What is racing? How would you define racing? From my own point of view, racing is about being the fastest and beating your rivals to the chequered flag. That’s why you would take the risks necessary to win, i.e., entering a corner at 200km/h knowing you’re going in too fast but have no choice because the guy behind you wants your position. So what do you do then? Well if your are experienced and skilled enough, you wait for that moment when your car looses control and hope you have the skill to reel it back in, if you’re not skilled enough, that’s when you hope you make it through so you can bag those precious points. Now imagine the situation in professional racing where every point is as valuable as discovering an oil field.
Take this past weekends Formula 1 race at Spa, Belgium for example, those of you who watched the race would have to admit that the battle between Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton at the closing stages of the race was probably the most exciting in F1 since Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen went all out for it back in the 90s. But the stewards had to ruin it just like they always do.
Lewis trailed race leader Kimi throughout the race after the pole sitter spun his Mclaren at the La Source corner of the legendary Spa Francorchamps circuit. Kimi was never able to shake off the championship leader and the Finn only saw a lead that ranged from six to two seconds all through the 44-lap race. The final three laps proved to be the most decisive as a light shower graced the race allowing Lewis who made great time and eventually caught up to challenge Kimi for P1 and so he did.
As the two approached La Source, Lewis attempted to pass around the outside of the right-left turn – formerly known as the ‘bus stop’ – but with no room to go through as Kimi took his normal racing line, Lewis was dealt with the option to either go off track and keep P2 and bag the points or crash into Kimi and destroy the race for the both of them. So he did what any of us would have done and found himself ahead of Kimi, which is wrong because the gain was the product of using the run off area and Lewis knew that so he let Kimi pass him to regain the lead. But that decision although being the right decision no matter what the argument proved to be the worst right decision a pro racer could have made, or at least that’s what the race stewards think.
The stewards announced that Lewis gained from that move as he went on to use the Ferrari’s slipstream to eventually sling shot past Kimi to take the lead and because of that, awarded him with a 25-second penalty that saw Lewis loose two positions to take P3, and this was after the podium celebrations and press conference. I ask you, is using the slipstream wrong? Lewis was close enough to the Ferrari at the exit of the corner that he could have used the slipsteam anyway, he was in fact, already faster than the Ferrari but he made the decision to go off track, risking damage to his car and injuring himself and with some luck found himself in the same position again with a chance to catch the slipstream of the guy ahead.
This is racing!! Only those with quick thinking and right judgement come up ahead and that’s exactly what Lewis did but coming out ahead is something that has been erased with time as the ‘long arm’ of the stewards now stretches to making decisions over who gets ahead and who doesn’t. Was using the slipsteam wrong? Was going off track to avoid crashing wrong? Lewis did let Kimi through again but the stewards deemed “Hamilton did not properly allow Kimi Raikkonen to re-pass after overtaking the Ferrari driver by cutting the final chicane with just over two laps to go.”
What does properly mean? Let the Ferrari driver take a 10-second lead? Would that have been good enough? Or a 25-second lead? I’m sure that’s what the stewards feel Kimi should have won by, he is after all the driver of F1 darling, Ferrari. It’s not the first time such anti-Mclaren behavior has been displayed, there is enough evidence that goes back years to prove that all of F1’s top people are somehow biased against Mclaren.
Well why not? Ferrari after all has the largest fan base, imagine how much money F1 would loose if Ferrari kept loosing, or showed signs of a down fall in this post Schumi-Todt era. The fans would leave and F1 would be relegated to just another motorsport show, would anyone let that happen? I don’t think so, no matter what the cost.
It’s the hard truth that F1 fans especially Mclaren fans have found hard to accept but had to anyway but here’s hoping that they can somehow do it without making it so f’in obvious. It hurts our feelings and leads us to make some nasty statements like, F1 is going to the dogs if their non-sportmanship behavior continues. As for Ferrari? Now I’m really convinced that the F in F1 stands for Ferrari 1. Here’s some other articles about the issue.
Niki Lauda Slams Hamilton Penalty
Drama, Penalties and Controversy at Spa Francorchamps
Mclaren To Appeal Hamilton Penalty
Image Credits: F1-Live.com
, i dont know what to do!!! =( wah.. i also wanna faint ledi :o