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[darwin dali]

Take it from the pro and btw. a world champion who drove for Mercedes:

ESPNF1: 2016 Formula One world champion Nico Rosberg has dismissed the idea that Kimi Raikkonen deliberately hit Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix.

The first lap collision led to a war of words between Mercedes and Ferrari with both Hamilton and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff questioning Ferrari's tactics, suggesting that it was done deliberately to aid Sebastian Vettel. Ferrari has since responded to these claims, stating the German manufacturer ''should be ashamed'' for making such accusations.

"The answer is pretty simple. 100 percent not on purpose,'' Rosberg said in his latest vlog on his official YouTube channel. "We also saw that in Austria because even there, Kimi is not driving for Sebastian. In Austria, Kimi was second and Sebastian third and there was no letting Sebastian past at all. They didn't even consider that.

"Kimi is driving for his own thing. Kimi was out there and just completely messed it up, braked way too late, locked up and torpedoed into Lewis. It is unusual for Kimi because usually those kind of things don't happen to him. So a bit strange. But definitely not on purpose, and well deserved to get a 10-second penalty and two points."

Hamilton took to Instagram this morning to apologise for his comments and said he had accepted Raikkonen's apology.

[sagi58]

You ladies/gents need to race real world more often ... what you read from the media and hear from Hamilton is lip service, nothing more, nothing less. Be it Kimi's comments or Lewis's comments or Vettel's comments ... what they say to the FIA/Press will be entirely different than what they actually think/feel ... been there and done that and the organizing body will ALWAYS require drivers to "forget" their differences going forward to next race ... obviously we don't and we never do but were going to tell everyone "it's forgotten"...

Pray tell, what is it that we should believe, according to you, that came out of Hamilton's mouth?
That Ferrari planned to take him and Bottas out in two different races...
... or should we believe his contradiction that what he said was "dumb" and a result of being so
exhausted after the race?

Personally, I'll go with option 3, Hamilton has never been a good loser and was looking to blame
someone because he didn't collect another record...

btw... what you refer to as the "real world" is little more than workplace politics, which I'm fairly
sure we've all been involved in...

[sagi58]

...I think you folks are being extremely naive about this ... lets wait and see, if the opportunity presents (point standing and track position) I can guarantee you there will be more "caused a collision" penalties handed out.

Cheers, Rob.

And, what if it's a Mercedes involved in ruining the race of a Ferrari?
Should the penalty be even more severe, as it would be "retaliation"?
Or, do we give Mercedes the benefit of the doubt, since it will be their
"first" incident... this year... on the track...

[sagi58]

Take it from the pro and btw. a world champion who drove for Mercedes:

ESPNF1:

Hamilton took to Instagram this morning to apologise for his comments and said he had accepted Raikkonen's apology.

The problem with "oh, I didn't mean to say that" is simply that once the words are out there,
he can't take them back. His fans take what he says to heart and if he accused Ferrari, they
must be cheating. Many will see his "retraction" as a political move to stay out of trouble with
the FIA... I know I do and I'm not a fan!

[myownalias]

We all say things for the sake of diplomacy when our true feelings are very different. Do drivers deliberately crash into another driver to gain an advantage, sure, Senna and Schumacher are two drivers that did. In this case, I don't think either Vettel or Raikkonen deliberately 'caused a collision', I would personally put them both down to racing incidents, but the real issue is the inconsistency of the FIA, Raikkonen got a harsher penalty due to the backlash from the previous week fresh in the steward's minds, the incidents were very similar. I remember drivers in the past, Hill and Schumacher spring to mind making contact numerous times in the mid-90s and penalties were not even mentioned, let alone implemented. What we have now is a broken penalty system, where drivers are afraid to attack for fear of picking up a penalty, be it in a race or a grid penalty.

[sagi58]

.. the real issue is the inconsistency of the FIA, Raikkonen got a harsher penalty due to the backlash from the previous week fresh in the steward's minds, the incidents were very similar...

I'm betting if you ask Massa he'd say the inconsistencies were based on who did the "hitting"...

[sagi58]

... The FIA have access to this telemetry...

What's good for the goose is good for the gander...
I believe that's called consistency...

Ryan Ashenhurst wrote:">Arrivabene Hits Back At Mercedes' Accusations Of Foul Play
...“First of all [Allison] should look the telemetry and understand that his driver unfortunately for himself had a bad start, so having a bad start he immediately lost two positions. Kimi had a good start, we have the telemetry data, so he found himself immediately on top of Hamilton.

“I want to remind everyone that in China we had a situation between Vettel and Verstappen and nobody said anything, all fine...

[overboost]

Another driver's opinion:

Villeneuve: Raikkonen penalty less severe if he hit Bottas

“I don’t understand why it’s 10 seconds, and another time it’s five, sometimes it’s nothing,” Villeneuve told Motorsport.com.

“That’s what’s wrong. It’s racing. I don’t like it when there are racing penalties, it should be for dirty driving, which is a different thing, or stupid driving.

“They decided that it’s Lewis, we’re in the UK, he’s fighting for the championship, that’s worth 10 seconds.

“If it had been Bottas, it would have been five seconds, that’s the thing.”

