We can hit every offense with a DQ and all would be a thing of the past.
All I’m saying is that there are far more dangerous offenses than a brake check. No one was ever hurt by a brake check and cars had only minor damages in the worst cases.
Again, many things happen in close racing where the accident is caused by misjudgement, driver error, lack of grip, loss of car control etc. Sometimes very dangerous things happen because of no ill intent but simply driver error. These things warrant a reasonable and not overly harsh penalty. We want close racing, we want drivers taking risks and we want drivers to have a reasonable penalty when they get it wrong.
However any intentional action of forcing the other driver to evade should face harsh punishment. Even if there is no contact, even if it’s claimed to not be dangerous, even if it’s at low speed like when Vettel intentionally banged wheels with Hamilton in Baku 2017. That applies if the other driver intentionally opens their steering to force the driver on the outside of the corner off. It applies if the other driver on the outside intentionally turns into the driver on the inside to force them off line or over the inside kerbs. It applies if the driver in front intentionally hits the brakes to force the driver behind to panic and evade i.e not for the purpose of braking for a corner. Any intentional action like this should be a race DSQ. It’s not harsh because you have a driver intentionally trying to spook and bully the other driver in order to come out ahead.
The worst offences are of course an intentional collision, full Maldonado e.g purposely running into another car, and these should be punished by anything between a 3 race ban to loss of superlicence depending on severity. But while a brake check is not intentionally trying to cause a collision, it’s only one step behind because it presupposes the driver behind having to take an action to evade certain collision. I see what some are doing is saying “A brake check isn’t intentionally trying to cause a collision so it’s not that bad.”. Well no, it’s not as bad as intentionally spearing into another car, but it’s much worse than a genuine driver mistake. So clearly there are three broad categories of driver offences.
It just isn’t that difficult to understand unless one is simply mentally resistant to considering it in a logical and authentic way.
Edited by gillesfan76, 02 December 2023 - 00:43.