Penalty for third reprimand “disappointing” – Webber

2013 Korean Grand Prix

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Mark Webber said he has come to terms with the ten-place grid penalty he has this weekend due to collecting his third reprimand of the season in the Singapore Grand Prix.

Webber was reprimanded for going onto the track without getting permission from a marshal when he took a lift back to the pits from Fernando Alonso at the end of the race.

“I was over it, mate, pretty much on Monday, Tuesday,” said Webber of his penalty. “But you have no choice. It’s the stewards decision and we start here further back.”

Webber collected his first reprimand for contact with Nico Rosberg during the Bahrain Grand Prix. “The Bahrain reprimand, the first one, was disappointing to get,” he said. “It’s… you’re never happy as a driver, you want to understand why you got them, if you did something absolutely hideously, ridiculously wrong of course you take it on the chin.”

Webber’s second reprimand came in Canada, where he was judged not to have slowed down sufficiently when yellow flags were shown.

“I think the add-up of reprimands has been, of course, disappointing, and the way that I got them also a little bit bizarre,” he said.

“To get a ten-place penalty not even driving the car is a bit interesting. But anyway that’s the way it is and you take it on the chin and you never know what’s around the corner sometimes with the stewards.”

Webber is only the second driver in F1 history to receive a ten-place grid penalty for collecting three reprimands. The other was Pastor Maldonado in Brazil last year.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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30 comments on “Penalty for third reprimand “disappointing” – Webber”

  1. I wasn’t so sure he merited the Bahrain one, either. But yellow flags is a pretty dangerous infraction and is one that should always be punished (which made it slightly bizarre why Rosberg didn’t get one in Britain I seem to recall it was).

    Really though, he just should’ve payed attention to the Marshall’s. He clearly didn’t ask for their permission to enter the track and I’m sure he’d have been granted it had Alonso not been quite so silly either in his placement of the car.

  2. Is it me, or is Webber looking like an older, unshaved version of Grosjean in this picture?

    1. @wsrgo I can see it

  3. suck it up butter cup.

    1. It sounds all too similar to Maldonado telling the world he didn’t do anything wrong. I much more liked seeing how Grosjean felt really dismayed by the incidents last year and seems to have taken it to heart (that penalty also coincided with Maldonado getting less reckless)

  4. Yeah, Mark, you’ve been a disappointment yourself. For years!

  5. If Bahrain had been a one-off he might have gotten away with it, but he took out Vergne in the previous race in China in a similarly clumsy (or over aggressive) move. He just rammed hm, basically.

    1. yeah, its happened too often this year for him.

    2. You mean like the messiah Senna did in Suzuka? He got no penalty for that, so it can’t have been as bad…

  6. “To get a ten-place penalty not even driving the car is a bit interesting. But anyway that’s the way it is and you take it on the chin and you never know what’s around the corner sometimes with the stewards.”

    Ehm… Take it on the chin? Does that mean moaning on Twitter, insulting the stewards by calling their decision “comical to say the least”, and making a fool of yourself by not understanding (or pretending you don’t understand) why you received the reprimand for?

    1. :) I like your post

  7. i think he means that a ten place grid penalty for three reprimands is a bit harsh.

  8. Hmmm…interesting that MW “is only the second driver in F1 history to receive a ten-place grid penalty for collecting three reprimands.” and “The other was Pastor Maldonado in Brazil last year.”

    I’d say MW has gotten off easy, as did PM, but I guess it depends on how the governing body is looking to manipulate things as they see fit. In 1997, Jacques Villeneuve was disqualified from a race for a second yellow flag infraction of the season. Of course if you’re the FIA you justify that by having that penalty on JV not only help MS, but also help the Championship come down to the last race of the season.

    1. If Bernie were dishing the penalties, the accusation might have merit, but are you suggesting the FIA would game disqualifications just to get the championship to the final race?

      Not withstanding that MSC was disqualified then anyway.

      1. Yes. They’re famous for enforcing their own rules inconsistantly. And…MS was disqualified after the fact, after all the horses had left the barn and the season was over. That had no bearing on JV’s penalty that affected the Championship race while the season was still on.

