hand waving or not, there is absolutely no justification what so ever for what Maldonado did, and I can't believe that we're even having to have this conversation. As Brundle said that guy should not be on the grid for the race. What kind of message does that send out to young drivers all over the world - that when you're pissed off it's okay to deliberately drive into other cars risking the lives of all those caught up in the ensuing accident. The worst you'll get is a slap on the wrist.

How would you feel if Vettel used such tactics to seal the championship? Should he only get a 5 place penalty if he won in that fashion? (I'm not saying he ever would, thankfully I don't think he's that stupid).

beelsebob
85
Joined: 23 Mar 2011, 15:49
Location: Cupertino, California

Re: Maldonado's punishment, Spa 2011

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I somewhat wonder if the stewards told Hamilton at Monaco "look, if you're involved in an incident... any incident... we're going to reprimand you" to try to get him to keep his nose clean.

tok-tokkie
36
Joined: 08 Jun 2009, 16:21
Location: Cape Town

Re: Maldonado's punishment, Spa 2011

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Thanks for that explanation myurr. I missed the qualifying. Have no sound on this computer's video link. I had not realised what was going on in the first corner where Hamilton was on a flying lap & Maldonado hogged the racing line. Now I understand the two events properly.

ajdavison2
30
Joined: 08 Dec 2010, 12:41

Re: Maldonado's punishment, Spa 2011

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I personally cannot believe some members are insinuating that Ham should take some sort of penalty for not having both hands on the wheel, this is just nonsense and in my opinion a really immature and bias view, probably every driver on the grid drives with their hand(s) off the wheel at some point, (at the end of grand prix for example), or for all of last year with the f-duct, or in home events where they wave to the fans. I believe it is technically against the rules for safety grounds and what not, (although I'm probably wrong on that, so don't quote me on it). But no driver would be penalised for taking his hand(s) off his wheel.

danceman
0
Joined: 17 Feb 2010, 11:18

Re: Maldonado's punishment, Spa 2011

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Licence revoked and sent home with his whole team. There is only one way to treat bullies and misbehaviour on this scale!

neilbah
14
Joined: 10 Jul 2009, 20:36

Re: Maldonado's punishment, Spa 2011

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we can see that hamilton is very slow out of la source and even turns right a little as maldonado pulls out to overtake....i dont think this was to move on to the racing line, im a hammy fan but i still think that this was similar to brake testing someone-quite deliberate (short jolt on wheel rather than a slow progressive turning) and he's only got himself to blame if his car is not 100% now

User avatar
Donuts
1
Joined: 01 Jun 2010, 18:28

Re: Maldonado's punishment, Spa 2011

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Someone mentioned that Maldonado has a history of "emotional racing incident". I know I've heard something before, let's see if we can find something on the subject. Does anyone know some facts straigth away?
The speed of Ayrton Senna.
The mind of Alain Prost.
The dedication of Michael Schumacher.
The determination of Alex Zanardi.

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