Ausria Incident

[Antony Snook]

I saw the Race at Austria and came to the conclusion that Max moved Left for the racing line. This is one decisive move. He can do it again it is still another move left. Now Lando behind him had 3 track limit violations and a fourth is a penalty. Red Bull probably told Max of this and he was trying to push Lando to track Limits. Its OK in in other sports you try to foul rival players to put them at a disadvantage.
Now who owns F1, Liberty Media a Television company that broadcasts F1 and NFL and so on. They need ratings and viewers. Max got 2 penalty points and another 2 (Probably track limits) so 4 points. If He gets 14 he is banned for one race. That means drivers behind Max have a event to close up the gap. A tighter championship battle. Good for rating's and people who dislike Max. So it is a marketing ploy as the FIA has to slow down the top driver to make things more competitive in a sport that lacks a good driver to driver battle to the tittle. Max will always be the villain as anyone who leads the tittle without being a British citizen will always be. If a British driver like Lewis was leading no body would care because that is considered amazing. Unless like me you are no longer English.

 

[Pete Conway]

I saw the Race at Austria and came to the conclusion that Max moved Left for the racing line. This is one decisive move. He can do it again it is still another move left. Now Lando behind him had 3 track limit violations and a fourth is a penalty. Red Bull probably told Max of this and he was trying to push Lando to track Limits. Its OK in in other sports you try to foul rival players to put them at a disadvantage.
Now who owns F1, Liberty Media a Television company that broadcasts F1 and NFL and so on. They need ratings and viewers. Max got 2 penalty points and another 2 (Probably track limits) so 4 points. If He gets 14 he is banned for one race. That means drivers behind Max have a event to close up the gap. A tighter championship battle. Good for rating's and people who dislike Max. So it is a marketing ploy as the FIA has to slow down the top driver to make things more competitive in a sport that lacks a good driver to driver battle to the tittle. Max will always be the villain as anyone who leads the tittle without being a British citizen will always be. If a British driver like Lewis was leading no body would care because that is considered amazing. Unless like me you are no longer English.

It saddens me that you liberally tar all Brits with the same brush.

Everybody adores Senna, his guile, his commitment and his self belief, his statements are cried out as that of a Real Race Driver' "when you no longer go for a gap you're no longer a racing driver"... I put that down as rubbish, he was selfish and brutal on the track, he defended his position any way he could, and ran competition off the track, he crashed into other drivers to deprive them of race wins... does this sound a little familiar? Hamilton, Verstappen, Schumacher, they've all done it.

As for supporting British drivers... Nah, I'm British, a Royalist, and a Motor racing fan, but I don't support blindly, I for the most part wish for Nico Hulkenberg to do well, in fact before he even dropped out the first time, I'm and advocate of Seb Vettel, though I wasn't through his period of Red Bull wins, more after that when he got his youth over, Hamilton, I never was a fan of his (though we hail from the same county) I appreciate his ungodly speed, and his tenacity, but I don't support him, I support Max, the Max of the last few years, he's really grown on me, he doesn't do corporate talk, and to be honest it sounds daft coming from Lewis, we don't talk like that in Hertfordshire, Lando, I want him to do well, he's fast and kinda fun too, I used to sing Georgie boy up when he was at Williams, even though I supported Kubi then too, I willed Mercedes to get him on board, and now, well, he's making too many mistakes and whining soooo much, I know, Lewis does too, perhaps all the drivers do and the FIA/Broadcasters choose to highlight only a few specific drivers to their determent, I don't know, most of the others I can 'whatever' about because they're just other drivers that are at the top of the tree.
But I've gone on long enough and just hope that the rest of the world doesn't see the British Race Fans in the same poor light as you do,

 

[Antony Snook]

Fair comments but i believe in Peter Windsor a Max fan who thinks FIA are sanitizing the sport and trying to make the drivers be gentlemen.Ok in the 50's or 60's but not today. Don't tell me other sports have athletes that respect each other and don't fight or argue, because i see it in the NBA and NFL . If i was Lando i would of braked and slowed down. 2nd is better than a retirement. And he could of got a DRS pass at a less technical part of the track. But it was closing stages and it was a do or die moment. I don't dislike Lando or any British drivers but i believe Max is best on talent. I was born in England and Canada my citizenship only has Lance Stroll. Not a bad driver as some say, but not a good one. The FIA want to bash Max to get him suspended and close the gap for tittle. He has had reliability problems already and he may get more.

