Seeing as there is not a thread devoted to this incident, I though I would start one and try to draw together some of the facts and evidence.
Firstly, exhibit 1, still image of the cars at the pit exit line.
This image shows just how marginal the decision truly was. At the line it is obvious that LH is with half a cars length of the SC, working out to less than a meter. Alonso has been quoted as saying that he was only a meter behind Lewis's car at this point, sadly this image shows this too not be the case. If Lewis had not momentarily hesitated he would have been past the SC before the line and we would not be having this discussion, neither was Alonso close enough that the hesitation cost him the opportunity to also pass the SC.
This brings me on to the reasons why the Stewards took so long to come to a decision about Hamilton's penalty. First of all I truly believe that this decision was so marginal that immediately upon the incident occurring and on the aftermath of Webber's colossal crash, the Stewards were not even aware that an infringement of the rules had occurred. It was not until Alonso concerns were passed on that the investigation even commenced. It took approximately 10 mins to start investigating the incident, and a further 20 mins for the Stewards to make a decision.
Why this time?
Well, unfortunately, the aerial footage I have showed above was not immediately available, and it took some time to drag it form the archives and pass it onto the Stewards. The first shot they would have seen was the inconclusive evidence from the side of the track, not enough to base a decision on. The second thing they would have done would have been to look at the GPS data of the cars. Despite having military grade GPS units, these units are still only sensitive to 1 m, unfortunately not accurate enough for a decision this marginal. Due to this they then had to check with McLaren the exact location of the GPS unit on the McLaren and compare it with the unit on the safety car. Even after having done this there was still no conclusive evidence. It was not until the aerial footage above was located that they were able to initiate a penalty, by which time Hamilton had a big enough gap to retain 2nd position.
The delay in penalising Hamilton was because Whiting and the stewards wanted to be absolutely sure that a penalty was justified. Hamilton at first seemed to slow down when he saw the Safety Car out of the corner of his eye, then realised that the Safety Car line was further up the road and carried on. Whether he got there before the Safety Car or not, was a close call.
Proving it was no simple matter. Race control has the use of a GPS system but there was no back-up timing loop at that point and so they had to find footage of the incident. That was initially from the wrong angle and was inconclusive and so they had to locate aerial footage. There was also the question of exactly where the timing transponders were on Hamilton's car and the Safety Car respectively which, if you are talking about less than a car's length, is significant. That all needed to be checked and speeds/distances ratified.
Alonso would be kicking up nowhere near as big a fuss if it was some other driver benefiting from such an occurrence. In fact in Singapore 08 (yes that whole scandal) Rosberg pitted during the infamous SC period when the pit lane was closed, received a belated drive-thru and took second position. There were no complaints about this saga now was there? Also I hear no complaints from him about other drivers breaking their SC delta times and effectively breaking the rules and costing him further positions. Incidently the reasons for the light penalties:
The FIA also pointed out that the speeding penalties for cars during their pit stop laps under the Safety Car were relatively lenient because many of them were doing 180mph plus within a couple of hundred metres of the Safety Car line when the car was deployed and could do little about it. They may have broken the letter of the law but not its spirit.
One thing that this incident has brought to light is the need to update the SC rules. Maybe now with no refuelling we can go back to the time when the pit lane was closed immediately upon the exit of the SC?
Firstly, exhibit 1, still image of the cars at the pit exit line.
This image shows just how marginal the decision truly was. At the line it is obvious that LH is with half a cars length of the SC, working out to less than a meter. Alonso has been quoted as saying that he was only a meter behind Lewis's car at this point, sadly this image shows this too not be the case. If Lewis had not momentarily hesitated he would have been past the SC before the line and we would not be having this discussion, neither was Alonso close enough that the hesitation cost him the opportunity to also pass the SC.
This brings me on to the reasons why the Stewards took so long to come to a decision about Hamilton's penalty. First of all I truly believe that this decision was so marginal that immediately upon the incident occurring and on the aftermath of Webber's colossal crash, the Stewards were not even aware that an infringement of the rules had occurred. It was not until Alonso concerns were passed on that the investigation even commenced. It took approximately 10 mins to start investigating the incident, and a further 20 mins for the Stewards to make a decision.
Why this time?
Well, unfortunately, the aerial footage I have showed above was not immediately available, and it took some time to drag it form the archives and pass it onto the Stewards. The first shot they would have seen was the inconclusive evidence from the side of the track, not enough to base a decision on. The second thing they would have done would have been to look at the GPS data of the cars. Despite having military grade GPS units, these units are still only sensitive to 1 m, unfortunately not accurate enough for a decision this marginal. Due to this they then had to check with McLaren the exact location of the GPS unit on the McLaren and compare it with the unit on the safety car. Even after having done this there was still no conclusive evidence. It was not until the aerial footage above was located that they were able to initiate a penalty, by which time Hamilton had a big enough gap to retain 2nd position.
The delay in penalising Hamilton was because Whiting and the stewards wanted to be absolutely sure that a penalty was justified. Hamilton at first seemed to slow down when he saw the Safety Car out of the corner of his eye, then realised that the Safety Car line was further up the road and carried on. Whether he got there before the Safety Car or not, was a close call.
Proving it was no simple matter. Race control has the use of a GPS system but there was no back-up timing loop at that point and so they had to find footage of the incident. That was initially from the wrong angle and was inconclusive and so they had to locate aerial footage. There was also the question of exactly where the timing transponders were on Hamilton's car and the Safety Car respectively which, if you are talking about less than a car's length, is significant. That all needed to be checked and speeds/distances ratified.
Alonso would be kicking up nowhere near as big a fuss if it was some other driver benefiting from such an occurrence. In fact in Singapore 08 (yes that whole scandal) Rosberg pitted during the infamous SC period when the pit lane was closed, received a belated drive-thru and took second position. There were no complaints about this saga now was there? Also I hear no complaints from him about other drivers breaking their SC delta times and effectively breaking the rules and costing him further positions. Incidently the reasons for the light penalties:
The FIA also pointed out that the speeding penalties for cars during their pit stop laps under the Safety Car were relatively lenient because many of them were doing 180mph plus within a couple of hundred metres of the Safety Car line when the car was deployed and could do little about it. They may have broken the letter of the law but not its spirit.
One thing that this incident has brought to light is the need to update the SC rules. Maybe now with no refuelling we can go back to the time when the pit lane was closed immediately upon the exit of the SC?
