HE CANADIAN GP ENDED IN CONTROVERSY,
with Vettel penalised for ‘rejoining the track in a
dangerous manner’ after going wide at turn three,
becoming the single biggest talking point of the
season so far. It does seem there are some fans on
social media who think the penalty was justified but most fans and
people in the paddock seem to believe that it was too harsh.
Personally, I too believe it was unjustified. On the Sky Sports F1
coverage, Jenson Button and I broke it down frame by frame and
analysed it, and we both reached similar conclusions. It’s worth
remembering that Seb was doing over a hundred miles per hour there
and not looking at things frame by frame!
Yes, Lewis pressured Seb into a mistake, which to me is a key point.
The Mercedes man seemed happier on the hard tyres at that phase of
the race and closed right up behind Sebastian. This wasn’t a situation
where Seb intentionally came off the brakes and cut the chicane, like
we see people do in places like Abu Dhabi. Believe
me, no driver wants to find themselves on the
grass outside turn three, with the wall that close!
When Seb bounced back onto the track, the
rear of the car kicked sideways and he had a snap
of oversteer. That wasn’t him steering into Lewis’
path or squeezing him into the wall. It was simply
an instinctive reaction of a driver catching the
oversteer caused by the rear of his car bouncing
when he rejoined the track. You then see Seb put
a lot of steering lock to turn left and straighten
the car, giving Lewis space. If he wanted to
squeeze Lewis, he wouldn’t have turned the wheel as much. From the
moment he regained control, he went straight – not right.
Therefore to me, this was an incident where a driver simply made
an error, bounced back into the path of another car who, yes, had
to take avoiding action but that was always a gap that was going to
close. That is simply the nature of racing on a street track where the
walls are close – sometimes you have to take avoiding action when a
car in front has an incident.
Let’s take a hypothetical scenario where Seb kisses the wall at turn
four, bouncing onto the track in front of Lewis. Lewis would have had
to take evasive action, maybe even brake. He would then have passed
Seb, as he had damage from touching the wall. Do you then penalise
Seb for re-joining the track in a dangerous manner? I doubt it.
Ultimately, my underlying feeling was that a driver was being
penalised for making an error which anyway cost him lap time, and
that’s harsh. This was quality driving from two great drivers, pushingtheir cars at a relentless pace and one of them made an error. That’s
human and he shouldn’t have been penalised for it.
I don’t blame Lewis and Mercedes for complaining to the FIA.
It’s all a part of the game that all the teams play. I wonder if at these
moments, it’s better for the teams not to be able to communicate to
race control because their incessant badgering will have an influence.
If the boot was on the other foot, Ferrari would unquestionably have
complained and Mercedes would have defended the case – that’s just
the way things are in F1 nowadays which in itself seems wrong, but
that’s a whole other subject for another day.
Having said all that, I do sympathise with Emanuele Pirro who
was the driver steward this weekend. Pirro is the nicest man in motor
racing and I’m proud to call him a good friend. Unfortunately, since
the other stewards don’t have the public profile he does, he was
unfairly targeted by the media, internet trolls and Ferrari fans. Since
he’s part of a panel that jointly made the decision, it was wrong by
anyone to single him out.
Overall, I think that apart from the one
mistake at Turn three, Seb was brilliant. On the
back foot after the first run in Q3, he delivered a
superlative lap to take pole position. In the race he
and Ferrari made their strategy work and despite
the Mercedes looking quicker, he held Lewis
at bay. Take away that five-second penalty and
there’s no way Lewis would have won. He himself
admitted that he wouldn’t have passed Sebastian
on track and for the sake of the championship
battle, it would have been good to see Seb take a
win after such a long dry spell.
The shenanigans at the front overshadowed some great drives
further back with the two Renaults delivering their best result of the
season. Kudos to the engine department at Renault who showed that
they’re making steps forward by putting all four Renault-powered
cars into the top 10 in Qualifying on a power circuit. Daniel Ricciardo
delivered a stonking lap in Qualifying but I actually think Nico
Hulkenberg had a better race before being told to hold position.
Lance Stroll and Daniil Kvyat also had good races to rack up
points while Valtteri Bottas had a nightmare weekend, where his
championship aspirations have taken a big dent. Lewis is now 29
points ahead, which is crucially more than a race victory, and you get
the feeling that the momentum is now falling away from the Finn.
At the time of going to press, Ferrari have filed their intention
to appeal the decision in Montreal which means that this could
discussion could rumble on. So watch this space! LT
Formula 1 is now underway and Karun breaks down what has happened so far
Man in the know
KARUN CHANDHOK
Now a full-time F1 commentator, Karun Chandhok is India's second Formula 1 driver and the first to compete at Le Mans@karunchandhok‘If Sebastian
wanted to squeeze
Lewis, he wouldn’t
have turned the
wheel as much’