 

[Pete Conway]

Lando has recently stepped back from the comments he made in the pen after the race, having reviewed the situation and over the last few days he realised that it was 'hard racing' and the comments were generated from emotion and adrenaline, and that Max has nothing to apologise for, and the contact was not a hard hit and could have been avoided by himself by taking a bit more curb... it's racing!

 

[jgf]

The era of gentleman racers is gone, there is too much money involved. And in "the interest of the sport" top drivers can get away with antics that would get a lesser driver black flagged, if not suspended.

In NASCARE Dale Earnhardt was popular, known as "The Intimidator", "The Man In Black"; he routinely bumped competitors out of the way rather than legitimately pass them, yet was never censured due to his popularity. His maneuver was the same as the "PIT" maneuver used by police; sadly he was killed when losing control after someone used it on him.

In Indycar Villeneuve and Zanardi won championships in seasons where they cut corners, blocked other drivers, even ran them off the track. Yet were never penalized for these instances.

Schumacher and Senna were masters of twisting the rules to their advantage, even accepting a penalty to protect a points lead.

Unless the sanctioning bodies place sportsmanship over profits, we shall see more of this. The public loves controversy, the average race fan would rather see a fight than a well fought race.

 

[bi11y]

Everybody adores Senna, his guile, his commitment and his self belief, his statements are cried out as that of a Real Race Driver' "when you no longer go for a gap you're no longer a racing driver"... I put that down as rubbish, he was selfish and brutal on the track, he defended his position any way he could, and ran competition off the track, he crashed into other drivers to deprive them of race wins... does this sound a little familiar? Hamilton, Verstappen, Schumacher, they've all done it.

That Senna quote often rolled out as a positive thing, when in reality it was a bit of a slap in the face to genuine question concern from Jackie Stewart who was already at the time a legend of the sport. Senna took zero responsibility for being too aggressive and reckless in causing many on track incidents and 100% entitlement that himself and his performance was the most important thing... this is a marker of when the sport turned to accept and idolise Win-At-All-Cost-Aholery instead of sportmanship.

The Austria incident reiterates just how much the sport is still willing to go for ruthless winner, and that winning is more important that how the game is played. I am upset how some pundits lines of questioning lines of "did Max deserve a penalty" implies that his behaviour was acceptable, or that it might be ok. It was 100% against the rules and deserved penalty.

Furthermore another demonstration of the sports stewarding to fail to in a timely manner referee the sport. It's just an absolute farce that the "pinacle of motorsport" is still in the state where they do not react consistently or quickly to situations.

Sidenote the gravel lane next to the track seems to be a decent solution for track limits to numerous parts of the track and it was an improvement to see the drivers largely staying within circuit limits for the weekend instead of the usual... Why does it that the sport 10 years of commentators complaining about track limits for them to try something like this?

 

[Eric Rowland]

 

[Durge Driven]

Too right.
Have a look same corner last year Charles had Max straddling the rumble strip in their battle.
Way more left then Lando, he is a sook.
FIA admit it was their fault for not showing Max a black and white in first instance.

 

[bi11y]

Too right.
Have a look same corner last year Charles had Max straddling the rumble strip in their battle.
Way more left then Lando, he is a sook.
FIA admit it was their fault for not showing Max a black and white in first instance.

Last year was wrong too, just that Max to extra effort to avoid - additionally penalty warning was missing then perhaps partially because Max got the undercut and took the position anyway... Mostly the penalty or warning was missing due to the woeful stewarding consistency in Fl .

FIA admitting their fault at not showing Max a black and white flag in the first instance is funny dot point.

It is incredible beyond words that we have had some good races over the last few seasons despite the clown show they have been making of running the sport.

 

[HeathAnderson]

Max moving left for the racing line is just smart driving. He knows the rules and plays them to his advantage. Lando getting those track limit violations, though... that's rough. Max pushing him to the edge is all part of the strategy. It’s like in other sports where you try to get your opponent to mess up – totally fair game.

As for Liberty Media and the FIA, it's an interesting angle. They definitely want to keep things exciting for the viewers. Penalty points on Max create drama and a tighter championship race is good for ratings. If Max gets a race ban, it really opens up the competition and makes things more unpredictable. That's cool

 

[bi11y]

Bad sportsmanship is fair game in this era where win-at-all-cost-fkwitery is accepted and even glorified.

It is what it it. Motor-entertainment where fans can have opinions divided and sporting integrity is not so important, or it can just be another talking point / issue for fans to argue about.

 

[jgf]

Furthermore another demonstration of the sports stewarding to fail to in a timely manner referee the sport. It's just an absolute farce that the "pinacle of motorsport" is still in the state where they do not react consistently or quickly to situations.

They need time to weigh the financial implications of any decision they make.