Apparently the track stewards disallowed Alonso's last lap. His prior 20.6xx lap was good for 6th on the grid. But RD can appeal the disallowing of team points -- so that probably won't hold up. Interesting that none of this is on formula1.com yet. So FIA may veto all of it.
The Stewards just didn't buy RD's explanation as was noted in their offical letter. Lie to the Stewards and you get punished. He says that he is going to appeal the loss of points to the Court of Appeals. He is going to need to get an apartment in Paris at this rate, because it looks like he will be spending a lot of time there. If the Court of Appeals doesn't buy his excuse on this one I wonder how they will look at the possession of the Ferrari data.
According to the rules they can appeal the loss of points, but the loss of grid positions is NOT subject to appeal. All point totals after the race will be provisional pending the outcome of the appeal.
One thing this decision does is to make the start of the race a little less interesting. I was very interested to see what would happen between the two teammates when the lights went out. I was harkening back to the Senna/Prost days and the get togethers that they had.
Same here. Mr. hamilton may pay a price tomorrow for his actions (according to RD's comments) which ultimately led to the stewards' decision.....RD may order a fumbled pit stop for LH to put FA back in front of him on the track. For McLaren the Constructor's points are far more important than the drivers' championship. Jack
This is a crap decision. I am NO Fernando fan (actually I think he's an ******, although I admit he's a good driver) and I RELISH seeing him penalized. BUT The reason its a crap decision is that McLaren should be free to run their team as they see fit, as it pertains to qualifying. Lets say Ron decides that Lewis shouldn't go out and try to better his existing quali lap - should they be penalized? McLaren are well within their rights to say "Fernando, you will get ONE lap, and Lewis you can do as many as you like". Its THEIR decision. The reason McLaren is being given a super harsh punishment is that the stewards are probably overly sensitive about things with the spy scandal in F1. They are concerned about giving McLaren anything that resembles a break and therefore they erred in the other direction. Ferrari was not docked constructor points for what Schumi did in Monaco, and he held up the whole field! Ferrari were not denied constructor points when they manipulated the RACE result (not quali) in Indy. So why such a harsh penalty for McLaren? Seems out of place. I hope the stewards decision is overturned.
...there goes Ron Dennis and his pristine McLiaren team...all his tears and his prada suits look stupid, he loves to make those race calls, FA is stupid enough to block LH in the pit lane instead of steping down the car and going over to the stewards office to get HIM sacked because he started to block him first disregarding the order from pit lane of letting him through in his fast lap... they punished Mcliaren because they tryied to cover it...saying it was pit strategy, they had the radio recs, they get busted... Now WE need to remove BALDISSIERI from that damn chair NOW!!!!! How in HEAVENS NAME did he let massa go with no fuel in!!!!!!! ...when is BRAWN coming back?...soon enough after this MONSTRUOUS mistake, baldissieri must go now! NOW WE HAVE MCLIAREN on their knees, and we dont have both cars up front!!! this is just absurd...what a CIRCUS
Do you really think "covering it up" is any part of the stewards decision? If Ron decides to put Hamilton (or Alonso) into the garage during quali, that is HIS decision. If Alonso comes in for a fuel stop during quali and Ron says "nah, we did well enough for today, put the car in the back" that should be the teams decision and theirs alone. The stewards have no business getting involved in this. I think it's shady that they want to dish out a penalty for Alonso's action, but at least I can see the way they are applying the rules, even if I disagree. But I cannot agree with them going after the teams WCC points - thats way out of their jurisdiction and way outside of whats reasoable and fair.
was your guide dog not watching the qualifying ? Alonshole held up LH for 10 seconds or so AFTER he had been told to go. this caused LH to miss getting a lap by 4 seconds. every pundit, race fan etc is up in arms. the itv crew werent impressed (but they might be biased) but even the great Nikki Lauda reporting for RTL called it unsporting and wrong
Good , McLaren deserved this. Anyone, including our beloved team Ferrari that pull unsportsmanlike stunts should be punished. I hope F1 gets their act together. To error is human but this is just getting out of hand. I just want to watch people perform at their finest in the finest racing machines to date. If I wanted all this idiotic drama I would have been a NASCRAP fan. signed, I miss the days of watching MS/Ferrari taking a win and saying to myself...."it doesn't get any better than that."
