Lap 48...FIA shame on you!

[Lou Drozdowski]

Ferrari is red...Toro Rosso is blue...If you are in front of Hamilton...penalty for you!

A dark cloud still hangs over the Olympic basin, what we witnessed Sunday has left me gutted. I was planning a trip to Texas later this year but I will save my money instead. How? in God's name can we let a couple of lawyers who have never raced determine the outcome of a Grand Prix. Yep you guessed it...besides Emanuel Pirro as stewards of the course were two empty suits who took a rule and removed any sense of competition from it.

Maybe they should watch the video of Gilles and Arnoux banging wheels in France or when Lewis cut the chicane at Monaco and almost put Danny Ric into the barriers...The FIA with all it's bullshit regulations have created a cancer. We are no longer racers, we have become tire and fuel managers, petulant primadonna pilots who complain at every turn.

I have scoured the web for reactions...To a man, the ex drivers like Mansel, Andretti, Wurtz, Button agree...This was a racing incident and did not warrant the result.

I doubt very much, that those idiot suits have ever had to deal with snap over steer at 100 mph.

The fans of F1deserve better...regardless of who you root for.     

[1970EuropaGuy]

I wish they had said "Let Hamilton through" so that Vettel could have attacked him for the lat 10 or so laps. It would have been better for the fans, Vettel still might have won and they wouldn't look like idiots.

[Certified Lotus]

I have been a life long fan of F1 Racing. Until the last couple of years. It’s all a shame, how the officials now run the sport.

[4129R]

Forget for a moment the 5 second penalty, Vettel and Ferrari have been making far too many mistakes recently.

Hamilton's pressure forced the Vettel mistake.

How many times have Hamilton or Mercedes made an error in recent seasons?

(From a McLaren fan)

[Bainford]

I agree entirely, Lou. Unfortunately the problems with modern F1 run very deep. It's about money first, racing second, among other serious institutional blights.

[Roger]

Ask yourself this question. If Hamilton hadn't been so close behind, would the penalty have been applied?
As far as I know, there's no penalty for a mistake. It was for rejoicing unsafely, over which he had no real control.
A pathetic move by He-man Welly.

[4129R]

Ask yourself this question. If Hamilton hadn't been so close behind, would the penalty have been applied?

If Hamilton had not been so close to Vettel, Vettel would not have regained the track unsafely forcing Hamilton to take avoiding action.

It is a bit like an unsafe release in a pit stop.

[BDA]

Before I say anything, I should say this: I am not a Vettel or Ferrari fan. In fact, I think Vettel is somewhat overrated and Ferrari doesn't seem to be able to get their act together either with the car or strategy. I hope Hamilton is able to break Schumacher's records and then I would probably hope that Verstappen will beat Hamilton's.

But I agree that the race was stolen from Vettel and Ferarri. Hamilton pressured him but after Vettel went into the grass, he had three choices - probably get squeezed at the wall, try to tuck in on Vettel's left, or lift. Vettel really didn't have any choices because he had to maintain control of his car.

Formula One has become overly rule-heavy. Technology surely plays a part but I long in vain for the next Can Am where there are few rules and lots of innovation (in actuality, there was not nearly the innovation that was possible, but that's a discussion for another day). The FIA has a long history of messing things up with regard to rules probably starting with movable aerodynamic devices but they have veered into the driving space and haven't done any better with those rules.

I should say that a lot of safety innovations have been implemented so the rules makers are not all nuts but their latest outrage is ... well, an outrage. They should put some ex-drivers to help with these decisions because I think Lou is right, they seem to be lawyers and that's a bad thing.

I also agree that the drivers seem to complain a lot (Vettel is a chief offender here IMOH). Drivers today are a different breed than from back in the day.

update:
My recording from ESPN ended before the driver's interviews and podium ceremonies (it did make sure I had recorded about an hour of college baseball - thank you very little), but I just found out that Vettel put the #2 post in front of Hamilton's car in parc ferme. It's one thing to say the stewards are idiots and that you were robbed, etc... but I think this is too petulant for an adult.

I heard that from this video which I thinks gives an interesting perspective (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j3yxNJDV3o). I think he makes some good points that deserve serious consideration.