I can only imagine that was from some british people in the crowd.

Rosberg appears to be very popular with the Mexican crowd. All weekend chants of Nicco Nicco. Not sure why it is. Just because he speaks a bit of their Language on the podium.

Clear the majority of the crowd had no issue with Rosberg. These boo boys must be some ignorant minority group.

It wasn't that long ago some people were arrested after a GP due to indecent behaviour. I think we need to be careful about crowd conduct deteriorating.

I think Hamilton was a bit lucky at the first turn but there is a couple of things to consider in relation to Verstappen's penalty for a similar incident.
Hamilton wasn't really defending at the point the mistake was made, whereas Max clearly was. The nearest person to Ham was Ros who was defending from Ver.
Although on track it looked like he gained an advantage, in reality he didn't. The flat spot was an issue through to the pit stop but also the gap he had was not (imho) as a result of cutting the corner but down to Ros/Ver getting tangled up themselves. The gap that Vet had to Ver after Ver's mistake shows that going over the grass isn't an advantage in itself.
Lastly the timing of the incidents, I think, has to be considered. On the first corner of the first lap Ham & other drivers head in to the unknown as far as grip goes, particularly when the grid took so long to form up for this race. Seemed to take an awfully long time. The tyres lose heat during this wait and it's always a guessing game. Max on the other hand had tyre at full temp, and had reference points for braking on them and even if they were going off, should have accounted for it.
Max's was an error under pressure, whereas I don't think Ham's was.

Arguably at the first corner, Max locked up and my not have made the turn without having Ros as something to slow down against. Theoretically that could have been deemed as causing a collision but that's not what we want to see at the start, we like a bit of hustle & bustle, don't we?

Everything I've said above, should however not be an issue.
Going off track, either in situations like this or track limit scenarios need to have far more punishment for the drivers. Whilst I agree that safety is important we do need to do something to discourage drivers from taking the easy route out of a problem.
Gravel is the low-tech solution but can remove drivers from races very easily, spreads over the track, can hinder cars slowing down in some circumstances & causes them to flip occasionally. These often mean the SC has to out to recover too.
Grass, as seen yesterday is not really effective in any scenario. If cars go straight over it they just slow down a bit and that's it, If they clip it on a corner it's only normally a problem if it's wet, in which case drivers seem able to obey track limits anyway.
Saw tooth curbs can work but often break components that again causes VSC/SC situations.
A possible solution that would be automatic could be an electronic track limiting system. If you car goes beyond track limits, your engine has it's electrical horse power deactivated for a predetermined period of time. This I would suggest would be on the following lap immediately after the point you left the track. The reason for the delay is for an override to take place. Circumstances such as avoiding an accident, being forced off track (Alonso/Rosberg yesterday), avoiding debris or leaving the track as a result of a puncture should not be punished.
This would give the following cars the chance to either catch up or make an overtaking manoeuvre on the car that left the track with no penalty.

Agree, it was a very, very dull race. By lap 50 I'd already gone off on a tangent on the PC with just the audio in the background. Sadly it doesn't command my attention any more & I fear with a more aero based formula next year things will only get worse.

But if they knew there was gravel they would not push the boat out quite as far just like they do at Monaco etc to avoid the barriers. Interesting that the Sepang circuit appears to be going back to more gravel run offs which are safer for bike racing.

They also made a lot of having a full house for MotoGP which F1 failed to achieve although I expect much of that is down the ticket prices forced on them by the gouging of Bernie and his cronies.

In the past they used to just disqualify you for not completing the whole GP distance.

But don't we want the drivers to be really pushing? I'd rather see drivers pushing hard knowing that if they mi-judge it won't be race ending. If it becomes race ending issues, most will play the safe game. Plus when cars do get bogged down in the gravel it always means a safety car comes out and the race is ruined for 4-5 laps & harms the drivers that have driven well and pulled out healthy leads.

But we don't want to see that if someone tries to overtake and runs wide, do we? Even if they run wide they actually cover more ground anyway!
Time penalties are a far better option if an advantage is gained, but as Brundle says, if there is no advantage the drivers wouldn't run wide or cut corners anyway.

The sort of white line crossing Martin wants to see drivers get penalties for is just stupid.

Missing three corners on any one lap is somewhat ridiculous.

Hamilton emerged after going off track - further ahead of 2nd and 3rd than before he cut the corners by going off-track.

2nd & 3rd were slower round the first 2 corners due to their own contact and issues.
As per Verstappen going over the same route he ended up in the same position ahead of Vettel, maybe even closer, by taking the grass. Hamilton gaining a perceived advantage was less his move and more the drivers behind having their own problems.

It's obvious he gained an advantage by not going round the corners. There is not a lot of point discussing that point.

Nothing is going to be done about it anyway. Hamilton is allowed to do whatever he wants most people are used to it by now and don't really care as most peole don't care much for F1 in general.

