F1 2021 Season

F-Red said:
Should have an answer by about 1.30pm-1.45pm

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Any news yet?... id guess the cars go to the grid in a couple of hours
 
sun_tzu said:
Is there any footage of the drs opening during quali
Given the amount of high quality cameras and the fact that you can easily compare any movement against a known measurement on a part of the wing I would have thought they could establish if the issue was there prior to max touching it...

That said it won't change the fact that max touched two cars when he shouldn't have and im sure red bull wouldn't be happy if Hamilton had done the same on their car
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If there's some sort of button on the wing that Max could have tampered with that impacted the DRS opening then that's surely an issue in and of itself?

I doubt that even high quality cameras would provide enough resolution to determine the margins definitively.

It's still a stupid thing to do by Max but given that others have done similar with no penalty previous it'd be incredibly harsh to penalise him beyond a fine. If Mercedes are trying to argue he impacted their car to the extent that it failed to meet regulations that's laughable.

EDIT: and apparently that's exactly what they're trying to argue:
https://racingnews365.com/marko-mercedes-claiming-verstappen-damaged-hamiltons-wing

Smacks of desperation, really.
 
If Mercedes are saying that Max damaged the wing, I hope they have some rock solid evidence, if not they are just making themselves look really really stuipd.

There is no way Max would have damaged anything
 
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OK, so it'll still rumble on. Mercedes have been told to use a different rear wing for FP2 and decision will be made later.
 
pauldyson1uk said:
We dont know how much extra the DRS opened, it will be in mm or less, would this have been enough for Lewis to be 4/10th faster than Max ?
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Doesn't matter to be fair, if it's 1mm more than the technical directive then it's breaking the technical regulations for the DRS rear wing.
 
sun_tzu said:
Yes... just like it does not matter if max broke it during his unscheduled inspection... its the inspection that's the breach
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Both should be pushed to the back of the grid. Would be fun that way. They would also set a precedence for the stuff Max did. Lewis would also be getting a lot of those going forward.
 
sun_tzu said:
Yes... just like it does not matter if max broke it during his unscheduled inspection... its the inspection that's the breach
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The bias is strong with this one. Remember when you lied about Seb not touching the cars. That was 90mins ago.
 
If the Merc has broke the rules then a punishment has to be given out, in the case of Lewis I would think its pretty straightforward DQ and at the back of the grid.
Max clearly did touch the car, also against the rules, his punishment, I have no idea, I cant think of any precedent for a punishment level.
 
Adam-Utd said:
If your car is outside of the permitted rules then you're disqualified, simple.

It's no different than running bigger brakes or using 6 wheels. If your car is out of the spec allowed you're chucked out.

Now how they prove it, and whether Mercedes would be stupid enough to try that trick? i'm not sure. Quite possibly a mechanical failure which if proved they should get away with it.

It will definitely be a huge moment in the championship. It would be hard enough to catch Max starting 6th, but any lower than that and he has no chance.
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If your car is breaking the rules then yes you should be punished, it just seems wrong that you get the same kind of punishment no matter how much or how little you break the rules. Of course trying to make some sort of system that decides what infringment gets what punishment would be a complete nightmare and would definitely create more problems than it's worth, so I guess what I'm saying is that I think a DQ for something like this is too harsh even though I get it's what they have to do.
 
Zlaatan said:
I guess what I'm saying is that I think a DQ for something like this is too harsh even though I get it's what they have to do.
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It's quite a binary thing, you exceed the regulated space and it's deemed an illegal car in accordance to the technical regulations. Those regulations doesn't have a grey area or a sweeping scale of punishment based on the part, and the FIA are pretty clear on that if a car isn't meeting those regulations then it's DQ'd.

Sporting regulations is where you can interpret the rules in many different ways, and can apply punishments a little differently. Technical regulations are pretty black and white.
 
pauldyson1uk said:
So says Helmut Marko , who is a massive cock, I take what ever he says with a huge pinch of salt.
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Only a pinch is generous!

Still though it stands to reason that Max is only in trouble for touching the car because Mercedes have made a stink - given how other drivers have touched competitors' cars in the past without incident.
 
TheMagicFoolBus said:
given how other drivers have touched competitors' cars in the past without incident.
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But how many teams raised the other drivers touching as an issue? I'd take a strong educated guess that none of them have. Ron Meadows know they're lined up for a DQ result from the investigation, so he would have gone through the rulebook last night to find anyway to peg back the competitor. Petty? Absolutely, but this is F1 and to be absolutely expected.
 
pauldyson1uk said:
Could something have happened during qualifying to take the wing out of regulation.
Clearly they would have checked before the start.
Forgetting Max, he did nothing.
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That's the crux of why they are still going over it I reckon. The onus is on Mercedes to prove they haven't done something dodgy here - a qualifying DQ is probably their best case scenario. If they've tried something more nefarious Lewis might not even be able to race at all. I think it was probably just oversight - especially given the chaos of going from Mexico to Brazil with the shipping problems, I could see that check getting overlooked.

Given that Ricciardo has had to do a pitlane start for having an MGU-K 0.01% over the guidelines, I don't think Mercedes can really have any complaints.

F-Red said:
But how many teams raised the other drivers touching as an issue? I'd take a strong educated guess that none of them have. Ron Meadows know they're lined up for a DQ result from the investigation, so he would have gone through the rulebook last night to find anyway to peg back the competitor. Petty? Absolutely, but this is F1 and to be absolutely expected.
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Yeah that's exactly what I'm getting at - I can't see this being a sporting penalty, just a conduct one. For me a fine and a stern rebuke would be fair unless it can be proved that Verstappen has bionic hands and that he somehow affected the Merc wing.
 
TheMagicFoolBus said:
Yeah that's exactly what I'm getting at - I can't see this being a sporting penalty, just a conduct one. For me a fine and a stern rebuke would be fair unless it can be proved that Verstappen has bionic hands and that he somehow affected the Merc wing.
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I actually think Max will get a reprimand from the stewards, nothing more.
 
F-Red said:
I actually think Max will get a reprimand from the stewards, nothing more.
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Yeah I agree! Think I worded that poorly - I think a reprimand is the most likely outcome; for me a fine and a reprimand would be just about the harshest punishment that I'd still consider fair.
 
Well they made their viewing figures higher for this practice session and sprint weekend at least with this delayed decision…
 
massi83 said:
The bias is strong with this one. Remember when you lied about Seb not touching the cars. That was 90mins ago.
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:lol:Lied about it. So dramatic. Tbf I remember Seb inspecting cars but I don't remember seeing him poke them with his foot and actually grab others.
 
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