Anyway, what with all the furore over the Aus GP, the result, the revised result, the revised revised result, the incompetence or otherwise of the stewards, the duplicity of McLaren etc etc etc I was wondering why F1 struggles so hard to appear credible and why so many fans are getting fed up with the FIA (and believe me a lot are - maybe not the hardcore, but F1 needs more than just the hardcore fan)
So what to do?
First let's address the fact that drivers cheat. Not just Lewis, but others too, maybe the majority if given the opportunity. It is just an aspect of the ruthlessness required to be a top sportsman, think Senna, think Prost etc etc. Just look at football, cheating and lying to the officials is practically de rigeur - diving, claiming the ball crossed the line etc, tennis too where players take a "bathroom" break to regroup if a match is going badly, or claim a ball was out when it obviously was not. I admit I have done it - I have intentionally tripped someone in football (more than once) to prevent a goalscoring opportunity and got off with a yellow card. I should've walked, but I didn't. It is just human nature to try and get away with what you can. It is wrong, but it is a fact of life. Of course there are exceptions, but probably not as many as we would like.
You can try and combat this cheating with technology (hawkeye in tennis for example, access to video replays and all radio traffic etc in F1) but bending the rules and outright cheating WILL happen.
What differs between F1 and other sports is that the result is sacrosanct in everything but F1. Once the final whistle is blown, the match point won, then the result stands. It may not be fair, but that's life, and everyone knows the score.
Now I realise that F1 is a much more complex sport than, say, football, and some transgressions may not be apparent until after the race, (such as car finishing under weight) but surely it is not beyond the wit of man to deal with any such issues within 1/2 hour of the chequered flag, and ratify the result then? More satisfying all round I feel. Furthermore I would say that any potentially illegal event that occurs during a race has to placed under investigation by the stewards within 5 laps, and a decision given within 10 laps.
So in such a scenario how would Hamiltongate have played out? Something like this I guess.
McLaren would have lodged their protest. If the protest was heard within the half hour time limit and found in McLaren's favour then Hamilton would have been promoted to third, Jarno demoted to twelfth (as the rules currently stand) and the result ratified as such. THAT RESULT WOULD STAND. Then it becomes apparent that McLaren/Lewis have been economical with the truth, so the FIA suspend Hamilton and his car for 2 races as punishment. Not fair on Jarno, but life is tough sometimes.
In another hypothetical example, Button overtakes Massa by cutting a chicane, but no one notices at the time, and Massa's radio is broken so he can't tell his pit what happened until he comes in for his fuel stop. If he comes in 4 laps later and tells his crew, they can lodge a protest and the stewards have 5 laps to decide what to do. If Massa doesn't pit until 6 laps after the incident then it is too late to protest. Hard luck, unfair maybe, but we all have to deal with injustice from time to time.
What about issues such as the diffuser 3? In my opinion, if the cars are declared legal, they are legal, full stop. If an appeal against a decision is allowed then obviously their legality could be overturned, and they may have to be changed for future races, but for the current race they have been declared legal so they are, and if they gain points they keep them. Simple.
Or at least it seems simple to me. Am I being naive? Any thoughts anyone?
... a future ban, even a fine cant do justice.
