Örjan Bergstedt
Sweden

Don, I would agrue it would be safe to say Britain is very much the ‘spiritual home’ of motor racing.

Look through the history books of F1 and Sportscars and Britain in inexorably linked to so many wins, championships and key moments.

The key personnel in most teams, back through the history of the sport are almost always British, even today, most teams have more Brits than any other nationality. Most F1 teams today too, are based in the UK.

The wider public always sees F1 as ‘motor sport’ and the leading teams, from the 50s onwards in particular are predominantly British. Lotus, Tyrell, Williams, McLaren, Brabham: all, essentially, British. Ferrari is the only team which has been constantly at the forefront of the sport yet is not British. (Although it should be pointed out that many of their key team members now, including Massa’s engineer, are British.)

Try taking Britain and Brits and anything connected with the two out of motor sport history and see what you are left with.

Coming back to the original issue for debate here, any right thinking person can see that this penalty was totally unjust but, somehow, it seems like divine retribution that Ferrari’s pit devices broke, levelling the playing fields again.

Sorry, but this statement, “Britain is the spiritual home of motor racing….” almost had me fall out of my chair. Sorry, but I somehow never knew that. Considering that Britain languished for many, many years in the backwaters of the racing world, bringing real meaning to the concept of being “insular.”

Long before Brooklands and The Right Crowd emerged, motor racing was a vibrant, dynamic force in France and the United States. Indeed, the first racing as we know racing took place in America. The W.K Vanderbilt Cup of 1904 helped lead the way to the GP de l’ACF in 1906. Brooklands is long done as a venue, but racing continues at Milwaukee and the IMS, both contemporaries of Brooklands.

Sorry to veer off topic, but, by Jingo, nearly two decades prior to the first RAC British GP there was the Grand Prize Race for the ACA Gold Cup in Savannah. Britain’s ascent to the fore during, roughly, the 1951-1960 period (sports cars and grand prix racing included as well as drivers) is a remarkable story. However, any claims for “Britain [being] the spiritual home of motor racing” need to be looked at with serious reservations.

Not to compare events, but in a similar way I will always think of this years’ Spa race as a Hamilton victory much in the same way I remember Martin Brundle finishing 2nd at Detroit in 1984. Don’t forget, the latter mentoned was only a few years removed from almost everyone on the grid having an illegal car, so why punish Brundle for such an amazing drive regardless of circumstance?

Over here, race results almost always stand. Punishment is handed down through fines and suspensions. The fans leave the track knowing for better or worse, who won.

Here’s to the end of those that make the decisions… New blood is desperately needed.

Where is the sport going ?

I don’t condone industrial espionage or infringement of intellectual property rights but last years actions and heavy-handed response to the ‘spying scandal’ unsettled my interest again. Since the sport began, teams and drivers have always sought to gain advantage over their rivals and whilst the actions of Stepney and those others involved were so blatant, I could not help but believe that ‘there for the grace of god’ go many others. The sanctions applied to McLaren appeared to me to be inequitable and showed what I felt was a bias towards Ferrari that I found unpalatable.

Mosley has a right to privacy and I don’t frankly care what he gets up to but his perversions become public knowledge, for whatever motive, and thus I have to question the workings of the man’s mind in all things and ask myself how he is perceived in places such as Bahrain and Abu Dhabi where the culture is a million miles from that apparently acceptable to him.

Then we have Ecclestone finally winning his battle to take away the British GP from Silverstone. Whether Donington can deliver what he wants in the time available is questionable and, if not, where does our GP go to. Britain is the spiritual home of motor racing and the technology and innovation that fuels the industry and secures jobs in this country is built on that heritage – how can Ecclestone be allowed to prostitute his position by even contemplating giving our Grand Prix away.

And so to Spa which has also been under threat. Spa which is everything the spectator could wish for, speed, sweeping bends, hairpins, fast straights and overtaking, in a lovely setting that is guaranteed a large and knowledgeable audience, rather than the sterility of the recently created Mickey-mouse cement and sand circuits that are being added to the calendar.

But does any of the above matter. The answer is no, not one jot, when the Stewards can demote Hamilton to third place for racing to a brilliant victory today. Hamilton was the best driver today, in a car that was able to cope with the variable conditions. To have the victory and winners points handed to Massa who clearly couldn’t drive faster than Hamiliton at any point in the race was a travesty. Another action which, in my mind is totally against the spirit of the sport and which again brings it into disrepute. I don’t have a copy of the Rule Book but surely Hamilton did what was demanded by letting Raikkonen take the lead again ? Whether Hamilton gained an advantage that helped him to overtake again is open to question and in my mind irrelevant, because I suggest that even if he had not made the second pass when/as he did, there would have been no chance of Raikkonen staying ahead of him until the end.

Without my reading the rule book it seems that the Stewards are making up the rules as they go and, yet again, these rules favour Ferrari. Today’s debacle and Massa’s inconsequential fine for dangerous manoeuvres in the Pit Lane seem hugely inequitable again. We seem to be back again to the times when Schumacher was allowed free rein to behave as he liked in the knowledge that there would, apparently, never be punitive sanctions against Ferrari.

Why should I bother to watch another Grand prix when it’s obvious that racing and being the best driver on the day don’t matter. My time would be better spent continuing the renovation of my Mk2 Spitfire and enjoying driving it around the Donegal roads – at least idiots such as those at Spa cannot turn that into a charade.

What about that special fuel in the Brabhams in ’83 (or at least in Nelson’s at South Africa)?

What about those special hydraulic suspensions used to get around ride height rules back in ’82 or so.

