Crime and Punishment

[Olivier]

FIA is investigating the crash where Vettel rammed into Hamilton at the Azerbaijan GP. Vettel has already been given a 10-second penalty by the Stewards. What is your take. What do you think it's appropriate penalty for the German given the circumstances. According to the experts, this "road rage" event has little precedent so the deliberations can be lengthy.

 

[Andyoak]

A season racing in BTCC.

 

[Wombcat]

I think he should have been black-flagged. So take away his points from Baku would make sense to me.

 

[F1Brits_90]

for me if they are to give him any penalty. suspended race ban is just. as i saud in race thread. i feel the threat of ban is better for keeping him in check than actual ban for the remainder of the season

 

[vintly]

Vettel and his entire family should be hung, drawn and quartered, erased from the record books and their home town flattened. And he should be banned. From heaven and hell. He should go to a special motor racing pergatory, The McLaren of netherworlds, to wait in endless agony to be forgiven for his awful, hideous naughtiness.

Seriously really do we need a poll with 10 choices to confirm we have different views? I think Hamilton should be given a 10 second stop and go every time he needs to say something.

 

[Il_leone]

A suspended race ban is pointless given he is already on it based on the points system

The only logical result is DQ because all other punishments does not and possibly may not impact what he has gained .. banning him next race Hamilton might get no points so hardly punishing Vettel

 

[siffert_fan]

Interesting how this poll stands in stark contrast to the one on pitpass, which shows that approx 64% think that the 10 sec stop and go was sufficient.

pitpass - the latest, hottest F1 news

 

[racecub]

My choice isn't on the list. It's 'other' but not harsher than some on the list. I think he should have been black flagged and should therefore lose points from Baku...as Wombcat said.

 

[Mezzer]

My suggestion is not really available, I would leave the immediate punishment as is, but extend the window that his current 9 points cover by 2 months (I understand he has 3 expiring after the next GP).

 

[The Pits]

Personally, I think that the current penalty should suffice, although I think that an additional suspended penalty being applied with specific conditions regards to "anti-petulance" with a more severe consequence would be warranted. I think that the points system is a good one, as it allows for those errors of judgement and moments of madness without being overly draconian, however, there will be circumstances which fall outside the reach of this which could be dealt with in a different way, similar to the yellow and red cards in football. Another visible display of petulance be it related to radio to an official or on the track demonstration to another driver and you will be subjected to an enforced period of time off.

 

[Road of Bones]

Other - make him drive a McLaren for the rest of the season...

 

[Greenlantern101]

I think he should of been black flagged so he should loose the points from Baku. A further 10 place grid penalty would then follow at the next race. The 3 additional points on his licence should remain.

 

[TR]

I think the severity of penalty handed during the race has been somewhat shadowed by how the race unfolded. In particular, Hamilton developing an (unrelated) issue with his headrest, and rejoining the race behind Vettel has given the impression that Vettel was handed a light penalty during the race.

However, if we look at the penalties given in recent years, stop-and-go penalties are fairly rare. Typically, "causing a collision", if penalized during a race, leads to 5 or 10 second penalties. (see e.g. Rosberg in Austria last year). In contrast, Vettels 10 second stop-and-go (effectively a 30 second+ penalty) is quite severe (and rightly so).

Although he could have been given a more severe penalty during the race (in particular the 3 penalty points seem light), I don't think it serves any purpose to further increase that after the fact.

 

[racecub]

There's a very official looking document floating around the internet saying Vettel has been DQ'd from Baku for breaching 27.4 of sporting regs. It was reported by the Sun then taken down, now the mirror have it . It appeared on Twitter and was latter posted by someone with a tweet saying to be aware it's fake news.
Thought I'd mention it in case anyone comes across it.

 

[Bill Boddy]

The meeting was due to take place today so it is unlikely that any announcement will have been made yet.

There are many official looking documents floating around on the web, most of them are fake.

 

[Rutherford]

It is only a meeting between Todt and Vettel. The only result from the meeting will be whether or not the case will be taken to the FIA court for further rulings.

I don't know why people / journalists are publishing obviously fake documents.

 

[The Pits]

The verdict is in:

Ted Kravitz on Twitter

 

[siffert_fan]

Personally, I think that the current penalty should suffice, although I think that an additional suspended penalty being applied with specific conditions regards to "anti-petulance" with a more severe consequence would be warranted. I think that the points system is a good one, as it allows for those errors of judgement and moments of madness without being overly draconian, however, there will be circumstances which fall outside the reach of this which could be dealt with in a different way, similar to the yellow and red cards in football. Another visible display of petulance be it related to radio to an official or on the track demonstration to another driver and you will be subjected to an enforced period of time off.

If petulance on the radio is an offense, then virtually EVERY driver will be found guilty!

 

[racecub]

He's got away with it. No further action...but he can't do road safety work and has to behave, blah, blah, blah.

 

[FB]

I'm disappointed castration followed by 5 years being rogered up the bum in prison wasn't an option. MAKE THE PUNISHMENT FIT THE CRIME!