“Lost all respect for the FIA” – Hamilton endorses fan’s view on Vettel ruling

2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton is yet to respond officially on the FIA’s decision not to give Sebastian Vettel any further penalty for the collision between them in Azerbaijan.

The post Hamilton liked
But Hamilton has given an indication of his views by ‘liking’ a social media post from one of his supporters.

An Instagram user with the name Tillykeeper_zackfan posted the following, which was ‘liked’ by the three-times world champion:

“Lost all respect for the FIA, Scuderia Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel after that ruling. The message this sends is that you can do whatever you want on track, smash into each other but if you suck up and just apologise and you get away with it! If that was Lewis, he’d get banned, fined and points deducted. FIA are a bias set of fools towards Ferrari, always have been and always will!”

Vettel ran into the back of Hamilton’s car during a Safety Car period in Baku. He then pulled alongside Hamilton and swiped into the race-leading Mercedes.

The Ferrari driver was given a ten-second stop-go penalty during the race last week. Following a meeting with FIA president Jean Todt yesterday he agreed to publicly apologise for the incident and was given no further sanction for the incident.

Vetel said he “had no intention at anytime to put Lewis in danger, but I understand that I caused a dangerous situation”.

Thanks to Patrick (@aqualyn) for the tip.

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2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

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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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    286 comments on ““Lost all respect for the FIA” – Hamilton endorses fan’s view on Vettel ruling”

    1. Ofc Hamilton is not happy about it and Vettel aint happy about it either. Any news?

      1. Hamster is an hypocrite, worships Senna, who took out Prost at Japanese GP at full speed, at a time when cars were not anywhere as safe as they are today. Lewis planned it, he is a dirty driver and will never be seen as one of the greats, regardless of the number of WDC he wins

        1. @Eric How can LH be a “dirty” driver when he has 2 points and most other drivers have more – I think the evidence is that he is a clean driver – I don’t understand your rationale on this ? Do you have one or is it pure hatred ?

          1. 2011 Lewis crash into everybody including his team mate Massa was ready to punch him a one stage he is mister perfect as if ????????

          2. Slowing Ricciardo going into the pits in Spain was dirty.

          3. @nickfrog Last race 2016? Holding everyone up so Nico could be overtaken?

            Also his attitude had changed over the last few years from humble to arrogant.

            He had already lost my respect.

            And to add one last thing: Vettel did something out of pure emotion, people have emotions, just look at Montoya, Villeneuve and such. FIA wants drivers to become robots or puppets. Hamilton does a lot of dirty tricks that are not directly in breach of certain rules, but he does stretches it and the way he does it is pure evil at heart.

            1. ++++1 he is a hypocrite of massive levels. Also this British meadia shows their real colors with this. Look outside of that and you will see what the world really thinks. No one thinks what VET did was right but they see it for what it is. As so many people say it’s sad the one sidedness with all this. As someone said he looks upto drivers who on the regular did dumb stuff and dangerous moves. He needs to lose his Holy attitude

            2. Oh come on. Slowing the Abu Dhabi 2016 race down made it interesting, and provided the opportunity for some kind of tension in the title fight. He didn’t rage at Rosberg, or bang wheels in rage.

              Lewis is a genuinely interesting racing driver. He goes for it. He hates settling for second. He will drive his heart in a damaged car. He will find the limits of grip in wet conditions. He will overtake in places that most people won’t. He knows how to hold the inside line when under pressure, pushing wide on the exit of the corner, rather than the entry.

              His driving is one of the reasons I love F1. He’s not the only one, and his performance can fluctuate…. but I love it when he is racing hard. Daniel Ricciardo at his best is similar (with his amazing late braking moves), as is Max Verstappen (unforgettable in the wet in Brazil 2016). Sebastian Vettel shows brilliance too (his overtaking in China 2017 was awesome). Fernando Alonso is brilliant, although suppressed in the Mclaren at the moment.

            3. @addvariety Again, Ham has 2 points on his licence – not an opinion, just a fact that can be easily verified. He is therefore cleaner than most drivers, including the last race in 2016 which would have attracted points, had he been “dirty” (ie braking a rule).

              It really is very easy to objectively grasp all this.

            4. @nickfrog Right, so if you drive 100mph through a 40 zone and don’t get caught, this makes it an “easily verified fact” that you never drive too fast?

              Come on, just look at Abu Dhabi last year, it so extremely obvious. It may be within the rule limits, but it was dirty.

          4. plus one

        2. I’m no Lewis fan. But “planned it” !!!!!!!!! What have you been smoking.

        3. Eric, I agree with you 100%. I’ll tell you more, now FIA should prosecute Ham for his desrespect. My favorite driver was Jenson Button, not only for his skills as a driver, but because he was a gentleman, an example of sportmanship. Hamilton is just the opposite: I’ve no respect for him

          1. Jenson a gentleman… well talk about a comedic moment

            1. Some people can’t stomach that Jenson Button scored more points than 44 in their three years together at McL. Yes, Jenson may not be very good but proved beyond any possible doubt that he is better than 44. End of.

          2. Why should someone respect someone who is biased? I’d love to see the court case. FYI they would lose. It is not a requirement to ‘respect’ the FIA. They pay Ferrari more than any other team because they are biased. It is in the account books.

          3. Gosford Lawrence
            4th July 2017, 18:14

            So you are fine if vettel hits lewis in a race and escape penalty but lewis disagrees with a ruling from the FIA and u want them to prosecute Lewis for not agreeing …. Wow…. Just wow…

            1. First of all Vettel was penilised for his misdeed. Secondly the contact between Hamilton and Vettel was instivated by Hamilton driving unnecessarily too slow which FIA rules and regulation dtates that if driver drives unnecessarily too slow he should be penalised. They did not penilise Hamilton for his involvement.

              Fia may have penilised Vettel too liniently, but they did penilise him. Where as Hamilton was not penilised for breaking rules and regulations. So in this case FIA waz favouring Hamilton over Vettel.

          4. VET got called in for disrespecting the FIA so I think HAM should be called up for a meeting now

            1. @racerdude7730

              yes i agree with you, they should ban him too for bringing the sport into disrepute.

              No room in this sport for people like Ham

            2. No room in this world is more like it

        4. @Eric…it doesn’t mean that one idolizes Senna actually means u idolize/worship even the bad side…u idolize because of his greatness. Hamilton and Senna are different people, just give him a break. What do u expect the FIA would do??? That’s Jean Todt for crying out loud…staunch Ferrari personnel from before…geez! Road safety is an issue that the FIA acknowledges…if these people who have the highest driving expertise are the ones who break the rules, then it all goes to show that they have no regard for authority or even simply the rules. I like both drivers, but Vettel has a history last season when he was cursing Verstappen over the radio and even raised his voice at Charlie for whatever reason. Just shows how hot tempered he is…just saying.

          1. You do realise that Hamilton accused his own teammate for cheating?

            1. we are talking about two different issues in this post, one hami slowing down everyone when under safety car, well have any of you noticed when hamiltons is on lead the safety car drivers are driving by really slow, which tends to cause problems with tyre temp, so yes inorder to keep his lead he may have to slow down others too – completely justified plus he didn’t break any rules. Second vettel is a reckless driver, for which we have 2 incidents singapore and malaysia 2017 with numerous refractions after which vettel walks scott free, which also proves stewards are biased.

        5. How can you call Lewis a dirty driver was he the one who deliberately drove into someone else me don’t think so get your eyes tested or don’t bother commenting on it. was proved Lewis did nowt wrong

        6. Getting involved in a crash durig warm down lap, and you would still say vettle is inocent

        7. It can only be vettel and his kinds who would get involved in a crash during warm down lap, and you would still say vettle is inocent. Vettel should be penalised heavily atleast a suspension for reckless driving

      2. more, Vettel gets a 2 day vacation to Paris to get a punishment of: “12 months of driving and security lessons for kids”.

    2. This is a bit irrelevant, for all we know Lewis most likely doesn’t manage his social media pages. Some employee liked a comment on the internet, not a big deal.

      Of course the article will be updated and by the time some of you read my comment, probably it won’t make sense anymore

      1. Well, I believe that a triple world champion with millions of followers should be more careful when being active on the social media (or at least employ someone with common sense, who properly takes care of that). On the other hand, we are living in Donald Trump era so perhaps nothing really matters anymore.

        It is good if F1 drivers are not corporate robots and I have always admired Hamilton for being unique and different. However, I also believe that there is a middle ground between Valtteri Bottas and tillykeeper_zackfan that F1 drivers should aim for.

      2. This. Manager of LH social media liked that post.

        1. +1

          Move along. Honestly nothing to see here. #blessed

          1. Really? So the official Hamilton account can call FIA a “biased set of fools”??

            1. Bringing the sport into disrepute perhaps?

            2. If we follow the British medias mold I think HAM should have a race ban for this.

            3. @racerdude7730, you’re absolutely correct!

        2. Even if it was a manager, that manager was still hired to represent him. I think I’ve heard before that he manages his own social media.

      3. I am not so sure that he doesn’t manage his Instagram. I follow and the content is often very personal, especially in “Stories”. I think he uses it himself, plus help from someone from his crew.

        But in my opinion a “like” in Instagram is not an endorsement, I disagree from reading social media like that. When there’s something to say he will make a statement, so actually there are no news here.

      4. @johnmilk Hamilton’s Instagram page is a verified account and he has previously instructed journalists to refer to it to find out what he thinks.

        1. @keithcollantine but this one is not a post is just a like on a comment…I think we can’t take from it what Hamilton is thinking about the situation. Just an administrator liking something IMO

          1. @johnmilk Even if that is the case – and you don’t know if it is – it’s no different from the team issuing press releases on his behalf containing quotes from him.

            Furthermore as Hamilton has told people to refer to his social media accounts in the past, if he is them giving control of those accounts to people who are representing him in ways he doesn’t approve of, then it’s up to him to say so, rather than just assume everyone is going to automatically know which social media posts he is sincere about and which ones he isn’t.

            Incidentally, I think it’s positive that he uses social media in this way. Interacting with his fans directly is exactly what it should be used for. Look how happy that user is that Hamilton showed that he liked their post. It clearly made their day.

