Why is Scottt Speed penalized 25 second and the others aren't?

still under investigation i suppose. JV, ralf and speed are the ones...

 

Although I didn't see it on SpeedTV channel, apparently when Coulthard got checked by Liuzzi's crash bouncing off the walls, that's when Speed went by. The other drivers pulled off passes on other parts of the circuit, away from the actual crash.

Apparently, they put out the SC notice at a time when they were only waving yellow flags in the one sector. The rapid shift from SC to green and right back to SC may have caught out the course workers out of sight of the crash, so they were slow to get the yellow flags out again. (They had been waving them for a while already -- the arms get tired.)

Scott passed right at the crash. Understandably, as DC was virtually stopped behind the wreckage, and Speed may have thought that DC was also parked. But it was likely that the yellows were out there (although this also didn't show on the camera feed speedtv uses).

This is the kind of thing that should have been looked at during the race. They could easily have told him to let DC by to compensate, then turned it back into a race.

Instead, they waited until after the race and "fixed" the results by tacking on a penalty.

 

It's typical F1 BS...the upstart Red Bull team getting put down...nough said.

 

I think it's more to do with nationality than anything else

 

Fellas, it didn't help that when the Stewards called in everyone to review the transgressions after the race that Speed called DC a "motherf*#&er" now, did it? Evidently, Speed was under the mistaken impression that DC wanted his "spot" and brought the matter up with the Stewards himself to screw Speed, rather than the Stewards acting on information gathered in-house.

I'm sure that Scott's imitation of a younger Robby Gordon played into it more than a little. <grin>

-Peter

 

i don't think Speed was victimized for being American, if that's what you mean.
The FIA wants and needs more US drivers and more US money.

I heard he and Coulthard had an 'incident' after the race and Speed was fined US$5000; what was that about ??

 

Probably the FIA not wanting the rev-limited V10s to score any points. They've already said that if they won a race, they'd futher hinder their cars.

 

Plus all the teams are complaining about the engine and the advantage it has if it rains due to its torque curve.

 

Its like back at skool, when you swear at teachers you got detention the same applys here when you dont agree with stewards only they fine you $5k.

 

Ask some of the guys that Speed raced against here. He came to Sears Point about 2 years back in the shifter cart race, got his clock cleaned.

Art

 

FIA needs a change, so long Max! I nominate A J Foyt for new FIA president.

 

Because his last name is speed....no reason for it!

 

Foyt in charge. What's that Roman emperor's name? Caligula? Would sort of be like that I suspect. Have you ever met him? I had the misfortune (Foyt not Caligula).

Art

 

I've flagged a few GP's and would like to offer this: whether it's Formula Vee or Formula One, if I can't display a flag for two seconds before a car reaches me then I don't consider the flag seen by that driver. I've only watched the race once, but I thougth Ralf (who is one of my least favorite drivers in the field) and the others were in a frenzy and were passing the stations as they were getting the flags and SC boards out. I didn't like seeing it, it was very close, but it struck me that I'd wouldn't have reported their passing. On the other hand: if DC let up to avoid a still-crashing (or already crashed?) Liuzzi and was passed by Speed, I don't see how a yellow flag could be displayed quick enough to assess a penalty... but then we aren't privy to the timing of those events, are we?

Yes, arms get tired, and those SC boards are usually flimsy foam posterboard and a pain to fit thru the $%@&# fencing.

 

Wait a mo:

I just rechecked on F1 replay (http://www.visionf1.com/). I wonder how accurate that is.

According to that, Scott did not pass DC during Liuzzi's crash on lap 37. DC and Rubins both pitted on lap 39, letting DC get ahead of Rubins, but allowing Speed to get around both of them. Rubins later passed Speed on lap 42, but DC didn't.

STR needs to work on their pit stops. Speed was well up the grid -- and well ahead of DC -- before his pit stops.

As far as I can tell, Speed never passed Coulthard on track. Or vice versa. It was all in the pits.

After Michael's crash, on lap 33, Alonso put DC a lap down. On lap 34 Alonso went into the pits allowing DC to unlap.

Speed had entered the pits shortly before Alonso did -- Scott was ahead of DC at this point. Speed apparently had a slow stop, and exited after Alonso (which would have nominally put him a lap down). Speed then unlapped himself at turn 5 on lap 35 and zipped around the track to line up at the back of the pack (and behind DC until DC's stop on 39). Now if the SC was already out when Alonso left the pits, Scott would have had to have passed the SC in the process. (They don't show the SC on the replay site.)

But I imagine that blowing by the safety car might just get the attention of the organizers.

SpeedTV commentators mentioned, after seeing back markers in the lineup and the subsequent crash on the restart, that sorting the lineup behind the SC is one area where US and European rules differ. (Of course, they were a bit off, there: Liuzzi was *not* a back marker. He was doing pretty well before his crash.)

And if DC claimed that Speed only beat him because Speed passed him under the SC, then, by golly, DC really is a ..... well, you know. (May be a misquote -- Scott may have passed Alonso under SC. Which would be valid in some US venues.)

Unless that replay site is way, way off. You'd think that Speed blowing past Alonso and/or the SC would also get the attention of the TV cameras, but then, they were busy showing replays of Michael bouncing off the curbs and walls.

But there's a lot of stuff on that replay that we never saw on SpeedTV coverage.

Edit: It occurs to me that if the rules say he should have sat behind Alonso in the SC lineup, then that would have given cars just ahead of Alonso (such as DC and Rubins) a one lap advantage as they bunch up on the SC. Since Scott was ahead of both of them before the pit stop sequence, that would have been a massive shafting. If it were me, I'd blow past (even with a 25 sec penalty) to avoid a 90 second tactical whack.

Without those SC periods on laps 34-39, DC wouldn't have been on the lead lap at the end of the race, and would have classified as behind Button, giving Jensen the last point. I can see why SCs aren't popular in Europe, if that's they way they work.