Although the decision was made after the race it was under investigation during the race; here, incredibly, apparently no one noticed Massa's car position be it the competitors or the FIA.
Biased or not I don't care, they are spot on only a clown would think different. CW was asked 3 TIMES if the move was ok, and he said yes!! so why the hell would they over rule him, it stinks. Open your eyes look for yourself on youtube he gave the position back, it was show fixing at its highest level, YOU may be HAPPY to go a race and see a winner on the podium, and get back home to find its changed... I'am NOT!!.
Well Bas nothing will change my mind, Mosley and his hate for Ron Dennis sealed his fate that day, and I find it quite ironic really folk complaining of no overtaking and getting penalized, when they do, and to this day I find nothing wrong with his move he was clearly faster whilst Kimi was all out at sea in those conditions on the wrong tyres.
Well, since when CW has a clue about what he´s doing? After all, we´ll know that he´s just a puppet of "someone else".
Maybe, however: I really don't know who else they could ask, the thing is Mosley is thankfully out of the equation now and to be honest thats better for Ferrari...
Ouch! Sure, he and the evil pygmy go back a long way, and certainly Charlie has done very well for himself over the course of his career with Bernie. However, I'm pretty sure the sentiment up & down the pitlane towards him remains the same; Namely, he's one of the few straight, honest and dependable guys in a position of power. His word is *law* at the track and not even Bernie (or even JT, his nominal boss) can question him and his decisions........ OK, I'm not so naive as to say they don't have influence, but he (AFAIK) maintains the respect of the teams & drivers. A "clueless puppet" he is not. (IMO) Cheers, Ian PS - As for him having no clue, he's been a technical delegate since 1988 and the main man since '97 - To me, he's kinda like the zebras (refs) - As long as we're not talking about 'em, they're doing good.....
OK, maybe not a puppet, but he had wasted lots of races; two or three only this year. Why they keep him on charge?
I'm not sure if Massa made a mistake here...I mean, he can 'miscue'. As an F1 driver, accuracy is everything. Maybe it's brain fade, maybe he just lost focus..i don't know. Either way, it's the FIA and the Scuderia's fault....
Sorry Remy but it's the FIA and every other teams fault, not the Scuderia's. Had the FIA noted Massa's grid position = Penalty. had the other teams noted Massa's grid position and notified the stewards = Penalty. It's not Ferrari's responsibility to report to the FIA that their driver has made an error in this situation. No team on the grid would risk a penalty and go to the FIA declaring: "Our driver was out of position on the grid!". (Actually, thinking about it, Ferrari might have if it meant Alonso could have got ahead of Massa!) I thought CW was only allowed to advise the stewards of his opinion and that the stewards had the final say in all matters on track?. The stewards run the race, not CW. That's what 0~100mph in 3 seconds looks like!
And of course Brian you may have forgot to put your rose tinted glasses on.. Phill's are stuck on.. Er they could ask CW for clarification, seems a honest approach to me. LOL Thinking like that needs brains, last time I looked Ross Brawn was at Merc. Maybe the case, as I said before without having the mobile phone numbers for all the stewards who else could they ask for clarification, at least they tried, as it being justified, you got to be ....well lets not go there.
Post of the month, of the year, of the century. Now remove your Mother Theresa tinted glasses and let's go back to the real world.
The world and his dog have been conspiring against Me and My master plan for a nice simple life and his dog bit Me!. It's never one thing either, it's always two or three!. Hopefully things will settle down a bit now though. I've had Terminator mechanical eyeballs install!. Now My entire vision is red! Honesty!?, this is F1 we're talking about, not Disney!
Well, Phill, what i meant to say was, there was plenty of time before the field came around to their respective slots. Why didn't the Scuderia ask Massa to back up or something? Unless, the Scuderia made a genuine mistake and missed it like everyone else...
How many people does Ferrari have working the pits and the pit wall? They will have at least 3-5 people watching both FA and FM at the start. I am 110% sure they saw where he lined up and knew he was out of position at the start. I don't think he would have enough time to backup and it would not be safe anyway. Having said all of that I don't think that it is their responsibility to turn themselves in to the FIA.
You have a point. But off topic, aren't F1 cars equipped with reverse gears these days. I meant, if they have, and Ferrari/Massa realized the mistake, they should have backed up a bit...why take the risk of a penalty?
They do have a reverse gear but they can be a real pain in the ar*e to engage as you have to go through a specific sequence on the steering wheel to engage them (it varies from car to car, some are more complex than others). Massa may well not of realised just how far out he was from his correct position and the Team may not have noticed due to his track position on the opposite side of the track (and they were probably all focused on Alonso anyway ). You mention Ferrari/Massa not noticing the mistake but neither did any other team/driver on the grid and they would have a lot to gain by reporting it. Barrichello and Sutil were alongside and behind Massa respectively and neither of them noticed or mentioned Massa's position, possibly due to being on auto-pilot during the starting process. Also, none of the FIA officials noticed it either (strangely enough though, Martin Brundle and Jonathan Legard on the BBC's coverage noticed it straight away!). Like I've said for Barrichello and Sutil, once a driver gets to the grid ready for a start, they tend to go through an automatic routine ready to go, so had Massa realised he'd made a mistake, it's doubtful that he would want to break this routine as it would disrupt his start line preparation. Like I've already posted, no team on the F1 grid would go to the FIA stewards to confess that they're driver was out of position if they noticed, they'll all gamble on getting away with it (as was the case for Massa).
Driving in reverse and in the wrong direction on the track probably is not even allowed. He probably just put a poker face and hoped no one was watching (who is interested about what Massa is doing these days anyway?).
I think in the name of safety Massa did the right thing by not backing up. I am not sure he would have enough time to accomplish it safely and can you imagine the crash if his car stayed in reverse durning the start.
Looking at monaco, it took a good 10-15 seconds for most to actually get the car in reverse...add to that the time go get it back into F1 starting sequence, start could well be missed! Worse still, if he stalled the race could be over, especially if there's no restart!
Yes, probably just a brain fade then. If that's the case, I think the mistake lies with the faulty sensors on the track that detects jump start. The Scuderia definitely got off here. I just hope Massa doesn't try to score an own goal again.
