Something that went a little unnoticed this weekend was some new stewards guidelines. In reality these guidelines only became public knowledge due to Vettels clumsy attempt at passing Gutierrez not being punished. The reason for no punishment was accompanied by a note issued after the stewards hearing which said: "In light of the new guidelines from the Formula 1 Commission, there is no further action warranted."
The reason for these new guidelines came following complaints from teams in last week's F1 Commission meeting that drivers were scared to be aggressive in overtaking moves for fear of being punished. These guidelines allow drivers to get away with minor racing misdemeanour's, especially if only the driver at fault is hampered by the contact (Vettels wing in this case).
Personally I am all for this change, the punishments were getting silly for the most minor of contact. A race should be just that, a battle of wits and skill played out hard but fair on track (such at the joy that was the closing laps of Bahrain etc).
Do others agree that punishments were being given out to readily recently, that the racing was being hampered by drivers afraid of drive throughs for simply going wheel to wheel with a competitor?
Allowing racing
posted on 23/6/14
posted on 23/6/14
I agree, I was surprised Vettel did not get punished for his accident.
He did something similar to Karthikeyan if I'm not mistaken.
Kravitz did make a comment saying they were retiring the car to avoid a penalty. I would love to see a good scrap with wheels banging and some contact. I was amazed that everyone made it through turn 1 yesterday. I expected a destruction derby like pile up. Even Maldonado is letting people overtake him without crashing into them.
posted on 23/6/14
Its funny as i sometimes believe the punishment should be in relation to the damage you cause. For example, Vettel didnt damage gutierrez car, only damaged his own, so the punishment is that he needed to get a new wing. Perhaps having a 5 second stop and go whilst having the wing changed e.g may be fair. But the likely punishment may have been a drivethrough, which means, he would of had a long stop for a new wing, drive through, and then perhaps an extra stop for tyres or whatever. Seems a bit harsh for, as you say, a minor infringement
posted on 23/6/14
Yeah I agree, whilst I was expecting a punishment for Vettel (as I was unaware of the new guidelines) I don't believe one would have been warranted.
It was clumsy rather than dangerous and it only damaged Vettels car I assume so he was already punished. There should be a line where a move is to much but I don't believe Vettels was that bad
posted on 23/6/14
About time this happened. Perez didn't deserve his grid penalty IMO.
posted on 23/6/14
I think the fact it was a biggie went against Perez. Stewards probably felt that they had to blame someone for it as to me it looked very 50/50.
posted on 24/6/14
Yeah defo, not a fan of perez in general, but felt the punishment was harsh
posted on 26/6/14
Lauda wants to go one further and allow battle royal
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/114636