Formula 1 Heineken Grande Prêmio De São Paulo 2021Formula 1

[Liquid]

It might not be a criminal or civil law case but once again, fines ought to be pegged relative to income. Verstappen could drop $50,000 on the floor and not be bothered to pick it up again.

 

[PeterJB]

 

[Jimlaad43]

Precident now set. Any driver can touch another car for the small price of $50,000. A small price to pay for a team if it gets your rival disqualified...

 

[andrea]

Seb about to go bankrupt.

 

[Famine]

Well... also not unexpected but bold move from the stewards.

Expect to see that one appealed - and Verstappen has got away with one there. Damn Hamilton's great luck he always has.

 

[PeterJB]

Precident now set. Any driver can touch another car for the small price of $50,000. A small price to pay for a team if it gets your rival disqualified...

He would have been disqualified even if Max hadn't touched it.

 

[andrea]

Well... also not unexpected but bold move from the stewards.

Expect to see that one appealed - and Verstappen has got away with one there. Damn Hamilton's great luck he always has.

Mercedes cracked under pressure and decided to cheat? So confusing.

 

[Veinz]

Maybe this was Merc trying be sneaky and they got caught. Every team will bend the rules at some point.

 

[kungtotte_]

I did some back of the envelope estimates (25 million paycheck divided by 22 GPs divided by 72 hours per GP) gives a rough hourly income per GP of 15.8K EUR for Max.

He's made the money back by the end of the sprint 😂

 

[Jimlaad43]

He would have been disqualified even if Max hadn't touched it.

I'm not talking about this particular incident, there's no way Max actually damaged that wing. However, he was clearly searching for something and it just takes someone at a future round to go "can you investigate this but of the Mercedes/Red Bull/Ferrari etc" and go and get the evidence the team wants to launch an appeal. Like, the wobbly Red Bull rear wing when DRS is open looks just as suspect, so it wouldn't take much for Bottas to walk over under instruction and wiggle that rear wing if they know it'll "only" cost 50k, a small price to pay if it ends up getting a part banned/driver disqualified.

This could be a slippery slope if once again the FIA go for symbolic-but-not-actual monetary penalties.

 

[Rossell2]

I personally think the Verstappen incident should have been heavier. The Hamilton DSQ was a slam dunk and fair enough imo.

 

[Dreadmed]

Precident now set. Any driver can touch another car for the small price of $50,000. A small price to pay for a team if it gets your rival disqualified...

They have stated that punishments regarding poking and prodding in parc ferme will now be dealt with depending on the severity of the infringement (or something to that effect), there's no guarantee of it being a mere $50k if someone did something similar next season.

 

[McLaren]

$50K does seem pretty insignificant, but I'm not really all that shocked since the fine is on him b/c of breaking a basic rule (touching/inspecting when only specific officials are allowed to do so) as I don't believe he was found to have actually damaged anything, as far as I am aware from the info I've read.

It's a similar figure that gets thrown out in US sports. I've seen it a lot in the NBA applied to guys for doing things that could be seen as a somewhere similar case of breaking the rule book outside of the general game rules (getting into scuffles that stop short of fist throwing/shoving, calling out the referee committee/body, throwing a ball out into the upper stands, offensive gestures) but coming short of doing anything major. Guys that aren't making F1 money, but still getting $25k-$50k fines that look small for their multi-million contracts.

 

[Carbonox]

I guess it's a sign of improvement over last year that inappropriate touching now has consequences in F1?

 

[Rossell2]

I guess it's a sign of improvement over last year that inappropriate touching now has consequences in F1?

That took me a moment..

 

[Touring Mars]

€50,000 for checkin' wings... now that's an expensive lunch!

 

[Jimlaad43]

Sooo...
Is Bottas going to be "deployed" on lap 1 of the sprint? My cynical side is winning out and saying it's likely but I really hope we don't end up with it especially because of the subsequent Twitter meltdown from such an act.

 

[Touring Mars]

Sooo...
Is Bottas going to be "deployed" on lap 1 of the sprint? My cynical side is winning out and saying it's likely but I really hope we don't end up with it especially because of the subsequent Twitter meltdown from such an act.

What do you mean by that?

