2018 German Grand Prix -- Why did Hamilton not get penalized?
For those that do not know, Lewis Hamilton was summoned to the stewards office after a small incident during last weekend’s German Grand Prix.
After the rain started, numerous teams were swapping onto Intermediate and Wet tyres. On Lap 52, championship leader (and Ferrari Driver) Sebastian Vettel entered the stadium section on Soft tyres. As he pulled his SF71-H around Sachscurve, turn 13 ironically enough, the lost control of the back of the car on the greasy track surface. As the rear gripped the track again, the car darted off towards the barrier, with nothing that Vettel could do. This caused Vettel’s retirement and triggered a Full Safety Car.
The was much debate within the Mercedes garage as to bringing Lewis in for Intermediate tyres, more suited to the wet weather. The team eventually elected to stay out on the Ultrasoft tyres he had been using since the start.
He had committed to the pit entry, but strangely, as he spoke to his race engineer, Peter Bonnington, he was told to stay out, crossing over the grass back onto the start/finish straight. But as he crossed the crass, Bonnington repeatedly shouted “In in in in in in” to Lewis over the radio, telling him to pit for tyres.
However, in most cases this is a massive no-no, it mustn’t happen. Ferrari fans will argue that Kimi Raikkonen had a similar incident at the 2016 European Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan. He crossed the pit entry line while at racing speed. Raikkonen was given a five-second penalty for the incident.
If Hamilton had received a similar stype of punishment, he’d have lost the win to Valtteri Bottas, his Mercedes team-mate. But in this case, the stewards decided that this incident was not as bad, so Hamilton was merely issued with a reprimand and a warning for this mistake.
The stewards statement read:
“In deciding on the penalty for the infringement, we took into account the following mitigating factors:
- The driver and the team candidly admitted the mistake and the fact that there was confusion within the team as to whether to stay out or to enter the pits and that led to the infringement.
- The fact that the infringement took place during a safety car period.
- At no time was there any danger to any other competitor and the change in direction was executed in a safe way.
Taking all of the above into account, including considering previous infringements of the above rule, we are of the opinion that a reprimand would be the appropriate penalty for the said infringement on this occasion.”
This incident triggered Hamilton’s first reprimand of the season. If he has another two, he will have to take a 10-place grid penalty.
I think that it is good that the race results have not been altered after the race had finished, because that always sucks ahem 2017 US GP. Many have suggested that the FIA are biased towards Mercedes, but again, look at the US GP last year, they were more biased to Ferrari.
Jacques Villeneuve, 1997 WDC, has suggested that the FIA have always been slightly more biased towards Ferrari, due to their long-standing relationship. Yet, Ferrari fans are now suggested that the FIA have turned against Ferrari and are now more friendly with Mercedes.
In my opinion, all the Ferrari fans are wrong to say that the FIA were biased to Mercedes. The incident occurred under the Safety Car, while all the cars on circuit were travelling slowly. If this incident had happened at racing speed, then a penalty would have been more likely. It would then have been more dangerous, putting Hamilton and other drivers at serious risk.
It was also not entirely Hamilton’s fault. Lewis started to pull into the pits when the teams said to stay out. And then they told him to stay in. Lewis could have dealt with this more maturely by driving through the pit lane, but this may have lost him a few positions, not what you want in a race.
Nothing can be done about it now, Lewis has only been given a reprimand. What do you think of the incident? Leave a comment below of your opinion.
Thanks all for reading, drive safe,
675LT_ftw
Comments
I think really it should be black-and-whire. You cross the line, you get a penalty. Just because an intersection is deserted doesn’t mean it’s OK to run a red light there. The only way the “victims” crying “FIA likes x team not mine!” can be silenced is if there is a set penalty for all events which is applied fairly. If they want to build in a clause making infringements less severe during safety cars or during the first lap then that’s fine. But they should be written in.
Tell that to the stewards lol
A rule break is a rule break, no matter how “safely” he did it. He crossed the pit lane onto the track upon entry which is according to the rules - “prohibited.” It does not say anything about safety cars or safe execution. This means he broke the rules. The rule says that this would result in a 5 - 10 second penalty, which would damage his final result. He absolutely deserves the penalty, as he broke the rules.
But it wasn’t entirely his fault. It was down to the team too..
They told him to say out, then corrected themselves too late
The Russians…that’s why
They’re tampering with everything lol
Mercedes… Germany.
Then that’ll just be considered favouritism… What if it was Vettel?? Everyone would still say it’s a set up
Tl;dr cause the stewards are brainless apes and will penalize anything they can unless it brings them money. Headlines of Lewis winning is going to bring more attention than bottas.
Bottas isn’t really in a position to win the championship tho
He cut the corner and was outside of the white line with all 4 wheels, effectively leaving the track to gain an advantage.
Under the safety car period? How did he gain an advantage?
Crass or GRASS
Ooh look at you Mr. Spelling Bee 😂😂😂
I think I’m the only one but I don’t mind the more liberal approach of the stewards. Imo they should only be used when needed and as long as the drivers don’t gain a major advantage or cause any great danger, they should not receive time penalties. At the end of the day, racing is racing as they say. I think it was right to just reprimand Lewis, obviously if it happened again I would probably expect a more severe punishment, but with the current system it allows for the fact that the drivers are human and may act irrationally in tense, unusual circumstances due to adrenaline and such, rather than assuming their behaviour should be robotic regardless of the racing situation they are in
Canada 2019.
F*ck FIA.