Rosberg though better start an investigation.

duplicate

Well, there is though isn't there if people are referencing against Verstappen?
The questions that need to be asked are:
Was Hamilton actively defending an overtaking manoeuvre?
No, Rosberg in 2nd was defending from Verstappen in 3rd, not attacking Hamilton.

Was the time taken to cross the grass quicker than staying on the road?
As was shown when Verstappen took to the grass, the net benefit of time is realistically zero. Vettel emerged from the corners closer to Verstappen than when they went in. This is transferable to Lewis who would have likely gained/lost an equal amount of time, which was realistically nothing but likely a net loss, not to mention loss of time due to dirt tyres for a while afterwards.
The perceived gain was brought about by the fact Rosberg & Verstappen had their own incident through corners 1 & 2 slowing them down. Had Hamilton stayed on track, they would still have had their incident and would still have lost that time to Hamilton, meaning he gained nothing.
Although Verstappen didn't gain time through the short cut as such, because Vettel was attacking him it denied Vettel the opportunity to overtake which is where the advantage was gained by Verstappen.

First race I watched in a while. Should have saved my time and watched the first 3 laps and the last 5 laps.

AS for Hamilton, yes he should have got a penalty, just like Max did. The fact or otherwise of their being an advantage gained is irrelevant. Both drivers made a mistake, left the track and joined missing out a whole corner. For that there must be a penalty. To stop drivers doing it again next year, they need to put some bollards up, that will force the drivers to weave their way back onto the track, thus ensuring that they are punished for not being able to control their car. I dont mind gravel either, anything to ensure the driver is punished.

I am a fan of vettel, but he really must cut out the swearing. Not good for him and not good for Ferrari.

The stewards did mess up, with not telling Max to let Vettel pass. Max backed up Vettel into Ricciardo, which caused a coming together. A situation that wouldnt have happened if he had let Vettel pass.

Rosberg still on course to win the title. No one more deserving on the grid than him.

Agree that there should be harsh penalties for going off track but at the moment there isn't except for gaining a clear advantage such as overtaking or preventing an overtaking manoeuvre, think it's also done for repeated infringements where fractions of seconds might be gained.
Bollards are not really practical at the end of the main straight though.

Agreed but glad he got his elbows out and didn't stand for that Red Bull foolerly on track.

The FIA is inept in so much as they are unable to look at the big picture of what was happening there.

Actually there i think they should be putting in tarmac. If there was a wet GP and cars were loosing control at turn one the current set up would not be good. Cars would be flying across the grass in to cars in turn three.

The kid got demoted for the baby, and thankfully the baby got demoted for Daniel.

Because baby Vettel driving the Ferrari threw a tantrum.

The stewards messed up with the penalty full stop! One was not deserved. Vettel was never going to pass Verstappen in those corners had Verstappen stayed on track.
Verstappen whilst not losing anything, didn't gain anything either. The penalty was only because of Vettel's temper tantrum.

Penalise those who gain an advantage, those who gain a position or stop themselves losing a position by cutting corners, neither of which were going to happen in that corner.

Vettel's problem was not caused by the Red Bulls, they were caused by his own ego and his strop.

Only Brazil and Abbeydabay left now.

It's a shame they aren't the other way round. Brazil is a much better place to conclude the championship.

Massa's last Brazil GP.

I think Jordan & Coulthard should be penalised for wearing those tight tennage trousers myself, red & the other white who wears them ?

What has been overlooked is Vettel has also been demoted for moving under breaking and dropped to fifth place with two penalty points as well. That made Ricciado third in the end and Verstappen fourth.

I would place bollards around 9 - 10 metres from the white line, not straight away. So you could go of a little bit, like Rosberg did. Also the bollalrds wouldnt be concrete ones, they would be collapsible when hit. They may damage your front wing, but thats about it.


The FIA are inept in this situation. It was clear Max was backing Vettel into Ricciardo. They should have told Max to give the place straight away. Then the Vettel/Ricciardo situation would not have happened.


Not even close. Again you are proven wrong when Vettel was ahanded a penalty after the race. Its strange knowing that, you still posted what you did.


You are wrong, the penalty should have been given to Hamilton as well. However I guess they didnt want to spoil the "race" by giving Hamilton a penalty. They obviously want the championship to go down to the the last race.

Vettels problem was caused by the FIA not telling Max to give the place to Vettel. Something Red Bull told him to do, but he ignored them as well. I liked Max when he started racing, now I think he is a bit of a ****. Maybe its because hes still young, and mature with age. I hope he does. He does need to learn that not every gap is an overtaking opportunity.


Having been to the Abu Dhabi GP, I would say it should be the place where the title is decided. Awesome track, awesome facilities, awesome country. Although I hope its decided in Brazil.

Ohh! Quite like the idea of that. If they could come up with some self replenishing, sacrificial deterrents that would be great. Some tubular semi-solid bollards that are about 6-8 inches above the ground could be used on the curbs where the drivers like to run wide at every opportunity. Strong enough to cause some damage, small enough to not be a hazard & every time they are hit more get pushed up from underneath to ensure they area constant deterrent!