the_vetman

Coochas

So HAM was driving his 5+ G F1 car at 30 mph through a corner and applying the brake??????

Seems a bit odd.

StoogeMoe

I bet they slap Vettel with a five place grid penalty the next race to "teach him a lesson", and to try to make the championship closer.

Manifold

Or better yet, slap a larger time penalty on him at Baku, so that he loses points from Baku.

PPo

Whaut da sheet?

Are the Stewards crazy?!?!

Even if the telemetry is wrong... watch the safety car ahead. Hamilton, by rule, has to keep at most 10 car lengths back. What wheelbase cars are they using to judge? They must be using pimpen rapper limo lengths, not F1 car lengths.

Coopduc

After reading the sporting regs again and watching that video, there is justification to penalize HAM also.
See article 39.5 below:
39.5 No car may be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person at any time whilst the safety car is deployed. This will apply whether any such car is being driven on the track, the pit entry or the pit lane.

HAM clearly violated that and could/should face penalty. Still doesn't justify VETs response IMO.

F1CrazyDriver

My new shoes arrived today.
Wonder how i can relay the memo to Hamilton, this is what you do after apexing a turn that leads to a pretty lengthy straightway.

tongue in cheek yes i know SC, point is not to drag brakes AFTER apexing, that is brake checking.

Coopduc

Send a video doing a shoey!

Paul Solk

Seb gets off without any further action because he said sorry... There isn't a current F1 driver out there that supported Seb in this one.

In fact in the end it was Seb trying to anticipate when Lewis was going to accelerate and getting his timing wrong. Then lying about being brake checked, then risking both cars by wheel to wheel contact hard enough to lift his own car off the ground, then try to act like a fool and pretend you did nothing wrong and in the end say you are sorry so it's all ok. Poor showing by the FIA IMHO.

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/124...her-punishment

Coochas

VET has learned an important lesson here. Next time he will put HAM into the wall.

Paul Solk

I have a funny feeling Ferrari management may have politely advised him against that or a repeat of his behavior over this past week... Pretty sure the lesson he learned is that he is not bigger than Ferrari and he is still THEIR employee. Just my .02 on the lesson he learned

gbuff

If so, it was VERY politely as SV has been a crucial part of the team's recent renaissance--they need him and they know it.

Gary

gbuff

YEAH baby!!

Gary

CCA

Actually, he learned he was wrong, apologized and offered "FIA community service" to avoid further penalty.
http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...pologising-fia

multi21

In this era of no in season testing, I completely disagree. It's the engineers and aerodynamasists that build a great. That's not to say Vettel isn't a great driver, because he clearly is and we can see his performance as compared to his teammate. However, the previous 2 years when the Ferrari was the 2nd or 3rd best car, he couldn't elevate the performance. It's also not Ferrari's style to be openly critical of their #1 driver -- it's all kept in house. Did anyone even know that Alonso and Ferrari did not leave on good terms? Not really.

Rumors are that if Vettel doesn't sign a contract for 2018 and beyond, there's a verbal agreement with Ricciardo to take his seat.

With regard to the FIA and punishing Vettel, when Vettel made those comments, he was in the cockpit and didn't have the luxury of having any data in front of him. The FIA provided those, he admitted guilt and apologized. The 10 seconds penalty may not have been strong enough for some, but that penalty ultimately resulted in him losing the race win and a podium spot -- a pretty stiff penalty considering.