Grandprix dot com has managed to upstage us all with more interesting revelations from Stepney, but PitPass hits back strongly with a Mike Lawrence article on the future of Ferrari. So what to write about?
Sebastian Vettel
Yesterday I looked at Stepney's statements and considered the implications for the FIA; today's stories merely make it doubly clear that Max and Luca should be a little more circumspect in their posturing. Whether Stepney's version of events is true or not, it becomes clear that there is much yet to be revealed in the "espionage" saga and the facts may be considerably more uncomfortable for Ferrari and the FIA than may appear at present.
Elsewhere, the storm in the teacup concerns Hamilton's driving during the pace car laps at Fuji. Why the stewards should suddenly become so upset at what amounts to the normal jostling for position in such circumstances is beyond me. To concentrate on this whilst ignoring Massa's use of the run-off area to get past Kubica at the final corner looks like yet another instance of McLaren-bashing by the FIA.
I have seen the video that has caused this latest investigation by the stewards and yes, it is true that Hamilton closed up to the pace car and fell away again, took some strange lines through corners, almost stopping at one point. But to say that he was responsible for Vettel driving into the back of Webber is just ridiculous. Have another look at that video, guys, and note that Webber's antics are just as haphazard as Hamilton's; at times he was right alongside the McLaren, at others well behind. If a fuss is to be made about Hamilton's driving, it needs to be made about Webber's too.
The fact is that this is normal behavior in the situation. The first man wants to make sure that he gets away first when the pace car leaves the circuit, the second man wants to be in a position to get the jump on him, and the same is true all the way down the line. If there is any fault involved in the driving at Fuji it is Webber's - he drove so close to Hamilton that the leader had no opportunity to expand the gap to the pace car as they usually do just before the re-start. It was gamesmanship by the Australian that backfired rather badly on himself.
But this is all irrelevant really. Vettel drove into the back of Webber; whether he was distracted or just clumsy doesn't matter - it is the responsibility of the man behind not to drive into the car in front. Ask your insurance agent.
The penalty handed out to poor Vettel was extreme considering the state of the track and the antics of those in front of him. But the right man was penalized, if penalty there had to be.
Otherwise, the only talking point has been the mysteriously late email that would have prevented Ferrari from making the worst tire choice in their history. In fact, email seems to have been a theme running behind much of what has happened in F1 this year. The FIA found a few and built a case on them, Stepney regrets that he hasn't got any, Coughlan can't work out how to stop the flow of the darn things into his computer, Max gets into the habit of sending emails to drivers, and Jean Todt prefers hand-delivered messages to the electronic variety. It seems that the sport is having difficulty in accommodating to the new and wonderful world of information technology.
In 1995, realizing that I was becoming severely out of date in business systems, I went on an IT training course and discovered the wonders of this new-fangled thing, the computer, and its soulmate, the internet. Twelve years later, it seems that many of those involved with the most powerful computers used in sport could do with taking a similar series of lessons.
It's nice to know you're one up on the great and powerful!
Sebastian Vettel
Yesterday I looked at Stepney's statements and considered the implications for the FIA; today's stories merely make it doubly clear that Max and Luca should be a little more circumspect in their posturing. Whether Stepney's version of events is true or not, it becomes clear that there is much yet to be revealed in the "espionage" saga and the facts may be considerably more uncomfortable for Ferrari and the FIA than may appear at present.
Elsewhere, the storm in the teacup concerns Hamilton's driving during the pace car laps at Fuji. Why the stewards should suddenly become so upset at what amounts to the normal jostling for position in such circumstances is beyond me. To concentrate on this whilst ignoring Massa's use of the run-off area to get past Kubica at the final corner looks like yet another instance of McLaren-bashing by the FIA.
I have seen the video that has caused this latest investigation by the stewards and yes, it is true that Hamilton closed up to the pace car and fell away again, took some strange lines through corners, almost stopping at one point. But to say that he was responsible for Vettel driving into the back of Webber is just ridiculous. Have another look at that video, guys, and note that Webber's antics are just as haphazard as Hamilton's; at times he was right alongside the McLaren, at others well behind. If a fuss is to be made about Hamilton's driving, it needs to be made about Webber's too.
The fact is that this is normal behavior in the situation. The first man wants to make sure that he gets away first when the pace car leaves the circuit, the second man wants to be in a position to get the jump on him, and the same is true all the way down the line. If there is any fault involved in the driving at Fuji it is Webber's - he drove so close to Hamilton that the leader had no opportunity to expand the gap to the pace car as they usually do just before the re-start. It was gamesmanship by the Australian that backfired rather badly on himself.
But this is all irrelevant really. Vettel drove into the back of Webber; whether he was distracted or just clumsy doesn't matter - it is the responsibility of the man behind not to drive into the car in front. Ask your insurance agent.
The penalty handed out to poor Vettel was extreme considering the state of the track and the antics of those in front of him. But the right man was penalized, if penalty there had to be.
Otherwise, the only talking point has been the mysteriously late email that would have prevented Ferrari from making the worst tire choice in their history. In fact, email seems to have been a theme running behind much of what has happened in F1 this year. The FIA found a few and built a case on them, Stepney regrets that he hasn't got any, Coughlan can't work out how to stop the flow of the darn things into his computer, Max gets into the habit of sending emails to drivers, and Jean Todt prefers hand-delivered messages to the electronic variety. It seems that the sport is having difficulty in accommodating to the new and wonderful world of information technology.
In 1995, realizing that I was becoming severely out of date in business systems, I went on an IT training course and discovered the wonders of this new-fangled thing, the computer, and its soulmate, the internet. Twelve years later, it seems that many of those involved with the most powerful computers used in sport could do with taking a similar series of lessons.
It's nice to know you're one up on the great and powerful!