The F1 thread

stickyfiddle

Fretwired said:

AustrianJohn said:

I don’t understand the penalty for Hamilton. (I’m not a Hamilton fan-boy.) He was on the racing line. Where was he supposed to go?

I think it depends on the angle you look from .. I did think it harsh. Albon showed a lack of race craft. He should have stuck to Hamilton's gearbox round the corner and then mugged him along the straight - he could have won the race.

I do agree with that a little. He clearly had a shot at the win on those tyres and didn’t need to go that hard, but equally he only had a few laps to do it so wanted to push very hard to get it done ASAP.

Im sure he’ll be slightly more careful next time but so will Lewis. 

Fretwired

stickyfiddle said:

Fretwired said:

AustrianJohn said:

I don’t understand the penalty for Hamilton. (I’m not a Hamilton fan-boy.) He was on the racing line. Where was he supposed to go?

I think it depends on the angle you look from .. I did think it harsh. Albon showed a lack of race craft. He should have stuck to Hamilton's gearbox round the corner and then mugged him along the straight - he could have won the race.

I do agree with that a little. He clearly had a shot at the win on those tyres and didn’t need to go that hard, but equally he only had a few laps to do it so wanted to push very hard to get it done ASAP.

Im sure he’ll be slightly more careful next time but so will Lewis. 

Albon was on quicker tyres in a Red Bull with pace against a wounded Merc - he'd have had a slipstream from Ham and DRS. Ham was a sitting duck. However, his car would probably have stopped a few minutes later ..

AustrianJohn

stickyfiddle said:

AustrianJohn said:

I don’t understand the penalty for Hamilton. (I’m not a Hamilton fan-boy.) He was on the racing line. Where was he supposed to go?

Albon was also on the racing line but most of his car was ahead. Ham should’ve turned even tighter or slowed a little. Racing incident more than anything, but I’d rather see small penalties for that than carte blanche given to the sot of elbows-out stuff we’ve often seen in recent years.

But it all happens in an instant. By the time Hamilton knew he was there it was too late. 

thumpingrug

Pope on a rope!   That was a bit intense for the first race.  Roll on next week. 

not_the_dj

Had to wait for the C4 highlights, glad I didn't see the result beforehand.....chuffed for Lando

PC_Dave

Fretwired said:

AustrianJohn said:

I don’t understand the penalty for Hamilton. (I’m not a Hamilton fan-boy.) He was on the racing line. Where was he supposed to go?

I think it depends on the angle you look from .. I did think it harsh. Albon showed a lack of race craft. 

Nope

Fretwired

PC_Dave said:

Fretwired said:

AustrianJohn said:

I don’t understand the penalty for Hamilton. (I’m not a Hamilton fan-boy.) He was on the racing line. Where was he supposed to go?

I think it depends on the angle you look from .. I did think it harsh. Albon showed a lack of race craft. 

Nope

Why?

Boromedic

Racing incident for me, Albon drove into Lewis's front wheel. Lewis didn't move into him, nor did he open the steering too far. I wouldn't have given anyone a penalty for that, Albon could've won the race had he been more patient. 

sinbaadi

Fretwired said:

PC_Dave said:

Fretwired said:

AustrianJohn said:

I don’t understand the penalty for Hamilton. (I’m not a Hamilton fan-boy.) He was on the racing line. Where was he supposed to go?

I think it depends on the angle you look from .. I did think it harsh. Albon showed a lack of race craft. 

Nope

Why?

Lewis has opportunity to brake deeper into the corner and if he had done that, Albon would have been able to back off, he would have had no alternative.  What actually happened was that Albon made a brilliant pass, Lewis didn't see it coming and rather cynically ran his car out wide as a retaliation.  It was a very Hamilton-esque pass, actually.  I don't agree that it was poor race craft, it just left him vulnerable to getting unfairly squeezed out/off.  Hamilton should have done better.

prowla

Maybe Hamilton was supposed to jump off the track to get out of the way there.

thumpingrug

Looked to me from the onboard footage that Hamilton was at full lock.  His steering wheel didn't and couldn't move any further to create any more space.  A more experienced driver would have waited knowing they had the better tyres and made the move on the straight.  I think the penalty was harsh.

Cols

Slightly harsh, but driving into a Red Bull at Spielberg is kind of like driving into a Ferrari at Monza.  The stewards are going to take a dim view of it.

Albon accelerated out of the corner and drove his rear right into Hamilton’s front left, which some have argued as “Albon initiated the contact”.

What were the other possibilities at that point?  He could have backed out, at which point his right rear would have tangled with Hamilton’s right rear.  Or he could have held station until Hamilton smacked into the side of him.  Or he could’ve driven off the circuit.

 It’s clear from the overhead footage that Hamilton didn’t - and couldn’t, he was at full lock - leave Albon any racing room on the outside of the corner.

Boromedic

Lol "Lewis moved out wide and could've braked deeper... " Erm he didn't move wide he understeered and was trying to leave him as much room as he could. He was also on older, cold hard tyres vs Albons 2 grades softer tyres, explain again how Lewis could've braked later than Albon? Albon knew the risk he was taking going round the outside there as a result. A lap later then it's a different story, he still would've passed Lewis eventually if he had patience. Some of these penalties are ridiculous, Albon drove into his wheel as he had less space on the outside. 

sinbaadi

So either Lewis drove in to Albon, or Lewis had lost control of the car and crashed into Albon?  Which of these is Albon's fault?

Either way, Lewis was nowhere near far enough past Albon at the point of contact to be allowed to crowd him off the track.  He had to leave him more space.

Boromedic

Albon put his car in that position, that's his fault. Was he wrong to go for the overtake, no not at all, but it's the same as at the start, it's a racing incident. Lewis didn't punt him off or crash into him deliberately, hence why the penalty was harsh.

chillidoggy

How ironic is that, he gets a penalty for hitting the bloke who never finished the race anyway!

stickyfiddle

Apparently the stewards didn't have Lewis's onboard to review when they made their decision as those 360 cams aren't streamed live so have to be physically downloaded from the car, which takes time. That's fine, but begs the question why they made a decision knowing that footage existed but not having seen it. No reason they couldn't have put it on hold till the following morning and explained exactly why.

More concerning is they also didn't even investigate the obviously unsafe release of Perez, never mind penalise it. Obviously there aren't as many people in the pitlane at the moment but they seriously shouldn't be encouraging teams & drivers to have full-chat pit releases into oncoming cars...

Fretwired

Looking at Hams onboard many experts and commentators do think the decision was harsh. Odd the stewards only took a few minutes to make a decision with only one view available.

stickyfiddle

Sorry, to be clear I'm talking about the quali yellow flag thing, not the Albon shunt. I'm still 50/50 on that but I don't have a major issue with it

Fretwired

stickyfiddle said:

Sorry, to be clear I'm talking about the quali yellow flag thing, not the Albon shunt. I'm still 50/50 on that but I don't have a major issue with it

Even Ham said the yellow flag penalty was justified.