2023 Singapore Grand Prix - Marina Bay, Sep 15 -17

[Just_a_fan]

Interesting little fact for general consumption. Following the end of the Singapore race, Max and Lewis are now the only drivers to have finished every race this season in the points - Fernando was too until he finished P15 today.

[Just_a_fan]

Ver did the same thing vs Hul lap 2 as Per vs Albon. Hul is sensible and leaves space. If you dont want to get past like that, dont leave the door wide open, be more like KMag (vs Ver).
If they are that far alongside at the apex and you dont leave a car width, you are both to blame, 1 for dive bomb, 1 for not leaving space. So leave the space and its a penalty. Now its just a race incident.

If you drive in to someone that isn't your team mate it's usually a penalty - "causing a collision". And compared to Lewis on Sergio in Spa, it was worse and yet Sergio gets nothing for it. Consistency of stewarding is not one of the FIA's strong points.

[AMG.Tzan]

Ver did the same thing vs Hul lap 2 as Per vs Albon. Hul is sensible and leaves space. If you dont want to get past like that, dont leave the door wide open, be more like KMag (vs Ver).
If they are that far alongside at the apex and you dont leave a car width, you are both to blame, 1 for dive bomb, 1 for not leaving space. So leave the space and its a penalty. Now its just a race incident.

If you drive in to someone that isn't your team mate it's usually a penalty - "causing a collision". And compared to Lewis on Sergio in Spa, it was worse and yet Sergio gets nothing for it. Consistency of stewarding is not one of the FIA's strong points.

I still can’t see why Hamilton got a penalty at Spa! It was clearly Perez’s fault there for not leaving enough space…

Stewards this year have been ridiculous! I have never believed such things in the past but now I get the feeling they’re trying to help certain teams or drivers some times…

[Oleo]

Ver did the same thing vs Hul lap 2 as Per vs Albon. Hul is sensible and leaves space. If you dont want to get past like that, dont leave the door wide open, be more like KMag (vs Ver).
If they are that far alongside at the apex and you dont leave a car width, you are both to blame, 1 for dive bomb, 1 for not leaving space. So leave the space and its a penalty. Now its just a race incident.

If you drive in to someone that isn't your team mate it's usually a penalty - "causing a collision". And compared to Lewis on Sergio in Spa, it was worse and yet Sergio gets nothing for it. Consistency of stewarding is not one of the FIA's strong points.

Perez left space in Spa, Ham couldnt keep his line, so one to blame.
Albon didnt leave space, so its both with blame.

[QLDriver]

Hindsight being 20-20, was the better team strategy for Mercedes to pit Hamilton and leave Russell in 2nd? I loved the call when they made it and it spiced things up tremendously, but perhaps splitting the strategy would have allowed a double podium or a win?

[Spoutnik]

Hindsight being 20-20, was the better team strategy for Mercedes to pit Hamilton and leave Russell in 2nd? I loved the call when they made it and it spiced things up tremendously, but perhaps splitting the strategy would have allowed a double podium or a win?

I prefer to not imagine how things would've unfold with Hamilton on fresher tyre and Russell defending on worn Hards...

[Spoutnik]

Interesting little fact for general consumption. Following the end of the Singapore race, Max and Lewis are now the only drivers to have finished every race this season in the points - Fernando was too until he finished P15 today.

I feel Lewis is doing a very good season, even if it's a bit under the radar.

[fourmula1]

There’s nothing at stake, not Mercs WCC position or the WDC. Why should Merc resort to team orders? If it was the other way round there’s no way Russell would have backed off, and with so little at stake then why should he.

It’s just racing, and we see so little if it in modern F1, it seems some people want to see even less.

Agreed. It's the team allowing their drivers to fight. Just like Ferrari did in Monza. When one driver isn't fighting for the title, it's what the teams should be required to do.

This should be applauded.

Generally agree too. I do believe some of Mercs success over the past few years can be attributed to getting the most out of both sides of garage and giving both sides a shot for the most part.

That said, as someone else here pointed out, in hindsight they should have kept Rus p2 and pitted Ham. Maybe they were being too fair.

