Situation

Hamilton is released a split second after Vettel, and as his garage is ahead of Vettel, this means the two are along side each other in the pit lane. Hamilton is passed, and yet doesn’t yield and tuck in behind. Vettel appears to move over (attempted intimidation?) on Hamilton, pushing him into the pit garages. Are either of them in the wrong? Are either of the teams in the wrong?

The Lolly-pop Man

It could be argued the McLaren lolly-pop man should not have released Hamilton; but as far as I can see, in the slow motion replays, there is only a split second in it. Given when he releases Hamilton, the glance down the pit lane a split second before that, would have had Vettel still in his box. I don’t think this is a punishable offence, just a racing incident.

Side by Side

However, Hamilton, once released, carries on alongside Vettel for the length of the pit lane. He is clearly being passed by Vettel as released, and in my opinion, should drop in behind rather than continue down the right hand side, almost in the remaining pit garages. This was not in the best interests of safety for the pit crews along this section of the pit lane.

As Bad As Each Other?

Vettel meanwhile, appears to move over and try and ‘nudge’ him out of the way. It could be interpreted as trying to intimidate Hamilton into taking up the place behind him.

However, I have to wonder if Vettel could actually see Hamilton in those daft mirrors? Hamilton appears to be right in his blind spot. You can see in some of the footage, Vettel is looking to his right as much as the design of the car, and helmet will permit (which isn’t a lot) and as I say, I wonder if he could see Hamilton? I’d still suggest that Hamilton should have tucked in behind way before he actually did, right at the end of the pit lane.

The Answer

Whilst I await the stewards answer to this with baited breath, I don’t like the fact that any resulting penalty may be carried over to the next race. In my opinion, the race should be dealt with, and penalties for it, applied to it’s results. Of course, some things happen sufficiently late in the race that applying the penalty in the race is not an option, due to the process needed to decide if something has been done wrong. However, there is still the ability to add a time penalty to a drivers time, equivalent to that which would have been incurred had they had a drive through penalty during the race.

Edited 13:15, Sun 18th to add:

In this case, the incident under investigation happened early enough in the race to not qualify for a time penalty after the race, and the stewards are bound to have wanted, needed, even, to speak to the drivers for their version before making a decision. Could Vettel see Hamilton in his mirror, for example? This leaves no choice if a penalty is chosen, other than carrying it forward to the next race. For something of this level, I still don’t like the idea of a penalty being carried through to the next race, though. What the answer is, I don’t know. Maybe time penalties shouldn’t be restricted to a certain number of laps prior to the end (for some infringements, or all?). Also, I guess there’s yet another fine line, somewhere, where an incident is severe enough to need a race ban, grid position penalty etc. Where that line is, I wouldn’t like to speculate.

As it happens, in this case, both drivers have received a reprimand and it’s been left at that. In Hamilton’s case, he’s been advised not to weave, and now this. It’s a shame, really, as on the circuit itself, his racing was very good.

Personally, I particularly liked the passing of Schumacher. I’d been waiting a while, looking forward to seeing Schumacher wheel to wheel with Hamilton, especially in the wet. Just not this Schumacher.

Entry / Exit

Exiting the pit lane, for safety reasons, the exiting car is not allowed to cross the white ‘blend’ line. However, in two separate occasions today, we saw two cars jostling for position, all over the white lines, on the way into the pit lane. There’s a fine line between racing, and safety, and I’m really not sure which side of the line these two occurrences were on, to be honest.

As always, just my two pence.

Tags: Formula One,Motorsport,Pit Lane,Safety
Categories: Motorsport
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