    3. I am pretty sure lives were in serious danger during the intentional bumping of wheels. I am sure Vettel is smart enough not to put anyone at risk of injury on purpose. He steered in for the bump at approximately 60 or 70 kmph or so, with cars having a very low center of gravity and capable of sustaining these taps in most cases.

      The penalty + reprimand + apology was maybe slightly low, but it was still just. The comment of ‘losing all respect, and Lewis would have received much worse’ etc. Is a bunch of hot, empty air. I like and dislike both drivers just about the same, but I didn’t see too much wrong there other than a misinterpretation and a hot headed response. “Get yourself in check, or repercussions will follow.” Should suffice, and I believe that is exactly the current state. Anything more or less would have been favouritism.

      1. What ??….. “I am pretty sure lives were in serious danger during the intentional bumping of wheels.”
        So you think that is ok then to put lives in serious danger?
        No it is an immediate ban offence and had it been anyone other than a Ferrari driver they would have been black flagged, had a race ban and the year’s points deducted.
        It is the old FIA”Don’t upset Ferrari, they might leave” brigade.
        That Ferrari do not compete on equal terms is bad enough but this is a slap in the face for the sport. How can any proper fair decisions be made in future when they have set this precedent?

        1. Typo I’d say ‘not’ missing.
          I think the penalty is too small. Id give Vettel two penalties first and most obvious the temper tantrum wheel banging stupidity, second for running up the back of Hamilton in the first place. Vettel was not in a position to gain a single millimeter where he had placed himself. Unless he planned to launch himself and his car over the top of Hamilton. that would have been something to see.

          1. Nobody expects another driver to not accelerate out of the exit of a corner. Hamilton should’ve opened the gap to safety car a bit earlier in the lap than when he tried to do. The first tap, was Vettel being caught out by the surprise of Hamilton not accelerating. The second one, it’s up in the air. I think that Vettel didn’t want to bump into him, he just wasn’t paying attention. Very stupid, i know, but look at that video again. He’s quite busy waving at Hamilton than paying attention on track. Intentional? I think not.

            1. Don’t go racing my friend…

              You would be seriously shocked…

              Plus spend a great deal of time with the clerk of the course.

        2. @rpaco Not acquainted with the concept of sarcasm mate?

          Further, in a race where LH reduces from 75km/h in the apex to 50km/h at the end of that blind corner with the whole field behind him and the safety car (he was trying to get Seb’s car damaged, probably by Peres … typical LH) and he doesn’t get a penalty. A race in which Bottas t-bones Kimi and doens’t get a penalty and you come and say Ferrari is being favored…. people see what they want to see.

          Of course, Seb’s actions were stupid and deserved a penalty, but they were not dangerous … actually describing the touch between the two as if Seb had “smashed” into LH is just one of those instances of using loaded words …there are fun experiments on that (I am sure that some LH fans after reading the “smash” word in the post started remembering seeing shattered glass, skid marks and blood all over the place).

          In the end, LH will start on personal attacks on anybody that goes on a title run vs him… Alonso, Seb, Nico, they all become supervillains in those settings…he starts with “Oh, i have great respect for so and so” and then proceeds to accuse them of all evils when they start to beat him – the underlying message being that nobody beats me, the wonderful LH on a straight fight, so they must be cheating…for the love of God, he won’t even shy of hinting at team sabotage in some occasions.

          1. @antifia Stop saying that Hamilton was at fault. It’s pretty much just lying at this point.

            As to the penalty that Vettel has received – he should have been disqualified. Not because it was dangerous, but because it spoke to an underlying attitude that this kind of behaviour is ok.

            Sure, the collision occurred at low speed. But if Vettel can have that kind of disgusting lapse of judgement at that speed, what is stopping him from having a similar lapse in judgement going max chat down the straight?

            The only valid penalty for deliberately hitting another competitor is disqualification, either from this race or the next.

            Both the stewards and the FIA have utterly failed this debacle.

            1. Maldonado got a 5 place grid penalty doing this at higher speed and damaging cars. Did it again within 12 months and got a 10 place penalty. The stop go was far harsher. Senna smashed a car off at 180mph and got away with it. It was a very stupid thing for Vettel to do but circumstance meant he finished ahead of Lewiis which people cannot take. Same with Bottas, initially seemed he got what he deserved was last and a lap down but later people were annoyed as he finished ahead of Raikkonen and on the podium. You cannot give a penalty only to then want further action as circumstances after the event meant through luck the guilty party came out quite well at the end of the race.

            2. @fluxsource Hate to break the news to you, but disagreeing with you is not the definition of the word lying.

              I watched the race and, at least here, the broadcaster showed the incident ad-nauseam…one of the takes was from LH’s onboard camera, with all those bells and wistles (you know, gear, speed, g-force, you name it). In that take you could see LH enter the corner, do the apex at +/- 75 km/h and then reduce to around 50 km/h at the exit of the corner. Who on earth reduces the speed from the apex to the exit (you tend to accelerate in that bit)? In a blind corner…. What purpose could it have?

              Now change the perspective to Seb …. the guy (like all others in F1) can control those cars at speeds exceeding 300km/h, very often at close combat with a car in front. But are you willing to believe that he can’t be trusted to avoid a collision with the car in front, in normal conditions, driving at 75 km/h behind the safety car?…. it takes some super mind bending to go that way, right? So why do you think Seb hit the back of LH’s car, if it was not for lack of skill? There was nothing to gain for doing it deliberately (and you risk breaking your front wing).

              Of course, Seb’s subsequent action was absurdly dim witted but why people refuse to see how LH’s contribution to that mess is beyond me.

            3. It’s rare but there’s still people on this site who can react intelligently.
              +1 Markp.

            4. Who on earth reduces the speed from the apex to the exit (you tend to accelerate in that bit)? In a blind corner…. What purpose could it have?

              Um safety car restart? You do remember they were not going through that corner under “track is green” conditions right? I swear it is ridiculous the amount of people twisting this to try and make Hamilton out as the bad guy.

              Let me switch this round, why on earth would he accelerate?

            5. @antifia You obviously don’t understand racing, when the safety car lights go out the leading car is responsible for setting the pace. Not one pundit / race steward or official put the blame at LH’s door – that says something. Be also did exactly the same at the previous and subsequent safety car restarts. The incident also happened at T15, the safety car line was at least a half mile further down the road and LH had to give it space.

              OK, now addressing your comment regarding SB following safety cars, check out Hungary 2011 (fell more than 10 car lengths behind), Abu Dhabi 2011 (hit the DRS board on the back straight after nearly running up the back of Danny Ric iirc after being caught out) and also the infamous Fuji 2007 when he took Webber out… Oh, and just for good measure, Jenson didn’t bang wheels with SV after nearly colliding after SV braked heavily while leading the pack in Singapore in 2012 either…

            6. ^^^^ Apologies for typos, posted from my mobile…

            7. Paulrus, now that you say that I obviously don’t understand racing, I finally see the errors of my way …. oh lord master of all that runs on 4 wheels… Now serious mate, setting the pace and driving erratically are two different things. You don’t test break the field behind after a blind corner, period.

              Further, if I was the kind of guy that agrees with every position the stewards take, my nick wouldn’t be Anfitia, would it? But nice to meet someone with so much trust on their decisions – I’ll post you up in the future when something comes along to test your faith … once every 4 blue moons, Saturn is aligned with Neptune and the FIA slaps a penalty on LH. When that happens, we talk again :)

              Ah, and I remember Fuji 2007 … who was the guy that test broke the field on that occasion again?….oh, yeah, it could be no other: LH! At that occasion, he at least got a reprimand…

            8. You don’t test break the field behind after a blind corner

              Just as well he didn’t then. You can’t saying that you aren’t lying, then then make a statement that’s completely the opposite of the steward’s ruling into Hamilton’s driving at that point- i.e. he drove at a steady speed.

            9. The “what if he goes down the straight at full speed and hits him” is a bit like saying: I saw you kill a fly the other day, you should be put in jail for life, because what if you kill a person tomorrow. And the “shouldn’t be setting an example”, even though I don’t condone his behavior, I don’t teach my kids to do and follow what they see on TV, I try and set an example for them myself.

            10. Markp The race result has no bearing for me – I thought it should be a DQ straight away. Nothing that has happened since has changed my view of that.

          2. you are an idot im sure are blind or u hate hamilton because of his skin colour

      2. So what you really mean is he did not acted in “the heat of the moment” but did it all very deliberately.

        1. It was raw road rage, simple as that.

          Vettel cannot control his temper, (or the reaction of fans when he gets on the podium; we’ll see/hear).

          If he wins the championship this year, it’s obvious that this incident will be brought up forever, “He only won it because he was let off…” and it will hang over his head for the rest of his life/legacy. That’s sounds melodramatic, but it’s true.

          Trump: Sad.

        2. I am not saying it wasn’t in the heat of the moment. I am saying that “How can I show my discontent, more than just waving my arms at him?” is more likely to result into the bumping of wheels. (He steered in, and also steered back. He didn’t continue pushing Hamilton into the wall… He went for a solid bump. Probably equivalent of giving another player in football a push, after accusing him of pulling your shirt.)

          Continuing with the analogy of the football player giving a push after an alleged shirt-pulling, if he was to punch him in the face or the legs (Slashing his tires deliberately with his nose or something), then I would of course say the offense was more serious, and probably required a harder punishment. In this case? I don’t think so.

          It was a heated response, but likely not terminal to either car. An in-race penalty, a reprimand and an apology still seems fine. The shoulder push in football is also not a red card offense.

          1. PS. not saying that Hamilton did it on purpose either. It could very easily be a misunderstanding, misreading, whatever.

    4. Oh noo…. why wouldn’t Hamilton accept such a sincere apology from Vettel :(

      *Grabs popcorn*

    5. This is a bit of a stretch, Keith. I’d expect this sort of reporting from the Daily Mail.

        1. Yup, very poor.

          1. Fourthed.

      1. Seconded. Clickbait. You can do better Keith.

        1. Old_mate_Mick
          4th July 2017, 10:45

          The last week or two of constant terrible clickbait articles, full of errors, says he really can’t do better. I’ve watched this website decline into Daily Mail status over the last 5 or 6 years. It was ok back then, but these days there’s at least 30 better websites for F1 info than this one.

