pjaya said:
Frank Williams applauds Juan for attempting the move, but reckons you always take a risk going around the outside. The more cynical would say that you always take an even bigger risk when Mick is involved, but I digress....
On very cold tyres on a very tight hairpin with little kerb/run off and on a green track, your explaination could work. Basically, you are saying that Mick couldn't physically turn the car enough without drifting wide. I don't think its a steering lock issue, the Tosa hairpin is not that tight a turn, others (Adelaide at Magny-Cours, Loews at Monaco and maybe even La Source at Spa) are tighter, but they get around those with full lock only used for any appreciable length of time at Loews. Racks can be changed, but no in so much as that a car would require full lock around Tosa unless they were on a ridiculously tight line.
By saying that Mick was on a tighter turning circle and therefore would break traction sooner than Juan, you are right, but the point being that Juan was going to make the corner without a problem and stay on the circuit, Michael saw this (don't believe what he says, Juan was all over him for the previous 3 corners), but didn't alter either his speed to compensate for the fact that someone else had aleady taken the outside line. He carried on regardless, knocking Montoya off the circuit. Even taking your view into account, it was still this mistake from Michael that caused the incident. Even if he didn't see Juan (he did) then it was still a mistake, because Juan was there and was there legitamately.
Nobody has suggested that Mick was 'out of control' and headed for the kerb no matter what because of the momentum that his line developed. His line was compromised enough already because of the corner entry when they both went in together - he was not on the racing line and had no claim to it. This is purely an issue of where Mick put the car on the road on the exit of the corner. He could have stayed another car width to the left, there is no doubt about that. This would have ensured that he didn't cut across Montoya'a legitamate line on the exit of the corner. Mick deliberately steered out wide, and held it out wide because he know the Juan had succeeded in holding on to the Williams on the outside and now had a much greater exit speed for the hill. He broke the rules by making contact with the Williams in order to put it on the grass.
He got away with it, which is what rightly annoyed Juan in the press conference afterwards.
