Comments on: Harsh but fair

By: Marcus

Marcus — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:38:55 +0000

if it had been Ferrari who made the same move as Hamilton, the stewards would have asked ever so kindly, “If it’s not too much trouble, could you…um…please ask your driver to slow up and let Vettel retake the position? Um, if that’s alright with you. No rush.” But since it was a McLaren they jumped right on the opportunity to give Hamilton a drive-through penalty. I’ve seen this same thing happen many times before, and this is the first time I can recall that someone was given a drive-through penalty for overshooting a corner. Especially when Hamilton made the pass before the corner. Yes, you can say he never would have been able to make the pass had he been traveling at the speed he would have needed to be going in order to make the corner, but come on, it’s not like the pass happened as he was overshooting it. Hamilton probably figured he was in the clear since he passed Vettel before corner and that the stewards would chock up the overshoot to brake lock-up. There is no reason the stewards could not have made an attempt to ask him to give the position back. Especially since it was VETTEL! Not exactly someone who’s in the fight for the championship.

By: amy

amy — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:37:27 +0000

i think his penalty was not harsh, it was totally deserved, he should have given the position back and he did not, if that was a track like monaco he could not have got away with cutting the corner and that is why tracks should not have large run off areas.

By: bk

bk — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:54:53 +0000

hamilton can really go a long way. i do agree when most of you say that he cant handle any pressure and all, but come on! this is only his second season, and his 1st without traction control, most of the drivers have atleast 3-4 years of experience but he still manages to give them a serious run for their money. admit it. both kubica nor kimi had a chance againt lewis at the canadian gp if it wasnt for the safety car coming out due to adrian sutil retirement. he was pulling away about a second per lap which by no means is an easy task when you have a ferrari on your tail. it’d be nice to see him win in silverstone after those last 2 races and really prove his worth.

By: f1fanatic

f1fanatic — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 09:33:40 +0000

just to add to my last coment, how are we meant to talk to a finnish person who cant he is like the fliping stig great driver poor social skills

By: cgmasson

cgmasson — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:33:48 +0000

It seems we have a group of lawyers defending Hamilton here… “He was past Vettel”

So what is essentially being suggested, that regardless of what comes after, if your car is past another you can pretty much take the line you want with no consequences – so if you’re in Monaco through the tunnel you keep your foot down, down the hill when the car in front brakes you guarantee you’ll be ahead and wont have to cede the place (sure your car may break but this an example).

It seems the feeling, and basis, for defending Hamilton and Maclaren (who I feel were at fault here) is a supposed conspiracy that is designed to keep Ferrari ahead and winning titles – despite this being a commercial negative to the sport in general. A conspiracy that large, simply could not be kept quite – the funds that would be required to keep it going would be phenomenal given that the merest suggestion from a steward to the press would make that steward a multi millionaire overnight.

It seemed evident, and if we could see the full set of camera angles and view the telemetry (Interesting to compare to the rest of his laps in that corner), the overtaking move was achieved by braking too late – most likely a result of the common error of braking too late when behind a much slower car/driver. The commentators noted the incident at the time; the team should have advised Hamilton to allow Vettel back past.

And lets just take a view on Maclaren here – given the commentators felt it would investigated, why on earth would a team with a conspiracy working against them not make the safe call and reverse positions?

By: Geo

Geo — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:27:34 +0000

For all of those wondering why it took so long, remember that McLaren (more specifically Ron) decided to fight with Charlie Whiting, the race director, over it. This is what dragged out the process. If he did what many team principles do, which is shut up, accept it, be glad it wasn’t worse, rework the strategy, and race the race, he, and Hamilton would be much better off.

By: James

James — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:02:22 +0000

Yeh and if you are McLaren you can steal a 750 page document, have your driver cause a crash behind the safety car, have Ferrari compromised due to an email they never received, and still lose the championship!

Both Lewis’s penalties were fair, remember on the Vettel incident, the stewards had footage we did not.

By: M

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:57:24 +0000

Max claims to be doing his best to make F1 more exciting and make more overtaking to try save us from a boring sunday afternoon.
Yet when Hamilton livens things up by making some daring overtaking manoeuvre he get penalised… hard. This did not even cost Vetell bugger all.

If you race in a Ferrari you can plough into the back of a Force India and take it totally out of the best finish its ever likely to acheive (and in the most highly prized race) and get no penalty at all.

Max should focus on what he gets paid to do more…

By: Alan

Alan — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:03:00 +0000

The penalty was fair but was handled wrong. They should have dealt with it straight away and not waited 13 laps!

As far as Hamilton goes and for that matter any F1 driver, I have great admiration for what they do. To travel at the speeds they go and be as precise as they are takes great skill and guts.

By: Rodge

Rodge — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:12:40 +0000

Lewis’ punishment was harsh but UNFAIR. He’d already made the pass so there was no advantage except that, if he hadn’t left room by ‘cutting’ the chicane, both he and Vettel would have been out.
I am a Ferrari fan, but can’t understand the FIA double standards. If they don’t sort out a fair way of applying the rules, the audience will disappear.