          1. And yet you come to comment at the 31st. Weird now, isn’t it?

            1. Everyone knows the best comment sections are the ones on the crappier posts :P
              I’m not trying to diss anyone in this post, just pointing out the obvious.

      2. +1. Grasping at straws with this one

      3. Totally agree. This website is one of the best of formula 1, but the favoritism to Hamilton is evident. Trying to make a big new because of a “social media like” is a disgrace.

      4. @nuvolari71 @tonyyeb @ho3n3r @marcusbreese I get that you don’t like this but you haven’t said why there’s nothing I can learn from this at the moment. Anyone care to address that?

        1. @keithcollantine For one I think it is a non story. He hasn’t actually ‘said’ anything, and by ‘liking’ that comment you don’t know for certain that he endorses the whole comment, part of it or just hit ‘like’ by accident. And as others have commented, while Hamilton does personally post stuff, his management team also have access (you can tell the corporate stuff from his) so you can’t be certain that is a personal endorsement. Far too vague to constitute a story in my opinion. Let’s hear it from the horses mouth.

        2. alright Keith, this is my thoughts: I was talking about consequences of actions. Take ice hockey ( i am an ice hockey player as well as a race driver); “hooking” gets 2 minutes on the bench for the offender. No big deal, the offended falls while skating. Instead a full body check on the board dislocates a shoulder of the offended, 4 weeks off the ice and no penalty for the offender. similar action, very different consequences, different penalties.
          What I am saying is that Hamilton is raising his voice for an action which is not beautiful to watch but has zero consequences, instead the same guy has no problem of letting his steering wheel open up a bit more than necessary to drive his opponent off the track, maybe on the grass, maybe on the gavel, maybe in the wall at 200km/h. The rule supports him because “he’s entitled to maintain his racing line if he is still in the front” but the consequences are potentially disastrous… but no penalties. See the difference between actions and consequences? LH knows this very well, much better than me but he speculates because that’s the way he is. He is the kind of guy who beats up a wounded man, who is already on the ambulance bed.
          Now, your reposting an instagram post, which is already a speculation, is doing nothing but heating up a moment which is in my opinion not a big deal at all. Furthermore, the FIA knows better than all of us combined in terms of racing and ruling and penalties. We are surely entitled to have an opinion but to say “i lose respect” is outrageous, extremely offensive, uneducated, dumb, childish and I would punish it, because, as LH pretends to be the good guy who gives good examples to the kids (rofl), he is telling the young generations that they can lose respect to any authority…
          So, what you did in my opinion, was to help Lewis to through his toys out of his prams and I forgive you only because you are british
          All the best

          1. @keithcollantine
            *Throw… not through.. and the last sentence is a joke of course. If this was an italian publication, I am pretty sure the approach would have been different, as it should be

        3. @keithcollantine
          “I get that you don’t like this but you haven’t said why there’s nothing I can learn from this at the moment. Anyone care to address that?”

          My main bone of contention is that the headline expresses a significantly stronger sentiment than is actually implied by “liking” a picture on Instagram, and is a case of trying to second guess how someone else is feeling on a subject – and presented in a sensationalist manner. All Lewis has done is shown a positive acknowledgement of someone else’s opinion of the situation, he has not endorsed it and the fact that he liked it does not mean that he feels that way himself.

          I get that social media is still fairly new, and we are all trying to understand how it fits into modern life. But in the same way we all know that a journalist suggesting a statement and a subject agreeing to it does not carry the same weight as the subject making that statement themselves, I do not believe that Lewis (or anyone else) liking something on Instagram is worthy of creating a whole article on, even on a topic of this magnitude. If Lewis had come out and made that statement himself, then we’d have a story worth talking about.

          Perhaps if an Italian journalist were to perform a partisan analysis of the statement, they’d come out with the following:
          “Hamilton accuses FIA of Ferrari bias and claims they failed to punish Vettel (ignoring 10 second stop-go penalty and 3 penalty points)”.

    6. But he didn’t get away with it? He lost the race and valuable points because of his moment of madness and got punished during the race. Of course you can argue that the punishment wasn’t severe enough but you still can’t pretend he wasn’t penalized at all.

      1. @anatoli68 Nah, the harshest reasonable penalty plus forcing a public apology isn’t hard enough. Let’s all be outraged as loudly as possible all over the internet.

        Is this just the times we live in, or a result of decades of over-policing by race-stewards that added an inflation to penalties?

        1. You’re probably right. It’s the time we’re living in where everybody and their grandmother go out of their way to be politically correct.
          Strange things happen in that kind of enviroment. Suddenly somebody thinks F1 should be politically correct too and become a standard bearer for road safety. Granted F1 does fulfill that part on the technical side but there is no way racing in excess of 300 mph is ever going to be politically correct.
          Same with the general public, everybody are politically correct. But we have never in the history of mankind produced and sold so many cars with 500 to 1000 horses. I highly doubt these are bought in order to comply with the speed limits.

          We are turning into a bunch of hyphocrates ready to pounce on everything we think others might pounce upon. At the same time we all break the rules when we think nobody’s watching. It doesn’t matter what you do, what matters is who sees you do it. A total lack of morals and backbone is the result.

          When enough people get fed up with this phony sosiety it’s going to change. We can allready see the signs, people are fed up with politicans and other proponents of the status quo.

          1. You seem very confused about political correctness. Bless.

        2. @crammond The harshest reasonable penalty?! In your opinion. Which most don’t agree to. What makes you right and us wrong that you can criticize this all over the internet?

        3. and what did you say after Verstappen tryied to kill Kimi in Spa in 2016, admitting it was on purpose? Swerving on the straight speeding 330 is not dangerous enough?

          1. That was indeed very dangerous and should have been penalized. He also quite clearly forced Raikkonen off while missing the corner himself. Both situations went unpunished but this deserves a ban?! People have lost it.

          2. @Ludwig If you are interested in my old comments, you can google them. A quick search reveals this comment on the “should the FIA ban the Verstappen-block”-poll.

            1. Thank you, Sven. Going to check it

      2. Indeed. I was about to write the exact same thing. He should have been black flagged, but he did get penalised so this Instagram user is incorrect.

        Hamilton should be careful to maintain the high ground instead of stopping to this level by criticising the FiA, even by proxy. I hope he shakes Vettel by the hand next race.

      3. People are upset that the punishment didn’t fit the crime.

        1. And yet it did!

        2. ECW in your opinion.

          1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            4th July 2017, 13:38

            @ho3n3r in the vast majority of people’s opinions including most Sebastian Vettels’ fans. It was an instant Black Flag with additional penalties on top in my opinion. Vettel’s been acting like this since his Webber days.

            It’s funny how people used to say that Vettel was a great guy who connected with the team while Lewis is a hypocrite etc.

            According to Paddy Lowe, Lewis is probably the fairest driver who doesn’t mind racing his teammates on equal terms…

            1. This is completely bonkers… Lewis behaves like a child when his team mate dares to compete with him. He likes to have subservient fellows like Kovi and Bottas on the other car… Last year he went so far as starting hinting that he was being sabotaged by the team… Incidentally, funny to see LH commenting about 1st and 2nd drivers at Ferrari following Monaco – you know, I would be more circumspect in a track where my team mate was told to let me by the year before or when my current team mate was told to let me by, not once but twice, in Bahrain this year….

              Regarding the penalty, a 10 secs stop and go for a light bump of rubber, with no consequence to either car, seems fit for the crime to me. The frustration of LH’s fans come from the fact that, due to his own car problems, the penalty didn’t hurt Seb as they wished it had..but this is no reason to ban the guy for a race.

              Besides, LHs fans should want to have a level playing field vs Vettel this year…you know, it would be good for LH’s image to finally win a championship where the other guy is good and has a competitive car (if he manages to do it, of course).

            2. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
              4th July 2017, 16:34

              @antifia good that you say whay freelittlebirds wants blindly to hide or not admit
              Come on, he says “he doesn’t mind racing his teammates on equal terms”.
              Facepalm for that one. Good you remind us of his sabotage claims and the way Bottas had to obbey in Barhain, and how LH wanted Bottas to stop Vettel. Hahahaa equal terms my…

            3. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
              4th July 2017, 23:34

              @antifia @omarr-pepper

              You do realize that Hamilton had more wins in the lower categories over a few years than Alonso has had in his entire career in F1? He almost pips Vettel on current F1 victories.

              As for Vettel, his track record is not very convincing. He nearly lost to Webber in 2010 and didn’t seem to have his measure until the diffuser came which favored him immensely. He lost to Ricciardo and Raikonnen looked super strong at the end of last year compared to Vettel. So 3 for 3, only better when the car suits him…

              And before you say 2011 which you have no choice but to say, 2 words. Canada and Massa. Once you factor those in, the scoreboard swings well in favor of Lewis… Neither were things that he could control.

    7. Apparently, Hamilton did not read yesterday’s statement until the end where it says that “sportsmen must be cognisant of the impact their behaviour can have on those who look up to them. They are heroes and role models and to millions of fans worldwide and must conduct themselves accordingly.”

      Agreeing with the claim that “FIA are a bias set of fools towards Ferrari” has nothing to do with being a heroe or a role model. It only encourages trolling and fanboyism.

      1. @girts Well, that poster is simply staring an fact. Hamilton got punished for way less in the past yet Vettel receiving anothing slap on the wrist

        1. Hamilton has never received a 10 sec stop and go penalty.

          #Facts #Blessed.

          1. What was his punishment in Valencia 2010 when he overtook a safety car, gained 40 seconds and lost about 25 seconds with a penalty, cheating and a net gain of 15 seconds. Was it a stop go or drive through.

    8. it all it takes to get off this lightly for the crime, i m sure now everyone will be OOPS SORRY after races…

      1. Yep. Losing 30 seconds in the race. That’s nothing. Just look at the recent race winners and add 30 seconds to their time and you’ll see they would have still easily won the race.

        1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
          4th July 2017, 19:45

          How recent are you talking about? The biggest gap between the winner and driver in 2nd place has been about 20 seconds this year. All the other 7 races were under 10 seconds apart. So if any winner this year got a 30 second penalty, it will have cost them a minimum of 1 position, and more in most other races. That penalty Vettel got given wasn’t nothing as it pretty much prevented him from winning as he was Hamilton suffered from an unrelated problem and Vettel was only 6 seconds off wining anyway. But the penalty probably cost him 3 places, so it wasn’t nothing.

