2017 Malaysia Grand Prix - Sepang, 29 September-01 October

[TAG]

I think a reprimand or monetary penalty would be the proper way to handle that. It's impartial that way. I believe that in past cases this was how it was handled.

I agree.

My beef is that to not even acknowledge it, and to then have the excuse of... it wasn't an issue brought up to us to we didn't address it? It's just laughable and hence the WWE reference, which let's face it, is exactly what this was.

I agree it would be stupid to penalize the driver for it but then why the inconsistency in when the penalties are applied and then the wildly inconsistent level of severity when they are?

We did have a lengthy discussion around Baku where there was an initial contact by Vettel, there was the intentional ramming and then an actual overtake while under a SC and none of those were addressed. The rules are being arbitrarily applied based on who knows what and that's been the clear issue.

What's worse is that Liberty has not mentioned a lick of addressing that in their rush to change so many other things about the "spectacle" of the show. IMO it's the single biggest issue in the sport and no one want's to talk about it.

[Vasconia]

Given the performance on Sunday, Saturday's pole lap from Hamilton must have been something that astonished the Mercedes engineers.

What we saw this past weekend, was so reminiscent of the first part of 2013. Rocket of a car for Saturday and struggle with tyres due to temperatures. Only this time, it was so much unexpected due to upgrades failing and pushing the team on a territory that was unknown. Over a lap, the car was still very quick despite having all those issues, but only with Lewis as has been the case throughout the season.

If the Q3 was done on Softs, the margin would have been far bigger to the next best car (around 3 to 4 tenths ahead) and if it was on Ultra Soft, Lewis would have been on most likely 3rd. So, the performance on SS was so marginal. Clearly points to issues with suspension setup, that was overworking the tyres. It was evident in race too. From the early season difficulty in putting temperature in tyres, to over heating the tyres at this stage of the season, Mercedes went from one end of spectrum to other (albeit an exception in this race with higher temperatures and humidity).

If anything, this was a role reversal from Silverstone, where Ferrari was almost a second down on Mercedes (cooler temperatures helping Mercedes and hurting Ferrari). That shows, no car loses a second over a race unless there are some gray areas that the team did not cover.

I would blame the updates only partially because Hamilton didn´t run with them and was still slower(obviously much better than Bottas who was painfully slow).

I find those problems quite surprising because I thought they were solved. If Mercedes is fast in Japan I would only blame the high temperatures and the suspensión which doesn´t adapt itself well to those high temperatures.

[Restomaniac]

Given the performance on Sunday, Saturday's pole lap from Hamilton must have been something that astonished the Mercedes engineers.

What we saw this past weekend, was so reminiscent of the first part of 2013. Rocket of a car for Saturday and struggle with tyres due to temperatures. Only this time, it was so much unexpected due to upgrades failing and pushing the team on a territory that was unknown. Over a lap, the car was still very quick despite having all those issues, but only with Lewis as has been the case throughout the season.

If the Q3 was done on Softs, the margin would have been far bigger to the next best car (around 3 to 4 tenths ahead) and if it was on Ultra Soft, Lewis would have been on most likely 3rd. So, the performance on SS was so marginal. Clearly points to issues with suspension setup, that was overworking the tyres. It was evident in race too. From the early season difficulty in putting temperature in tyres, to over heating the tyres at this stage of the season, Mercedes went from one end of spectrum to other (albeit an exception in this race with higher temperatures and humidity).

If anything, this was a role reversal from Silverstone, where Ferrari was almost a second down on Mercedes (cooler temperatures helping Mercedes and hurting Ferrari). That shows, no car loses a second over a race unless there are some gray areas that the team did not cover.

I would blame the updates only partially because Hamilton didn´t run with them and was still slower(obviously much better than Bottas who was painfully slow).

I find those problems quite surprising because I thought they were solved. If Mercedes is fast in Japan I would only blame the high temperatures and the suspensión which doesn´t adapt itself well to those high temperatures.

True but remember that Hamilton lost a full session of practice by using the updates but then binning them and effectively starting again. If anything it's even more damning than Bottas got as much time as possible and was still miles off.

[NathanOlder]

One thing id lke to say is, the last person to hitch a ride on the side of an F1 car was Mark webber, he got a reprimand. The last person to not put the steering wheel back on the car after leaving it was Pastor Maldonado, he got a reprimand. Vettel is potentially 1 bad move away from a penalty and the FIA turn a blind eye to both these incidents.

The FIA are consistently soft towards the number 5 Ferrari. Its a joke.

[McG]

One thing id lke to say is, the last person to hitch a ride on the side of an F1 car was Mark webber, he got a reprimand. The last person to not put the steering wheel back on the car after leaving it was Pastor Maldonado, he got a reprimand. Vettel is potentially 1 bad move away from a penalty and the FIA turn a blind eye to both these incidents.

The FIA are consistently soft towards the number 5 Ferrari. Its a joke.