[Just_a_fan]

Ver did the same thing vs Hul lap 2 as Per vs Albon. Hul is sensible and leaves space. If you dont want to get past like that, dont leave the door wide open, be more like KMag (vs Ver).
If they are that far alongside at the apex and you dont leave a car width, you are both to blame, 1 for dive bomb, 1 for not leaving space. So leave the space and its a penalty. Now its just a race incident.

If you drive in to someone that isn't your team mate it's usually a penalty - "causing a collision". And compared to Lewis on Sergio in Spa, it was worse and yet Sergio gets nothing for it. Consistency of stewarding is not one of the FIA's strong points.

Perez left space in Spa, Ham couldnt keep his line, so one to blame.
Albon didnt leave space, so its both with blame.

Perez dive bombed and has been given a pointless 5s penalty.

[Just_a_fan]

Hindsight being 20-20, was the better team strategy for Mercedes to pit Hamilton and leave Russell in 2nd? I loved the call when they made it and it spiced things up tremendously, but perhaps splitting the strategy would have allowed a double podium or a win?

The thought of Lewis arriving behind George on much better tyres and a few laps to "try it on" would have been great to watch but would have given the team a whole heap of heart attacks!

[QLDriver]

I prefer to not imagine how things would've unfold with Hamilton on fresher tyre and Russell defending on worn Hards...

Fair point! But if there was a call of “let Lewis chase Carlos and if he doesn’t get him he will give the place back”, then Lewis has form for abiding by those commitments!

[chrisc90]

If you drive in to someone that isn't your team mate it's usually a penalty - "causing a collision". And compared to Lewis on Sergio in Spa, it was worse and yet Sergio gets nothing for it. Consistency of stewarding is not one of the FIA's strong points.

Perez left space in Spa, Ham couldnt keep his line, so one to blame.
Albon didnt leave space, so its both with blame.

Perez dive bombed and has been given a pointless 5s penalty.

Unsure what you (and others) are getting at on this one. The stewards decisions have been consistent with rewarding the 5 second penalty to those drivers who cause a collision.

Apart from making it 10seconds (which would need drivers/teams agreement mid-season) then the only realistic time you can implement it is at the start of the new season.

[dialtone]

Perez left space in Spa, Ham couldnt keep his line, so one to blame.
Albon didnt leave space, so its both with blame.

Perez dive bombed and has been given a pointless 5s penalty.

Unsure what you (and others) are getting at on this one. The stewards decisions have been consistent with rewarding the 5 second penalty to those drivers who cause a collision.

Apart from making it 10seconds (which would need drivers/teams agreement mid-season) then the only realistic time you can implement it is at the start of the new season.

He dive bombed 2 times and they gave the penalty after the race only when it didn't matter...

No other team is treated like this.

[Oleo]

If you drive in to someone that isn't your team mate it's usually a penalty - "causing a collision". And compared to Lewis on Sergio in Spa, it was worse and yet Sergio gets nothing for it. Consistency of stewarding is not one of the FIA's strong points.

Perez left space in Spa, Ham couldnt keep his line, so one to blame.
Albon didnt leave space, so its both with blame.

Perez dive bombed and has been given a pointless 5s penalty.

Thats not what the steward document says.
Its quite clear that they were like, ok he is 12 secs ahead, we ll give him 5 sec penalty to make people not mad. "Could be defined as diving in", "nothing Albon could do". Hulkenberg is like "Hold my beer, I can show Albon." They even went out of their way to emphasize the only 1 penalty point, cause really they didnt want to penalize him.

[chrisc90]

Perez dive bombed and has been given a pointless 5s penalty.

Unsure what you (and others) are getting at on this one. The stewards decisions have been consistent with rewarding the 5 second penalty to those drivers who cause a collision.

Apart from making it 10seconds (which would need drivers/teams agreement mid-season) then the only realistic time you can implement it is at the start of the new season.

He dive bombed 2 times and they gave the penalty after the race only when it didn't matter...

No other team is treated like this.

How do you think a penalty in the closing stages of the race, when there is no more pitstops to take, get their penalty applied?

Same happened for Lewis in Monza, and George from memory.


There is literally no other time to add a penalty on in that scenario.