ltc

I believe it has already been established that Little Miss Sunshine (aka FA) is devoid of what Mr David Hobbs would call "major attachments"... so ball washing is right out.

Veloce Raptor

Don't confuse him with facts, and certainly don't interrupt his over the top obsession with Schumacher and mancrush on Fernanda Alonsette.









Professional Racing and Driving Coach

MJSpeed

Wrong...Here's a video of Hobbs saying the exact opposite of your statement:

"Now that does take attachments" - David Hobbs

multi21

I'm really disappointed in Mercedes for dropping the appeal, especially considering their statement afterwards. Apparently most of the top ten drivers were told to "get on with it" after the safety car. I suspect Alonso was as well as you can clearly see his car laying down some rubber out of Racassce, but getting no where. Schumacher is being unfairly penalized by Damon Hill, I'm certain of it.

MERCEDES F1 TEAM STATEMENT

MERCEDES GP PETRONAS were fully aware of article 40.13 which states that
o overtaking is permitted if the race finishes under safety car conditions. However we believed that the combination of the race control messages 'Safety Car in this lap' and 'Track Clear' and the green flags and lights shown by the marshals after safety car line one indicated that the race was not finishing under the safety car and all drivers were free to race.

This opinion appears to have been shared by the majority of the teams with cars in the top ten positions who also gave their drivers instructions to race to the finish line.

It was clear from our discussions with the stewards after the race that they understood the reasons for our interpretation and acknowledged that this was a new and previously untested situation but ultimately disagreed with our interpretation.'

RajDatta

LOL!!
Looks like someone just got teabagged by Alonso's attachments!!
Great.

Larry Herman

The rule is typical F1 stupid. If they want to finish under the Safety car, keep the damn thing out there.

They just want the appearance of the lead car taking the Checkered flag by itself.

multi21

Especially at Monaco where the photo op with a safety car at the end of the race is just uncivilized

MJSpeed

+1

gums

yeah, I didn't understand why they pull it in under yellow anyway, it would avert the whole situation....

M758

All very good points. You get told safty car in, track clear and see green flags it all means one thing.. GO GO GO. The reason Alonso go passed is that MS passed him so much as Alsono had the back end break loose has he tired to get on it. That caused him to be slow and opened the door for MS. Who just like most everyone else else was thinking.. safety car in + track clear + green flag = Go.

The FIA should give MS his 6th spot back. If they must say the did not follow the rules the put him in 7th as clearly all signs on track pointed to go, but a few works in some rule book stated otherwise. I can't fault MS for making the pass just as I can't fault Alonso for trying to gun it in La Rassecasse. He wanted to pass Hammy after all.

Ray S

Agreed.....

multi21

Watching live, I thought that the two Red Bull cars were going awfully quick at the end of the race considering I too thought it would end as it was behind the safety car. But then I thought, "They have a 1-2 finish, better to get photo op with the two cars separated from the 3rd car on the front straight of Monaco".

Little did I know what was happening in the back of the field. Apparently the Red Bulls were racing to the finish too as it was not a controlled finish you normally see if the "field is frozen".

Now look at first part of this youtube video of the last corner (5 second mark). Massa (in P4) is on the gas so hard that his back end is loose as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bc64OASPCQ

I think Mercedes has a legit arguement. I know MS is not going to win the WDC this year, but those constructor points are worth a few million and they just let them go.

Just a little piece of Webber in the post race interview that SPEED didn't show us included

M758

Doing a little more digging it appears Mercedes was right in dropping their appeal. It appears that again due to FIA rules even if Mercedes won their appeal the decision to apply a 20 second penalty could not be overturned. So it like "Yeah Ross you are right, but MS is still going to the back".

Also the FIA rules on penalties was pretty cut and dry and in this case their only penalty they could apply was a 20 seconds on the final time due to it occuring the end of the race.

So Alonso catches a break.

multi21

He and Michael will forever be linked. This latest episode was just the perfect storm of circumstances to link them up again in a controversy.

Demon Hill has questioned the role of former drivers on the panel of FIA stewards at F1 events this season.

The 1996 champion took up the role for the Monaco Grand Prix – following the likes of Alain Prost, Alex Wurz and Tom Kristensen who joined the panel earlier in the season.

Hill was therefore left with the job of helping to rule on Michael Schumacher's late pass on Fernando Alonso during the race and the BRDC president admitted afterwards that he questioned whether or not it was right to have former drivers involved in the decision making process as opposed to simply acting as a consultant.

“It was a fascinating experience but I wonder whether it is right that drivers are put in the position of interpreting the regulations,” he told The Times. “I imagined I would be there as a consultant providing driver insight to the stewards, who would then make the decisions. My expertise is as a driver rather than a lawmaker or interpreter of regulations.

“Partly, of course, my discomfort was because I was called to make a ruling on an incident involving Michael. I acted entirely properly but I have already received some stinging e-mails accusing me of prejudice.”

Mercedes had initially announced it would appeal against the decision to hand Schumacher a 20 second penalty, which dropped him from sixth to twelfth in the result.

However, the team has since elected to drop that appeal.

M758

Based on what I know I don't think he acted to hurt MS at all. I believe Hill did try to act impartially. However I do wonder if he chose to act a little too impartially.

One big reason for having an F1 driver in the stewards room is to give a proper racing driver persective on the situation. One can wonder if Hill chose simply not to act and follow the rules by the book where I would have expected a driver to provide a response more like Sterling Moss who commented that "He would have done exacty what Micheal did" given the radio calls and green on the track. So maybe you could say Hill in effect recused himself from the decision in an effort to be impartial and in that way tiled the decision away from any driver's view point allow the stewards to say.. "but the rule says this so the overtaking driver did not follow the rules".


Hard to say for sure, but the deed is done and people should not really take it out on Hill.