Valencia 2010

The FIA fully investigated all incidents during the European Grand Prix and played it by the book, despite accusations of mishandling from Fernando Alonso and Ferrari, for which the twice champion has now apologised.

Ferrari was severely disadvantaged by the timing of the Safety Car. When it was deployed in response to Mark Webber’s accident, leader Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and the Ferraris of Alonso and Felipe Massa were the only cars to have passed the Safety Car line before the final corner, although there is doubt as to whether Massa may have made it into the pitlane if he has responded more quickly.

Vettel cleared the emerging Safety Car comfortably before the relevant timing line at the beginning of his next lap, but second-placed Hamilton did not, although it was a tight call. Alonso realised that Hamilton had overtaken the official car as he and Massa fell in behind it. The next car was Robert Kubica’s Renault, which was less than 100m before the Safety Car line at the end of the previous lap and travelling at more than 175mph.

Renault’s telemetry proved that there was only a 1.2s delay between the yellow light coming on in the cockpit before Kubica went on the brakes and headed immediately into the pitlane. He was one of nine pitting cars given a blanket 5s addition to his race time for exceeding the lap time delta while pitting under the Safety Car. It did not affect his eventual fifth place but Renault could not see how Kubica could have avoided the penalty. They did not necessarily feel the same about the following cars, however, which had more time to react…

Ferrari was hot under the collar about four issues. First, the fact that it took so long for Hamilton to be awarded a Drive Though penalty that he was able to serve it without losing track position. They also claim that once the decision to award a penalty had been made, race control was in a position to know that it would have little bearing on his race – although this, too, was close — and should therefore have awarded a stiffer penalty, such as a Stop/Go. Ferrari, with some justification, sees it as absurd that Hamilton was able to finish second having disrespected the Safety Car law, while their drivers finished well down the field as a result of respecting it.

Ferrari were also unhappy that the Safety Car did not wave the rest of the field through, which it is at liberty to do and also that cars which pitted behind them and were guilty of speeding under the Safety Car were given such lenient penalties. The only driver in front of Alonso affected by the 5s was Sebastian Buemi, who dropped to ninth behind the twice champion. Had 20s penalties been applied, however, Alonso would have finished fifth.

There was logic to all of the FIA’s actions, however. On a day when the England football team fell victim to such a howler because technology was not applied, the FIA was busy making sure that it got its decisions right. Race director Charlie Whiting, as soon as he had handled the Webber accident, called for footage of the Hamilton Safety Car incident but initially it was from an angle that was inconclusive. He then requested aerial footage, which confirmed that it was a close call. So close, in fact, that the FIA needed to check transponder locations on the McLaren and the Safety Car.

Whiting did not want the Safety Car to wave the field through until after Turn 13 because he wanted to protect the medical car, which was on its way to attend Webber. He did not feel it appropriate to have F1 cars passing it at racing speed in what could have been an emergency situation.

On the subject of Hamilton’s penalty, it is not unprecedented that a driver can serve a Drive Through without being disadvantaged. Webber himself, when he won his first GP at Nurburgring last year, was given a Drive Through for weaving at Barrichello off the start line, but was able to serve it without losing his lead. Had the stewards deviated from that they would have laid themselves open to accusations of inconsistency.

Finally, the leniency shown to those guilty of speeding while pitting was due to them being so close to the Safety Car line at the point it was deployed and the FIA feeling that it was wrong to start trying to judge degrees of guilt and apply varying penalties. Drivers with a car right behind them, for example, could easily claim that slamming on the brakes would have risked another Webber/Kovalainen incident.

Ferrari had good cause to feel aggrieved in Spain but they were victims of circumstance and nothing else. The laws were correctly applied. Whether they need revising in future is another matter.