    9. It’s quite clear to me that the FIA are responsible for this whole furore. They decide who will be the stewards for every meeting, and, correct me if I’m wrong, but they are different for every meeting. Therefore they cannot possibly know the content of every decision taken in the past or indeed the reasons for it. This means when such a decision as occurred in Baku they have to trail-blaze and set a precedent for which they must be unsure. Baku was a terrible precedent.

      The FIA need to employ a team of stewards on a 2-year minimum contract with reserves and all who are capable of attending a meeting must do so and those not actually officiating can act as the ‘TMO’ for want of a better word to back up for contentious decisions like this one.

      This is a professional sport but the referees appear to be amateurs, come on FIA, lets have some consistency, that can only come from a complete change of approach.

      1. Just to play devil’s advocate here for a minute, at least rotating the stewards means ‘bad eggs’ are not in post for 2 years. In football, the referee changes every match, so I think it can work so long as the stewarding standards are consistent.

        I’m not sure what kind of ‘guide’ the stewards are given (in addition to the sporting regs) similar to what happens with FIFA and referee guidance, but maybe this needs looked at in more detail.

        1. Yes, I thought about the points you raised, and they are valid, but this decision smacks of incompetence and fear of the consequences of setting a wrong precedent. It’s the same as a judge in a court of law I suppose, so a steward must be able to pass a competence test that is transparent to the people who are paying for it, us.

          Maybe they do have to sit an exam, I don’t know..

      2. @frasier

        Therefore they cannot possibly know the content of every decision taken in the past or indeed the reasons for it.

        They do as every stewards decision along with detailed reports & reasoning for why it was made on top of all the video/data evidence from that incident is stored on an FIA server which every future steward has access to.

        The stewards can & do look back at any/all past similar incidents, See what (If any) penalty was applied & get a full report on why the stewards at the time came to the conclusion they did. It’ snot just text either as i’m pretty sure they now do video or audio recordings where the stewards explain there decisions in detail specifically so future stewards have more context on why decisions were made.

        I’d also point out that permanent stewards don’t seem to solve much as Indycar have that & are still constantly accused of been inconsistent by teams, drivers & fans in much the same way as the F1 stewards do.

        1. Yet we have the contrast of a race ban for Grosjean after the Spa incident, which was carelessness, and a slap on the wrist for a deliberate collision.

          They’re not consistent and certainly not proportionate

    10. Good scoop for this site. An exclusive so far. I’m sure Hamilton has been monitoring this saga but will probably say he hasn’t.

    11. I loose respect for Lewis Hamilton ever since he pushed other driver off the track and didn’t get a race ban.

      1. Fukobayashi (@)
        4th July 2017, 9:48

        I’m sure he won’t loose too much sleep over your delusions either.

        1. And nobody gives a rats ass about your HAM either.

          1. Ham is a bit boring without a bit of mustard. Eddie Jordan is the usual condiment but now Seb has thrown the curry powder into the works.

            It all makes what has already been a good season into even more of a heated debate track/net/TV world.

          2. Fukobayashi (@)
            4th July 2017, 16:12

            @bharath yes. Nobody gives a rats ass about the most popular and highest earning F1 driver of all time. Yes, that all makes perfect sense.

            1. Lol have a look at Vettel’s pay, just have a play on google.

      2. @kalun As if you had respect for Hamilton to begin with, who do you try to fool ?. When you have the racing line you can do what ever you want.

        1. @noname

          When you have the racing line you can do whatever you want?! Where’s that in the rule book?! Or are you copying that hammy fan Patrickl, because if you are lemme assure he knows nothing of the rules.
          When you have the racing line you have the advantage, off being on the racing line. That’s it. If someone has his car sufficiently next to yours you HAVE TO LEAVE HIM ENOUGH ROOM. It doesn’t matter if he’s on your inside or outside. In that situation he’s entitled to at least a car width of track space. No amount of Hammy fan logic changes that.

          1. Fukobayashi (@)
            4th July 2017, 16:16

            Why are you wittering on about the rules while racing in a story about Seb crashing into another car under the SAFETY CAR. That isn’t racing conditions and your logic is also incredibly poor.

          2. Funny how every single (successful) driver does it then, in every single racing series – if you are on the racing line in a corner and someone’s on your outside, you run him out of road and hang him out to dry – racing 101. Alonso vs Vettel and also Vettel vs Alonso in Monza in 2 subsequent years is a good example…

    12. Whatever your opinion on the drivers and the punishment that was handed down, this ruling does set a precedent moving forward and an overwhelming opinion that you can drive into a competitor justified in your own mind by something you perceived to the be the case and then act in a bemused attitude after the race only to say “I’m sorry” when pulled in front of the FIA and that’s it. What’s the level of purposeful contact the FIA is happy to allow as long as it’s followed at some point by an apology? The FIA, no matter which driver committed the offense should have made an example of the incident and shut down any possibility a repeat could happen, as it happens, they haven’t even come close to that.

      On a second point, from what has been reported in the media the stewards during the race were extremely close to black flagging Vettel for the incident but choose not to in order to not impact on the world championship too greatly, 2 things with that. By not (majority of opinion at least) handing down a sufficient penalty haven’t you done exactly that? and also what has the world championship got to with a driving offense? The world championship should never come into a punishment decision, it should be the offense that was committed punished regardless of the position in the championship. Are they saying they would for example have black flagged Kimi or Dani Ric because they aren’t in the championship battle. If what’s been reported is true that for me at least is just as worrying as an apology seemingly escaping you further punishment.

      1. @woodyd91

        this ruling does set a precedent moving forward and an overwhelming opinion that you can drive into a competitor justified in your own mind by something you perceived to the be the case and then act in a bemused attitude after the race only to say “I’m sorry” when pulled in front of the FIA and that’s it

        I’m sorry, but it doesn’t. This false narrative is now being spread that Vettel went unpunished, when he wasn’t. He got punished on three different levels (loss of points during the race, penalty points on his license, and the F1 equivalent of public service).

        Now, you might feel that it is too light, and there might be a valid point in that, but stop spreading the false narrative that based on this “it’s OK to do so as long as you say sorry”. It is not.

        1. Don’t believe I actually said once he went unpunished did I? Nope I said it sets a precedent that you can be pulled in front of the FIA and simply say sorry and that’s it.

          In fact if you look at my final sentence it says

          escaping you further punishment.

          1. only to say “I’m sorry” when pulled in front of the FIA and that’s it

            @woodyd91 that implies that Vettel went unpunished not less than Vettel’s apology implies that he is willing to unlawyerlike-ly accept all of the blame.

      2. What’s the level of purposeful contact the FIA is happy to allow as long as it’s followed at some point by an apology?

        @woodyd91 Historically, a title-securing one somewhere in UTC+8?

      3. @woodyd91 You could argue that the precedent was actually set in 2011/2012 when Pastor Maldonado did something similar but far worse IMO (Higher speeds & much more aggressive chops resulting in damage to both cars involved) & was only handed grid place drops.

        What Vettel did was bad, But I don’t think it was anywhere near as bad as those 2 Maldonado incidents.

        1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
          4th July 2017, 14:17

          +1,000,000

          1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            4th July 2017, 15:06

            meant for @woodyd91 – I replied to @stefmeister

      4. @woodyd91 To your first paragraph…most drivers do not have it within them to intentionally whack another car, so no, this does not set a precedent. SV is an individual, and he experienced road rage, and he has not gone unpunished even if some think it wasn’t enough. It will take for another driver to not only feel harshly done by by a car/driver in front, but to then have enough rage that he reacts badly. I would suggest we will not see another incident this season like SV pulled, not only because this will have opened a few drivers eyes, but because in general this rarely happens. Road rage happens far far more frequently in far far less safe cars on our normal streets everyday, when there is no trophy nor millions at stake.

        To your second paragraph, if you could stand back from your stance that SV should have been way more harshly punished then you will see that he was indeed sufficiently punished while at the same time the WDC has not been decided in the FIA’s boardroom, which nobody wants. Yes it can seem hypocritical, but it is very normal for F1 to try to shape the season such that whenever possible they try to leave the battles on the track and preferably coming down to the last race of the season. Had SV done something much more severe such as doing this at actual racing speed, then the FIA would have had no choice. As it is the punishment fit the crime and the series can carry on on the track.

        1. @robbie

          To your first paragraph…most drivers do not have it within them to intentionally whack another car, so no, this does not set a precedent.

          The amount of drivers who would be willing to do such a thing has nothing to do with setting precedent, the precedent has been set no matter if a driver chooses to act or not. The FIA has said that the punishment SV was given was enough for the offense, that’s a precedent. It’s up to a driver to choose if he will or wont commit the same offense knowing how they will be punished before hand, for example if they had black flagged or post race disqualified SV then the precedent would have been set at a higher level. Do I think we will commonly see drivers banging into each other on purpose like SV did, of course not. But it does mean that drivers will know they can do without being immediately black flagged, which only increases the risk of it happening again more and maybe the next time a piece of body work comes off or suspension and hit a driver in a car behind. To me that doesn’t set a good precedent.

          To your second paragraph, if you could stand back from your stance that SV should have been way more harshly punished then you will see that he was indeed sufficiently punished

          As far as standing back goes, it sounds like you are asking me to stand back from my opinion and instead use your opinion, from your opinion it would seem you think he was sufficiently punished, I feel differently. Asking somebody to look at the situation through their opinion to change their original opinion doesn’t make much sense to me. Maybe you could also move back from your stance and look at it that SV wasn’t punished harshly enough.

          while at the same time the WDC has not been decided in the FIA’s boardroom

          There is no possible way of knowing that, if for example in the final race SV wins the championship by a single point then you could say the FIA helped decide the championship, the notion that they didn’t want to black flag a driver purely because it could affect the WDC is nonsensical. The FIA aren’t FOM, they are the governing body not the commercial rights holder so making penalty decisions based upon engineering a championship to the last race is not ethical or the role of the FIA in F1.

