The fine seems fair enough to me. Anyone freaking out over a wheel coming adrift obviously doesn't watch any other racing other than F1. Wheels come off of race cars. It happens. Want that to change? Then get on your soap box and lobby for multiple lug nuts (nascar) rather than one center nut. One point of failure means a higher percentage of incidents. We've also seen many many drivers circulate the track with a tire flat and coming off the rim. What do you think that tire will do to someone's head if it comes off the rim and rolls in front of an F1 car? I don't see anyone calling for an immediate firing squad if someone drives a flat around the track back to the pits. This is racing folks, not your sunday stroll down to the pub. Any punishment at all is a bit ridiculous but with a death so fresh in everyone's minds....it is understandable. Race on.
I feel your missing the point Bill. In simple terms the tireman KNOWING he did not get the lugnut on properly still let the car leave the pit's. Renaults plea was that there was a lack of communication between the pit crew and the pit wall crew which I think is BS. The situation was avoidable but a tire coming off is an unavoidable situation and if the car stays off the racing line while limping back to the pit's at a much slower speed the chance of a tire departing from the rim is greatly reduced. Anyway that is why we have flag people right?
I see where you are coming from, but I disagree with the conclusion. The spring that came off and hit Massa in the head wasn't travelling at a high rate of speed...but HE was so what speed it comes off at is irrelevant. The same could quite easily happen with a tire, and you can't say you haven't seen tires dancing all over the rims with both beads broken and threatening to depart. The same can be said for front wings, rear suspensions etc. My point being if we want to penalize a team for every unsafe possibility...we would be penalizing Ferrari for the exhaust manifold situation last year (wasn't it last year?) as well as just about every team at some point for something. It's racing. You simply can not legislate danger out of the sport. You can't. Stop trying....it muddies up the racing. Sure, keep them as safe as you can but this sort of thing is ridiculous. To say after analyzing slow motion replays that you know what a corner man was thinking is silly. He may well have thought the nut was set but the shroud was spinning without setting in it's detent. We have seen that happen before have we not? The shroud departed and the wheel remained in tact. Lets keep in mind the corner guy was not watching TV replays at that point, he probably would have put two and two together if he had been, but his pit wall was...while he walked back to the pits, put tools away or whatever it is they do.
Penalizing racing incidents where cars touch is ridiculous. Penalizing mechanical problems is ridiculous. The team LOST the race. That is the penalty for the corner guy who didn't get the wheel on correctly. The penalty for screwing up is LOSING. There is no need for more....the FIA is entirely too full of themselves as it is....supporting them flexing their muscles will only lead to more of the same. When you screw up at a race you lose that race...that's why we call it racing. That's my take anyway.
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