Is the F in FIA for Ferrari?

Lewis Hamilton stripped of his sensational victory at Spa in outright corrupt circumstances. The FIA continues it's outright pro-Ferrari anti-McLaren bisas and it's complete fucking bullshit.

Hamilton clearly slowed and surrendered his position to Raikkonen, in doing so losing any possible advantage he may have had coming out of the corner. Then he passed Raikkonen cleanly into the next corner, absolutely nothing wrong with it. Yes he may have carried more momemtum out of the corner as a result of using the run off but he slowed and the straight and allowed Raikkonen past, as the rules state he should have. McLaren immediately asked Charlie Whiting (FIA Race Director, and head of the F1 Technical Department) who confirmed to them that Hamilton had done the right thing and there was no problem. As I said Hamilton slowed to let Raikkonen past meaning he lost any advantage from the run off, then passed Raikkonen because his car was a lot quicker and Raikkonen was driving very cautiously. I notice they ignore that Raikkonen changed his line several times to try and prevent the pass (you can only do so once when defending). This makes me so fucking angry because Hamilton did everything right and held it together for the last 2 laps when Raikkonen could not, Raikkonen momentarily passed Hamilton when a back marker rejoined the track right in front of him but Raikkonen spun on the next corner before crashing out a few corners later.

After Valencia where Massa was only fined for a pit lane indisgression this is fucking BS. Yet again the long history of pro-Ferrari biased by the FIA continues and I'm fucking disgusted by the level of corruption. So many times in the past McLaren have been penalised in this manner while Ferrari always get off scott free. The worst part is I joked to my flatmates after the race that no doubt Hamilton would be penalised because it favours Ferrari and look what happened. Although I honestly didn't think they possibly could penalise him as he did nothing wrong, especially when Charlie Whiting backed them up.

So as a result Hamilton is dropped to third, while two weeks ago Massa and Ferrari got a joke of a fine for just about causing a big crash in the pitlane. One was clearly dangerous the other was both insanely harsh, and also completely inconsequential. Raikkonen was not going to win as soon as the rain started, there's no question Hamilton would have won the race regardless.

Fuck the FIA, this pro-Ferrari BS is getting ridiculous. Not even the most one eyed Ferrari fan could whole heartedly suggest Hamilton was in the wrong.

Not sure how long this will stay on Youtube but see for yourself:

forza ferrari :>

Jono, could not agree more.

It has taken the shine off a great Grand Prix, and perhaps the most exciting 5 minutes of the season.

Oh my god!!! I watched the race and thought "well done"... and to wake up and see this... W T F?

This is beyond a joke now...

R

Amost 5000 people signed the petition to this already.

http://www.petitiononline.com/belgp08/petition.html

And BBC's David Croft explains the ruling.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/7603144.stm

McLaren's appeal was been rejected overnight. Not because it didn't have merit - tons of it - but because the FIA said basically it's against the rules to appeal.

What a joke.

R

I feel a bit better about it now.

There were roars of laughter when Massa drove off with the hose sticking out of his car.

Whoops, meant to say KARMA at the end of that.

I jumped for friggin joy when I saw that.

I laughed so hard when the Ferrari mechanics took so long to realise that Massa had not left the pit lane.

And, how did his incident pulling out in front of Sutil differ from the one at Valencia a few weeks ago?

Could it perhaps be that he was not inline for a win?

Also, I would like to know how a dangerous release in the pits only gets you a drive through penalty when pitting when the lane is closed due to safety car because you have NO fuel and have no choice gets you a stop and go.

Surely the dangerous release is worse?

Ferrari sure did start on pole position yesterday ... Max Mosely's pole.

Any news on Alonso swapping teams at the end of the season?

Not to mention the cheers from teams as the Ferrari mechanics made the long dash down the pit lane to his car.. You'd think someone would have run after him immediately - but they waited ages.

R

Yes. The rule has been complained about by many. The object of the no-pitting under safety car was to make it fair on cars who'd already passed the pit entry but on the same lap. Once the cars were all in-line the pit would be open - fair for all.

What has happened however is that some cars have to pit for fuel as it was their planned lap... those cars are screwed. I think they're considering a system next year whereby upon safety car deployment each team has ten seconds to push a button signifying their car intends to pit.

Massa's second dangerous pit-box exit this year - definitely warrants a hasher penalty. Ferrari's green-light system is obviously not working right.

R

The last thing which I think should be investigated is Massa's re-entry to the race track after he spun out. He did it in the path of Sutil - who then crashed. He did this with Sutil in sight and in a tight corner.

He should get a grid demotion for dangerous on-track driving at the next GP.

R

From what I know of the system it has no one checking the pit lane, it is a button that all pit crew press when they have finished their roles, nothing has been said about whether anyone has the role of checking the pitlane.

If that is the case they should be fined just for the gross oversight!



Seriously, what do Ferrari have against poor Sutil?

Fining Ferrari would be utterly pointless. Race incidents should cost race results.



It shouldn't matter one bit. A driver who is stopped or off the track has to wait for cars to go by until there is a safe gap.. Sutil crashed because taking the normal corner line would have resulted in him hitting Massa.

