How I fell out of love with Formula 1

[magical mr rich]

It saddens me to write something with such a title, but the sport I have grown up with all my life has now just lost me.

This nearly happened a few years ago with the general boredom the sport seemed to provide me on a Sunday, the endless procession of noise that it was with some German guy in a red car at the front. It then culminated in the most laughable of events, the American Grand Prix of a few years ago where Michelin didn't get the tyres right for a race and wouldn't let any of their cars race, leaving only six cars to take part.

Also, there has been the constant rule changes. I can't think of a sport that changes it's mind on such a regular basis. The qualifying system they have now is just bizarre, I actually quite liked the old system of an hour where everyone can go out at any time and they have pretty much four runs at it with virtually no fuel on bored. Then came the one lap idea, where drivers had one go at it... which was alright.

I remember the days with a tank full of fuel and they just had tyre changes, which meant none of this crap where teams pumps seem to not work at random times where it will benefit Ferrari. Two years ago someone had the bright idea of making tyres last a whole race. Now we have a system where you have to use to different compounds of tyre in a race.... the list of changes go on and on and on from year to year.

But I kept faith in it, kept watching and the last two seasons it has started to capture me once more.

This season has just got weirder and weirder though. First of all there was the Max Moseley episode. I mean what employer that has to hire a guy to be the figurehead of a sport, keeps him in employment after it's revealed he likes to have kinky sex with hookers whilst pretending to be German? No no, he kept his job amazingly.

Then came yesterday, the Belgian Grand Prix. Everything was fine.... coming into the last few laps of the race Lewis Hamilton attempted to overtake Kimi Raikkonen. Kimi forced him out so Lewis had to cut across the chicane, but Lewis actually got ahead of Kimi by doing this. So what Lewis did was let Kimi back past... which has been the rule for years. If the driver didn't let the other person through again, then they would get a penalty.

After the race, and Hamilton had won because Raikkonen had crashed out the previous lap, they gave Hamilton a 25 second penalty, which demotes him to third place. This means that Massa scored more points than Hamilton in the race and made the championship standings closer.

They gave him the penalty because apparently he gained an advantage... well of course... but he gave the position back!

There's two reasons they have done this. Either they are just for some reason deciding to stick to the letter of the law in a very bizarre fashion, or they are doing it to create drama in sport which doesn't need any more than it already has.

Either way, this is pathetic and I really don't think I'm going to bother watching anymore, and they've lost a fan of over 20 years.

[Craymen Edge]

I read somewhere that the new meaning of FIA = Ferrari International Assistance.

I thought that was a diablolical decision, especially after Ferarri escaped unpunished in Valencia when Massa nearly squeezed another car into the wall in the pit lane, and Raikonnen tried to kill his pit crew.

[magical mr rich]

I just don't understand where this has come from. A 25 second penalty for missing a turn and then giving the place back?

I have never seen that rule implemented, unless the position wasn't given back!

[RivaOni]

It's been like this for as long as Ferrari have been a title contending force, if you look at before Schumacher became a Ferrari driver, So the early to mid 90's they weren't pushing anything, other teams were stronger, especially those with Renault engines, and the field as a whole was closer, and it was actual racing, then Ferrari started to come back, and if Ferrari had of used the team tactics that Hakkinen and Coulthard had used in the Melbourne Grand Prix the year Hakkinen won his first title, you could have bet your bottom dollar that the FIA wouldn't of mentioned anything about banning team tactics, as it stood people were pretty much aware there was a #1 and #2 driver in a team, other teams seemed force to employ two drivers of equal standing whilst Ferrari got away with employing people that were obviously not going to push Schumacher for his role in the team.

Why do they get away with this? Because of the glamour, media attention and share wealth Ferrari bring to the sport, Ferrari are synonymous with racing pedigree cars, its how the manufacturer begun its life, the problem I have is this seems to be the only slice of racing history the FIA are trying to keep in the sport when they seem to be doing their utmost to abandon some of the most challenging and famous circuits in racing history such as Silverstone, Suzuka and Spa, although I doubt you'll see the Ferrari "home" races (Imola and Monza) dissappear any time soon.

I gave up on the sport a long long time ago, I wish any British driver well, but am not really fussed anymore as to what happens in the sport because of the constant rule changes and bending to suit the one manufacturer. Plus their all moaning bastards now "ooh this circuit isn't safe" er, you're driving a car at over 200mph, the idea is your supposed to be running on the edge, what do you want, bouncy castles installed on the very edges of the tarmac incase you skid and get whiplash?

