The Stewards are different in most races but this is not the same situation as Canada and I am surprised by the amount of seasoned F1 fans that honestly believe this deserved a penalty.
Canada was a slam dunk penalty that had to be dished out. People simply didn't like its impact and thus they threw the toys out of the pram.
Drawing similarities between here and Canada is total false equivalence. Max was had the racing line and he was 100% entitled to take it.
A better similarity would be to equate it to football. If I challenge for the ball, and I get the ball, but follow through on the player it’s not a foul because I got the ball. Here Max got the ball (the racing line) and simply followed through. LeClerc could have avoided it just as easily as the player being challenged could have pulled or jumped out of the challenge.
Have you ever raced on track? A clean pass means that you leave the over taken car just enough room to remain on the course. That did not happen here.
Maybe this shows just how tight their budget really is. Its already been heard of them re-using old parts and at times struggling for a test car.
Is it known how many Rally1 Cars they've built...
That was exceptional circumstances.
This situation is purely due to the state of the Championship when the team with the biggest history in the sport cant go on.
Lowest point was probably when they had to put the top class drivers to run RX2e cars for the final races of the season, after the whole fire on the Lancias drama.
Despite bad results, Max McRae wants to continue competing in ERC:
https://www.fiaerc.com/en/news/mcrae-keeping-positive-looking-to-an-erc-future-and-a-day-with-the-stars
It was a road car he won, not a rally car. I'm sure he put the sale money towards his career as a real rally driver.
[ERC] JDS Machinery Rali...