September 24, 2013

@AussieGrit...

Mark Webber called out on Twitter  Derek Warwick, one of the stewards in Singapore who handed him and Alonso reprimands for the taxi ride.
While in some sense the stewards hands were tied by regulations which call for an automatic 10 grid spot penalty after 3 reprimands  (the Grosjean rule, I guess),  common sense says you don't penalize sportsmen for a sporting act at a sporting event.

11 comments:

  1. i also was angry when i first heard about that, but have you

    ever wondered what that "additional footage that the stewards have" you always hear about looks like?

    well, here it is:
    http://www.blick.ch/sport/formel1/der-wahnsinn-von-singapur-im-video-id2450773.html
    (swiss site)


    now let's look back what the FIA documents say:
    - alonso got busted for stopping in a dangerous way so that two other cars had to take avoiding actions(nearly collecting mark webber)


    - webber for entering the track in an unsafe manner.


    -> looking at that footage i think the stewards where correct in both cases.

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  2. Hell, Motorsport is an "unnecessary risk"

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  3. Well what can you say? Life isn't always fair. Maybe this is Warwick's way of releasing an intense feeling of indignation that has built up over the years cause his F1 career was largely a bust. As a British driver he never won a world title like Mansell or Hill. For the most part Warwick spent his career driving uncompetitive cars. He could be bitter about that. What I like about this photo is Berger in the Ferrari. Nice! Gerhard is definitely one of the legends. Like Kimi, Berger is the only other driver I know of who has had two separate stints at the Scuderia.

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  4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HO91FVHIRY

    Here is the incident from another angle. You can clearly see that Nico Rosberg passed by Alonso and Webber with little space to spare. In the previously posted CCTV footage, it was clear to see that Alonso stopped after Webber ran on track and waived Alonso down for a ride. I have no problem with one driver taking hitching a ride with another after the race. Yet, the manner at which Webber entered the track and how Alonso stopped after a blind turn (in part due to Kimi being on his outside) deserved a reprimand. If Webber had not made contact with Nico in Bahrain or ignored a yellow in Canada, this would have been a non-issue. But he this was hit third reprimand and thus an automatic 10-spot drop at the grid for the next race. I don't think Webber was complaining when Maldonado received one last year.

    Although I really liked Webber in his early years, since Vettel joined 'his' team, his behaviour has been changed in a negative manner. The once outspoken and witty Aussie is now more an old bitter discontented grandad. Sad.

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  5. That's true!

    I'm all for exhibitions of sportsmanship and camaraderie like this, but Alonso stopped where he shouldn't have which made it more complicated than it should have been. Obviously at that point Webber isn't going to tell him to move the car before he steps onto the track, so he gets another reprimand.

    I'm not sure what a reprimand fully entails, but it seems pretty light... until you accumulate three. So now the whole story has been turned into a taxi ride that means a 10-place grid penalty which is not the case.

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  6. Webber would also not be allowed to use the helmet that Warwick is wearing in that picture (due to changes in safety requirements and helmet construction) so I don't see what the rub is here.

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  7. I think FIA / Bernie is in the last 30 year did an excelent job from the financial point of view... but man we lost most of the sport essence

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  8. I didn't know it was about ignoring the marshals, I thought it was just about walking on the track.


    If that's what DC says then I think I have to agree with you. I definitely trust his judgement over mine on this one :)

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  9. It's a managed risk. It's risky, but there are measures in place to prevent it from becoming too risky. Like running out on track against the marshals wishes around a blind corner. It's pretty easy to see why the FIA had a problem with this, but you're ignoring the safety factor and focusing on the being a good friend and giving someone a lift factor. That is completely irrelevant. The problem (and punishment) was about Mark running out onto the track when the marshals told him explicitly not to, put himself and others at risk, and did so around a corner where the drivers were blind to a stopped car. I don't understand why this is so hard for you to grasp.

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  10. "wonder what hamilton's problem is"


    Everyone harps on the guy that speaks out. I wonder why Jackie Stewart is so respected now. Oh, yeah. He spoke out.

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