[magical mr rich]

It's just failed to be a sport in my eyes. I am constantly watching, waiting for the next farce to appear, and that is what we saw yesterday.

Apparently McLaren have data showing that Hamilton did lift and was 6 KmH slower than Raikkonen over the line.

I don't know what they are trying to say from this though, that yes Hamilton gave the place back, but he overtook him again too quickly?

It's complete and utter rubbish, it was blatantly obvious that Lewis' car was a lot quicker than Kimi's in the later stage of the race. It is so blatantly obvious that they are skewing the interpretation of the law to be in favour of making the championship tighter.

[code selfish]

Then followed the most thrilling couple of laps seen on a F1 track for many a year.

Whilst I agree with almost everything in this thread that shows the whole setup in such murky light those last five minutes were some of the most exciting telly I've seen in ages. To have that payoff devalued is a disgrace but bugger me, 'twas some superlative action.

[Chinzon]

Somehow, I get a funny feeling every decision in F1 will go against Lewis Hamilton for as long as Max Moseley is president of the FIA.

Call me a cynic...

[magical mr rich]

Facist!

[Guinnes1981]

Mental note to Hamilton, next time Räikkönen tries to force you off the track, nail the c**t into a wall.

And i'll agree with Chinzon, I think Hamilton's up against something far worse than the might of Ferrari, which is just pathetic.

[blagmasterg]

This is what I posted on the BBC 606 discussion thread on this subject - amazingly I have received an email advising that the ost has been removed due to breaking BBC house rules, to whit "Postings to BBC message boards will be removed if they:

Break the law, or condone or encourage unlawful activity. This includes defamation and contempt of court.

Now, I'm no legal expert, but I can't see anyything in my post that does any of those things, especially compared to the posts that some other people had put on the same message board. Anyways for what its worth:

First, I have to concede that I am a Lewis Hamilton fan. There, I've said it, so all of the 'fanboy' accusations can come rolling in.

For my part, I was gutted but not surprised at the fact that Lewis was penalised. I was actually watching the race with a friend who is not particularly an F1 fan, and I said to him at the time of the incident in question that Lewis would probably find himself penalised for the manouver (I might add that my friend thought I was mad) However, I DO believe that the punishment that has been handed out IN THIS INSTANCE is harsh.

I do not subscribe to the theory that the FIA is hell bent on crushing Lewis Hamilton, nor that it is impossible to be in the right unless you drive a Ferrari (I seem to remember some Spanish bloke taking 2 titles back to back fairly recently and I'm pretty sure that his car was blue and not red) Lewis has made mistakes, and this cannot be argued. He has a natural hotheadedness about his driving style which has led to some penalties and ultimately last year led to him losing the F1 championship (only just).

In this instance however, the punishment does not fit the 'crime'. I'm not a technical racing driving expert, however to my mind if you overtake a car 'off track', realsie this and yield the position back to the driver that you overtook and then proceed to overtake him again in a fair and legal manner, then I fail to see the justification in penalising you for 'gaining an advantage'. Whats more, if the other driver invloved in this incidence then goes on to crash his car with no assistance form you or any other driver then I fail to see how what was at best a fairly marginal advantage that may have been gained over him would continue to be relevant in deciding the outcome of the race?

Sure, Nick Heidfeld was on a better set of tires and cutting through the field at a rate of knots, and Felippe Massa was only about 6 seconds down the road from Lewis at the finish, but taking into account the conditions, the fact that Lewis drives better than pretty much any other driver in the championship in the wet as evidenced several times already this season and the fact that previous races have shown that Massa struggles to even keep the Ferrari pointing in the right direction in the rain much less race other drivers for position, I find it difficult to accept the Stewards implied assertion that had Lewis gone round the chicane 'properly' then these other 2 drivers would have finished ahead of him.

Perhaps Mclaren will find the decision goes in their favour at the appeal. I doubt it, but again not because I think the FIA is out to 'get' Mclaren, more because I think it would be fairly humiliating for them as the governing body to re jig the race result again and also they would probably worry that such a re-jig would sully the sport in the eyes of the world still further. At the end of the day we can all sit here and post forever and a day about how much of an injustice this was, but the positive thing to take away is that it was an exciting race, Lewis is still leading the championship and has every chance of winning. Just my 2 cents anyways

Any thoughts from anyone here as to what I may be missing?