McLaren go forward with appeal

yes he lifted and was slower according to Macs boys by 6.7km hour. What they dont tell us is that his drafting made it all come back in 2 seconds. The unfair advantage that all the drivers talked about in their briefings before the races was not fully given back. Lewis knew it and you could see it on his face after the race. His team also knew it and thats why they asked for a clarification on the pass not once but twice. Race controll said that they "believed" it was OK but they had not yet heard from the stewards. Like I said before, it takes time for the calls to come in from the stewards and seeing that its a call made by more than one steward then it will be a few laps before the decision comes in. How many times have we seen a car do something contrary to the rules and it comes up on the screan 2, 3 or 4 laps later that car # ? is under investigation. Then 2 to 5 laps later they are told they have a drive through or a stop an go penalty.

 

12 Sep 2008
"The FIA International Court of Appeal will meet in Paris on September 22 to consider McLaren’s appeal against the 25-second time penalty handed out to Lewis Hamilton in last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix. A decision is expected the following day.

Hamilton dropped from first to third place in the Spa results after stewards decided he had gained an advantage by cutting the final chicane during his late-race battle with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, whose team mate, Felipe Massa, inherited the win.

McLaren insist Hamilton was not at fault as he immediately relinquished the lead to Raikkonen following the incident. The team also claim that they were twice told by race control that their driver’s conduct appeared to be within the rules.

The Court must first decide whether McLaren’s appeal is admissible. Hamilton’s 25-second penalty substituted a drive-through, due to the incident taking place so late in the race. Drive-through penalties are not normally open to appeal."

from Formula1.com

 

While I wish McLaren good luck, this is a very risky gamble: First of all these kinds of steward decisions can't really be appealed technically. And second the FIA normally gets so pissed at such appeals, that the (unless they reverse course) punishment comes down even harder: There is a good chance, they will take away all points from Hamilton in the Belgian GP. Just as a way to keep teams from appealing decisions.

 

I don't think they will do that... but I don't think they will even hear the appeal. Which of course will bring about more speculation that the FIA is biased to the Red team with the prancing horse.

 

Possibly.

They have the right to not hear the appeal and that's ok. Such are the rules.

As much as I find the penalty unjustified and unfair, I'm no fan of appeals either: Races should be decided on the track, not in the court room. Which of course also goes against the penalty ruling in the first place.

If I wanted to see court room drama, I'd be watching Court TV. Not interested.