Lots more Monaco Grand Prix analysis and reaction coming your way today. Here’s the Monday round-up:
Links
Teams fail to agree on 2011 tyres (Autosport)
Williams CEO Adam Parr: “Nobody in F1 wants [a tyre war]. I think one of them likes the idea that it is not hiding away behind a sole supplier relationship, and that it is open to competition. We would all recognise that that tyre supplier is more than capable of conducting a tyre war, but there is no appetite or potential for a tyre war now.”
No rewards for a great race (Heikki Kovalainen)
“Just before I retired I could feel the steering alignment was a bit uneven – on the right hand corners I had to use maximum lock, even in the tunnel, and it got the point where it didn’t feel safe anymore”
Comment of the day
There were a lot of good points made about the Schumacher controversy but I thought Daniel made one of the best early assessments of what happened:
The [Sporting Regulations] article was badly written and it should be changed, but you still can understand it.
When it says "It will enter the pit lane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking" you can see the safety car must enter the pit lane at the last lap (probably to avoid an "ugly picture" with the safety car leading the field at the end), but the cars should go on until the chequered flag, as if the safety car was ahead, because they’re not allowed to overtake.
It’s badly written because at the beginning it says "When the race ends under the safety car…" leading to an alternative interpretation that would consider Schumacher’s pass legal.
It would be much more trouble-free if the safety car crossed the line ahead, or, if it came in before, if the track marshals kept waving yellow flags to make it clear you can’t overtake.
Honestly, I think his pass was illegal, even though it was fantastic from the racing point of view
Daniel
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Tenerifeman!
On this day in F1
Carlos Reutemann scored his final Grand Prix win on this day on this day in 1981. He lost a championship battle with Nelson Piquet that year and suddenly announced his retirement just two races into 1982.
Magnificent Geoffrey
17th May 2010, 2:56
I still argue that the stewards have applied the rule incorrectly.
The ‘SC in the pit lane as they cross the line under SC conditions’ rule surely only applies to instances where the leader crosses the line under SC conditions? Melbourne 2009 is the best example – SC boards and flags aplenty. Basically, if Melbourne 2009 had happened under 2010 regs, nothing would’ve changed except the SC would’ve pitted and allowed the train of cars to cross the line by themselves.
This time though, with the new pre-Start/Finish line Safety Care line, we went back to ‘Green’ conditions by the end of the lap – like someone else said, we had a 200m or so sprint to the line. Green lights and flags were everywhere and we’d even had the ‘Safety Car in this lap’ message from Charlie himself. Therefore, the race did not end under SC conditions and you cannot possibly apply that ‘SC in on final lap, but no overtaking as we’re still under SC conditions’ rule because we weren’t under Safety Car conditions anymore. (Confused?!)
Also, I still cannot believe I am defending Michael Schumacher in a rules scandal.
matt90
17th May 2010, 3:40
This sums up exactly what I thought. Due to the new position of the safety car line, the article cannot be applied because when the safety car goes in on the last lap, the race is briefly no longer under the safety car conditions necessary for the article to apply. And I dislike Schumacher too.
US_Peter
17th May 2010, 4:16
I don’t know why you’re all so confused. It’s clear as mud.
Mike
17th May 2010, 16:47
The safety was pulled in due to the track being labelled as all clear.
This means that as green flags where being shown, racing was allowed to continue as normal. Ergo, it can be argued that his pass was legal.
At the same time, It can be argued that it was the same situation as in Aus 09, where they must follow each other over the line.
The confusion is caused by dodgy rules, and what I see to be a massice blunder on Whitings part. I understand that he would have caused green flags to be waved, and safety car in this lap messages to be shown?
I think there is a conflict of interest, Either the track was safe to race on, and then they should have raced to the line, Or it wasn’t and the SC should lead them across. To make it look like racing without actually having them allowed to race is, not good imo.
matt90
18th May 2010, 10:19
I’m not confused, I clearly feel that the pass was legal for the reasons I stated- the article didn’t apply because by bringing in the safety car the race was no longer finishing under the safety car.
BasCB
17th May 2010, 7:16
I think Mercedes is right to appeal the desicion by the Stewards, as it was unclear for a lot of people.
Schumi is on Form, causing controversy by creative thinking! It was a great move.
wasiF1
17th May 2010, 9:27
I agree with the regulation even admit that Schuamcher’s pass was illegal then if the rules says that no overtaking until you cross that start finish straight then why did they waved green flag just as the Safety car came in the pit. Either they finish the race behind the safety car or they allow what Schumacher did.
Fer no.65
17th May 2010, 3:09
Oh, Reutemann… my mum still remembers him from time to time saying: “he and Vilas were my loves when i was young”
LMAO :P
Macca
17th May 2010, 5:51
Is Carlos Reutemann any realation to the Reutemann that drives in NASCAR?
slr
17th May 2010, 13:40
No. The NASCAR one’s last name is spelt Reutimann.
F1Droid
17th May 2010, 7:07
If the regulation is correct as stated then it should not have been “green flag racing” to the line but remained waved yellows.
Regardless I think the penalty was way too harsh and the positions should have been just swapped back, however I think the penalty is written in the rules also so the stewards once deciding it was against the rules had no choice but apply 20secs.
Quite simply, the rule book sucks!
innim
17th May 2010, 12:03
I agree that schumis pass would have been illegal if yellow flags and SC boards were displayed, but the safety car had just come in at the end of the last lap. However, the green flags were waved indicating normal racing conditions.
Had yellow flags been waved then fine, schumis pass was illegal. But GREEN flags were waved, and since when did green flags mean no overtaking?!?
Im disgusted by the stewards’ decision. Even if they found it necessary to give alonso back his place then 20 secs is a rediculous penalty to give to schumacher. Swapping their places back would have been fine, or a small grid penalty for the next race.
TomD11
17th May 2010, 12:36
I think, as many people have said, that the rules are to blame here. In this instance it certainly seems that Schumacher broke the rules, even if the whole ‘SC in’ and green flags meant there was room for confusion. However this sort of thing will continue to happen if the FIA continue to have their unclear rules that allow them wiggle room (although in this case it was more a result of seemingly conflicting rules). And, in instances like this, where there is room for confusion, a 20 second time penalty, especially under SC conditions that drops the guilty party behind those they would have still been ahead of had the incident tnot happened, then the penalty doesn’t fit the crime. I just don’t understand why the rules don’t allow the stewards to have the option of simply reversing the places because otherwise this sort of furore is inevitable.
Enigma
17th May 2010, 12:42
A very off-topic thing.
In Spa, the winner goes to pits from the exit. What if someone was entering the last lap right in front of him but made a pit stop? (we’ve seen last lap pit stops in Spa in 2008).
That might get a bit dangerous.
tony
17th May 2010, 15:44
The move may have been illegal but due to the green flags Schmacher should at least be allowed to keep 7th. 20sec penalty is too much for such an unclear situation.
PJA
17th May 2010, 18:16
Okay, I don’t know if this has been mentioned elsewhere and I have just missed it, but when I was looking at the FIA Media Centre it said that Webber received a fine for speeding in the pit lane during the race.
http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/f1_media/Documents/mco-document-33.pdf
Why didn’t he receive a drive through penalty, or am I reading it wrong and he only speeded before the race started when he was on the way to the grid as the time is 13:31 so if they use local time this will probably be the case.
homegym
23rd May 2010, 2:58
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