sdg1871

I agree. No doubt Fernando was acting after the incident because telemetry showed nothing wrong with his car. But I wouldn’t have given him a penalty. It looked to me like good hard, racing with no intent to crash out George with whom he is friendly.

if you’re going to go wheel to wheel with Fernando, especially near the end of a race, you had better bring your A game because there’s nobody more crafty and tougher and more wily in F1 in wheel to wheel wheel racing than he is. Not the fastest in overall speed, but definitely the best battler in wheel to wheel.

sdg1871

if it were Ocon, he would’ve gotten the penalty crash or not

multi21

+1. Toto is a cross between a used car salesman and a carnival barker who talks way too much. That era of Mercedes car was a result of Ross Brawn and developed by Michael Schumacher.

Carrera51

I agree. No way Max leaves Red Bull before the formula change coming in 2026, unless he decides to gamble and take the giant pile of cash that he will surely be enticed with along with thinking that MB could hit a homerun on their package like they did at the beginning of the V6 Turbo Hybrid era.

Winning and dominating is a lot more fun than not winning, and Max has gotten a taste of it over the past two years.

Nizer

Looks to me like Russell needs a little remedial training on target fixation.

Agreed.

Nizer

Fixed it for you.

multi21

Damon Hill argues that penalizing drivers for doing "anything unexpected," as Fernando Alonso was penalized for in Australia, goes against the essence of racing.

Alonso finished sixth at the Australian Grand Prix but received a 20-second penalty afterward for driving deemed "potentially dangerous." Hill's perspective suggests that such penalties detract from the unpredictability and excitement inherent in racing.

“George got surprised, it looked to me that he was very surprised to find the closing speed to Fernando to be so great,”

“Or he just got too close, he was pushing too hard and got understeer because he was under his rear gearbox.”

“I do think this is where we get into the difficult area of what is racing and what is dastardly tricks.”

“I think you have to assume that the FIA want to stop people doing things that are potentially dangerous, but then it is dangerous! Motor racing is dangerous.”

“You have to be careful when you’re going for a move on someone, if you’re closing on them you’ve got to be prepared for them to do things that are gamesmanship.”

“I just think this has to be part of the sport, being wary of an individual because they’ve got form or they’re clever or whatever.”

“I just think the idea that you’ve got to stop people from doing anything unexpected, that’s not really racing.”

VIA: [PLANET F1: https://www.planetf1.com/news/damon-...racing-debate]

Nizer

100%. Continued decline of F1 into woke nanny-state mentality.

NaroEscape

Exactly what I have been thinking this entire discussion.
Sometimes, doing the unexpected IS racecraft....

Nowanker

“I just think the idea that you’ve got to stop people from doing anything unexpected, that’s not really racing.”
Including slamming on the brakes in the middle of the front straight?
There's clearly a line to be drawn somewhere.

LuigiVampa

Totally agree.

I just think we are looking too much at the result and making a correlation to the act.

Rig.Stunts

The future is bright - Russel will be a better racer after learning from team mate Alonso.

Sad that a 20 second penalty does little to race results. But then everyone likes a parade.

Nowanker

We're also judging Alonso to a different standard than other drivers, because we know of his enormous talents.
Some of which are pretty dark...
If Stroll had done it, we'd assume it was just his normal driving.

Carlo_Carrera

LOL, absolutely.

Carlo_Carrera

Some here may be looking at it that way but the stewards were very precise in their ruling and omitted any reference to Russell's wreck in the issuing of the penalty.