FIA Bias

After watching the nail-biting finsih to today's Belgian Grand Prix I was very disappointed to learn that Lewis Hamilton was stripped of his win after a Stewards Enquiry, especially in light of the fact that the Stewards decided against penalising Ferrari for the incident in the last race. This isn't the first time that the cynic in me has come to the conclusion that the FIA is biased in favour of Ferrari, and I'm inclined to agree with Jeremy Clarkson's comment in this month's issue of Top Gear when he noted [about the German Grand Prix] that as per usual the car prepared by the team with the most money won.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Finally an important topic for debate on your blog JP ;-)

The first question I would ask is that if it hadn't been Hamilton penilised would you still disagree with the Stewards decision?

My feeling is that whilst the judgement was certainly harsh Hamilton did himself no favours. The law regarding chicanes is (unsuprisingly) more than a little vague. It refers to the driver gaining an advantage and whilst Hamilton had no choice but to cut it because of the line Kimi took I would be hard pushed to say that he gained no advantage taking this line.

Had Lewis backed off just a fraction more and passed Kimi later on the subsequent lap (as I have no doubt he would've) rather than the first corner after the Bus Stop then he would've given the stewards enough to say he gained no advantage.

I have to admit I rather found myself in the Graham Poll postion. He famously said that when he saw Lampard's 'winning' goal in extra time against Portugal in Euro 2004 he knew it would be disallowed before the decision was made. When I saw the incident live this weekend I rather thought Hamilton's celebrations were premature.

Unfortunately I think it was the best part of Hamilton's racing pedigree - the fact that he is a natural born racer and competitor who wants to pass at the first opportunity - than has counted against him. As I said, had he given the stewards a little more evidence that no advantage was gained we wouldn't be discussing the incident.

As for the FIA being in Ferrari's pocket - it would take a braver man than me to say that although I accept you may have a point...
Tue Sep 09, 11:41:00 AM GMT
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