I doubt that Mercedes would stoop to deliberate and premeditated on-track interference, and I doubt even more that a driver of Bottas's integrity would do so even if instructed to.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

Sooo...
Is Bottas going to be "deployed" on lap 1 of the sprint? My cynical side is winning out and saying it's likely but I really hope we don't end up with it especially because of the subsequent Twitter meltdown from such an act.

It would be great to see if Bottas does a Verstappen on Verstappen, he has another chance to win and less to lose. However, he does not seem confident this weekend in the car especially in first sector while the Red Bull looks hooked up through there. Just need him to get a great start both races and hopefully Lewis can do great recovery drives to keep the championship alive.

 

[PeterJB]

What do you mean by that?

I doubt that Mercedes would stoop to deliberate and premeditated on-track interference, and I doubt even more that a driver of Bottas's integrity would do so even if instructed to.

It may not be as obvious as "Punt Max off, please", maybe just "If you were to lock up at turn 1 or run across the grass it would be a great shame if your car was aimed straight at Max's"...

 

[Famine]

The Mercedes thing gets even weirder.

Like Aston Martin's fuel thing earlier in the season, it's a slam-dunk. The car breaks the technical regs, and DSQ is the only call the stewards can make.

But... the car fails the DRS wing test only on the outside edges, Mercedes says the part is designed to meet the test, the stewards say the part is designed to meet the test and Mercedes is not attempting to cheat in any way, and that for some reason there is "additional play" due to "some combination or other fault with the mechanism or incorrect assembly of parts".

And then they've been sent out with a new wing "of the same design"...


Meanwhile, at Red Bull:



HUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUE

 

[Jimlaad43]

What do you mean by that?

I doubt that Mercedes would stoop to deliberate and premeditated on-track interference, and I doubt even more that a driver of Bottas's integrity would do so even if instructed to.

I'm being cynical and pessimistic and expecting Bottas to have some "unfortunate" contact with Max in Turn 1 because it'll help Lewis. However, it's not the way we want this title to be decided.

 

[Liquid]

I'm being cynical and pessimistic and expecting Bottas to have some "unfortunate" contact with Max in Turn 1 because it'll help Lewis. However, it's not the way we want this title to be decided.

He'll have to catch him first. 🧐

 

[kungtotte_]

And Mercedes have also been denied any chance of inspecting the faulty wing to see what could have gone wrong, so if they assembled the thing incorrectly or if there's some structural weakness going on they can't verify it doesn't happen to the new wing either.

And FIA have said that they are almost certain it's not an attempt at cheating either, so it feels a bit strange.

 

[Touring Mars]

It may not be as obvious as "Punt Max off, please", maybe just "If you were to lock up at turn 1 or run across the grass it would be a great shame if your car was aimed straight at Max's"...

An order even remotely like that would see Toto Wolff's and Valterri Bottas's motorsports careers ended.

Briatore tried this kind of crap before and it doesn't work.

Wolff, Bottas and Hamilton are sportsmen, not cheats.

 

[GingerBredMan]

Bottas isn't listening to any team orders at this point. Perez will pass him in 4 corners and that'll be the last we hear of him in the Sprint.

 

[Rossell2]

Reading the above, it feels a bit reminiscent of Ferraris engine "trouble" from the other year, anyone else?

 

[Famine]

Reading the above, it feels a bit reminiscent of Ferraris engine "trouble" from the other year, anyone else?

Well... no. Here the offence has been detailed (outer edges of the upper wing element exceed 85mm gap to the lower element) when DRS is in activation), Mercedes has been penalised, but the FIA officials state it's not an intent to break the rules, simply a defect or error in assembly.

With Ferrari no offence was ever detailed and nobody was ever punished. The FIA simply announced an investigation, and then said it was closed with a "confidential settlement" agreed between Ferrari and the FIA.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Lewis is lucky that he has this disqualification on a sprint race weekend, as he has an extra 100km to move up the grid. Of course he still has a 5 place penalty which will hamper some of his progress today, but I would not be surprised if Lewis ends today in the top 10.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Bottas is starting on softs. Let's see if he keeps his position.

Interested to see how Hamilton will progress or if at some point he gets stuck.