Lotus F1 Team driver Romain Grosjean has been handed a one-race ban following his severe collision at the start of the Belgian GP. The driver has been involved in seven first-lap crashes already this season, surely a metric to have been influential in the decision making of the stewards.
turbof1 wrote:Wow that is harsh. I expected a grid penalty of 10 places, but this is much harder. Why didn't Maldonado ever got one?
Because Grosjean took out multiple championship contenders: "It eliminated leading championship contenders from the race... an extremely serious mistake and an error of judgement".
Rationally speaking, you are giving penalties due an unsafe maneuvre. The fact that he took out championship contenders should have nothing to do with the level of punishment. Something like this could have happened at the back and should be threated equally.
I do have to make myself clear: I said the penalty was harsh, but frankly he had it coming. What I am complaining about is the fact Maldonado, equally or even more a danger on the circuit, never got that kind of a punishment. There is no consistency.
zyphro wrote:
turbof1 wrote:
Are they allowed to put in an other driver?
Yes they are.
Now that will be interesting. They don't have alot of time to go look and see which driver currently available would be the most suited. I would dare say D'Ambrosio will get his chance
turbof1 wrote:
Now that will be interesting. They don't have alot of time to go look and see which driver currently available would be the most suited. I would dare say D'Ambrosio will get his chance
I think they banned him because he never admitted any guilt in his incidents and kept being ignorant. Well done FIA.
A bit overdone to punish Maldonado for the jump start, but for the collsion with Glock 5 places drop would be enough.
Finishing races is important, but racing is more important.
simieski wrote:I wonder if Hamilton's wing or his negative attitude will be the most damaging to his race today. A do or die mentality isn't ideal if you're on damage limitation, will be interesting to see if he will take a page out of Alonso's book and take what he can get or a page out of Maldonado's book and.. well you know..
turbof1 wrote:Rationally speaking, you are giving penalties due an unsafe maneuvre. The fact that he took out championship contenders should have nothing to do with the level of punishment.
Agreed - the penalty should not take into account the who - it should take into account only the what. If he took out Karthikeyan, made Karthikeyan pile into Glock and Pic, and nearly hit De La Rosa's helmet, then the punishment should be the same.
I think the start was badly executed by Charlie. It was a very long red light following a very long grid formation period. The jump start and bad getaways were in part down to this. The jump start and bad getaways in turn led to some other eejits trying too hard to take advantage and a very uneven getaway.
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/ ... 13741.html LMAO. MAL has managed to pick up 2 separate 5 place penalties for 1)jumping the start and 2) hitting glock. thats the mystery of how he broke his front wing solved then.
FrukostScones wrote:I think they banned him because he never admitted any guilt in his incidents and kept being ignorant. Well done FIA.
Yes, today he was talking BS to the reporters about his not knowing what had happened and that he had to watch it on TV first. At the SKY they showed Grosjean standing on the pitwall after the accident, watching replays of the crash.
piast9 wrote:Yes, today he was talking BS to the reporters about his not knowing what had happened and that he had to watch it on TV first. At the SKY they showed Grosjean standing on the pitwall after the accident, watching replays of the crash.
It's not necessarily making a liar of him - remember they don't always play these interviews immediately (you occasionally see the interview happening in the background of a shot and then hear it played back later). I agree that the punishment was worthwhile though.
I do think Maldonado has been asking for the same treatment; while I think Grosjean's accidents were mistakes through being over-aggressive and oblivious to the cars around him, several of Maldonado's incidents (e.g. Perez in Monaco, Hamilton last year at Spa) have apparently been deliberately malicious.
People including Dominicali have now said that from GP2 down there needs to be a tightening of driving standards.
Lets face it, driving standards in GP2 and below have been poor in recent years. Look at Hungary 2010, Perez was almost ran into the wall by Maldanado. Grosjean in 2009 Grosjean had a similar incident at the same track.
Driving penalties need to be standardised for all series and applied in such a manner where there is no ambiguity. Also, reprimands should be handed out like Yellow cards in Football/Soccer, but in the form that is used in the UEFA Champions League, where 3 yellows gives you a game ban and for every 2 after that its a 2 game ban. This way Maldanado in my view would have served at least 1 race on the side lines this year and possibly 3 races if you were to be slightly more extreme. However penalties need to be applied the same up and down the grid as well, otherwise they are pointless.
Id also make it that each team has to have a FP1 driver that is taking part in a active form of single seater racing (GP2, GP3, WSR3.5) for at least 10 GP each year, split equally between both cars each team has. This would mean even Alonso would have so give his car over for 5 FP1 sessions a year. Id also give the teams the ultimatum that they have to give 3 days of the 12 available pre season testing over to a young guy, but the final 4 day test would be a dual car test for the teams as a compromise for the teams if they want to, however they all need to attend this test in order to be allowed into the paddock in the first event of the year.
The teams need to get young guys into the cars as there is too many young guys that come into F1 with a poor understanding of the work load and understanding of the cars. Also, young guys need to spend at least a year serving a young driver apprenticeship with a F1 team before they are allowed to race a F1 car as well.
However, in my opinion WSR3.5 and GP2 need to get DRS (WSR has it now) and KERS into their cars, also a engine and gear box allocation and a steering wheel that is more akin to a F1 wheel with 4 rotaries and the MES display on it.
The best guys this way would stand out better over those who have the $$$ to get a seat. The GP2 and WSR guys need to be pushed a good bit further, their cars need to be within 5 seconds of the slowest F1 machinery at any track as well. Also those championships need to last at least 14 weekends a year with 2 stand-a-lone's for GP2 as well.
There is plenty of flaws that can be fixes from penalties to young driver testing rules and GP2, GP3 and WSR3.5 driving standards and technology as well.
Can things be fixed, yes they can as a children's TV character once said. Will they be fixed properly, i doubt it as someone will have their nose put out of shape some where that dosnt want to and that person will have power and or or money somewhere to make sure that things don't change to the way or extent they should.
FrukostScones wrote:I think they banned him because he never admitted any guilt in his incidents and kept being ignorant. Well done FIA.
Yes, today he was talking BS to the reporters about his not knowing what had happened and that he had to watch it on TV first. At the SKY they showed Grosjean standing on the pitwall after the accident, watching replays of the crash.
I'm not surprised - he tried to blame Schumacher for their collision in Malaysia .
.