Hamilton and Alonso penalized by FIA

[Diesel]

Should have been a reprimand for both, if at all. This sort of decision is why we don't see overtaking anymore, everyone is too worried they will get a penalty.

[andrew]

myurr - Massa did not change his line 3 times when defending against Button.

[volarchico]

@ciro...How did you know 9 days in advance that Hamilton and Alonso would get a penalty? Time to buy a lotto ticket!

[raymondu999]

Say this is worth a penalty. But why did he not get a penalty last year for his Petrov weaving? I don't think anyone can doubt that was weaving, and that was probably much worse than this year.

[andrew]

Different race steward (Johnny Herbert) last year.

[timbo]

I was thinking of putting marbles in your hubcaps or vegetable oil in your exhaust or a chicken bouillon in your shower head or food coloring in the office liquid soap, but this seemed a better option.

Happy April's Fool day, mods!

This post will disappear in 3, 2, 1...

Ciro, how much do you want for your crystal ball?

[Mr Alcatraz]

[andartop]

@ciro...How did you know 9 days in advance that Hamilton and Alonso would get a penalty? Time to buy a lotto ticket!

Well...at least for Hamilton this is surely not such a wild prediction, is it?

For all who love to argue about it, didn't Lewis get a reprimand last year on the same track for exactly the same reason? How many reprimands do you believe he should get before being penalized for breaking a rule?

I agree that the stewards should be more consistent with handing out penalties. For example, I found it strange that Rosberg, Schumi and Lewis (again ) only got a reprimand for blocking during quali in Australia, when so many others have received grid penalties for doing the same. Also, Alonso today received a penalty for something that guys like, say, Rubens, seem to have got away with time and time again.

Had it been my decision to make, I wouldn't have penalised anyone today. But when caught "stealing", surely, one's line of defence can't be what others might or might not have done...

[N12ck]

I take it back about this thread being closed, why isnt it called 'the prediction thread' fancy going splits on a lottery ticket?

[forty-two]

I wonder if Lewis had an inkling that this might happen prior to his post race interview?

I commented at the time (to the missus) that he looked absolutely furious and was doing everything he could to keep a lid on it.

Or maybe he was just annoyed about how his race unfolded?

Either way, such a penalty applied after the event is BS in this case in my opinion, not least because the stewards have the ability to decide to give the same time penalty to both, in full knowledge that these actions will penalise one driver and not the other. Apparently a "fair" punishment becomes anything but.

Alonso caused the crash, not Hamilton. He should be penalised or reprimanded for that, and Hamilton should have been penalised or reprimanded for that. To say it was six of one and half a dozen of the other is unfair IMO.

[WhiteBlue]

I wonder what kicked off this strange penalty affair. Did any of the teams complain and get the stewards busy looking into things? It sounds like a possible explanation. If the stewards were forced to take action and discovered the other driver was not entirely without fault they might have been inspired to apply the same penalty to both. It is called "discouraging the others". In this case it could mean "Don't complain or we will scrutinize your driver's actions as well".

[andrew]

There is no need for a conspiracy theory. It is plausible that the race stewards were just paying attention and doing their job.

[forty-two]

You might be onto something there WB, It could for example be that Hamilton was livid about Teflonso running into him and persuaded the team to kick up some dust, and then perhaps wished he hadn't?

Maybe that explains why he was visibly annoyed after the race.

Serious amount of chemistry between Lewis and Fernando, I wish the pair of them would just have a night out together, get drunk and make up. But there again, they are probably among the best four drivers at the moment and I love seeing them go wheel to wheel like this. Why the stewards would penalise Hamilton (well both of them actually, but only Lewis suffered) in this way is however beyond me.

[forty-two]

There is no need for a conspirasy theory. It is plausible that the race stewards were just paying attention and doing their job.

I hate to post an image from earlier in the thread Andrew, but I can't help myself:



You might want to check the spelling of the word in your post which I have put in bold?

But I agree with your sentiments.

Does seem a little harsh though doesn't it?

[andrew]

Duly noted.

Bloody teachers are everywhere!!!


Harsh but the rules are the rules. One was clearly weaving and the other need to retake their eye test!