Schumacher, Alonso and the punishment
With Schumacher taking a penalty for overtaking under the safety car and Mercedes not appealing that means that Schumacher will go down in the record books as being beaten by Rosberg again – not something that he’s going to enjoy making a habit of. It seems that everyone other than Ferrari thought you could race to the line, even the commentators but then everyone knows which team has the ear of the stewards.
The punishment at first seems fair, a 20sec penalty, but when it’s taken in the context of a safety car finish it’s clear that it’s about as damaging as disqualification as all the cars will be finished. Some have talked about swapping the cars back as punishment but a) that’s not in the rule book, and b) that doesn’t really punish anyone. It seems that the 20s penalty was the lightest reprimand that they could hand out – though some will question Hill’s involvement.
What does this say about F1? That the teams know as little about the rules in the heat of the moment as the fans and that playing things safe is probably the best thing to do. It should be upto the teams (and the stewards) to know what the rules are and then this type of thing either wouldn’t happen or the penalty would be doled out straight away with no hearings. The FIA need to ensure that result changes are a thing of the past and that any amendments are made straight away.
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