I have been saying this for a long time in different ways: F1's current paradigm is more about avoiding racing and/or conservation than encouraging it. The race on Sunday just had so many different instances of it, that I thought I'd just list them here to see what people think:
1. Not because it is Verstappen as there were other examples, but because of the high profile of the driver and the relevance of his fights to the championship, let's check this case. You have a close, exciting race between two of the championship contenders; there's fighting and a good show for fans. Ok, one goes too aggressive and they give him a penalty (in this case two, but for argument's sake, let's say he just got one 5s penalty to make the point clearer). For all practical purposes, you have destroyed an on-track fight as 5s when two cars are that evenly matched is the same as basically ending that fight for the whole race. Why not simply make the offending driver give back the position so that they can continue what's become pretty rare and is, basically, the essence of auto racing? Verstappen knows his race with Nor is over, so he automatically changes mode and focuses on saving tyres, the car, etc. and we fans are robbed of what we tuned in for.
Why the obsession with penalizing? A Spanish pundit in the Latinamerican ESPN transmission immediately wanted a penalty in the Colapinto-(was it Lawson?) contact because "the rule says when tyres touch it's an automatic penalty"? It seems some people are enjoying playing judge more than the actual attempts at racing these poor driving bastards try to provide us when they are allowed by the teams, rules and social (media) pressure.
2. Sainz complaining twice that his teammate is driving too fast! Is this really what it has come down to? If I'm in the same team as you and I lead the first few laps, I have the right to win the race, or, at least to stay in front of you because the team has to guarantee that you won't fight me? What's all this bullshit? Is this a point collecting exercise only or does it still hold some resemblance to unleashing 20 super fast cars to see who finishes first? What type of greedy, corporate arid view of auto racing is this? Or are most F1 spectators just brain dead team fans who only care about seeing a logo or a color win? Has marketing brainwashed the majority of fans so that F1 can get away with presenting such a sorry excuse for racing and the sheep applaud in excitement?
3. Ham was following Rus for many laps and we were all anticipating a racing climax, and then what happened? From what I could understand, he just literally assassinated all probability of a nice fight with that most evil of F1 gadgets: DRS. Did people notice how grossly unfair DRS is? Did people see how disproportionate the advantage it provided was? A car very far behind was right on the other's gearbox at the end of the straight. Racing is supposed to be a fight for position, not a game of making passes as easy and straightforward as possible and reach the head of the race...for what? As a driver, I want to show the other driver, and the public, that I'm a faster driver, a more talented driver, that I can pass him with both under equal circumstances! And where has the art of blocking gone? It also was a tool that the best drivers knew how to use beautifully. Now? Nah, we don't need it, we just want our fav driver to win as aseptically as possible, by as much difference as possible and as many years as possible. Winning winning ueber alles!
Sorry for the rant. It just hurts to see something you used to love so much and keep on having high hopes for, destroyed by bureaucrats...