If it were anyone hindering a Ferrari they would be under investigation without doubt.

R

I've got no arguments with you there.

Sutil vs Ferrari

Monaco - Raikonnen hits Sutil from behind with Sutil in good position - Ferrari 1, Sutil 0

Valencia - Massa is released from his pit box unsafely, hindering Sutil - Ferrari 2, Sutil 0

Singapore - Massa is released from his pit box unsafely, hindering Sutil, AND later causes Sutil to incident by returning to the track dangerously - Ferrari 4, Sutil 0

Sutil has been so fucked over eh.

Fuck I hate ferrari.

They are the melbourne storm of F1 racing.

This one really, really fucked me off.

He was in a points position, 4 laps to go from the end of the race, Raikonnen hits him and only needs his nose cone replaced, and Sutil has to leave the race and get a DNF meaning that Force India still have no points on the board.

No penalty for Raikonnen, Ferrari walk away without a scratch.

Monaco = racing indcident.. Raikonnen locked brakes coming out of the tunnel. Nothing much could be done.

The other incidents = Ferrari's entitlement arrogance (i.e. unless you're at the top of the grid, you don't matter)

R

Agreed, just adding it to the list of times Sutil has been in the path of a Ferrari at the wrong time.

Just so I can enjoy it again..

Shame Massa you cunt!

*clutches sides*

I hope it's on youtube. Then I can watch it over and over and over again. And point. And laugh.

Someone has done Massa's pit stop to Benny Hill
http://scouseknight.com/f1player.aspx

Seemed like the best place to put this.

How to tell when the FIA are Doing It Wrong: Even Ferrari threaten to quit.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/motoring/news/article.cfm?c_id=9&objectid=10539671

Standardised engines+gearboxes will make the sport even more of a joke than it currently is.

What a finish!

Lewis takes 5th place from Glock on the final corner of the year to take the championship!

Seeing the reaction of Massa's dad when the poor guy was informed his son was not actually World Champion, poor guy.

I'm extremely pleased with the result though.

I was adamant that Lewis had lost this when Vettle passed, have no idea what happened to Glock.

Agreed on Massa's dad and the Ferrari fucks who thought they had taken the championship. Good job.

IMO a long awaited champion

The Toyotas chose to stay out on slicks, and it was only on the final lap where the rain was heavy enough to slow them down considerably. Both Glock & Trulli did 1:44 laptimes, compared to the guys on intermediates who were doing around 1:20.

Dialog on the Times site says that Hamilton was instructed to let Vettel past, as they thought he had the potential to cause an accident by trying to pass him, and could see from their statistics that Hamilton would've been able to pass Glock before the end of the race to reclaim fifth place. Cutting it fine, though.

Cutting it extremely fine!

"Is the F in FIA for Ferrari?"

Starting to rear its ugly head once again... F1, having seen the most recent champion win with less race-wins than Massa (at Ferrari) are now considering a medal system similar to the Olympics where the person with the most golds is the overall winner. (i.e. meaning Massa would have won instead).

What's the bet that if Massa had won we'd never have heard about this idea?

The justification for this from the FIA is to encourage more overtaking and raising the importance of race wins over season-long consistent performance.

If it is implemented half of the teams on the grid may as well pack up shop and leave F1. Since 2000, of the 142 races driven, 138 of them have been won by the top four teams in that period (McLaren, Ferrari, Renault and Williams). Only 4 have been won by the other (generally) 6 teams.

Retards if this comes in.. It'll just give more reason to get your 2nd car to tip competitots off the track to prevent them winning.

R

Oh jesus christ. The worst part is the did away with a similar system year ago because it was stupid. I 1988 was the last year where only your best 8 results counted. Senna scored 8 wins so was champion, yet Prost scored 106 points overall (but 76 from 8 races, 7 wins and a second) which was more than Senna. Also during Schumacher's unstoppable days they changed the scoring to maker it closer, top 8 instead of 6, with 8 points for second not 6.

I would have no qualms with them resorting to the old top 6 point scorers with 6 for second as I've always thought there should be a bigger points gap between 1st and 2nd to reward the winner. But this system of medals is retarded. Also have they thought this through? What happens to the current rules about teams who don't score any points in a season needing to requalify for the next season? If there's no points to be scored then what? Also smaller teams have sponsorship bonuses tied to point scoring finishes, once again no points no bonus?

That's fucked. What about consistency and conserving your engine for two races? Might as well just go for broke for the first race to secure a win and bugger it for the second.

Correct on both of those posts.

Retarded idea in the extreme...

I wouldn't mind seeing the point altered slightly though to maybe 12-8-6-5... and awarding one point each for pole position and fastest lap.

Reason being, how many times does someone get pole, fastest lap but earn no points because they got hit by another car?... For some teams I think it'd be a great incentive to aim for it when they can't realistically compete at race-length distances.

R

And it's confirmed by Bernie... 2009 will be decided by medals.

http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3213_4551592,00.html

Prediction: we'll see tons of team's 2nd cars not finishing races after being involved in 'racing incidents' with cars from other teams.