#CanadianGP2019 Vettel & Hamilton

Like most blokes I know I take an interest in most sports.

I am not a motor head or an F1 devotee - but I follow the F1 races and have an opinion - albeit a lay opinion. - (while I admit to not being an expert I do think my opinion is objective!)

WHY AM I WRITING THIS BLOG TO GIVE MY OPINION WHEN I ACKNOWLEDGE I AM NOT AN EXPERT? SIMPLE  - BECAUSE I WANT TO MAKE THE POINT THAT SO OFTEN OBJECTIVE AND FAIR DECISIONS ARE CRITICISED BECAUSE FANS AND PUNDITS LOSE THEIR OBJECTIVITY THROUGH PARTISAN BLINKERED SUPPORT. THIS IS A CLASSIC EXAMPLE.

Yesterdays' race had a controversial outcome. A quick summary :

• Vettel led from the start - his Ferrari was faster on the straights.
• Hamilton in his Mercedes kept close and pressured throughout and threatened to overtake in the latter part of the race as tyre wear became a bigger factor.

What happened next?

A quick summary :

• Vettel under pressure made a mistake and veered off the track onto the grass.
• Vettel got back onto the track in front of Hamilton but Hamilton had to brake hard to avoid a collision.

What happened next?

A quick summary :

• Hamilton claimed immediately over his radio - Vettel had lost control under pressure from him and left the track. He stated Vettel against the rules of racing had immediately rejoined the track on the racing line - which was both dangerous and stopped him from overtaking to lead.
• The matter was immediately referred to the stewards by the Mercedes team and during the race the stewards decided Vettel had broke the rules and penalised him with a 5 second time penalty.
• Vettel was incensed when he heard the decision. His argument - once on the grass he battled for control of the car and it took him in front of Hamilton - there was nothing he could do about it - he had no options - it was a racing incident.
• Hamilton was able to stay within 5 seconds of Vettel and while Vettel crossed the finish line first Hamilton was awarded the race.

Now my objective lay analysis - ha! :

The decision was controversial in my view not because of the interpretation of the rules but because of partisan determined lack of objectivity - as so often is the case in sport.

Certainly passions run very deep in F1. 

The Tifosi (Scuderia Ferrari) are some of the most fanatical and partisan fans that exist in the world - in any sport. They are ultra Ferrari biased.

Lewis Hamilton is disliked by many - loathed by some. The reasons are unclear to me. He is quite clearly the most brilliant driver of his generation - probably of all time - but many want to contest that. He has an unorthodox life style too - maybe that is a factor. Clearly jealousy of his sustained and phenomenal success is the biggest factor. 

There are also churlish past F1 drivers throwing in their tuppence worth. Very often their take is F1 is not like it used to be - too many rules - in their day men were men - you sorted it out on the track. (they also got killed!) 

The decision of the stewards :

The rules

A number of F1 regulations apply to this sort of incident. One says: "Should a car leave the track the driver may re-join, this may only be done when it is safe to do so and without gaining any lasting advantage."

The question here being, did Vettel gain a lasting advantage by doing what he did?

Another says: "Manoeuvres liable to hinder other drivers, such as deliberate crowding of a car beyond the edge of the track or any other abnormal change of direction, are strictly prohibited."

And another: "It is not permitted to drive any car unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers at any time."

How the stewards saw it

Hamilton was piling on the pressure, always within a second of the Ferrari. And then Vettel made a mistake.

He went in to the Turn Three/Four chicane too fast, had a snap of oversteer, took to the grass and rejoined the track. As he did so, he had another snap, caught it, and continued to drift wide out to the kerb. Hamilton, whose front wheel was in front of Vettel's rear, had to back out of it and Vettel retained the lead.

The stewards investigated the incident and decided to penalise Vettel, saying they "reviewed video evidence and determined that (Vettel) left the track at Turn Three, rejoined the track at Turn Four in an unsafe manner and forced (Hamilton) off track. (Hamilton) had to take evasive action to avoid a collision."

How Vettel saw it :

He raged about it on the radio during the race: "You need to be an absolute blind man to think you can go through the grass and then control the car. I was lucky I didn't hit the wall. Where the hell am I supposed to go? This is a wrong world I tell you. This is not fair."

How Hamilton saw it :

Hamilton said: "The Ferraris were really quick. I just had to put him under pressure and force a mistake because they were so quick on the back straight that even if I got close into Turn 10 he would just pull away. And he made a mistake.

"Ultimately the rules say when you go off you have to come back on in a safe manner and I was alongside and I had to back off to avoid a collision and I guess that's why they made the decision."

It is very clear to me the stewards got it right - both in terms of the rules of racing and in terms of fairness and commonsense.

Clearly Vettel made a mistake. Clearly he in effect barged back across Hamilton on to the racing line and if Hamilton had not taken evasive measures there would have been a crash. If Vettel had not cut Hamilton up Hamilton would have taken the lead. Vettel did break the rules.

The mute point (and Vettel's defence) is Vettel's car was out of control from going onto the grass (where traction is lost) and Vettel did not deliberately drive back onto the racing line in front of Hamilton to prevent him overtaking. The reason why this is a mute point is whether it was deliberate or not it was caused by an initial mistake of driving off the circuit onto the grass - by Vettel under pressure from Hamilton. How he dealt with that mistake and any down side from it (deliberate or not) is clearly Vettel's responsibility. 

One thing is for sure if the roles had been reversed the Tifosi would have brought the house down in indignation. 

Objectively the stewards made the correct decision - although I would have preferred not to give Vettel a 5 sec penalty but to have ordered Vettel to allow Hamilton to take the position that would have been his if Vettel had not broken the rules.

Long live controversy in sport - ha!