2019 Canadian F1 GP

[zako85]

There should have been no penalty for Vettel because of these two issues:

1. First, it's pretty much impossible to stop a car that's bouncing on grass. The driver is basically a passenger over the grassy stretch.

2. Once on track, Vettel is clearly seen briefly turning the steering wheel right (steering front wheels towards the wall). However, if you study the incident from various angles, it seems like it was done to correct a subtle oversteer. The correction was small enough for the car to regain traction. There is no way Vettel could either brake or take a sharper left turn to allow Hamilton a full racing line because that would certainly make Vettel's car lose traction, specially with dirty tires after taking a trip off the track. In the worst case, both cars would end in the wall.

What really happened was a racing incident involving now classic Vettel mistakes under pressure, but there should have been no penalty.

[truefan72]

This is going to run and run...

While not wanting to see a race getting decided that way, I don't think the stewards could really just ignore that. Surprised at the Sky team constantly talking about how there was nothing Seb could do, because he didn't have control of the car; really not seeing how that's relevant. He clearly went all-4-off and then rejoined in an unsafe manner. Whether he was a passenger at that point seems irrelevant, since the chain of events was triggered by Seb losing control of the car at the entrance to the corner in the first place.

Had he managed to regain control of the car after rejoining the track, Lewis would have taken the place, and it shouldn't be to Seb's advantage to have still been out of control. As it was, Lewis needed to deploy the reflexes of a cat to avoid getting both front wheels taken off.

Also, I get that he was pissed afterwards, but that little stunt with switching the numbers over was beneath him. He might be seeing an extra penalty applied for that.

Exactly!
You have said it more succinctly and concise than I managed to do in several posts
that was my point exactly.

[Bagwan]

Seb did make a mistake , and it's good on Lewis that he forced him into it , but it's hardly irrelevant that he didn't have control as he crossed the grass .
He was going somewhere around 100 mph across that grass , with no chance to change direction nor slow down once he was there , and went up over the curbing onto the track in full opposite lock , regaining control as he went across the track surface .
Lewis was never more than half way alongside him as they went through the corner , and by the time he was anywhere close , the gap was already closing .
That's the only reason he had enough time to dab the brakes , or at least lift , to get out from between Seb and the wall .

If the track was a car wider there , and Seb had regained control when he did , but still pushed Lewis wide into a wall , then Seb would deserve being penalized .


The other issue I have with the penalty , itself , rather than with the reasoning for it , is that it robbed us of a potentially wild ending , with Lewis actually having a stab at a pass instead of just staying under 5 seconds behind .

[Nitrodaze]

Seb did make a mistake , and it's good on Lewis that he forced him into it , but it's hardly irrelevant that he didn't have control as he crossed the grass .
He was going somewhere around 100 mph across that grass , with no chance to change direction nor slow down once he was there , and went up over the curbing onto the track in full opposite lock , regaining control as he went across the track surface .
Lewis was never more than half way alongside him as they went through the corner , and by the time he was anywhere close , the gap was already closing .
That's the only reason he had enough time to dab the brakes , or at least lift , to get out from between Seb and the wall .

If the track was a car wider there , and Seb had regained control when he did , but still pushed Lewis wide into a wall , then Seb would deserve being penalized .


The other issue I have with the penalty , itself , rather than with the reasoning for it , is that it robbed us of a potentially wild ending , with Lewis actually having a stab at a pass instead of just staying under 5 seconds behind .

Quite true actually, what you describe there is purely racing. Give no quarter and expect none in return. I have watched the race properly again and l can see why the penalty appears harsh. Hamilton in Vettel's position or any other driver on the grid would have done exactly the same thing that Vettel had to do.

The facts are simple,
firstly, Vettel made a mistake and cut across the grassy chicane.
Secondly, he did not have complete control of the car coming off the grass.
Thirdly, he did not maintain a car's width to Hamilton once he got control of the car.

I think he was punished for point three. He had control of the car at the point when he appeared to squeeze Hamilton to the wall, drastically reducing the required car's width he was supposed to give, thus forcing Hamilton onto the breaks in order to avoid a collision. This is the particular moment he was punished for. The stewards considered this aspect, dangerous driving and were forced to apply the rules.

To be fair, the stewards did their job correctly in the face of alot of public hope for a Ferrari revival which seemed to be in action.

[zako85]

Oh well, at least we know that the effects of this penalty, whatever they were, have very slim chances of affecting the championship at the end of season.

[journeyman racer]

No, it’s not. It’s a slam dunk penalty. .

Just watched the replay again And doubly sure the penalty was deserved. .

I'm glad you agree with me that the penalty was deserved.

As an impartial F1 fan. You're obviously annoyed that Hamilton did the same thing to Ricciardo in Monaco 2016 (at the chicane) and received no penalty for it.

[journeyman racer]

And another thing. Why did Ricciardo leave RB?

Watch how they fried Gasly today!

Wowee!

If a team did that to Hamilton, truefan would go postal!

[steveaki13]

Anyone thinking that motorsport should have penalties like that I cannot even believe that they want to watch it.

I remember fondly a time when racing drivers took their chances and raced hard.

This is why the sport I onced loved is now dying in my opinion. I despair

[zako85]

And another thing. Why did Ricciardo leave RB?

Nobody was booting Riccardo out of RB. He just pulled an Alonso (2015) or Villeneuve (1999) by quitting a reasonably adequate team in favor of a pie in the sky, and will pay for it. Why did he do it? I think like most F1 drivers with an inflated ego he decided that the Red Bull team is too crowded for employing two racing geniuses at the same time. This happened so many times.

[The Black Knight]

Autosport have a good explanation of the stewards decision now:

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/14...nalty-decision

Still agree with the decision. He deserved a penalty. I'm replaying at the incident now and if you go in slow motion you can clearly see what the Autosport article refers. Correct decision by the Stewards.