Formula 1 round 19: Brazil GP

Max is a bit of an idiot for touching the car. Like, of course it muddies the waters. Not that I think he actually tampered with Lewis car, but if you were a lawyer you'd argue they can't rule it out.

Plus, touching each others cars is surely prohibited. Otherwise you'd have mechanics "just touching" each others cars all the time and spending millions figuring out how to "just touch" a car and slow the opponent down.

Touching the car, Max? FFS

They'll be doing whatever they can to get out of it or ar least balance the penalty somewhat. The latter races, Saudi and Abu Dhabi will be on the phone putting pressure on. They don't wantca dead rubber championship at their race. They want a close finish at their race and Lewis stating from the back decreases the chances of that.

I don’t think the politic runs that deep! They’ll apply the necessary penalties as lightly as the rules allow and be done with it! Lewis’ looks fairly cut and dry but what’s the penalty for touching a car? Is there one?

Given the evidence of what Max did in that video, it would almost certainly be a very stern warning in any other case.

If we're following the letter of the law then Lewis should be DQ'd from the session and Max should get a very stern warning.

I imagine Mercedes-Benz are offering to pay as big a fine as the FIA want in lieu of grid penalties because it was their f__K up and Lewis has done nothing wrong.

And I don't want to see Hamilton lose the championship on a technicality. I want him to get so tantalising close and get it snatched away in the cruellest way possible. I want him to be able to do everything he can and for it to be not enough.

No wonder Lewis was putting in blazing fast Sector 3 times yesterday with his wide open DRS beyond the maximum allowed. Anything less than a DQ from the session will be a disgrace.

Remember when all these drivers got penalised? No?

So you're ok that he can run an illegal DRS and gain an unfair advantage?

My own opinion of the things we know to date is: The FIA know that mercedes are guilty. They also know that mercedes will try to implicate Max in their defence of any decision. I think that the only reason Max has been summonsed at all is so that the FIA can rule him OUT as any factor in their decision on mercedes, thus leaving whatever decision they do make about the wing to be exclusively about mercedes, and to not allow mercedes to try and rely on Max interfering with their wing as a defence. If they didn't properly investigate Max touching the merc, I would say that could possibly add credibility to merc using that as a defence.

If the rumours about red bull reporting the merc wing to the FIA are true, I would imagine that they knew about this earlier than qualifying. The team can't get up close to have a look, but their driver can. I think they told max to have a good look at the wing to confirm their suspicions. Max was on reconnaissance mission there, not deciding to have a look for the craic.

We're those drivers touching the car outside the Parc ferme time window?

That's exactly what I'd have thought. Everyone just knows not to touch each others' cars so it never arises. Stern warning and downing a bottle of cop-yourself-on, is probably the protocol.

Lewis would surely be a DQ from quali. So he'd start the sprint from last and if he gets to 10th in the sprint he's have the 5 place grid penalty for the race. So he'd still start the race in 15th.

He can't if Mercedes can cheat with impunity. The commentators yesterday were saying it was very surprising how far ahead Hamilton was, now we know why.

The incident with noris crossing the pit entrance had the term "Force majeure" involved. Unless there was force majeure involved then I don't really see a comparison.

Max touched the car and then complained about that exact part of the car. If you were Mercedes lawyer, what would you argue?

Of course Mercedes will try it on. All they need to do is muddy the waters, not prove Max interfered with it or caused the infringement.

We'll just have to see how it works out.

I suppose even if for some reason Merc get away with it! They’ll surely have to adjust the wing to make sure it’s compliant, meaning that straight line advantage they had yesterday is wiped away anyway!