Matthew Fortner wrote:
Could it have been a violation of gaining place advantage, but one of over all time advantage?
That is the best argument that can be made. An example of this would be if you are chasing down someone (they are many seconds ahead of you) and you cut chicanes to cut your lap time (so you can eat into the lead of the driver in front of you). You would be gaining an advantage by shortcutting, but not by taking a position.
Obviously in hindsight, to avoid the entire situation, Lewis could have either not tried the pass at the chicane, or once he did cut the chicane, give Kimi a 2-3 car distance so that nobody could complain. I can see that even with the fact that Lewis was on top of/beside Kimi position wise that if Kimi exited the chicane before Lewis that he would normally pull 1-2 cars lengths because he can accelerate first. However, as you can see as they both exit the chicane and with Lewis on the dirty line Kimi still has problems getting up to speed, so I feel that no advantage was gained.
Basically the end result is that for what is viewed by most as either be no infraction or pushing the limit reversed the results of a race. Race results should only be altered by serious infractions. If they feel the need to issue a penalty, then make it a cash penalty like they did for Ferrari with respect to the recent pit-stop fiasco (releasing car into path of other car in pitlane.
What nobody is talking (here) about is the situation with regards to F1 race stewards. My understanding is that the FIA has a pool of volunteers (supposedly not officially tied to FIA) and the FIA then picks three for each race. Apparently the experience level of the stewards varies widely, they are not professional (this is not their day jobs) so penalties are all over the place race to race. There is no consistency. There is an op-ed article on a F1 news site named something like "The day racing died". Basically it goes on about how it is basically too risky for a team or driver to do anything these days. That Hamilton's best action would have been to just follow Kimi around to the finish and settled for 2nd place. Why risk doing something like making an aggresive pass if you run the risk of having the stewards blow something out of proportion issue a severe penalty that can't be challenged? So take no risks but with the result of a boring race.
The same article points to the Arnoux/Villeneuve battle in 79 French GP as to what was right and what is now missing in F1. Here you have two guys racing each other very hard. They are banging wheels, etc. Today a steward could easily randomly pick one or the other and exclude them from the results.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sDtn8QnpFg
This also takes away from how amazing the final two laps were. It was as dramatic as it could be. As with the Arnoux/Villeneuve battle above, this could be the video that people watch years from now. You have 1st and 2nd approach a lapped car that had just spun and you have Lewis and Kimi within inches of each other (anyone watch to replay to see how close Kimi came to hitting Lewis??). Lewis going off to avoid collision, reentering the track, Kimi then spinning, etc. It was crazy and fun to watch.
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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
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2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.comMoney can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.
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