Drivers speak out against Vettel's costly time penalty

&calle.itw, I could not disagree with you more. They continued racing until the end, so to suggest it is too late to override the decision is ridiculous, in fact I believe they should override it, stand-down the stewards involved and apologise to Ferrari and Vettel.

As can be seen from my previous posts I am no fan of either Vettel or Hamilton. I was a big fan of F1 pretty much up until Vettel came on the scene, back when the racing was ‘real’, but now it’s turned into an overly technical, overly regulated, joke. One that continuously favours a sanctimoniously, hypocritical driver in Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton called for the penalty immediately after it happened, to then say after he crossed the finish line that this was not the way he wanted to win the race left me in total disbelief. He then said in his initial interview that if it wasn’t for the wall he would have got past, OMG! What!!

An overtake on the outside was never on, and he knew it. What’s more HAMILTON’S rationale in favour of the penalty wasn’t that Vettel re-entered the track unsafely, but was that Vettel obstructed the racing line, again, you’ve got to be kidding!! …..But to then go on to say that it was not how he wanted to win the race, and to invite Vettel to stand on the top step of the podium after he was the one who ‘first’ called for the penalty, is just mind-blowingly sanctimonious.

I have to say though, I’ve come to expect such sportsmanship from Hamilton, but it was Wolff’s defence of the situation that was even more disappointing. I had up until then seen Wolff as leader who could straddle being a team principle whilst also advocating the best interests of F1 by racing within the spirit of the sport. Not anymore.

At the end of the day, what’s the point of watching the sport in the first place when the Stewards can simply wave through a driver to the top step of the podium. When all is said and done, why not just penalise drivers for racing hard and be done with it. F1 is a joke.

Well yes, it isn't really too late, but at this rate it'd feel odd if they did reverse it. Personally I didn't like the penalty, I found this to just be racing, and I found Hammy to be Hammy in this scenario (namely: "Oh I never wanted a penalty" he says with one mouth, "Off with the head!!!" he yells with the other"). My point is more that the damage is already done. The instant that penalty was dealt, the race was over and ruined, and I switched to doing something more interesting... like paying my taxes. No reversal will change that.

As for Wolff: this is exactly the trip I had with him. This is why I am so salty about Toto when others think he is doing well. I always considered him one of the better principals in F1, a sportsman who wanted competition even in his own team. Even after the Lotus incident in 2015, I still thought pretty highly of him. For me the realization came in 2018, where he showed his true face. To mention just one such occation was during Monaco, when he issued a direct team order to Ocon, a driver for Force India, and got away scathe free. Toto has also been one of the more direct negotiators in favour of regulations that actively hurts the smaller teams. To me, he isn't as bad as e.g Abiteboul, but he is a very self-serving corporate person, a sportsman outwards until it is comfortable to drop it, and I have lost all the respect I had for him.