          Had SV done something much more severe such as doing this at actual racing speed, then the FIA would have had no choice.

          That shouldn’t come into it, if a driver breaks the rules they break the rules. It wasn’t a grey area here, it was clear, SV decided to drive into another drivers car. at 60k or 300k it’s dangerous and unsporting to do and should be penalised just the same.

          1. @woodyd91 No I just don’t see a precedent having been set given that we seem to all agree, much to many peoples’ dismay, that sometimes penalties are administered inconsistently, as every situation is different. So I don’t think there is a single driver out there in any racing series for that matter that has decided for themselves that now it is ok to sideswipe someone intentionally and that is worth ‘X’ in terms of a penalty. I’d go so far as to say any driver doing this again in F1 this season, and who will claim ‘well SV did it why shouldn’t I’ should be treated more harshly as they would be simply relying on a lame excuse as opposed to something that, at least to SV, was real, as in, he really thought at that instant he had been brake tested. As we know of F1, the last thing a driver should assume at this point is that if he did the same as SV he’d be treated the same.

            As to standing back from your opinion, perhaps better worded, the judgement has been made and there is no further penalty for SV. Calling for a race ban or what have you is moot. My opinion as it turns out has been the correct one in that no further punishment was warranted. The issue is over.

            As to affecting the Championship, sure even the decision to penalize him during the race the way they did, and then the decision yesterday to not penalize him further affects the WDC chase, and you can present all the scenarios you want with respect to SV winning by one point etc etc, but that is a never ending argument of hypothesizing and speculating. FIA have interfered the least they could on this, after having penalized SV more for his little whack on LH than MS got for his big whack on JV.

            The reality is that sure there are going to be some people that might boil it down to Baku if SV wins by a point, but we all know there are hundreds of points yet to be had this season, and for every one boiling it down to Baku there will be ones pointing to LH being nowhere in Monaco, or any of several other things that will have gone on this season. Last year many boiled down LH’s loss to NR to his one specific dnf but the reality is considering the points he lost by, a few better starts would have made the difference too. It is never about just one thing unless someone is playing let’s pretend, or let’s ignore all the facts in favour of the one I want to stress at this particular point in time.

            Lastly in a perfect world sure breaking a rule is breaking a rule, but we know that is not how it works. Circumstances are different each time and F1 has historically shaped things for the sake of the show and to maximize their own revenues etc etc. That had been the case for decades, and suddenly you want carved in stone, black and white rules, regulations, and punishments when you know that has never been the case in F1. Technical regs are written to be a bit vague sometimes too, to allow for different teams to interpret them differently. It’s a sport, not a public court of law. We all know that if any one of us did to someone else what hockey players do to each other, as one example, we’d be up on assault charges. In a domestic car, SV would have had his license pulled. But this is racing.

            1. @robbie

              So I don’t think there is a single driver out there in any racing series for that matter that has decided for themselves that now it is ok to sideswipe someone intentionally and that is worth ‘X’ in terms of a penalty. I’d go so far as to say any driver doing this again in F1 this season, and who will claim ‘well SV did it why shouldn’t I’ should be treated more harshly as they would be simply relying on a lame excuse as opposed to something that, at least to SV, was real, as in, he really thought at that instant he had been brake tested.

              really?

              We all know that if any one of us did to someone else what hockey players do to each other, as one example, we’d be up on assault charges. In a domestic car, SV would have had his license pulled. But this is racing.

              So as its racing, its ok for drivers to bump into each other behind the safety car, during flags and under any other acing conditions, or should they be severely punished to be made an example of, because the FIA couldnt do it to Seb?

              i’m confused by your post’s opposing views.

            2. @9chris9 I’m confused by your post. I don’t have opposing views. I never said it’s ok. I’m just ok with the penalty SV paid. And I highly doubt other drivers will take this as permission since they will presume they will get off ‘lightly’.

              FIA ‘couldn’t do it to Seb?’ They obviously didn’t see it as appropriate so they didn’t penalize Seb further. They could have done whatever they wanted with him penalty wise.

      5. The FIA has now shown it is corrupt, and is in with Ferrari,and that they will do anything to make sure Ferrari are blame free of anything and want only Ferrari to win at any cost, any other sport this is called fixing, it seem now that the time has come to get a new governing body to take over the ruling of f1, the FIA has come to the end of the fixing out comes now time to go and good riddance

    13. Wonder is HAM will continue playing victim now. VET did domething stupid, but HAM was not the victim… still he seems to love the role.

      1. Fukobayashi (@)
        4th July 2017, 9:50

        How has he played the victim? He gave his opinion after the race and said he intended to do his talking on the track. Now he or one of his management has LIKED an instagram post, the most inane gesture and the deluded Seb apologists are saying he’s playing a victim. Don’t make stuff up because your driver is clearly in the wrong.

        1. -Fuji 2008 Mr right(HAM) break tests behind a safety car causing an accident. No action taken.
          -Aus GP 2009 HAM LIES blatantly to Stewarts in the trulli scandal. He is branded LIAR for life after that.
          So where were you when these things happened.

          1. So that means Schumacher was also branded a liar for life after his infamous Monaco incident in 2006?

            As for your Fuji reference, he was heavily reprimanded for that incident.

            However, you’ve not proved that he’s playing the victim game, all you’ve done is highlight some of his transgressions. I mean, we can do the same for all the drivers. Remember when Seb brake tested Jenson in Singapore, I believe it was 2012? Remember when multi 21 occurred and fearing that Red Bull or the FIA might punish him, he went and got his lawyers? Remember when Alonso blackmailed McLaren? …..

            I mean I could go on & on & on & on& on……..

          2. @sharath Lol. Would you not lie for your own team/family ?, or would uou betray them lol. Go sit down in the corner with your nonsense. And in Fuji it was raining hard and Hamilton did not brake tests.

          3. Fukobayashi (@)
            4th July 2017, 16:18

            @Sharath He is branded LIAR for life after that. Really? The highest paid driver in F1 has LIAR stamped across his CV and they STILL hired him? Damn, this guy must be damned good at the whole driving thing huh. ;)

          4. You can’t brake test a driver if they are not directly behind you.
            Hamilton was on the extreme right, Webber the extreme left of the track.
            But Webber did okay and didn’t overtake.

          5. TBH that’s rather irrelevant.

            What’s next? Turkey 2010?

        2. Seb’s offence did not hurt Hamilton, it hurt the public good. And the public good deemed a ten second penalty, an apology and some social work will cover it.
          Now when Hamilton gets on his high horse and decides he’s got higher moral standards than the FIA, that he’s at the receiving end of a shameful behaviour; he’s not doing himself any favours, he’s playing the victim. I say; he should stick to driving, he did not lose any positions or points because of Seb in Baku.

      2. @makana VET did not harm HAM in any way but HAM is still the recipient of VET’s rule-breaking action, a role he has very much a right to play

    14. This is clickbait non-news, disappointed with F1F.

      1. Hasseroderman (@)
        4th July 2017, 9:45

        +1

      2. How? The title is ‘“Lost all respect for the FIA” – Hamilton endorses fan’s view on Vettel ruling’.

        It says he endorses a fan’s view, which he did by liking the post, in which it the fan says he lost all respect for the FIA. I don’t see how that’s clickbait? A clickbait title would be ‘Hamilton claims to have “lost all respect for the FIA”‘ or something. The title Keith used tells you that it wasn’t Lewis who said it, but a fan, and gives you a little snippet of the post.

        Maybe it is a bit of a non-news story as it was likely his PR team who liked it, but it’s not really clickbait as the title actually tells you what happened.

        1. I don’t see how that’s clickbait?

          @hugh11 It’s as close to clickbait as other titles on here which have left their articles labelled (wrongly or otherwise) clickbait by comemnters in the past so I wouldn’t expect any different here.

      3. I don’t think the “first reaction” we’ve seen from Hamilton to the Vettel ruling is irrelevant clickbait, in fact it’s more of a scoop so far exclusive to F1F, so, not a bad thing for this site.

    15. I think Lewis is not four-time world champion yet @keithcollatine

      1. Haha, I also got confused when I read that line in the article.

        1. Sorry about that!

    16. Here comes the tears, poor Lewis the victim again…

      1. to be fair though he was the recipient of an offence in this case (which of course isn’t to say he’s never been the one who commits an offence).

    17. AntoineDeParis (@antoine-de-paris)
      4th July 2017, 9:24

      Some frustration is understandable. Lewis needs at least 1 Vettel’s DNF (or a race ban) to win championship this year.

      1. I think the general feeling is Merc is on the ascendency and relying on the misfortunes of others won’t be necessary.

      2. I think it’s the other way round. Vettel will need some DNFs. Merc has decent momentum again.

        1. I see, but that’s what Niki Lauda said after Monaco GP ;)

    18. @keithcollantine RE: final paragraph. Vettel also got 3 points on his licence.

    19. Trevor Randall
      4th July 2017, 9:34

      What are black flags for, if not this?

      Baku felt like the new F1 owners were flexing their muscles in prioritising the entertainment vs the sporting side. How many times have we seen debris demand a safety car before in F1? It’s exactly why racing in the USA isn’t real – entertainment and ultimately ££$$€€ come before the sport.

      1. The new owners have no say over the actual running of the races, Thats down to the FIA.

        The SC was called out for debris because it’s a very fast, Very narrow street circuit with no run off. When you have big pieces of debris all over the track on some of the fastest places (With less opportunity for track workers to safely retrieve it) the chances of a puncture are higher & on a track like Baku the results of a puncture putting somebody in the wall potentially more problematic than on a wide track with lots of runoff.

    20. tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
      4th July 2017, 9:38

      An Instagram user with the name Tillykeeper_zackfan posted the following, which was ‘liked’ by the four-times world champion

      @keithcollantine there might be a bit of a slip there, if you’re referring to Hamilton (although if Vettel had any sense of guilt he would have upvoted that post ;-))

    21. Waiting for the inevitable “Sorry, that was my PR Team” message when this goes elsewhere.

      Seriously though, Lewis should just get on with the job. If I were the FIA, I’d have given Seb a 10 place grid penalty for the next race as maximum. The stewards at the track had all the same information about the swipe as the FIA did, and their decision should’ve been final. It’s not like the post investigation for the possible brake check where they got new information in the telemetry, they had the same camera views. If anything, it worries me that the FIA seemingly don’t trust the decision making of the stewards that they assign that they felt they needed to look into it further. Also, in Seb’s apology he said he’d be attending educational events for F2, F3 and F4 teams etc to help them out, which should help with the whole argument of how it influences younger drivers (which I don’t get anyway, as there’s been so much outrage I don’t see why any young drivers would want to replicate it).

