European Grand Prix

[tintop]

This is how FIA justice works, or doesn't work.
it pains to say it but with Mosley there was a bit more consistency than we get with Todt as FIA president. Nowadays it looks like everyone does what it pleases and no one cares.

Oh, Mosely was very consistant, but certainly not impartial.

[e2mtt]

Valencia sure produces boring racing. Strange how some tracks are just so impossible to overtake on, despite not being overly narrow or slow.

[truefan72]

Valencia sure produces boring racing. Strange how some tracks are just so impossible to overtake on, despite not being overly narrow or slow.

I thought the race was far from boring and Kobayashi showed how to overtake cars.

[e2mtt]

I thought the race was far from boring and Kobayashi showed how to overtake cars.

I'm never so bored of an F1 races that I don't watch the whole thing... However Kobayashi only made 2 overtakes when his tires were dramatically better then those he was overtaking.

There was extremely few overtakings, despite the fact that the start & SC had scrambled the field pretty well. It was especially striking how many times a car following would get a tow, dive under in braking, the announces would get excited, and then the next camera angle would show both cars exiting the corner with the order unchanged.

[Saint Devote]

Oh, Mosely was very consistant, but certainly not impartial.

Max could not of said it better! Think about running for political office.

[airshifter]

Just thinking again about the 9 drivers who got those 5 second penalties for exceeding the delta time in the final sector when the safety car was deployed.

All the debate I've seen about that has been why the penalty was only 5 seconds. But was a penalty justified at all?

We know Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso and Massa got the safety car message too late to pit. Kubica was the first driver able to pit, but he was only a couple of seconds behind Massa, so how could he possibly have slowed down enough to match the delta time? In fact all the drivers who got penalised had been within 25 seconds of the lead on the previous lap, so must surely have already been in the final sector when the safety car was deployed. I can't see how it's reasonable to expect drivers to match a delta time in a sector that they've already started at racing speed.

And what about Alguersuari - he was behind all the drivers who got penalised, but didn't pit and instead completed the lap with a time within 1 second of his previous lap time. If they had exceeded the delta then so did he, I can't see how it makes any difference (in safety terms) whether you pit or not after apparently going too fast. However Alguesuari didn't get penalised.

Great points on the issues with the delta times being impossible to meet at a late stage. Beyond that I'm still confused as to how some drivers could have been subject to penalty at all. There are rules concerning following distances during the safety car period, and behavior during that time. If Kubica was the first to even attempt to match the delta times, anyone behind him could have been subject to penalty for slowing too far behind him.

There has to be a better way than what they did with this race.


And thanks for the scoop on Kubicas pit stop. Seems like a bonehead move for Renault, and a shame it messed up a good performance.