Formula One (Spa)

[Whitewolf]

Did any of you see the race? The last laps were fantastic but then the FIA applied a 25 second penalty which dropped Hamilton from first to third. Anyone got any views on the incident or the Stewards decision?
I thought that Hamilton complied with the rules by giving the place back before re-taking it again.

 

[Pablo]

I don't want him to win but I think that is indeed [censored]. (Full disclosure: I'm a Ferrari guy.) I thought Hamilton was within the rules - if an advantage is gained by cutting the course then you must relinquish the position back which he did. The stewards can still penalize though.......

Sort of the Italian Gods still paying Massa back for Hungary.

 

[bdcardinal]

I think the penalty was justified. if you watch closely, he did give advantage back to Kimi, but immediately put himself back in a slipstream and passed. the gap in between the 2 cars from Blanchimont to the Chicane, and them from the Chicane to La Source, you can see that LH gained an advantage that he would not normally have gotten sue to short cutting.

i have been a Ferrari fan since Schumacher came over, but currently i have no favorite driver since Schumi retired.

did anyone else notice the new camera angles at Eau Rouge and Raidillon? it really gives a good idea of the drastic height change there. and the new Busstop is totally lame, completely kills the exit onto the Paddock straight.

if Kimi had not had the kablamo at Valencia, would this have been his normal second race on that motor, or would he normally have a fresh powerplant? i ask because having Spa Francorchamps and Monza on the same motor is really asking a lot.

 

[Bill888]

LH got shafted out of a well-earned win. Let's not forget that KR nailed LH's rear and also pretty much squeezed LH off of the track in earlier dices.
I think that if you're going to penalize someone, the infraction should be so obvious that the penalty is imposed immediately by the officials. As for calling marginal penalties during the final laps of a race, it's like NBA officials calling questionable fouls during the last minute of a game.....usually not done if a victory is at stake. Even though the powers-that-be have tried their best to dumb-down the sport, let's not forget that F1 is still the most competitive form of auto racing out there (sorry Nascar and IRL fans) with the most highly-skilled and aggressive drivers in the world. LH certainly tiptoed close to the edge of the rulebook but (IMO) in a split second at incredible speed, gave up the position, tucked-in behind KR, faked left, passed right for the lead - all on a wet track! That's what racing at the very top should be.

 

[benjamming]

I watched the race as well. How long are you supposed to stay behind someone after having to let them pass? I don't believe the rules say but yet they are penalizing LH b/c he didn't stay behind long enough? It appears that he couldn't have passed anywhere on that straight due to the 25 sec penalty. I was cheering for a Kimi win, but Lewis won the race. It is all a very raw deal for Lewis & McLaren.

Yes, the stewards can penalize for anything, even b/c you have the wrong colored car (oh wait they do already).

 

[Lumberg]

Originally Posted By: Bill888
LH got shafted out of a well-earned win. Let's not forget that KR nailed LH's rear and also pretty much squeezed LH off of the track in earlier dices.
I think that if you're going to penalize someone, the infraction should be so obvious that the penalty is imposed immediately by the officials. As for calling marginal penalties during the final laps of a race, it's like NBA officials calling questionable fouls during the last minute of a game.....usually not done if a victory is at stake. Even though the powers-that-be have tried their best to dumb-down the sport, let's not forget that F1 is still the most competitive form of auto racing out there (sorry Nascar and IRL fans) with the most highly-skilled and aggressive drivers in the world. LH certainly tiptoed close to the edge of the rulebook but (IMO) in a split second at incredible speed, gave up the position, tucked-in behind KR, faked left, passed right for the lead - all on a wet track! That's what racing at the very top should be.


Well put! And this coming from a die hard NASCAR fan!

 

[Bror Jace]

I'm not a Ferrari fan nor a McLaren fan (I'm a Honda fan

) but how can you not be impressed with Louis Hamilton? The kid really does have it all: talent, poise & (practiced) modesty.

Look at history's greats in motorsports ... in particular their rookie years. Hamilton blows them all away. True, he has one of the, if not THE best cars, but there are others on the grid right now in good, if not great, cars and they are simply not performing (Kimi, Heike, Not-so-Quick Nick, Nelson, etc ...).

AND, Louis has gotten a particularly raw deal all year. He passed Kimi through the chicane, let him by, and then went behind him and passed him again on the other side. The stewards were 100% wrong to penalize him for this brilliant move. To top it all off, The Mclaren was so much better in the wet, Kimi crashed out just trying to stay within sight of Louis a few turns later. It was not as though it was a photo finish or something.

Then, a couple races later Louis' dive into turn 1 was NOT worth a drive-through penalty. What a crock! That was a perfectly fine maneuver ... a bit risky ... but Louis pulled it off properly. He didn't punt anyone off. Kimi lost a fair number of positions, but it was because of traffic, not because Louis pushed him off the track. More unfairness.

Massa's cutting across the curbing then colliding with Louis WAS the sort of dumb move that was deserving of a drive through penalty. Louis was hit, spun around then had to sit there stopped while the entire field went by. Actually, Mass got off easy.

