Er, so why was no driver punished for this?
Cast in the role of devil’s advocate, we thought it would be interesting to post this clip of Felipe Massa’s thrilling tussle with Bobby Kubica at Fjui last season.
The stewards decided that neither Massa nor Kubica was in the wrong. A fair decision? Judged on its own merits, yes. Judge it against Lewis Hamilton’s 25-second penalty at Spa, and it’s easy to see why conspiracy theorists believe the FIA has it in for McLaren.
Both Massa and Kubica make dubious moves to maintain or improve their position - moves that force the other off the track - and then don’t appear to let the other driver gain his position back. Whether it’s fair or unfair, it’s ding-dong racing of the type that F1 fans crave, but seldom see (it’s all the more impressive because they were fighting for sixth place!). Much like the action between Lewis and Kimi in Belgium, in other words.
Imagine it was Hamilton, not Kubica, battling against Massa in the wet in Japan. Do you think the stewards would have acted differently?
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3 responses so far
1 Joker // Sep 9, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I think everyone will agree that Hamiltons drivethrough back in France (that should have been warning enough for Lewis and McLaren) was completely justified? That didn’t stop his fans and parts of the British press to lament about a conspiracy. People are too quick with this kind of allegation. I’m still waiting for a reason why on earth the FIA would want Ferrari to win everything, after all boring races and championship can’t be in their interest. And: A lot of recent changes in regulations was most certainly designed to weaken Ferrari’s dominance, don’t you agree?
As I said in the other thread, a better precedent for this seems to be Suzuka 05, where Alonso pretty much did the same thing as Hamilton and had to let Klien pass again a few laps later.
As far as Japan 07 is concerned, I would have preferred both drivers to fight on the track as well. The situation isn’t very comparable to Spa 08, though. Only in one aspect: If there would have been gravel beside the track, they both probably wouldn’t have finished the race, just like Hamilton in Belgium.
2 tom // Sep 9, 2008 at 3:01 pm
The Fuji corners are faster ones - penalties only seem to be applied at slow chicanes, where there’s an obvious saving by cutting the corner.
Valencia had some well designed chicanes - drivers had to pick their way between speed bumps to rejoin the track. Other tracks should have those.
Even better, take the chicanes out altogether!
3 jelena // Sep 9, 2008 at 10:05 pm
joker, you’re a joke. let me guess, you work for fia ?
enough is enough !
fia should just fucking stop attacking ONLY mclaren and turn to ”punishing” the other teams as well
HOW COME THAT ALWAYS MCLAREN IS AT FAULT, AND THE FERRARIS HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG ?
FIA - THEY’VE CROSSED THE LINE….
they have to stop attacking only ONE team and focus on being fair and just, if they even know what such words mean.