    22. Please let them broadcast the drivers’ briefing in Austria like they did for Monaco, surely it’s going to be TV gold!

      1. Man that would be cooler than a Kimi ice cream . Come on Chase make it happen !!

    23. The Insta user has only made silly assumptions on what LH would have been punished with. Like a usual chat of fans… Rubbish news. Bias what??! Lewis sent Nico off track several times and as a race driver, not giving space to a competitor outside of a corner, sending him beyond the white line is much more dangerous that giving a small nudge at 49 km/h. Give us a brake. We have seen maneuvers at very high speed with much much bigger consequences, where nothing has been done. Remember Vet Web in turkey? Hamilton diving on grass on the straight on Nico? Button flipping Ver in Monaco? It onset matter if it’s a reaction in a hot moment, the consequences must be considered first of all. Hamilton has ALWAYS been a cry baby. He’s the man who is asking Bottas to slow down so that he can catch Vet. Come on… is this the type of sportsmanship he says the kids have to learn? Unfortunately Lewis is unbearable when he takes his helmet off and so many times he’s played these childish games. FIA should reprimand him for not paying respect to FIA in public. And Keith… please, stick to racing news

      1. “Lewis sent Nico off” outside of a corner keeping racing line vs crashing into your competitor inside or outside with intent to show a point is not the same thing. Vettel is that you?

        1. @mysticus

          It’s not the same thing but both are not allowed. One is punished the other is not. But FIArrari supposedly.

          1. If both are not allowed, they both would be punished… unfortunately, you are wrong, guy on the racing line is allowed to continue on the racing line with exception of not changing line midway through corner and getting yourself too wide to push an opponent… if you have been watching f1 long enough, you should understand the distinction, otherwise, everyone would be kamikazeing into corners knowing noone can touch them… But agree Ferrari’s International Assistance team always find more excuse to penalize Ferrari’s opponents…

    24. So, Lewis has “lost all respect” for his “hero” Ayrton Senna? Why did Lewis have any respect for Ayrton in the first place? Why was/is Ayrton Lewis’ self-described hero?
      Hypocrisy is just so confusing!

    25. Then it is set. Now that it is legal, I would stab the brakes.. NOW.. ok… NOW… oops you missed… NOW lol This is fun. K.. I’m stabbing em NOW lmaoooo. You better believe, after that ruling you would be in hell behind me.

    26. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      4th July 2017, 10:14

      I don’t quite see how Vettel did just “get away with it” As he got a fairly harsh penalty of a 10 second stop and go which added up to 30 seconds plus his 3 penalty points.

      Other drivers this year have also caused completely avoidable incidents that have been far more dangerous and have had far worse impacts on other people’s races than what Vettel did to Hamilton. Such as Magnussen on Ericsson in the first race this year, Sainz and Stroll in Bahrain, Perez and Kvyat in Monaco and Sainz again with Grosjean and Massa in Canada.

      I understand these all resulted in a retirement, but they also all resulted in a totally innocent driver retiring. And the drivers that caused them to retire got a less harsh penalty than Vettel has for what he has done here in Baku. Even if it was on purpose and no matter how silly it looked (which I admit it did), it just wasn’t close to the danger level as other incidents and I think the penalty he got was perfectly fair and it doesn’t need to be taken any further. I have a feeling that Hamilton may be less annoyed if he won. But it wasn’t Vettel’s fault that Hamilton happened to finish behind him. That was just bad luck.

      1. @thegianthogweed Vettel only got the penalty after Hamilton to come in, then the stuwards handing a 10 second stop and go penaly to Vettel. So why did they wait that long..

        1. Yeah, but the incidents you list were during the heat of the racing battle. This was deliberate, during a controlled situation. One mistake by Vet by driving into the back of Ham and a road rage outburst with a lethal weapon.

          I only recall Bumper Cars Maldonado doing this and he was a nobody. 4 X WDC should not drive thus.

          Crash for cash set ups are similar. Three vehicles, front slows, second brakes, third runs into the back, front speeds up and away. No doubt involving some shouting afterwards.

          (I’m still a fan of Vettel, but it makes me a bit embarrassed to admit it.)

        2. The action was to be investigated after the race. It was only after Hamilton had to come in that they handed the penalty. I think that was the biggest mistake of the stewards.

    27. Did He also lost respect for the FIA after the Mercedes secret tyre test ?

      1. Of course not. Morality only comes into it for him when it negatively affects him or someone he likes.

        What Senna did to Prost at Suzuka was 100 times more dangerous, but he seems OK with that.

      2. Yes because a tyre test organised by a team of which he has no control or say over is the same thing as driving into another driver on purpose.

        1. Well it is completely wrong to say that tire test was organized by the team. It was a Pirelli test, badly needed, and they and Mercedes had Whiting’s permission because he knew how badly a test was needed due to the terrible and problematic tires, and Mercedes were sitting 4th in the Constructors at the time, so better them than what would have appeared much more suspicious…using a top 3 (at the time) team, which would have looked much more like influencing the Championship even though it was the usual blind tire testing where Mercedes were not privy to data on the tires that the drivers were running.

          1. @robbie

            would have looked much more like influencing the Championship

            Which somehow…it still managed to (for many people anyway)

            1. (much more than probably intended/wished/hoped, anyway…I think. probably.)

        2. @woodyd91
          Hamilton himself was involved in that test (he used a different helmet) and we saw how many times he skipped tyre tests for dummy reasons.

          1. @tifoso1989

            we saw how many times he skipped tyre tests for dummy reasons.

            Isn’t that a bit like trying to prove how Webber was #2 by saying his car was less reliable though (which is how many viewers remembers things to be in 2010/09-2013)?

            1. No it was not they used different helmets to avoid being photographed.

          2. @davidnotcoulthard
            No of course not, my point was that Hamilton do actually has his say in terms of testing attendance in response to @woodyd91 when he said that it was “a tyre test organised by a team of which he has no control or say”

    28. @hugh11

      The stewards at the track had all the same information about the swipe as the FIA did, and their decision should’ve been final.

      It appears that there decision was final, the FIA seems to have agreed with the Stewards decision which still stands, they have just insisted that SV apologises and attend some educational events for the lower formulae which is more about the FIA saving face for calling an un-necessary meeting in the first place. Oh and to balance that out, SV doesn’t even have to do any FIA road safety campaigning!

    29. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      4th July 2017, 10:20

      Just asking, Would Vettel and Hamilton really be a good team if they were together? I really do think Hamilton and Bottas seem very relaxed as team mates and get on better than Hamilton and Rosberg did. I honestly think it could well be better for the team how it is now. I have a feeling that if Hamilton and Vettel were together, it would be an extremely strong team at times, but also could have some major problems at other times such as a major fall out or a big crash. So far, Bottas seems to be doing a decent job and being a good team player towards Hamilton and keeping out of trouble.

      1. Wait til they are both fighting for the championship. Rosberg and Hamilton were cool with each other during 2013, but during 2014 the gloves came off.

    30. In other news from social media, Lewis signals he’s moving to MotoGP:
      https://www.instagram.com/p/BV-S0dVlSoC/?taken-by=lewishamilton

    31. FIA just acknowledged “rubbin’s racing” so let the games begin.
      Nothing like a bad referee call to light LH’s wick . It’s Hammering time.

      1. If it results in no DNF/damage or time loss, that’s good, and it has been the case since forever.

        Same as happened to Hamilton, he lost literally nothing due to what Vettel did.

    32. This years FIA get out of jail password is “Sorry”. This can now be used by drivers by simply texting or Tweeting the word “Sorry” either before , during or after an intended rules infringement.

    33. Elsaidamustafa
      4th July 2017, 10:50

      Please people all we want is a good game l think Hamilton is doing a great job in putting pressure in Vettel. But was it really his fault for the crash or was one of the famous games of Hamilton people u have to admit Vettel is a cold person l doubt that he would loose the cool when the security car was there. SO get over it if u want to be fair play than u should also see the race when Hamilton was in the 18 place and one lap behind and nearly caused him the race. But we have a say here the great day u see it in a great morning. I think we all know in side who the winner is so don’t begin with the l lost the respect for him because if we start Hamilton would win the championship of ” l lost the respect because of the attitude”

      1. i have no idea what you just said

    34. Yet he will praise Senna and Schumi. Even though they were 100 times worse.

      1. @jamiejay995 Not Schumacher. Senna though, yeah.

        1. 1994 Adelaide, 1997 Jerez, you can even put 2010 hungary

          1. But Hamilton doesn’t praise Schumacher.

            1. @jamiejay995 I meant:

              But Hamilton doesn’t praise Schumacher.

      2. @jamiejay995

        Yet he will praise Senna and Schumi.

        Senna yes, Schumacher no:

        Hamilton doesn’t want Schumacher’s “tainted” legacy

    35. It comes in three’s
      Seb should be held accountable
      The FIA should be held accountable
      F1fanatic should be held accountable.

      1. Who is accountable for Lewis’ “comment”?

    36. What LH actually said was “I will do my talking on the track”

      1. Guybrush Threepwood
        4th July 2017, 13:14

        If only…

    37. This is outrageous!! What a shame FIA, how dare you not to give the championship trophy to Lewis at Bakú, he already had the champagne and the confetti prepared… I’m disappointed, vettel should be sent to the guillotine

    38. The punishment that `LH would have preferred would have been for Vettel to have lost the 12 points and nothing less.

    39. Great to have a dedicated article each time a driver ‘likes’ a social media entry.
      Can’t wait for the next flatulence report ;)

    40. 💩amilton is not happy. 🍆🍆🍆

    41. Keith, I generally like your site, but this is garbage journalism. How is this news?
      I have the feeling you are having problems staying objective on this whole situation. A bit sad, cause this is one of my top F1 sites.

