I agree. Looked at it again last night.

Didn’t Hamilton do the same thing to Verstappen in Monaco?
No penalty for Hamilton.

The Hamilton fans in here are very obvious.

Eh, no. Verstappen hit Hamilton in Monaco. Very different situation. And not particularly a Hamilton fan.

I am truly mixed about the penalty, but would add the observation that in former days, the cars were much less safe and the drivers knew that...they knew that if they crunched into an opponent, chances are both of them would be in a ball of flame or crushed in the accident and so gave some leeway.

One of the unexpected consequences of the very safe vehicles we see now is that there is zero fear of an accident, the chances of consequence to human life is quite low, which makes them more willing to hold the line, run the risk of impact than in former years.

I don't like races decided by penalty....let them race is my point of view, but then again I also want to go back to far fewer rules, more engine choices (get rid of these crazy energy recovery methods), get rid of most aero and just let the best car/driver win.

Dennis

If a driver leaves the racing surface and re-enter is such a way that a competitor must aggressively brake or steer to avoid contact, that is an unsafe re-enter. <br>That being said, stewards generally won't impose a penalty if doing so, the penalty is greater than the infraction.
<br> I'm not a steward, I'm a starter, but in my opinion, there shouldn't have been a penalty.

David Hobbs was talking about this exactly in his Dinner With Racers podcast episode. You would not risk intentionally causing a collision in the old days.

All you guys saying he made a second steering input to go wide are ASSUMING he had the car under control by that time. I don't think he had the car under control until his tires were past the white line and he started to accelerate.
For you racers out there, what do you do when the guy in front of you goes off course and is obviously not going to be able to make the turn in the normal fashion?
He (Vet) obviously can't apply the brakes to any effect while still on the grass and has to have room to settle the car to regain control. Do you, as a following car, just charge ahead risking being taken out by the out of control car ahead of you?

It was a terrible out come and I hope this mistake can be corrected under appeal.

The rendition of our national anthem was the worst I've ever heard.

It was a wasted Sunday.

VET paid the price for his prior mistakes and aggressive moves prior to this incident. Stewards may have been swayed by VET's intentional hit on HAM in Baku or his propensity recently to make mistakes and be heavily criticized. This was one more error forced by an epic drive by HAM to make up 5 seconds after the pit stop. He was running VET down and VET knew it. Personally my first reaction was to conclude VET turned right to pinch HAM and be sure he maintained the place. Had this been anywhere with tarmac runoff, HAM would have gotten by and walked away.

And I am not a HAM fan. If I had to pick a driver it would be RIC

This "incident" was what people who don't sit down to pee call "racing". A 5 second penalty was not called for. Sh-t happens.

Vettle was a passenger going across the grass, and his tires were coated in grass and dirt. Sticky rubber will pick up a lot of grass. He got back on track, and was steering and braking all he could. The second steering input looks like trying to correct for oversteer and avoid spinning. If he had spun he likely would have taken Hamilton out with him.

All in all, I see a racing incident. Pushing to 100% and not to the 99.9% limit of control.

Not if the action caused a possible shift in positions between any drivers involved. Now, we will never know if Hamilton could have/would have passed Vettel during the incident if there was another 3 feet of room. But knowing Ham, he would have given it a shot and he was denied that given his superb ability to preserve.

As Toto Wolff said, "No one will ever be 100% correct...." (speaking of the stewards)

Also, and I can't remember exactly what Wolff said in reply to the main commentator, but he handed him his ass.

Google Arnoux Villenueve battle . 1979 French Grand Prix. That will never happen again with these rules. And it was for second place. Not one complaint from any of them after, just hard racing.

I feel like F1 is turning into WWF.

I still do not believe that Mercedes were that slow around the track, I think this was done on purpose to create interest in the race.

When Hamilton asked for more power he ran up on Vettel like he was a back marker. Knowing he did not have to pass, he just cruised behind him 0.8 seconds behind.

What a joke.

I am not buying this sudden loss of Mercedes pace, it is a ruse to keep people watching.

That penalty was BS, any one who has any track experience knows that off could have resulted in a visit with the wall, Hamilton was an idiot to try to pass at that moment, he was forcing an accident, Sebastian clearly had no control of the car after it left the grass until it finally grabbed.

What a BS penalty even the Sky announcers were amazed and they are biased Hamilton fans.

F1 has turned Nascar boys, it seems like it is scripted now.

and Hamilton chokes when chasing someone faster, how many times did Hamilton lock up at the hairpin, I stopped counting at 4 times.

The king of choke Sunday was Hamilton.

He is lucky his car practically drives itself, Mercedes should had dominated all weekend, one has to wonder what forces were at play to quell the dominance.

Maybe Liberty Media asked them to make this weekend interesting.


From a mile away I can see, Hamilton is winning WDC, Bottas is second, Mercedes is WCC and there will be some bones tossed to fans for the rest of the season to keep the fans interested. I hear Hulk Hogan is going to make a showing at the America race.

What we got from Toto was "virtue signaling". "It's only RIGHT". Mercedes lobbied for the penalty and got rewarded for their efforts.
It would have been the height of hypocrisy to then mollify the decision.

Oh please. Who couldn't keep his car on the track and who could?

+1

^^^^^^This ^^^^^^
There is no chance the stewards penalize Vettel without pressure from Mercedes.
The real whining started on the Mercedes pit wall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBYHY4SKa3o