Villeneuve also highlighted Raikkonen’s clash with Max Verstappen at the Austrian Grand Prix, where they made contact on the opening lap and the Red Bull got ahead but did not receive a penalty, as another recent example of inconsistency.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/vill ... s-1058399/

[sagi58]

Looks like not everyone wants to give Hamilton a "free" pass (a.k.a. excuse)...

Oliver Brown and Luke Slater wrote:">Ferrari accused of 'cheating' by an enraged Lewis Hamilton as F1 title fight gets dirty at British Grand Prix

...Hamilton was not without flaw in this performance, having thrown away his pole position with over-aggression on the start line, generating wheelspin that allowed Vettel to fly past. That setback was compounded just a few hundred yards down the road, as Raikkonen pushed him off the asphalt, relegating him to the back of the pack. The dejection for the 140,000-strong crowd, the largest single gathering of the British sporting year, was palpable...

[sagi58]

Y'know, the more I notice about how the media is reporting this incident and how they're using these "dumb" comments to make Ferrari out to be cheating, the more Mercedes/Hamilton comments are indicative of sore losers!

A heads up should be issued by the FIA to race stewards regarding any further "interesting tactics" Mercedes might plan to employ in the next few races!

Their behaviour smacks of the "pot calling the kettle black"! I mean, they've been in the driver's seat (pardon the pun), starting with simultaneously developing a hybrid engine while "helping" the FIA write applicable rules/regulations; supporting an in-season engine development freeze to keep costs down; participating in "illegal" tire testing, and then suggesting those tire were "safer" for races they then went on to win!

These are the "interesting tactics" Mercedes has employed to win 3 consecutive SETS of titles!

That would be what I call cheating!!

[sagi58]

And, in Hungary, we have Bottas running into Vettel, yet no penalty?
No calling him in front of the stewards? Oh, wait... he hit Vettel, so that's ok, eh?

[sagi58]

And, there you have it... an "admission" from Wolff himself...

CRASH Lewis Larkham wrote:">Bottas ‘hurt’ by Wolff’s ‘wingman’ comments after Hungarian GP

Valtteri Bottas says being described as a "sensational wingman" hurts following comments from Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff in Hungary.


Valtteri Bottas admits he is “hurt” by Mercedes Formula 1 team principal Toto Wolff’s “wingman” comments following the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 at the conclusion of the race won by Lewis Hamilton, Wolff described Bottas as a “sensational wingman” as he dropped to fifth in a spirited defensive drive on old Soft tyres.

Bottas maintained position behind Hamilton at the start and kept the Ferrari pair headed by Sebastian Vettel at bay until the closing stages of the race, when Vettel made the most of running on fresher Ultrasofts to move ahead. Contact between the two saw Bottas fall behind Kimi Raikkonen, before he lost out to Daniel Ricciardo.

When made aware of Wolff’s comments, Bottas told Sky Sports F1: “Well, first of all ‘wingman’ hurts. I think we need to speak after this race. We are over half way of the year. The points gap is big so I’m sure the team will decide at some point.”

Bottas was instructed to hold position behind Hamilton at the German Grand Prix but insisted there were no plans for him to play a supporting role to his teammate’s title bid, with Hamilton moving 24 points clear of Vettel heading into the summer break.

“I don’t see any positives for me,” he added. “We thought we should have been able to do that one-stop. We had to stop earlier than we wanted because of Kimi, we had to cover him.

“Still 20 laps from the end everything was feeling OK, I had good control of the pace and my position. But then the rear tyres started to die.

“I tried to defend best I could, as aggressive as I could, but it all ended up being a bit of a mess in the end with a broken front wing and everything.”

Race stewards opted to take no further action following Bottas’ late collision with Vettel, however the Mercedes driver was hit with a 10-second time penalty for causing a separate incident with Ricciardo, as the pair came together under braking for Turn 1. The post-race penalty made no difference to his finishing position.

Bottas felt both collisions were nothing more than racing incidents.

“With Seb, he had a good run into Turn 2. We had a good battle at Turn 1. I still had my nose inside at Turn 2, he was on the outside,” he explained.

“He turned in very early for me, there was nowhere to go. We touched, I was the only one which got damage. Fair enough, I think racing incident.

“With Daniel, pretty much a similar thing. I was more next to him on the inside. I had no half of my front wing, so I was locking up as well.

“I’m sure he saw that I was going quite quick into the corner but he still turned in, and then we touched.”

Bottas had better get used to the nickname/adjective...

[sagi58]

Well, well, well, whaddaya know...
Three consecutive races... three consecutive collisions/incidents...
three different drivers being hit... three different drivers at fault...
and, yet... three DIFFERENT outcomes...

Bottas gets hit by Vettel... 5 second penalty...
Hamilton gets hit by Kimi... 10 second penalty...
Vettel gets hit by Bottas... nothing, nil, nada, de rien, niente

CRASH Lewis Larkham wrote:">Bottas ‘hurt’ by Wolff’s ‘wingman’ comments after Hungarian GP

...Race stewards opted to take no further action following Bottas’ late collision with Vettel, however the Mercedes driver was hit with a 10-second time penalty for causing a separate incident with Ricciardo, as the pair came together under braking for Turn 1. The post-race penalty made no difference to his finishing position...

p.s. Called it!!