F1 Fanatic

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I remember several Alonso (or Ferrari) fans playing with the idea that some drivers, such as Hamilton, might let Alonso overtake them in Brazil easily because “the drivers think Alonso deserves the championship”. But when Schumacher allowed Vettel pass, some of those people became angry.

Vettel didn’t really need to overtake Schumacher to claim the championship. Also, Schumacher might’ve let Vettel overtake simply because the track was damp and he didn’t want to risk finishing in his last Grand Prix (by colliding with a championship contender).

Regarding Toro Rosso maneuvers, I think there is little to be done in order to prevent them whether we like them or not. I doubt there were any radio messages in which Toro Rosso drivers were told to move, they simply know what’s the name of the game – they’ve better odds getting a seat in RBR if they don’t spoil Vettel’s championship chances in the final race of the season. These situations can’t be prevented simply by making Toro Rosso an “independent” team as long as drivers from Red Bull’s junior programme are driving for them.

There are other situations also in which drivers might not want to do their best for various reasons – was Pic really trying to classify better than Petrov in Brazil? Was his spin trully unintentional? I’m not saying there was anything to it, I’m just making an allegory.

So whether we think Toro Rosso drivers’ actions were immoral, I doubt rules can prevent situations like that. For the same reason team orders were allowed again – banning them wasn’t effective at all.

Yeah, it’s definately an unfair advantage to Red Bull to have the free passes from Toro Rosso. But I don’t know how a rule against it would be enforced, since a midfield driver might want to let a front-runner breeze rather than lose time delaying the inevitable. Of course, the way Vergne parked his car in the yellow flag video is something else entirely… THe best way to stop it is to ban any one person or entity from owning to teams, so Toro Rosso would have to be sold to an independent owner–but who wants to buy a middling F1 team in this economy?

Well, the FIA is very good at dealing with subjective penalties – I’m sure they could handle this one too.

Everyone knows a free pass when they see it but I see your point – the stewards may be inconsistent.

Eventually, free passes except for teammates would disappear because it could affect both drivers’s races …

Why risk the entire race for a pass that you’ll make anyway?

@mnmracer,

The problem, which is always convienently ignores by the Red Bull-haters, is that backmarkers very often don’t care to fight with front runners if they know it will just lose them time themselves.

That’s right. For instance, in the footage and the yellow flag overtakes, the first thing we see is an HRT moving completely out of the way between turns 1 and 2 (much quicker than in Austin! :-), actually the HRT driver time. I think many drivers were keen not to get in the way of the championship contenders in the final race, in such treacherous conditions. Also, if Alonso had been the one coming back from the field, I don’t think the Toro Rosso drivers would have given him a hard time.

For instance, there is the rule that you can’t pass anyone off track and we’ve seen how many times someone will accidentally go off-course overtake the car behind them and then have to give the position back. The drivers know that you simply cannot do that!

Just the existence of a penalty would give Torro Rosso and Red Bull (since they are the ones we focus on) second thoughs about giving a free pass. After all, JEV doesn’t want to screw up Vettel’s championship by letting him pass. Since Torro Rosso and Red Bull are owned by the same company, they should fight EVEN harder on the field for position to disprove anyone who may think that they are in cahoots.

The point is that the threat of a penalty would make people think twice and it wouldn’t be as blatant as it is today. It would give pause and where Seb just jumps in to pass Jev, he might to have wait a lap…

@freelittlebirds

For instance, there is the rule that you can’t pass anyone off track and we’ve seen how many times someone will accidentally go off-course overtake the car behind them and then have to give the position back. The drivers know that you simply cannot do that!

Hamilton in Bahrain?

@mnmracer
I don’t think they let them through – they just provide less resistance. But you see that with other drivers too. Look at how difficult the passes are for Raikonnen or Hamilton – everybody tries to be Fangio when they are around them… It IS inevitable that they will eventually pass but the other driver still blocks like a madman trying to ruin the other drivers race. What for???

At Abu Dhabi, the only resistance Vettel had were Grosjean and Button and Button defended somewhat but I think the position warranted more defense…