[sozavele]

If there already is a thread about this, sorry.

Anyway, this thread is as the title reads, pointless penalties.

Over the years I am sure there have been many stupid or pointless penalties.

The one penalty that really came to mind recently was the post race 20 second penalty handed to Romain Grosjean in Hungary. However, despite the 20 second penalty, he retains 6th place because he crossed the line with 21 seconds in pocket! Can you think of anymore or have an opinion on penalties which have been given which actually have no effect on the result of the driver and are therefore no penalty to the driver.

[David-A]

Hamilton Europe 2010 (drive through, keeps 2nd to the fury of Ferrari)
Alonso Malaysia 2011 (post race, keeps 6th since Kobayashi was more than 20 seconds down)
Hamilton Monaco 2011 (post race, keeps 6th since Sutil was a lap down)

[the_sigman]

Hamilton Europe 2010 (drive through, keeps 2nd to the fury of Ferrari)

Well it wasn’t pointless, it just came very late. He received that after he made a good gap to Kobayashi. If he had received that 5-8 laps before he would have been stuck behind KK and JB.

[andae23]

I don’t think a ‘pointless’ penalty exists. It’s the principle that matters: if a driver does something wrong, like block a driver in qualifying, then he should get the corresponding penalty, which is a grid drop. If the driver already qualified last, then indeed the penalty will not have any influence (at least, until 2014). But as soon as the stewards start giving penalties that deviate from the norm, then they will immediately be accused of being inconsistent. So, pointless penalties don’t exist imo.

[Tomsk]

That’s McLaren’s problem, if they didn’t see Grosjean’s 20-second penalty coming. They knew the stewards would be investigating the incident after the race, and that 20secs is the usual penalty for such things (the equivalent of a drive-through). So I hope they did everything they could – car settings, shouting at the driver etc – to get Button less than 20 seconds behind Grosjean at the finish.

[sozavele]

@andae23 What I meant by pointless penalties was a penalty which was given that did not affect the driver or the outcome of the race and therefore having no effect which could say the penalty may as well not been given.

[Ratboy]

I think a penalty like Vettel getting a 5place grid drop for blocking Alonso in Q1 when both make Q3 would be totally pointless.

That is a totally made up scenario btw. but similar penalties have been given when both drivers have profressed.

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