Planet F1 forum - stupid issues!

[Bloodwych]

Thanks AlexJ - LOL Formula one management have already pulled the vid. That really annoys me - how are 10min clips of F1 hurting Bernie's bottom line on YouTube?

Grrrrr. My F1 mood strop is coming on again....

I've seen this reported on the BBC webpage. The conspiracy theorist in me wants to think this is a very convenient way of keeping the championship alive to end, expecially if Hamo gets the 10 place drop or punishment.

Yes ok, Webber and others complained, but in the past we haven't seen this kind of investigation pop up amongst the backmarkers.

[Harrison]

I read about the Hamilton/Webber complaint earlier and it made me laugh. Can any more complaints happen this year to try and prevent Hamilton becoming champion? I'm sure the rest of F1 are just looking for the smallest of things they can pin on him to try and stop him.

If they agree with this complaint it could mean a lose of his 10 points for the race win, which would be completely unfair in my view. a 10-grid slot penalty for the next race wouldn't be quite so bad, but could still cause the championship to go to the final race as Alonso would have a big advantage on the grid and Hamilton could be in danger of not scoring any points, meaning it could be down to just 2 points at the final race!

Racing incidents happen, it's racing after all, and Webber/Vettel are not exactly the best drivers in F1!

I like the quote "The accident which saw Webber and Vettel retire from the race was not captured by the official coverage, but a clip on a popular broadcasting website shows Hamilton slowing down and lurching to the right of the circuit."

Didn't they notice how wet the track was? And how many others were crashing or not being able to completely control their cars? OK so Hamilton may have lurched to the right, but could that have been due to standing water? And trying to follow within 5 car lengths of the safely car (as the rules state) could be very difficult with so much rain and water on the track.

[AlexJ]

Having watched the video (and saved a copy) I think Hamilton was actually at fault for the incident. Hamilton lurches to the right and visibly slows down. Webber then slows down to avoid overtaking LH under the safety car but is unsighted by Vettel through the spray who doesn't slow down.

You could argue that Webber and Vettel should have increased the gaps to the cars in front but they were about to go green so didn't want to give a huge gap. If Hamilton had kept at the speed the Safety Car was going, then the accident wouldn't have happened IMO.

Thanks AlexJ - LOL Formula one management have already pulled the vid. That really annoys me - how are 10min clips of F1 hurting Bernie's bottom line on YouTube?

Because there's a disclaimer on the back of all F1 tickets giving conditions of entry, one of which is that all video taken inside the venue becomes the property of FOM. Like all interesting clips, FOM will want to save it for the season review DVD. There was a great on-board video of the Massa/Kubica battle on Premiere's Interactive service which never made it onto the world feed (and was soon pulled from Youtube). You can guarantee that will also turn up on the DVD.


EDIT: Just found someone's analysis of the LH/MW/SV crash:



Look how far the Safety Car has moved between the first and second shots, while Hamilton has pretty much stayed in the same spot. The regs state you shouldn't slow down excessively. The third shot shows the number of car lengths between him and the SC, nearly twice the maximum given in the regs. Yes it engineers the championship nicely for a decider at the final race (or gives LH a shot to show a GP2-esque drive from 10-14th on the grid) but at the end of the day, F1 wants it's rookie world champion story as that will give the sport the most coverage so the punishment will be no more than a 10 place drop IMO.

[Bloodwych]

Thanks again AlexJ, interesting read.

That strange wide line Lewis is taking in those pics has just reminded me of the other controversial occurrence that weekend - I'm sure he took the same line when Kubica hit him and got a dubious penalty, which I thought was a racing incident.

My recollection of the contact involving Hamilton and Kubica was Lewis took a really wide entry into the corner and Kubica remained on the normal and faster racing line. Then Lewis, unsighted by the spray behind, cut back onto the racing line and hit Kubica.

Am I wrong? Perhaps, I only saw it once.

[AlexJ]

There are two plausible justifiable explanations for the wide line I can see:

a) He lost control and aquaplaned off

b) He deliberately went off-line to cool tyres.

a) is unlikely as he had slowed before getting to the corner and made no attempt to turn into the normal line and b) is equally unlikely as there was no dry racing line emerging.

Therefore, gamesmanship remains the only plausible explanation for the incident, and that would be termed "causing an avoidable accident" which is the same thing Kubica got hit with. It was a stupid thing to do, because neither Webber nor Vettel are competing against him in the WDC so if they'd finished in 2nd and 3rd instead of Kimi he'd have effectively knocked Raikkonen out of the championship race.

Also makes Mark Webber's comment about kids f***ing up a bit different. At first, I assumed he was referring to Vettel but kids may suggest he thought both Vettel and Hamilton was at fault.

Some new Youtube links of the videos (likely to be pulled shortly so download them):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QJurnfxRm4 - SC Crash
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgkR9Dej0wk - Massa/Kubica Onboard Footage

[Bloodwych]

WOW! GREAT vids!

That race between Massa and Kubica was totally brilliant. We need a sprinkler system at every F1 track from now on!

That was a dodgy line by Hamilton, then to slow right down too. Vettel has no excuse however - he admitted he was looking right before hitting Webber! We ordinary folk would get the blame for looking right and not watching the car in front at a junction.

I agree with Webber - he was sandwiched between two kids and got caught out by some bad driving!

[Harrison]

Watching that video, Hamilton first seemed to get very close to the safety car going into the bend and quickly slowed down, moving off to the side. To me it looks like he couldn't see the safely car properly, got too close before realising how close he was, and took avoiding action, moving to the side and braking. This caught the cars behind him by surprise, and when Webber realised he was overtaking Hamilton he braked and Vettel went into him. A series of events that are just an accident.