What about the other infractions and worse by many of the non-Ferrari teams in the last 20 years? Why do we not hear so much grousing about that?

And why do many drivers on the grid this weekend say they agree with the penalty? I’ve read comments from non-Italian drivers such as Bourdais and Webber amongst others?

Well, if you find my views comedically in the wrong, at least you’ve described them as constructed in a masterly fashion. That’s something, innit… ;-)

I wasn’t “complaining” per se about the Michelin tread width situation – I was complaining that you had written that the rules were tweaked when Ferrari were dominating in ’03, when precisely the reverse was true. It’s hardly my fault if this only arose because you hadn’t expressed yourself clearly.

And don’t make silly and wholly false comparisons with Ron Dennis asking for clarification about Ferrari’s rear wing last year, because the clarification he received was that the rear wing was legal, within the context of the existing technical regs. Perhaps once again you meant to write something else, of course, because McLaren also asked for clarification about a floor attachment mechanism on the Ferrari, which the FIA did indeed rule to be illegal, according to the EXISTING technical regs, but nonetheless it allowed Ferrari’s victory in the Australian GP, using this illegal device, to stand.

How on earth that therefore compares to the rules being CHANGED to outlaw the Michelin tyre in ’03, goodness only knows. I await your next comedy masterpiece to find out :)

Consider this, Ferrari refused to back the ill-fated GPWC and immediately signed up with Ecclestone. Ever since, they have been taken care of. Mercedes, however, have not and are really paying the price.

We are now seeing almost continuous draconian penalties each season – it does not matter if one team is on the receiving end of them all, what is important is that it is NEVER Ferrari.
Anyone who knows people in the teams will be familiar with the term “Formula Ferrari”

I watched my first GP when James Hunt won at Mount Fuji, I watched my last GP last weekend.

Good luck Lewis but I for one am tired of being regarded with contempt by a pensioner – at least the drivers get paid well to suffer him.

If you’re going to complain about the Michelin tread width situation, please complain about Ron Dennis having the “clarification” regarding rear wings last year.

If that’s so, I cannot understand how FIA could hand out a penalty afterwards.

It doesn’t change my opinion about what happened, but it changes in regard to the penalty. In the sense that it’s a farse.

Leaving aside the wrongs and rights of the Belgian incident, I can’t help but feel that it is the ‘sanitisation’ of the circuit that has a lot to answer for. Consider; If a driver goes off the circuit it’s usually because of an an error of judgement by that driver. Usually it means that at best, the error costs that driver time, at worst it’s the end of his race. If, by going off the circuit that driver drives safely onto a run-off area and can actually gain an advantage (even momentarily) by doing so, where’s the incentive to stay on the track? Had there been a gravel trap or tyres instead of a run-off area I doubt this whole, sorry episode would have occurred.

So, if there WAS manipulation, perhaps it wasn’t so much to benefit Ferrari, as to just plain tweak the championship. They already tweaked the rules to do so back in ’03, when Ferrari was dominating. Yeah, that really was helping Ferrari, wasn’t it…

30 years on, long live the memory- Ronnie Peterson

Similarly, regarding Massa’s pit release in Valencia, the timing of Massa’s release relative to the the position of Sutil’s car to the Ferrari pit crew would render it unsafe. I feel that a time penalty, stop-go or grid penalty would have been too harsh as there are mitigating circumstances. Ferrari were fortunate to have the final pit garage meaning that Massa could take a straighter line out of his pit box and would have done so even had Sutil not been there. The positioning of the photographer at his right seems to verify this. Once released Massa lifted and safely slotted in behind the Force India. Thus a penalty changing the course of the race would be too harsh and the appeal should have been thrown out.

I also believe the same applies to Hamilton’s penalty as the driver over whom he gained the unfair advantage did not finish the race. Had Raikkonen not crashed when he had a course of action similar to the Alonso-Klien incident in 2006 would have been available. The fact that it occurred in the final three laps of the race should have no bearing as it took race stewards only one lap to decide on an (unprecedented) penalty for Heikki Kovalainen at the same event. In essence Hamilton has been heavily punished seemingly for the simple fact that his misdemeanor occurred late in the Grand Prix and that Raikkonen did not finish the race.

Throughout this season and many seasons past there have been countless examples of poor Stewarding decisions being taken. With consistency in the enforcement of the sporting regulations, accusations of corruption, favouritism and conspiracy cannot take root. One of the main reasons in my eyes is that the stewards have insufficient footage on which to base their judgements. Why not have cameras at all the chicanes, affording the umpires an opportunity to look at these instances in detail? Such transgressions as Vettel’s Hockenheim pit antics and Montreal’s final chicane chicanery would not be missed.

In the end two things seem fishy to me. Why did the ruling on Felipe Massa’s, mid-race misdemeanor get postponed until after the race result when there seemed to be ample time to make it during the grand prix? Secondly, how can a 25 second penalty seem justifiable when its outcome makes no effort to right the wrong it penalises? Hamilton still scores more than Raikkonen despite having fouled him and instead Massa benefits and scores a race win that neither man nor machine deserved.

2. There have indeed been days on which Hamilton seems to have got the benefit of a dubious decision. You could say the same of almost every driver on the grid. And that surely is the point – these penalty decisions are very, VERY inconsistent. Surely the time has now come to have regular stewards at every Grand Prix – preferably ex racing drivers who actually know what they’re talking about.

3. On this particular occasion, having re-watched the in car footage of the incident, I have no doubt at all that the penalty was incorrect, ill advised and unbelievably stupid in the way it has opened the door to allegations of, at best, amateurism and, at worst, blatant bias.