  9. I’m not much of a “rules for the sake of rules” guy. They have that rule about asking the Marshals for some valid reasons. But Mark riding around on Alonso’s car didn’t hurt anyone or endanger anyone. I’d prefer the spirit of the rules especially for someone who is in his last run in F1.

    I’m no Webber fan and he’s done plenty of other things he could have gotten penalties and/or reprimands for so I’m not saying this out of bias. I simply detest rule bound people and blind enforcement of rules. :-)

    1. @daved

      Mark riding around on Alonso’s car didn’t hurt anyone or endanger anyone.

      And he wasn’t reprimanded or penalised for doing that.

      1. Oh, my bad. As they were closing out the race coverage on NBCSports here in the US, the announcers made that comment so I had assumed that was the reason. I guess I should have followed up and read for myself what actually happened.

        And I’m not complaining about the crew on NBCSports as they do a good job for the American audience as we need some education and they have to spend half their broadcast explaining simple things to us that you guys take for granted such as how qualifying works, using both tire compounds during the race, etc.

  10. He got over it? I don’t think so – “I saw both Mercedes in the straight; I’m in the escape road,” Webber said. “The camera angle is facing one way and if you look at it from the other way I have a good view before they start turning in. I’m in the escape road so I can see down to the kink. I saw all the guys arriving – I saw all that – and then once you go round the corner obviously you know that they’ve got you. But if Lewis passed me at the grand old speed of 56kmh then OK, sorry.”

    http://en.espnf1.com/redbull/motorsport/story/127653.html

    1. Michael Brown (@)
      3rd October 2013, 23:09

      Ok he can see the cars coming toward him, but Hamilton said he didn’t see Webber until he was close to Alonso

    2. Even worse if he could see them and still ran on the track when they were coming, onto a place where they could no longer see him.

    3. I’m glad Webber confirmed my view of the situation, but of course people don’t want to look beyond their 1st. impulsive decision, drivers seeing a pedestrian on the track should and did slow to a safe speed to avoid both the pedestrian and the reason he has gone onto the track.

  11. So does this mean he will think twice the next time he is going to enter the track dangerously by foot and without a proper permission by the marshalls on the scene?

    The truth is that he got the grid penalty from repeatedly ignoring the rules. The attitude he is showing toward the governing bodies of the sport makes it all the more deserved.

    1. Too right! Everyone makes mistakes, and what matters is how the mistakes are handled. I was a bit disappointed with Webber. Up until now I hadn’t put him in the Maldonaldo mould, but I can’t help but think that maybe he doesn’t understand that what he did (three times now) was dangerous and against the rules of his chosen sport. I hope that this isn’t the last Webber F1 story that we are left with before he leaves.

    2. The real shame is the governing bodies show no respect at all for neither the drivers nor the spectators. They only respect their own ego and of course money.

  12. As I understand it, Mark – like all the other drivers – voted for these rules to come in. To be complaining about it now is more than a little churlish. All of his reprimands are reasonable – even if you would have handled it differently as a steward, you have to admit there was a case to answer in each situation.

    Mark has failed to understand what “[taking] it on the chin” actually means. This is not it.

    He’s gone down a couple of steps in my estimation. (Which I’m sure will upset him greatly)

  13. Stuart Becktell
    3rd October 2013, 21:32

    He shouldn’t be that surprised about the wackyness of the penalities, a non sporting entity, Pirelli, got a reprimand earlier this year!

  14. Hearing Webber repeatedly play the victim “Boring” – Mazdachris

  15. if you did something absolutely hideously, ridiculously wrong of course you take it on the chin.”

    If you do something hideously, rediculously wrong you get a straight penalty. Coincidentally this is exactly the reason I dont like the proposed (I cant remember if it’s confirmed or not) penalty points system. Each incident should be judged on it’s own merit, as should the buildup of incidents, and the penalty applied accordingly. It might not give the stewards a solid guideline to point at when the fans cry about penalties like this, but it’d stop drivers getting race bans for a buildup of innocuous misdemeaners.

    I actually think the penalty here was fair, a 10 place grid drop should be the maximum for a build up of reprimands, if a driver really deserves a race ban then do that outside the system (as they did with Grosjean last year).

  16. Poor penalty indeed. Just over-eager law-enforcers in f1. Guess they just fed up of red bull dominance. Lol. Works well for hamilton *evil laugh*. Can’t complain.

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