Salo admits F1 stewards controversy
- Published on 19 Jul 2018 09:00
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- By: Jeroen Jonkers
F1 steward Mika Salo has acknowledged the controversy over penalties given to Ferrari drivers in recent races.
After Sebastian got a 5 second penalty in France, his teammate Kimi Raikkonen was penalised 10 seconds for a similar first-lap incident at Silverstone.
Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat reports that former F1 driver Mika Salo will be a steward this weekend at Hockenheim.
And he agrees that the recent rulings against the Ferrari drivers were inconsistent.
"I would have given Kimi a 5 second penalty too. Basically, the situations with Kimi and Sebastian were quite similar," said Salo.
"On the other hand, I understand a different interpretation, because after Vettel's case it was shown that in many contexts a 5 second penalty was too mild," he added.
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Replies (5)
Login to replyRindtchamp
Posts: 304
He's right, it should have been 5 secs. Lets be honest here, it was only 10 because he hit Lewis at Silverstone. anywhere else it would have been 5 secs.
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
To me the issue is not that it's 5s or 10s. It's the fact that they can take the penalty whenever and basically strategize with it. I recall in the past that the penalties had to be taken within a certain number of laps. That ensures that it actually penalizes the driver. Not waiting until a safety car comes in, or until you're ahead of by more than 5s at the end.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Maybe, but at that rate its just damage control. A penalty should be a temporary hindrance, and I dont see an issue in teams doing their best to cope with them.
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
@calle It's either a penalty or it isn't. Allowing for the penalty to happen whenever allows for the possibility of negating the effect of the penalty. I would be ok with calling it a racing incident. But if you're going to impose a penalty make so. The inconsistencies have been annoying. I was reading today about Lewis whining about the penalty he received in Spa 2008 that lost him the race. He cut a chicane, let Kimi through, but almost inmediately overtook Kimi again. It was marginal advantage if any at all. He was penalized with 25s. He didn't crash into anyone. He didn't damage Kimi's race because Kimi crashed later on his own. I think it would really help stewards if they had some written down rules regarding how to penalize. The application will be subjective of course, but some rules might help set minimum and maximum penalties for example.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
In part I agree, but looking at what both Vettel and Kimi did when they got those penalties, the penalties did what they should do. They were significant setbacks, and no matter how Ferrari did, it was damage control to damage that was done. And for some penalties there is still a certain amount of laps you need to take them within, if memory serves, they are just not handed out as often. E.g drive through penalties are something we havent seen in a while.
But I agree that they need to be more consistent. There do seem to be some drivers that can basically get away with burning the entire track down should it please them, Hammy being one. Such notes already exist, methinks, but at the end of the day its up to personal judgements. Its like how we do things at our blood centrals in my region. Despite having the same set of rules, we rule pretty differently in what we consider suitable donours. Further standardization would likely help, but even with a 100% standardized system there is bound to be cases where they wont rule in a way most of us think is good.