Since the team is being punished more then Alonso, it would seem Alonso was held in the pits. McL soap opera++ Agent Smith >I was about to bash your comments about Alonso but then I saw where you are from. >here's a f u ... putz putz putz Here's a thumbs up for your foaming at the mouth. The amount of Alonso hatred is comical. Good thing Fchat doesn't have an F1 team, the soap opera would simply drown die g a n z e velt.
Today's decision is as arbitrary as the Stephney-gate rulings last week. Might I suggest a new tag line for Formula 1, "F1, just one big and very expensive soap opera."
why the biasness? If MS had did this, he would be surely starting in last position today. Last year, at Monaco, MS was deemed as 'blocking' his rivals in bid to defend his pole, and make sure they didn't have a chance to better their times. IMO, it's the same bullshiiit Fred did today. and what did he get? 5 places? rubbish! FIA seems to favor Mac these days, isn't it?
It's been an interesting thread with a terrific collection of opinions. I'd like to believe that FA had nothing to do with it and I suppose I will until I hear a radio transmission of the team telling him to leave the pits. The problem I have is that the team held him up similarly on a prior pit stop for reasons unknown and we watched a countdown given (which I've never witnessed before), even though it appeared FA was ready to burnout for several seconds. FA's attempt to leave on the finger countdown was held up by a tire warmer tangle on the rf. If I hadn't seen this bizarre turn of events just minutes before the Hamilton 'block', I'd be 100% in the belief that LH was burned by FA. I'll reserve judgement until proven wrong and say it doesn't matter anyway as Lewis will unfortunately win by a distance tomorrow.
Message: Lying to FIA officials is not acceptale. They found that Alonshole and the McCheaters Team lied. They didn't say why they lied, they just said their responses were unacceptable. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. Also, even though it was a situation between "teammates" the FIA has a duty to protect every driver. They also have a duty to make sure the sport is competitive as possible (unless of course when SF is the victim...then no penalty). Bizarre to say the least. Can't wait for Sunday's race.
Wrong again Bill......sorry but doing stuff like you mention above is not in the best interest of the sport and is punishible by death......oops did I say death? Imagine all the fans that pay the bill for this show and teams start pulling stuff like that......come on.....you have to be kidding right? Now if any team had a problem with one of their refueling rigs and could only service one car then thats a different circumstance but to hold back a car for no reason and then lie about it. BTW someone mentioned that McCheaters should not be punished because of their attitude (which means they lied) Then try working in the corporate world and screw up and then cover it with a lie.....see how far that gets you. We have guys on our job who have screwed up and it would only have gotten them a slap on the wrist or at most a couple of days off without pay....Well when they get caught in a lie it can be as bad as loosing your job. Ron is about to be caught in many a lie.
Michael's move was a bit more blatant. He was on his lap and then parked the car on track to impede the others, namely Alonso who was on his hot lap. The difference is that it didn't take place on the actual track, didn't effect another team, and they weren't at racing speeds. A little different in my opinion.
It is less than 8 hours before the Hungary GP and formula1.com (official F1 site) is still not showing the REVISED grid. What a joke F1 is.
The first stop timing was messed up by the tire warmer. The stewards decision mentioned that during the second stop team delay, there was only one car on track: Kimi. After that stop, we got a glimpse of Alonso waggling the car around (on a narrow track), presumably to "warm his tires" (which was a bit extreme, under those hot conditions) -- just as Kimi was making his hot lap (which didn't have such a great time). I don't think the reason for those team delays are that hard to work out -- Alonso was on an out lap when Kimi was making his qualifying runs. But the stewards also noted that Alonso remained in his pit spot for an additional 10 seconds *after* the team released him to go back on track. And that's what put Hamilton late to the start line. All sorts of blocking going on. All this has overshadowed the question about Fisi's warm up being in the way of a Spyker hot lap too. (Yamamoto, apparently -- although the announcers said it was Sutil at the time it was happening. I can't tell from the helmets, either. ) But the whole move from the one hour open qualifying session format was FIA trying to micromanage the "entertainment". Micromanaging the results is like the fabled "a little bit pregnant".
a little different, but same intentions, isn't it James? only thing is, Fred made it look like it wasn't his doing at all.
Yep, the same intentions. I was really disappointed when I saw that. ultimately the faster driver will prevail though, and I think we know who that is.
I think on their day 18 of the drivers in the fastest car would win, they are all very talented drivers but the cars are obviously the deciding factor in whether you're at the pointy end or bum end of the field ... even Sato has show he can drive (into other drivers some unkind people may say )