      1. @niedle Because Hamilton has indicated how he feels about the governing body’s response to the Vettel incident.

        1. No he hasn’t!
          He (or the person managing his account) merely liked an Instagram post.

          Even a person much smarter than I said:

          Lewis Hamilton is yet to respond officially on the FIA’s decision

        2. @keithcollantine In my opinion you are judging this wrong. This is not a scoop, this is some clickbait journalism. I had the feeling F1F was above this. Actually disappointed about this news article, as it looks like you are clearly favoring Hamilton on this one.

    42. Lost all respect for Hamilton and F1 in general when he came out with ” is it because I’m black” when asked why he thought the stewards were looking at his actions again!

      1. Well, my own opinon is that FIA are a load of incompetent fools and if you are 4 times World Champion and act as ‘prima donna’ you can get away with murder.
        Now all drivers can behave dangerously and give the excuse, well Vettel did it and you let him off, so how can you punish me!!!

        F1 certainly needs to clean its act up and stop bowing to the so-called might of Ferrari. Dangerous driving is as it says ‘Dangerous driving’ and and applies to whatever speed you are travelling at and needs to be severely punished.

        1. @mikejtw You see it is simply untrue that now all drivers will think they can behave badly. Drivers will drive and behave the way they themselves have learned to do and the way their conscious allows. Otherwise, as I opine in a post below, MS would have set F1 on a path to being a smash up derby long ago. These drivers are not children emulating their big brothers’ or sisters’ mistakes because they don’t know any better. They didn’t need to see Seb take penalties during the race and reprimands afterwards to ward them off intentionally whacking another car. Even if they think he got off ‘without any punishment at all’ which is simply inaccurate, that doesn’t mean they can suddenly bring themselves to do the same.

      2. To be fair, you had to wonder at some of the decisions that went against him at that time.
        His recent retort to Johnny Herbert was more telling.

    43. Although a couple of people are describing this as clickbait and bad journalism. @keithcollantine hasn’t taken this out of context. I originally posted it because I felt that it offered an interesting insight to how Hamilton feels about the issue away from the paddock. From everything I’ve gathered, Hamilton manages his social media himself and he didn’t follow the user that posted this, he must have been looking through his mentions and seen the post. He genuinely seems interested in what others post about him and obviously sees it as a platform to express himself in a more personal manner. While it didn’t come from the horse’s mouth, with the value he places on social media as a tool for expression, I think it’s pretty interesting. Although he’s more open than other drivers around the paddock, I very much doubt he expresses all of his opinions in front of the cameras. We should value these insights into the views of drivers in such an orchestrated sport.

      1. Since when is Hamilton liking something news? Maybe he also likes horses, wrestling or Barbie for all I care. How can it be news? We are not even sure if it was him.

        1. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard him say he manages his own accounts, certainly Instagram and Snapchat considering how personal and intimate the posts are. This isn’t something he usually likes, it’s usually celebrity friends or fashion. He’s gone out of his way to find and like this. It might seem insignificant because it’s social media, but it’s still an opinion being expressed.

        2. After doing a bit of searching, he claims to manage a few of his social media accounts, not all of them. Facebook and Twitter seem to have very generic marketing posts, whereas Instagram and Snapchat seem very personal.

    44. I think for me, when all is said and done, I’m fine with the penalties SV has already received and it only makes sense that there was no further punishment, other than that Seb is a step closer to a harsher penalty for another indiscretion.

      Perhaps I’m ok with this, and wasn’t all that phased to begin with, nor willing to jump on the outrage bandwagon, because I watched Senna and I watched MS. All of the current drivers are angels compared to MS particularly.

      So I find it quite interesting that Todt of all people is describing the concern over F1 drivers being role models to the youth, and about SV setting a bad precedent. This is simple verbiage for the sake of saying something to close this off. I watched in fury MS be the worst possible role model for the youth. But that didn’t stop the more overwhelming and obvious goal of the FIA and F1 to create drama and controversy which creates buzz and headlines which draws people in to F1. Max and Bernie, Briatore and Todt, were overwhelmingly more interested in building up MS to be the new megastar of F1 post-Senna, at any cost. Hence the mere slaps on the wrist MS got for his near every-race bullying if not worse, on the track, starting with the big sweeping swerves across the track off the grids, culminating in moving people off the track and even Hill/94, and JV/97.

      Todt couldn’t possibly look himself in the mirror, harken back to those days, and give SV any more than what he got during the last race.

      What I learned back then is this…MS getting away with what he did, by design to prop him up as F1’s new icon at the time, did not mean everyone started doing what he did. It comes down to the individuals behind the wheel. They will race their way as they themselves as human beings have to be…themselves. And thankfully most are nowhere near MS and couldn’t force themselves to be that way…it just isn’t in 99.9% of drivers to behave that way. If it was, MS would have set F1 on a path to the lowest common denominator long ago, and it would have been a smash up derby for the last 20 or more years. Even the teams for the most part had a difficult time emulating the one-rooster concept in order to compete against the elephant in the room that was MS/Ferrari. Thank goodness.

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        4th July 2017, 13:48

        About Schumacher – he has the most wins and championships by a long shot but he’s in many ways considered the Roy Emerson of F1. If you’ve never heard of him, Roy Emerson is an Australian tennis player who won 12 grand slams but he won them before the Open Era playing against what many professionals consider easier players at grand slams.

        Granted Sampras, Nadal and Federer have been able to win more than Roy, while Novak has matched 12. Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg could have and should have won more.

        I’ve never heard any tennis player or fan put him in his top 10 and he almost never receives any recognition for his accomplishments.

        The point being that in the end that behavior hurt Schumacher more than it helped him. He probably was a great driver BUT we’ll never really know what he would have done under normal circumstances.

        In my opinion 4 clean championships might have been better for Schumacher than all those championships he ended up winning.

        1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
          4th July 2017, 13:57

          The other point being is that the FIA is not helping Vettel – they are destroying him. He’s not smart if he thinks that he’s going to come out of that. Public opinion is not easy to sway around – it takes years to win a fan and 10 seconds to lose them. Somehow he felt the same way in Mexico and was running to the podium, only to be pulled aside.

          If Vettel imposed a race ban on himself now, Vettel’s stock would skyrocket and he would send a message to the FIA that what happened is ridiculous. That would be a worthy action of a true champion and a true sportsman…

          At this point, he can’t actually win the championship any more than Schumacher won his championships or Roy won his grand slams… Roy’s argument has been that at the end of the day he had to show up and he had to compete to win – it’s a valid argument but in the end it was irrelevant in terms of recognition in the player community. If Vettel goes on to win, history will consider this championship a non-victory and by association he’ll lose more championships.

          1. @freelittlebirds I get the sentiment of your post, but the bottom line is SV is an angel, as is LH, compared to MS, so I can’t agree that if he wins this year’s WDC and/or other WDCs in his career they’ll now be tainted. SV has already been more penalized for last race’s indiscretion than MS ever was for an incident far worse such as Jerez 97. SV simply hasn’t made a career out of misbehaviour, like MS did. And SV also has a chance to learn from this and not do it again in his career. MS was truly taught that his inherent nature to be a bully at all times was acceptable. SV, as I say, is an angel by comparison, and I believe will come out a better man after this. MS never did learn because it was simply his nature. Case in point his parking the car at Monaco, and his moving over of RB down a high speed straightaway, even after the whole MS/ Ferrari monopoly and protection that he had…even after his return to F1 with Mercedes.

            1. Schumacher’s misdemeanours have been exaggerated for years and so it goes on……

            2. @Fran So that tells me either you weren’t watching, or you were a fan.

      2. This was very well put, I feel.

        1. Robbie, your talking rubbish

          1. No I’m not.

            1. How many races, qualifying, practices v how many misdemeanours?

    45. If am correct Lewis Hamilton hasn’t said anything about the Verdict…. This news is incorrect!!!

      1. Surely by association he has?

    46. mark jackson
      4th July 2017, 14:34

      Now that the bromanace is gone, it’s back to Lewis sitting alone in the track parade lorry with no one to talk to.

    47. So we’re newsposting likes now, huh?
      Brilliant.
      Where can I pay for this? Can I support f1fanatic with money?
      Because I want to.

    48. This is exactly the nature of written content the opposition would use too deflect attention away from Vettel suggesting that Hamilton has now openly disrespected the FIA, Ferrari, F1 etc. In many instances is it best to give it a rest and just get on with it. Hamilton is a strong character and personality and this decision by the FIA whether somewhat dubious will just motivate him to achieve more. This young man’s personality is such that the more you impede the more he succeeds.

    49. This would be no problem if Mercedes would have just fastened that Headrest correctly. When they handed down that 10 second Stop/Go penalty for Vettel, they did not anticipate that Lewis would stop too.Lewis would have been First with Vettel….. Somewhere far behind. That would make everybody shut up about this. But Mercedes pretty much negated that penalty themselves. Hamilton would have led the Championship and would be happy (relatively speaking).
      Was Vettels hit ok. No. But at that moment the 10 second penalty would have left Vettel in 5th or further behind and Hamilton 1st.
      There is no conspiracy. He has penalty points, and a possible race ban hanging over his head.
      I remember 1994. How many races did Schumacher get banned…… Still won at the end.
      Lets stop with the finger pointing, Name calling and what else not. What happened, happened. We can’t change it. There are 12 Races left of now a heated rivalry that everyone wanted.
      lets to…..

    50. I’d rather hear things from his mouth, rather then from a random social media ‘like’.

    51. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      4th July 2017, 15:37

      Not sure why many people believe this post is not worthy of a topic here. Lewis liked a comment which echoes the statement he made in the race.

      He’s not willing to make a statement that may provoke the ire of the FIA which might – and knowing the FIA’s fickleness and general incompetence – it may not hesitate to take its revenge for its own mistakes on another driver. It’s actually a clever way for him to indirectly state his opinion.

      1. Hmmm…something tells me we haven’t heard the last of LH’s opinion on this. At least, he’s about to be bombarded with reporters questions on this…

        1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
          4th July 2017, 23:39

          @Robbie – I fear not – he tends to let his guard down when speaking to the media. He should be like Vettel after Baku and start talking about the Brexit or MotoGP whenever they ask him about the FIA.

