Button,Hamilton,Sato under investigation over tyres

heyjude

Stewards are expected to investigate whether Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Takuma Sato breached tyre regulations in the opening practice session for Sundays' Brazilian Grand Prix by using two sets of wet weather tyres as opposed to the single set allowed by Article 25.3 of the F1 sporting regulations.

It isn't clear if the drivers involved will face any penalty.

see http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2007/10/6997.html

Catcher86

They deliberated over it for quite some time and then finally decided to issue each team a fine and not penalise the drivers.
It will be interesting to hear what Button and Sato think about the decision.

Ghost Train

Seemed a fair punishment. If they had given them a grid penilty, button and sato wouldn't really have been punished at all, since there already at the back of the grid

Minor infringement for honest/silly mistake from the teams involved, glad to see a fair and equal punishment for the teams involved. Would have been fun to see how hamilton coped if he was a bit further down the starting grid, but probably not the way to have a championship decider

Catcher86

eolhc wrote: »

Seemed a fair punishment. If they had given them a grid penilty, button and sato wouldn't really have been punished at all, since there already at the back of the grid

The harshness of the penalty should not be decided by speculating what position the drivers are going to be in after qualifying.
On any other day I think there would have been a grid penalty or a pit stop penalty of some kind.

Mr. Presentable

Catcher86 wrote: »

The harshness of the penalty should not be decided by speculating what position the drivers are going to be in after qualifying.
On any other day I think there would have been a grid penalty or a pit stop penalty of some kind.

Or if it hadn't been Hamilton that was involved. The Italian press believe, and I am inclined to agree, that there is a move to reglamorise or re-romanticise F1, and to this end it is important Hamilton gets every chance to win - regardless of the rules. Imagine the outcry had Ferrari been accused of spying, or using illegal tyres!

heyjude

Not surprised at all by the stewards decision which essentially works out at no punishment at all(given that the teams involved(especially Honda and McLaren) have annual budgets that run into hundreds of millions per season or well over 10 million per race, so what is $10,000 compared to that).

I think its been obvious since the early summer that F1 are trying to use Hamilton to promote the sport and so are giving him great latitude in his chase for the championship, even to the extent that every time Hamilton, Alonso or McLaren do something to attract the stewards attention(and there have been 5/6 such incidents this season), either the stewards found no fault, blamed Alonso or the other driver involved or they blamed the team.

Now the question is, can Hamilton restrain himself today, he says he will chase the win but if thats not possible then he will settle for the points he needs. But he can't do this, as chasing the win may mean going 100% into the first corner, but Massa has nothing to lose and is committed to giving his all to win his home grand prix, so as Massa hinted, Hamilton will need to be careful whereas he can just concentrate on doing whatever he has to to win todays race. Hamilton will also be wary of Alonso and Raikkonen coming up from behind especially if Hamilton has a lighter fuel load.

The way the season has gone, you can easily see another incident involving the McLaren and Ferrari cars, with Massa as the wildcard. I think if Hamlton wants the championship, he needs to let Massa go and claim the ten points, as that would make it much harder for Alonso and especially Raikkonen. Hamilton in 2nd makes him world champion, so why risk a tangle with Massa, when he already has enough to contend with, in Alonso.

IT Loser

heyjude wrote: »

I think its been obvious since the early summer that F1 are trying to use Hamilton to promote the sport and so are giving him great latitude in his chase for the championship, even to the extent that every time Hamilton, Alonso or McLaren do something to attract the stewards attention(and there have been 5/6 such incidents this season), either the stewards found no fault, blamed Alonso or the other driver involved or they blamed the team.
.

Well, we'll see just how far they are prepared to take their already obvious and preposterous protection of this young brat. Frosted Fuel Flakes is their latest gimmick.

heyjude

IT Loser wrote: »

Frosted Fuel Flakes is their latest gimmick.