Nothing new. The FIA has been like this with Ferrari for decades. The worst was the Schumacher years. It's a strange phenomenon that exsits to always give Ferrari an edge over everyone else.

It'll never happen but I would love it if Ferrari weren't in F1, or that there were an alternate series to follow without Ferrari.

[WaikeCU]

One thing id lke to say is, the last person to hitch a ride on the side of an F1 car was Mark webber, he got a reprimand. The last person to not put the steering wheel back on the car after leaving it was Pastor Maldonado, he got a reprimand. Vettel is potentially 1 bad move away from a penalty and the FIA turn a blind eye to both these incidents.

The FIA are consistently soft towards the number 5 Ferrari. Its a joke.

Imagine this guy being WDC at the end of this season after all the fuzz he has caused throughout the season.

It's just like not giving your kid a spank after he has broken something. Each time you keep saying to him: "Be careful next time or else... Now brush your teeth and off to bed!"

[AJI]

....Now brush your teeth and off to bed!"

Daddy Jean says, if you don't want to brush your teeth that's okay darling.

[foxmulder_ms]

OCON is too nice for F1. He will not be very successful.

[Stormy]

OCON is too nice for F1. He will not be very successful.

He's no pushover though. Just look how much trouble he's causing to Checo.

[Stormy]

One thing id lke to say is, the last person to hitch a ride on the side of an F1 car was Mark webber, he got a reprimand. The last person to not put the steering wheel back on the car after leaving it was Pastor Maldonado, he got a reprimand. Vettel is potentially 1 bad move away from a penalty and the FIA turn a blind eye to both these incidents.

The FIA are consistently soft towards the number 5 Ferrari. Its a joke.

Nothing new. The FIA has been like this with Ferrari for decades. The worst was the Schumacher years. It's a strange phenomenon that exsits to always give Ferrari an edge over everyone else.

It'll never happen but I would love it if Ferrari weren't in F1, or that there were an alternate series to follow without Ferrari.

Ferrari were always against the rules FIA were imposing after 2008 but never got what they asked for.

[McG]

One thing id lke to say is, the last person to hitch a ride on the side of an F1 car was Mark webber, he got a reprimand. The last person to not put the steering wheel back on the car after leaving it was Pastor Maldonado, he got a reprimand. Vettel is potentially 1 bad move away from a penalty and the FIA turn a blind eye to both these incidents.

The FIA are consistently soft towards the number 5 Ferrari. Its a joke.

Nothing new. The FIA has been like this with Ferrari for decades. The worst was the Schumacher years. It's a strange phenomenon that exsits to always give Ferrari an edge over everyone else.

It'll never happen but I would love it if Ferrari weren't in F1, or that there were an alternate series to follow without Ferrari.

Ferrari were always against the rules FIA were imposing after 2008 but never got what they asked for.

I didn't say they get everything they ask for. They don't run the sport.

[MuseF1]

One thing id lke to say is, the last person to hitch a ride on the side of an F1 car was Mark webber, he got a reprimand. The last person to not put the steering wheel back on the car after leaving it was Pastor Maldonado, he got a reprimand. Vettel is potentially 1 bad move away from a penalty and the FIA turn a blind eye to both these incidents.

The FIA are consistently soft towards the number 5 Ferrari. Its a joke.

The reason why Mark Webber recieved a reprimand was because he needed to get permission from the marshalls to go out onto the racetrack, and actually the marshalls told him not to but he ignored them. So in that instance he did explicitly break a rule and the penalty was not for the ride on the car itself.

If you look at their reasoning and look at the footage, the reprimand was reasonable.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/11010 ... -penalised

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBByzQBCSXE

[Shrieker]

I watched Vettel and Stroll's cooldown lap crash from Grosjean's onboard. I think stroll was to blame at least 8/10. Stroll deserved a grid drop or at the very least a reprimand.

The only thing Vettel could be blamed for was overlooking the fact that he was getting close to an 18 y/o rookie.

[Tiny73]

The stewards decided no one was predominantly to blame and whether you like it or not, that's how it finished (I have my own views but will refrain since they matter not one bit).

What is more damning is Vettel's propensity to be in situations where his car is damaged and these debates/arguments are even taking place. As a WDC contender he should be playing the long game and not chopping Max or overtaking a rookie driver at speed etc etc. If you look at his lap 1 Singapore issue it looks like he's overly aggressive with Hamilton who only just avoided the loss of a front wing from Vettels manouevre. That may have been down to Vettel realising his race was over and hoping to inflict FW damage on his title rival by chopping him, it may be that Vettel didn't know his race was over and risked a rear wheel puncture from said FW. Either way, his spatial awareness and decision making are in question above his driving abilities.

[NathanOlder]

I feel it is just the spatial awareness like you say, and as Webber has said in the past.

He doesn't have many faults but this is certainly 1 of them. Maybe he'd be a 5 time DTM champion as its not quite as crucial to know where your opponents are.