#hslf1 — Public Fediverse posts

PENALTY: CAUSING A COLLISION (EVEN WHEN NOTHING IS BROKEN)
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Leclerc's move is, in my view, far more dangerous because the cars could have taken off. Even if Leclerc's move wasn’t intentional. Joylon Palmer sums up the situation well: "Max wanted to prove a point to the FIA." Well yes, that the rules are stupid and that you can divebomb someone and push them off track with no consequences. In the category of outdated expressions, I’d say "hoist with his own petard" or "don’t do unto others what you wouldn’t want done to you." In the end, Verstappen is under the spotlight, but he’s no more or less aggressive. They’re all quick to bang wheels with each other at the slightest opportunity, if that’s what the rules allow, and sometimes even encourage, unintentionally.

Verstappen is penalized for the drama and theatrical nature of his move, but others like Leclerc, who are more discreet and less often involved in incidents, can do worse without facing any consequences. The penalty varies according to the reputation and history of the driver. The stewards sometimes judge the cause, sometimes the result, depending on what suits them best. All of this lacks a clear set of rules and a consistent line of conduct from those same stewards. Maybe it is just a horrible misunderstanding. Maybe Max didn’t realize George was losing control and thought he was being hit on purpose, just like Charles ten seconds earlier.

Max’s restart looked like a bad mosh pit in a hard rock nightclub. I went once and left five minutes later with a bloody nose. Everyone shoves everyone, it’s tradition, so let’s go wild. While Max was the victim of his car, his strategy, Charles, and then George, suddenly he is seen as the only aggressor. That erases everything else, as if the whole race boiled down to that single event. Max didn’t damage George’s car. When George said "I’ve got damages," that was just PR nonsense, the kind of stuff they say all the time. Max never intended to cause a crash but to give George a wheel tap, which makes the situation different from the Pérez–Sirotkin incident in Singapore 2018.

But the reason for the penalty was "causing a collision" and there wasn’t a single piece of debris on the ground. Causing a collision also means that the other car should no longer be able to continue, or should lose positions. Yet Russell neither retired from the race nor lost any positions, even assuming his "damages" were somewhere other than the chassis itself. A black flag for unsportsmanlike conduct would have made more sense, even if the penalty were harsher.

#F1 #Formula1 #Verstappen #Leclerc #FIA #Motorsport #Racing #Illustration #Art #Satire