All Things Motorsport

[Michel]

I cannot understand why Gasly was penalised for a red flag infringement when they only threw it as he approached the rescue vehicles on track. Have they learned nothing from Bianchi's horrific accident in precisely the same kind of situation?

The footage shows it was thrown a bit before, and tramping along at 251 km/h was rather silly in the circumstances, and he accepted that it was.

[Dormouse]

The point is that Gasly was sent out to catch up the Safety Car group. Him "tramping along" was to be expected - if he was racing he would be tramping on even harder. Very poor organisation by Race Control here - they are supposed to be in touch with every aspect of of the race and they patently were not or Gasly wouldn't have been released from the pits if Marshals and Recovery Units were on track. Either Race Control cocked up and forgot about Gasly in the Pits or they jumped the gun and released the Marshals. Either way, Gasly was only doing what was expected of him and he wasn't expecting to find Marshals on the course. If he was slow to respond to the Red, fair enough, but neither he nor the Marshals should have been in that position in the first place.

[Hell Razor5543]

Looks like the FIA have screwed up right royally AGAIN. He may not have been a nice person, but these mistakes would not have been acceptable when Bernie Ecclestone was in charge.

[Dormouse]

When Charlie Whiting died, Herbie Blash, his able lieutenant, retired. The FIA brought him back in as a consultant but didn't listen to him properly and a chance to learn the "ropes" was wasted. New Blood is all very well, and I am all for it, but if they don't even understand the basics of what they are trying to run and don't follow "old" tried and tested methods to learn first then this is what we get. "Old" is not necessarily "bad" and "new" is no use if it cannot function safely. What is lacking is the continuity of "old" to "new".

[Hell Razor5543]

There is a very important pair of engineering rules. The first is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!". The second (that, if it doesn't exist, should!) is "If something needs replacing, check the replacement works properly first!".

[Michel]

Looks like the FIA have screwed up right royally AGAIN. He may not have been a nice person, but these mistakes would not have been acceptable when Bernie Ecclestone was in charge.

No, things were far more corrupt and Ferrari-biased when Bernie and Max were in charge, once Bernie sold Brabham.

[Michel]

..but if they don't even understand the basics of what they are trying to run..

This, 100% this. They seem pretty clueless in many aspects of F1. Masi had to go, but it's like replacing one prime minister with one even worse...

[Dormouse]

..but if they don't even understand the basics of what they are trying to run..

This, 100% this. They seem pretty clueless in many aspects of F1. Masi had to go, but it's like replacing one prime minister with one even worse...

After watching the Austin GP this was never more true. I dispair at how poor the FIA's team have become. It just appears more and more disjointed in it's approach to applying rules.

[Michel]

After watching the Austin GP this was never more true. I dispair at how poor the FIA's team have become. It just appears more and more disjointed in it's approach to applying rules.

Perez is allowed to continue with his wing endplate flapping about because "Red Bull sent race direction pictures of it during the race".

Alonso loses his hard fought (and frankly miraculous!) points after his mirror came loose, yet got no black and orange flag, and no penalty during the race despite the mirror being obvious to see flapping in the wind.

Russell gets a penalty for a pure racing incident.

No red flag when the longest straight is covered in debris from Alonso and Stroll's crazy accident.

[Dormouse]

Just my issues in a nutshell. Where is any of the logical, procedure following routines? Has anyone actually read all of the Regulations or had any checks and balances applied to their own abilities and at track performance? I know from my own experiences as a marshal, competitor, time keeper, chief marshal, scrutineer and environmental scrutineer that at each level I had to show competency and knowledge before being allowed to move up the ladder. And, the further up the ladder I got, the more rigorous the requirements became - at National level, never mind being accepted for FIA level as some of my mentors were.
The FIA has put itself in this position and has no excuses. None!

[Dormouse]

Happy to see Alonso and Alpine re-instated after their protest was upheld. Not so happy that no statement was made about learning from this episode! Not so happy also that the Alpine was not flagged during the race or pulled up at post race scrutineering. I won't even go to the rest of the debacle during the race! Rules are there to be applied - they are not a pick and mix.
Can't wait to see how the Red Bull issues are dealt with later today!

[mickthemaverick]

Can't wait to see how the Red Bull issues are dealt with later today!

I can't help thinking that "dealt with" may be an over ambitious statement!!

[Dormouse]

If the rumours are correct then all the other manufacturers will be asking their Bean Counters to work out how much they can afford to overspend. Sporting regulations should have sporting effects not financial ones. Especially when deep pockets are involved. Just not fair on the smaller teams - the opposite of what was intended.

[mickthemaverick]

Yes I totally agree, furthermore in my mind any sporting penalties, eg points deductions, should be applied to the year in which the offence gave the offenders an advantage. In my view both drivers and constructors should be penalised! Not going to happen of course but it would be right in my mind!!

[Dormouse]

You have to bear in mind that overspends can be on Development Work as well as upgrades, so this year's progress has a potential boost as well.

I wonder why Porsche walked away from a Red Bull deal given how much time, effort and money they committed to it. Why now? Hmmmm!!