Ferrari's International Assistants

posted by Jaitu at 17:31

This afternoon we were treated to one of the more exciting Grands Prix of the season in which Lewis Hamilton started from pole, quickly lost the lead then much later regained it, gave it back, took it, lost it and finally won.
It is very disappointing therefor to find that Lewis has been stripped of the win after the race stewards gave him a post race 25 second penalty for a marginal incident with Kimi. What makes this all more irritating is that following Lewis cutting the final chicane - after making contact with Kimi [Correction: they didn't make contact, Lewis cut the chicane partly to avoid it.] - he correctly gave the place back before going on to pass Kimi legitimately. Lewis gained nothing by cutting the chicane and Kimi lost nothing. It was suggested that Lewis may have had a momentum advantage as a result of cutting the chicane. Surely any momentum gained would have been surrendered by backing off to allow Kimi back through?
Earlier in the weekend Honda's Ross Braun (previously one of the Ferrari dream team) categorically denied that Ferrari ever receive favourable treatment from the F.I.A. However, with Felipe Massa receiving nothing more than a fine following an unsafe release in the pitlane at Valencia (which could easily have resulted in injury) the inconsistency in penalties seems pronounced. It becomes increasingly difficult to argue that the apparent leniency afforded to Ferrari and the comparatively severe penalties seemingly handed to Mclaren whenever and wherever possible is purely coincidence.