Formula One: Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso patch up, who is the culprit?
As the British Grand Prix comes closer the fans are excited about the return of the Silverstone circuit. After a year’s absence for revamping and resurfacing to come up to par with the standard of the other circuits in the Formula 1 race calendar, the historic Silverstone is back. It has been a driver’s circuit, but the drivers have been all talk about the events that unfolded in Valencia at the European Grand Prix.
The centre point of all the action has been the crash of Mark Webber in Lap 9 which prompted a safety car to come to the track. As the car was exiting the pit lane, Sebastian Vettel had already crossed it, but in a moment of confusion, Lewis Hamilton in second place overtook it as it was coming out of the pit lane. The lead Ferrari of Fernando Alonso was the first car to line up behind the safety car dived straight into the pits. Alonso and his teammate Massa were the ones who lost out the most as they came back into the race a lot lower down the order compared to Hamilton. Hamilton, who was only a few meters ahead of Alonso when the safety car came out on the track, retained his second position as Alonso had ended up in ninth, finding it impossible to overtake midfield runners.
In the midst of all the mayhem, the Ferrari team and Alonso complained of their misfortune which was then communicated to the racing stewards. Hamilton was given a drive through penalty but this was 14 laps after the incident. Additionally he had three laps in which to comply, effectively allowing him to run for 17 laps on the track before going through the pit lane. What worked to his advantage was the fact that Kamoui Kobayashi was the driver chasing him in third. In terms of race pace, Hamilton had a clear advantage on Kobayashi and used these 17 laps to build up a gap on him. This meant that Hamilton was able to go in and come out of the pits for his penalty and still retain his second place.
This is when the whole drama started. When Alonso came to know of this news, he was furious and made the fact known over the team radio, which these days is available to be broadcast for the viewers as they watch the race on their TV screens. Clearly, to him it seemed like a driver that broke the rules was able to retain his race position while he lost greatly for following one of the most basic rules of motor racing, you are NOT allowed to overtake the safety car.
After the race, this reignited the sparks of the controversial season that Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton spent as team mates at McLaren in 2007. At that time, Alonso was the reigning World Champion and Hamilton was a rookie from England in a British team. But this time they are both in different teams and they both have a lot more freedom to speak about the incident. In the heat of the moment, both drivers were heard knocking verbal blows against each other about the incident but now as the next race draws nearer, they are doing the sensible thing and cooling things down between them.
Both Alonso and Hamilton ended up making a lot of mistakes on the track in the 2007 as the season unfolded in turn handing the Championship to Kimi Raikkonen who was behind the wheel of the Ferrari back then. In recent reports, it has been mentioned that both the drivers have talked to each other and realize that it was a racing incident and nothing more can be done other than adhere to the penalties handed out by the race stewards.
But in a sporting world that is using technology to enhance the fairness of sports, it’s sad to see the sport that has claimed to be the pinnacle of cutting edge technology in terms of its car production is still not up to pace in terms of how it is monitored.
Examples of sports that are lagging behind in that regard have been severely scrutinized of late; the most notable example of the World Cup match between England and Germany comes to mind where fans are now calling for a TV review system that should be introduced into the sport. This changing trend is putting more and more pressure on the officials of the sports and the common adage of ‘do not question the officials’ has started taking a back seat.
Will Formula 1 be able to make things more transparent in terms of the Stewards decisions? The time has come for them to step up their game and give the Formula 1 fans a chance to enjoy fair fights on the track.
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