          Question: “What do you think about the FIA’s decision?”

          Answer: “I think the Brexit may benefit some and hurt others – it’s just a matter of where you end up!”

          Question: “Did you think Vettel’s apology was sufficient?”

          Answer: “I’ve never met Merkel personally but she’s a tough nut! I prefer IMAX theaters but occasionally Stella Artois will do!”

    52. Guys, there have been rivalries and there will be rivalry in F1.
      I dont understand why people are fighting about FIA being biased to Ferrari or Lewis showing his support to some useless post.
      When stewards didn’t penalise Bottas for ruining Kimi’s race at that time no one raised their fingers, so can we say FIA is biased towards Mercedes also??
      As fans let us enjoy the sport, support our drivers and teams and enjoy the rivalry we always wanted.
      Last year Vettel cried a lot, this year he is not cribbing this year, ok some things happen in the heat of the moment but we are over it, he has apologized. Why is Lewis playing a smart chicken here?
      Lewis has been crying over radio this year, he even wanted Bottas to slow down the field for him to score more points.
      Even though he preaches Senna he is more sort of Alain Prost.
      Lets get over it.
      But yes if Lewis believes Vettel is not punished aptly, he isn’t some saint liking some stupid comment of his fans.

    53. He’s just frustrated his headrest came loose.

    54. Sorry i have no respect for LH. He took out Nico a few years ago while running at full speed in the grass; and drove him off the track in Austin. And now he has the nerve to complain about Vettel bump at first gear? Give me a break. I personally think LH intentional set Vettel up to run into the back of him to keep Vettel from jumping him on the restart. And all these comments about the safety car being too slow was part of the setup.

      1. Rosberg drove Lewis off the road in Austria and had good go in Spain too

      2. @John s Certainly the interesting aspect to this is that it is a known and well practiced tactic by the lead driver to try to off put, or wrong foot the trailing driver when it comes to restarts. This tactic does present some risk to the leader to being rear ended. Whether or not LH did anything intentional perhaps we’ll never know. I’m assuming he didn’t, other than intentionally using the commonly executed tactic on restarts, but something sure convinced SV he was being brake tested even if the telemetry shows LH didn’t literally brake.

    55. I am just waiting for Friday practice so that we can all move on from this. Honestly I’m tired of this Baku drama !

      So lets keep an eye on Max this weekend, hope he and his car makes a clean sweep. He was 5th last time around.

      1. +1,000,000,000

    56. Fully agree with Tillykeeper_zackfan. Mr. Todt is a hypocrite, so are the others in that organization called FIA.

      1. Hypocrite? Not sure that’s the right word, l mean he prophosizes nothing.

    57. So we’re still talking about Baku? You all know it’s been almost two weeks?

    58. I’m now 100% bored of this!

    59. AntonioCorleone
      4th July 2017, 20:04

      Stop complaining about Vettel and how he didn’t get a bigger penalty… The truth is that Vettel got a huge penalty with that 10 sec stop and go which is 30 sec race time. Most of the (richer, bigger)teams offer to pay up to 10 milion€ to anyone who can come up with developement solution which would bring 1 sec per lap to the car. That’s 10 milion€ reward, let alone paying for parts and production which could be well over that, but lets stay with the 10 milion only.
      So, 10 milion€ for 1 sec a lap per race. There are 20 races so it would come up to 500 000€ a race. Baku has 51 laps, so 500 000 : 51 = roughly 9800€ per sec, per lap. Vettel was penalised with 30 sec which at this track amounts to more than 294 000€.
      30 X 9800 = 294000
      In F1, everything is about time. Lots of money are spent to make the cars do the races in less time.
      If Lewis fans are angry, its because Vettel finished in front of him, infact they are mad and want the FIA to hand Vettel a race ban which is absurd. You were the ones that said that Lewis shows emotions and thats what we want in the sport, and now when you got emotions from your rival, now he must be penalised.
      There’s a saying – “Be careful what you wish for, someday it may come true”

    60. Vettel behaviour was stupid but let’s be serious – bumping wheels at 20 mph was not dangerous. Yes, Vettel deserved penalty but don’t say punishment should be more severe because he caused dangerous situation – that is not true.

      1. He brought the sport into disrepute by deliberately ramming a competetor during the safety car period. The wheels are not designed to take much force from the side so Hamilton’s car ‘could’ have received damage and Vettel ‘could’ have taken off Hamilton’s front wing end plate quite easily. That was dangerous and if Hamilton’s car had been damaged he would of had to pit or retire. Vettel had already lost his front wing after rear ending Hamilton so he had to pit and Vettel’s action was in my opinion aimed at damaging Hamilton’s car also to make him pit and lose the lead. Very unsporting action which should have led to a black flag.

    61. This is some funny ‘ish! Lewis apparently liking some instagram post, gets over 200 comments, more than the Vettel verdict. 😂😂😂

      I wonder what y’all will have to complain about when he does hang up his gloves?

      1. Colonial Mind
        5th July 2017, 4:05

        Who knows, Dawg? Maybe they’ll enjoy F1 again without the crap LewLew and minority army bring. LOL :D

      2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        5th July 2017, 4:08

        :)

    62. Would the repercussion of the “meaningless” penalty on VET be the same if HAM didn’t have the problem with the headrest? Just a bunch of HAM widowers…

    63. Michael Brown (@)
      4th July 2017, 21:10

      That would be “influencing the championship” too much and we can’t have that

      /s

    64. How can you lose all respect to Ferrari International Assistance ?
      They are doing everything very well in the interest of their team

    65. This “Tillykeeper_Zackfan” is most likely some dude in the pay of Hamilton’s PR team and so it is hardly surprising that the driver ‘liked’ it. He must have known about it before it appeared.

    66. Keith, I sincerely hope (and actually suspect) this is nothing more than a lapse of judgement on your part. I mean, trying to look for meaning and significance behind a like on a random tweet, that’s silly, subjective and above all: so not you.

      I’ll try to give a counter argument: what if he did not gave the like for the poster’s stance on Vettel, but because the poster took Hamilton in defence. I can see how that would give one an ego boost and hence like the post.

      And even if he gave the like for the stuff about Vettel: so what. Anyone can give a like, and most of the people do it without too much thought behind it.

      I think you realise that by now as well. Now anyone has the right on a “what the fricking hell did I do” moment. Years of unbiased and serious reporting on your part is certainly not undone by a little slip up. Although I can’t promise your viewers will not tease you with this in the future :P.

      1. @turbof1 I can’t think of a straighter way to put this than: If he didn’t like it, why did he like it?

        1. Because people scouring the internet are often bored and have nothing else to do at that moment? It’s clicking the like button; often times people don’t actually like it, but just found it good enough to hit the like button. It’s as insignificant as I’m making it. Would we have a story about Hamilton possibly going to McLaren if he hypothetically liked a post about Ron Dennis leaving? Of course not.

    67. AJ (@fifthlion)
      4th July 2017, 21:58

      Reading comments about this whole situation you realise there are blind people on both sides of the arguement!

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        5th July 2017, 12:16

        @fifthlion The Baku incidents were very clear cut with all the blame for both incidents on 1 side… It doesn’t get any clearer than that in any sport.

    68. This incident was, in my opinion, outrageous behaviour by Vettel and I was pleased to hear that the FIA were looking at this and then they take no further action. This type of behaviour does not set a good example and is conduct unbecoming sport.
      On the Tour de France today Peter Sagan was disqualified for elbowing an opponent (and he apologised too!).

    69. Can we please not mention this incident again, nobody knows for fact what was in the minds of either drivers. I’m disturbed by how polarised and unhealthy this endless non conclusive debate makes the comments section.

      1. @emu55 You can probably take it for granted it’ll come up again in two days’ time.

        1. Very true Keith, I think I hate and love these F1 moments with equal measure. No one can ever say F1 fans are not passionate about the sport.

    70. Oh boy .. build a bridge and get over it. Done and dusted. Insert rolling eyes emoji

    71. Must be hard trailing behind an inferior car. Also Lewis should donate his LaFerrari to the victims of the London fire massacre. 2011 lest we forget.

    72. Vettel is a talented f1 driver. No doubt about that. But in all his career, he keep shouting profanities (<- not sure that is English) at other drivers, marshals and officials. He keeps claiming wrongdoings at other drivers – never admitting he is at fault. I have lost all respect for that moron!

    73. The media is furious, they keep pressing the issue. The reasons why is simply the fact that Vet finished ahead of Lewis. Honestly it reminds me of Valencia a while back when Lewis overtook the sc on the pit exit, got a penalty and still came up in front of Fernando, the only difference is that the press ignored that that had ever happened. Go on youtube and you’ll understand what fans think about the incident in Baku.

    74. Get lost stupid british media. The espn f1 and your channel are are horrible. Always pathetic questions. Does the penality enough? Doea the apology enough? And I’m sure anyone apart wins this season definitely the next question is is he a worthy champion? You ham is no god of F1. If he lost the respect to FIA just retire and get lost from F1, many talented and young drivers are eager to get a f1 seat.

    75. And now Vittel has taken out Cavendish, where will it all end!

    76. Maybe Sebastian should use Bigfoot from now on. He could just drive OVER other cars. If we hit another car in the rear we’re responsible. The laws of physics that require one to keep a safe distance from the car in front apply to racing.

    77. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      6th July 2017, 21:19

      How amusing that a page about a fans view on something has the 2nd most amount of comments of any page on F1 fanatic this year! Shocking! :D Is this really such a big topic? Whether it was on purpose or not, it was 2 light crashes that didn’t exactly have much impact on the cars. Vettel just got penalties.

      The only page that has more comments this year is this one: https://www.racefans.net/2017/02/18/hamilton-wants-no-more-data-sharing-with-team-mates/ It probably won’t have more soon though and then this will have the most.

      One of the only other ones that comes close is talking about this same incident in Baku and Vettel’s temper tantrums. Lets move on now!

    78. Nice lesson from FIA.

      Vettel gets a punishment of: “Give lessons of driving security to kids for 12 months”.

      Isn’t that great?

      1. No it isn’t, I wouldnt want someone who is hot headed and most likely to get involved in road rage to teach kids about safety, we all know what kind of attitude will the kids learn.

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