The powers that be seem to be going out of their way to penalize Louis at every turn and hand the championship to Ferrari ... like they did last year. I think it was proper to do this last year (Ron Dennis is a ruthless liar, and needed to be punished). This year, however, I just want the teams allowed to compete as it should be.

I agree with the broadcast team on Speed about the way Louis has been treated (although Peter Windsor's fawning over Louis is a bit much ... even creepy). And drivers like Alonso coming out and saying they will work against Louis is just plain tacky. Really, he's a 2-time world champion, you'd think that he'd have picked up some class somewhere during the last few years.

Unless someone does something really stupid (like intentionally running into him) I see Louis taking the championship this year ... and he well and truly deserves it.

 

[Bill888]

Well, it's down to Brazil.....I personally hope LH takes it all this year, but either way, it was another great season.
Here's hoping that they don't dumb-down F1 too much in the future (I don't think that it was ever intended to be a cost-efficient commercial advertising platform, but rather the top of the heap of all road racing in the world - i.e. if you don't have the money enter some other level of racing.)
Also, let's hope for a return to the US - Las Vegas? Back to Long Beach? or the real killer... an upgraded Watkins Glen!
Bill

 

[Bror Jace]

Wow ... just amazing. The whole season went down to the last corner of the last lap of the last race. My heart was in my mouth for the last two laps.

Congrats to Lewis Hamilton ... you truly are a world champion!

 

[bdcardinal]

awesome race. Ferrari fan here, but congrats to LH. couldn't have asked for a better last race of the season.

 

[Bror Jace]

You couldn't have scripted the race any better. In fact, if you HAD scripted the outcome just this way, most readers would drop the book and roll their eyes.

Massa, to his credit, handled the disappointment well. However, I do feel sorry for his family who were in the garage celebrating a moment too soon. No one saw Timo falling back at the very last moment until it actually happened ... and both Lewis and Felipe were past the finish line when Ferrari's mechanics and well-wishers had sorted out what happened.

 

[Whitewolf]

Amazing finish.

Despite the FIA!

 

[Bill888]

That was definitely one of the 5 best races I've ever watched. Congrats to LH. At least Massa knows that he did everything possible on his side of the equation, but it just wasn't enough. This verifies the importance of those early-season fights for midpack point-paying positions.
The race had all of the variables at all levels - and as Bror commented above, if it was a screenplay, any decent director would send it back for a rewrite or two until the plot(s) seemed a little more plausible.
Here's hoping for another great season next year.
Bill

 

[ccs v2.0]

Great race but in this case the best (and in many ways, the luckiest) man won. Too many times this season both Massa and Ferrari lost him the chance for points finishes, which Massa himself could not overcome (Silverstone, Hungary, Singapore and Japan come to mind).

ps. Good riddance mickey mouse tires.

 

[Bill888]

Before we put this great season to rest, I'll throw out a couple opinions. First, I strongly believe that F1 sould strive to maintain it's inherent position as the absolute top of the heap of motor racing. IMO this means a larger displacement (3.0?) of any configuration; one motor for qualifying/single race; full rain setup changes allowed before a race and on and on. The bottom line is that if you can't afford to play on the big stage then don't show up. I think that there are or will be enough manufacturers and/or world-wide commercial concerns (TATA; some of the soon-to-arrive Chinese brands as examples) to take a place in F1. One of my greatest pleasures in watching F1 is that fact that on any turn on any circuit, you can pretty much assume that nothing on earth will go around there any faster than what you're seeing. I hope it can remain that way - that was also what I enjoyed with the old Can-Am "run what ya brung" virtually unlimited racing platform. I do realize that advertising dollars make it all work, but once you leave your niche behind in search of increased revenues, you've essentially signed your own death certificate. I used to enjoy watching the "real" CART series with various chassis/engine mfgrs. Then it became an essentially spec. series ("push to pass?") and died-off quickly. I'd hate to see that happen to F1.
JMO
Bill

 

[IndyIan]

I also like F1 because its the ultimate in auto racing in terms of speed and complexity. I'd also like to see way more room for innovation, like different engine configurations(V12's @ 22000rpm please!).
Unfortunately it becomes a "who can spend the most money" race very quickly.
I don't want to see tire wars anymore, so using a spec tire is fine with me. I'd like to see a series with fewer rules but a spending limit per team, say 200 million.
I'd also like to see closer wheel to wheel action so some rules have to be changed to increase aero drag vs. downforce.
Apparently next year the rules addresses the drag vs downforce issue so we'll see how it goes.
Ian

 

[Fatboymoe]

I would hate to be Toyota and Timo Glock at Monza next year. I know it wasn't his fault, that the dry tires just were not good enough for the wet conditions, but that biased Italian crowd won't care.

I really hope that the idiots that run F1 don't make this just another racing series. Max Mosley is really pushing for one engine supplier for all the teams. What a waste it will be if that happens. It will ruin F1 faster than any of the costs involved.