We always talk about teams trying to finding the grey areas in Formula 1’s regulations to exploit them to the maximum, but that doesn’t only apply to the technical regulations.
What happened just before the Russian Grand Prix was the Mercedes team, which I simply consider Lewis Hamilton to be part of, testing out such grey areas in the sporting regulations.
I don’t think we should get into a comparison of how the late Charlie Whiting ran the show compared to Michael Masi. They are two different people from very different backgrounds doing a very difficult job in front of millions of people, including myself, who all have their own opinions on every decision that is made.
My biggest demand would be for consistency in regulation application. During my time of being involved in F1, I have never seen this in either the sporting or technical regulations and I don’t think I ever will. In Masi’s position, you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
I think this winter would be well spent sitting down and documenting potential infringements and the related penalties. The teams and even the drivers should be involved in this process and by all working together they would have a much more comprehensive understanding of the why and what for. If that was done, it would reduce the time lag in implementing those decisions.
While the FIA does keep a proper record of all of its decisions and the reasons for them for reference by way of precedent, there needs to be a step beyond this to make sure everyone knows where they stand.
No matter who it was, why should one driver be allowed to do something different that could improve their start performance?
I am not a big fan of penalties of any sort and I am definitely against them being implemented after the event. If something happens in Q1 then that penalty needs to be applied before Q2 and the same between Q2 and Q3. If something happens in the race then it needs to be applied before the chequered flag is waved.
As an example, I will use Daniel Ricciardo’s penalty for running wide off track at Turn 2 when he overcooked a planned overtake on his Renault team-mate Esteban Ocon.
For that infringement, let’s say a five-second penalty was correct but he should have had to give up that time immediately and not been able to stay ahead of Ocon driving in clean air to try to recover that five-second deficit.
It’s not a great example as it was a team orders overtake that went wrong, but if it was another driver not from the same team it would mean that a driver taking a big lunge to overtake by going off the road would still gain that position and just need to open up the required five second gap. By getting the five second penalty immediately, they would be back behind the other driver and gain the position legitimately on track.
I don’t believe that points on any driver’s superlicence is required unless it is for some sort of dangerous on-track conduct
After all, the FIA says it is the referee that ensures compliance with the regulations but it doesn’t necessarily need to compile the regulations.
So let’s now look at the key problem of the weekend – Hamilton and Mercedes getting two five-second penalties for what happened before the race.
As far as practice starts are concerned, every driver does multiple starts during practice at the end of the pitlane and, yes, the rubber builds up and the practice start becomes less and less representative of the grip in the grid slots as the sessions go by. But it’s the same for everyone.
When Lewis initially asked the team if he could do a start further down the pitlane, his race engineer Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington probably thought he meant a car’s length or so, but when they saw the second practice start and realised it was more or less at the end of the pitlane even the team thought it was a bit near the mark – as Andrew Shovlin later confirmed.
All the other teams, nine out of 10, understood the race director’s pre-race notes and 19 out of 20 drivers also went through their normal start preparations.
No matter who it was, why should one driver be allowed to do something different that could improve their start performance? After all, we all know the start is where it all happens, get that correct and basically it’s more or less all over.
As this infringement was about trying to get a better start, it falls in line with altering the track surface or pitlane surface where you are going to perform your starts or pit box exits. This is not allowed.
What I don’t understand is why it took so long for the decision to be made. The practice starts happened at 13:32, 38 minutes before the start of the formation lap. The penalty popped up seven laps into the race, and that took longer than it normally would because of the laps under the safety car.
The start of any race is the most critical and risky part, so what would have been said if for some reason there had been a coming together at Turn 2 involving Lewis and some other drivers – Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen or whoever, eliminating them from the race? Would the FIA have announced the penalty for Hamilton or would it have just kept quiet?
I consider the penalty that he received was the minimum possible. It could have been a drivethrough or even two for a double offence. And if the decision had been made before the race start, he could have been put to the back of the grid.
Either way, I believe no matter who the driver was that a penalty was justified. I don’t believe that points on any driver’s superlicence is required unless it is for some sort of dangerous on-track conduct and as Hamilton is getting to the upper limit on these I am pleased to see his latest licence points were rescinded.
Of course, you could ask why he has so many points on his licence in the first place, which is of course because he’s being made an example of… I’m joking, of course, but despite Hamilton having had a few incidents in recent times, mainly with Alex Albon, he has set high standards for on-track conduct.
Hamilton is a six-time world champion and soon to have a seventh. He will supersede all existing success records in F1.
Jenson Button said Hamilton is one of the fairest drivers he has ever driven against.
I believe that to be true. Hard but fair and by being that person he is setting a great example to the young up and coming drivers of how it should be and can be done.
