FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[LBCracer]

My friend and I have been having an argument over the quali penalties last weekend.
We know that Mclaren had told Hamilton to let Alonso by in the beginning of Q3 because Alonso had the additional fuel for an extra quali lap. And Hamilton ignored these requests.

My friend claims Mclaren telling Hamilton to let Alonso pass is illegal team orders and Hamilton can't obey them because its illegal. I disagree, saying its their quali strategy that was set earlier in the weekend.

My question is: Is telling Hamilton to wave Alonso by, illegal.

Is it illegal or not?

[racechick]

Dont know about the ins and outs of team orders but I think the real question is why was Alonso so desperate to be in front for Q3????
This is taken from an article entitled "Qualifying flash point" in this weeks autosport:-
"On doing the maths it becomes apparent that Budapest is not one of the circuits on which two cars can't complete the same number of burn-off laps. the fact that it would have been perfectly feasible for both cars to complete 12 burn-off laps was proved by Raikkonon's Ferrari - which was initially stuck behind Alonso, doing just that.
It appeared, therefore, that the whole fuel-burn issue was a red herring. So why, then, was it relevant to Alonso whether Hamilton respected theorder to let him by or not? That remains something of a mystery."
Full article is on page8/9 of autosport.

A mystery indeed??Was the red herring all contrived because Alonso knew he couldnt get the supersofts to work as hamilton could over one flying lap?

[McLaren Fan]

The Formula One Rulebook distinguishes between practice, qualifying and the race. Rule 147 says, 'team orders which interfere with the race result will be prohibited', so there is nothing to stop team orders in qualifying; practice and qualifying are totally separate entities. Therefore, if Alonso was having tyre problems and the pitstop issue was because of that is irrelevant. Is it a team order anyway? I don't think so because it's only trying to get the optimum setting for your hot lap. The FIA monitor the radios so it's highly unlikely this is the first time an issue such as this has come up. There is no rule to penalise McLaren whatsoever. The events of Saturday night were therefore nothing more than politically motivated for the benefit of Ferrari who have the authorities in their back pocket and have done so for years.

[supeindesu]

If that was illegal, then waiting on pits to get a clean lap will be illegal too, then, it's not illegal. Strategy it's an humongous part of F1, and of course is not illegal. Hamilton had to obbey his team, and he didn't, that's no good.

[Ferrarifan]

No its not illegal, doesn't affect race outcome or even the qualifying results. I believe it was their strategy prior to entering the weekend.

[8-ball]

The Formula One Rulebook distinguishes between practice, qualifying and the race. Rule 147 says, 'team orders which interfere with the race result will be prohibited', so there is nothing to stop team orders in qualifying; practice and qualifying are totally separate entities. Therefore, if Alonso was having tyre problems and the pitstop issue was because of that is irrelevant. Is it a team order anyway? I don't think so because it's only trying to get the optimum setting for your hot lap. The FIA monitor the radios so it's highly unlikely this is the first time an issue such as this has come up. There is no rule to penalise McLaren whatsoever. The events of Saturday night were therefore nothing more than politically motivated for the benefit of Ferrari who have the authorities in their back pocket and have done so for years.

Rule 147 technically should apply to qualifying on some circuits like budapest and monaco. Because if a driver qualifies on pole they have pretty much won the race due to the limited or no overtaking opportunities.