Quote:
Originally Posted by telboy
The difference this time though fabs, is taking in to account what happened the day before to massa, and then taking in to account that Henry Surtees was killed the week before by an erant wheel. The forces that be couldn't let the team get away with letting a car onto the track, 'knowing' that the wheel wasn't on correctly.
it could easily have ended in another death, if that wheel had hit another driver on the head.
I think it harsh on the drivers. They should have told the team that they could compete, but the team would loose its point for the rest of the season.
I've never seen the point in penalising the drivers for a 'team' error.
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I couldn't disagree more! First of all, the team didn't 'knowingly' release a car with a wheel nut not fully tourqued. It was an error and they happen. It's happened litterally hundreds of time in the past, every time without sanction.
Now, to understand what happened, the spinning brake cover doesn't mean the wheel isn't tight. The wheel nut goes on and then there is a de-tent on the spinning cover, which when in position locks the spinner in place and should stop the wheel nut coming off even if it's loose. If the spinner doesn't lock it normally (and that means it's happened 2 or 3 times ever) means the de-tent has failed. In the 30 seconds between the pitstop and the wheel falling off, the Mechanic on the wheel gun explained to the chief mechanic that Spinner didn't lock. The driver or lollipop man can't see this but Fernando felt a problem as he left the pit lane. He got on the radio to tell the team he thought he had a puncture. The engineers on the wall were trying to figure out how to cope with the pucture in the stategy program as well as trying to see if the fuel pumps were working (there was a fuel system failure which you can hear on the TV commentary). So as this is going on the chief mechanic got on the radio to tell the engineers that there was a problem with the wheel. The Engineer told Fernando to be carefull because the wheel may be loose and 3 seconds after that the wheel fell off. It all happens really quick and the idea that the team pitted from the lead to send the driver back out with a wheel loose is as insane as the punishment!
To say that the punishent was fair because of the events of the previous week is also crazy. As I said, it's happened hundreds of times with NO punishment. To turn around the next day and ban a team from a race is crazy. There might have been consequences, but there weren't. If there is a house burglary where the resident is killed, you don't turn around and give the next different petty burglar the death penalty. In law there has to be a precedent. It's nuts to go from 'no penalty', 'no penalty', 'no penalty', etc to 'RACE BAN'
Then you look at the fact that Brawn sent out a defective car that dropped debris on the track that injured Massa so badly, they got no punishment or not even a warning! In the same race Vettel got on the radio to say his suspension was broken and his car was un-drivable. Clearly a recippe for a crash. The team brought him in, changed tyres and sent him back out, still with broken suspension. How dangerous was that!? A delibarate action and no pentaly, sanction or even warning!
Yet Renault, who made what was an innocent mistake, are punnished in the most severe terms by being banned from the next race!!!
Doesn anyone else wonder if the severity of the punishment is not only related to the events of the previous week, but also to Renault being an instigator of the breakaway series and Flavio holding the meeting at the Renault factory on the the thursday before Silverstone?
On a separate note, it's going to be intersting to have the Schu back. It's brave for him because these days it's alot tougher than when he was winning. Then he only had to beat Fernando (and he didn't). Now there's half a dozen quick guys in fast cars. I hope he doesn't tarnish his steller reputaion! But good luck to him, I think he'll be alright, if a little rusty!