Delhi's Donkey

[keysersoze]

Giedo for managing to successfully navigate 0 corners of the past two races.

And Kimi, of course.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

I have read that Red Bull have been fined for Vettels doughnuts and celebration on the pit-straight.



An iconic image of the whole F1 season. Is a fine really needed?

[steveaki13]

Already been discussed above, but Red Bull got a 21,000 ish fine for not getting their driver and car into Parc Ferme on time while Seb got a reprimand for his donuts.


FIA have to impose all rules at all times if it is listed. Whether it should be listed is another matter.

However I don't think Seb or Red Bull will care at all.

[anfield5]

The race orgainsers for fining Vettel, really guys? Is that necessary?

Me for watching for two hours, when any sane person would have fallen asleep.

Fred for not bringing his car back to the pits at the end of the race (unless I was seeing things, in which case refer to the above point)

[AndyL]

Already been discussed above, but Red Bull got a 21,000 ish fine for not getting their driver and car into Parc Ferme on time while Seb got a reprimand for his donuts.


FIA have to impose all rules at all times if it is listed. Whether it should be listed is another matter.

However I don't think Seb or Red Bull will care at all.

I agree, it seems fair enough to me given how the rules stand. The level of penalty they've imposed clearly isn't going to hurt Vettel or Red Bull, but it might discourage people from doing the same after every race.

[dj_bytedisaster]

You can't really fault the FIA for handing out the reprimand and the fine. It was to weakest available penalty to begin with. A reprimand is merely someone saying "consider yourself punished". They only become important if you manage to collect three of those in a season, which so far only Maldonado in 2012 and Webber this year have managed to do.

Of course it was good to see a driver letting his hair down, but in essence it was still a major breach of the parc-fermé rules. I think the FIA should actually be praised as they immediately took action that allowed them to apply 'special circumstances' and appropriate clemency later on. If you watch the TV pictures, you'll see that two FIA officials hop over the pit wall and sort of 'guard' the RB9 when Vettel climbed out of it. What they effectively did, was ensuring parc-fermé conditions on the start-finish straight. Herby Blash did the same by immediately chaperoning Vettel, when he climbed over the wall to make sure he went to the weight check first. Else they would have been forced to DSQ Vettel, like DTM did with Ekström at the Norisring.

So instead of blasting the FIA for a very light penalty, they should be commended for quickly taking action that the celebration didn't have much of an aftermath.

[Storm]

As much as I did not enjoy the same driver winning yet again (and again), I find it silly to say the least of not allowing him to celebrate what is a truly great achievement. Atleast the FIA folks did not drag him in or lift his car off the track etc
Fining a driver for a exuberant display of happiness after a gruelling season (well...not that gruelling atleast in 2013) is the same as a ref giving a yellow card for
removing the jersey in a football match. It is spontaneous and does no harm to anyone.

[Dave B]

I guess the feeling is that if the FIA didn't punish Vettel then sooner or later everybody would be doing donuts - although it's up for debate whether that would necessarily be a bad thing.

[dj_bytedisaster]

I guess the feeling is that if the FIA didn't punish Vettel then sooner or later everybody would be doing donuts - although it's up for debate whether that would necessarily be a bad thing.

As nice as donuts are, they should be a rare thing. That's what makes them so special, isn't it? Frequent donuts would open a can of worms. Imagine for instance, Fernando would have been second on Sunday and would have inherited the win in case of a Vettel DSQ, thus kept the WDC open theoretically for one or two more races. Trust me Ferrari would have protested the parc-fermé infraction and FIA would have had a hard time to dismiss it. As I wrote they immediately jumped in to ensure parc-fermé sort of on the start-finish straight, but there would have been a scarlet shitstorm about it.

What would be wisest would be for FIA to allow every winning driver or drivers with special achievements (for instance first ever podium or first ever points for the team) to celebrate once in a season. The FIA could send out ther folks to secure the car and chaperone the driver to ensure parc-fermé conditions and it would give us a few proper celebrations each year.

[Bagwan]

First , I'll say that he deserved what he got because he didn't follow the regs .

Secondly , he risked not making the weight standard by at the end by spinning off the marble pick-up , and hopefully not too closely .
That certainly would have been embarrassing .

That said , though , my idea would be thus :
The FIA brings a special pad to races such as this one , where the championship could be won , and it is reserved for only the winner to do donuts upon .
It would only take a moment to change to a new set of rear tires on the way to the smoke show , and the race set could be saved for parc ferme conditions .

The pad could then be saved for posterity and displayed somewhere to showcase the champions .
I can picture them on a building somewhere , graphically saving the moment .

In F1 terms , I don't even think it would cost that much to do .
I'd sell the idea cheap , Bernie .