Poll The Rosberg Penalty Hockenheim 2016

Did Nico Rosberg deserve the penalty for his overtake on Max Verstapen.


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    37
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I don't think the incident in Austria and this are that similar, apart form the fact Nico Rosberg is involved. Lewis was totally blameless in that incident, Max turned in on Nico even though he was clearly past just to put pressure on him.

Anyway, have we just witnessed another Spa 2014 moment where Rosberg has just completely lost the psychological battle? I suppose we will see when they all come back from their summer hols.
 
They're exactly the same in the way that Rosberg held off on the steering input for seemingly ages.

And I'm unaware of any other instances where an F1 driver has so blatantly chose not to take the corner in an attempt to compromise the other car.
 
Why did Verstappen turn in towards Rosberg? Surely he knew where Rosberg was, if not he needs to do something about his lack of knowledge about his surroundings.
 
Are you suggesting we are not entitled to enjoy an exchange of views and opinion through this website, because none of us have ever had a top line motor racing career?

No- not at all- but it does add a little more context as to what Rosberg could, or couldn't do...

As an outside oberver, I wouldn't be able to tell how close to the limit of traction the Mercedes was in braking for turn 6. Intuitively, it felt close, but to have Davidson, Brundle, and McNish all say the same thing, then that suggests that there was sweet Fanny Adams that Rosberg could have done- other than turn in, cause himself to lock up, and possibly pile into the side of Verstappen!
 
However the Channel 4 team who have more recent F1 experience concluded the opposite, which in itself is odd as the F1 driver steward was Emerson Fittapaldi who pre-dates all of them, so a full circle?:unsure:
 
The difference in the USGP one was that it was on the first turn of the first lap, and as established by the Schumy/Vettel 'chop' for some reason know only to the FIA, normal rules don't apply at that point. Which I guess brings us down to the skill of gamesmanship, for want of a better word, the ability to stay just within the correct side of the rules, some drivers are good at it, some aren't, and they all have off days!
 
Going by that same logic Emerson Fittipaldi surely trumps the lot of them, since he is not only a double world champ but also had more tools at his disposal than the commentators. Therefore his judgement carried even more weight.

Although there are a number of stewards, and Fittipaldi is only one of them...
 
...and there are even more commentators with ex-drivers within their ranks, and the british broadcasters are only a small percentage of them... :)

EDIT Going a bit off-topic here but I remember the Belgian GP 1987 and the first lap collision between Senna and Mansell. James Hunt and Murray Walker squarely put the blame on Senna. However the beeb had a bit of a problem there because they were afraid of looking foolish since the rest of the world was united in universally panning Mansell for the incident. So much so that Walker and Hunt had to swallow their words and publicly retracted themselves and blamed Mansell instead before the next GP at Monaco...
 
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Neither do I but my point was that we don't know what was said among the stewards either. Fittipaldi might have only been one of them but the fact is that wouldn't have imposed the decision before reaching an agreement among themselves. And we can't base our judgement on ex drivers while restricting ourselves to the british ones. And ex-drivers are quite good at disagreeing among themselves anyway aren't they? We only have to remember when Brundle and Coulthard were co-commentating.
 
Incubus - it was you who stated, unequivocally that Fittipaldi had said it was Rosberg's fault; I just pointed out that we had no clue if he thought it was Rosberg's fault or not...

I can understand the British media siding with Mansell (or Hamilton/Button for that matter) - but Rosberg? After all, everyone has been blowing smoke up Verstappen and how he is the new wonder kid!
 
My favourite thing about this entire move was Nico insisting on the radio after that he had his steering wheel on full lock. Drivers are aware we have camera's in the cockpit now days right?
 
Although Nico clearly failed to turn until he had to use full lock to stay on track, thereby pushing Young Max off track, I think a penalty was the wrong decision, for the simple reason that it sets a dull precedent. It says 'be nice to each other'. It says 'rules is rules and you're not going to be naughty and get away with it.' It says 'we're in charge, you're just the drivers, so do as we say'.

If there had been grass or gravel or worse outside that corner it would have been a different story, and in that case I think a penalty would have been applicable. However, in this case I'd rather have seen Max get more rattled and maybe tried a more aggressive tactic next time, which would have resulted in much more drama.

Ultimately the penalty didn't do Young Max any favours, so he probably still feels wronged by the incident. I want to see drivers annoy each other on track and sort it out on track, not have the teacher send one out of the class for five seconds. Pah.
 
Setting precedents should improve consistency, the object of consistency everyone knows the limitations irrespective as to opinions, in other words tough , them's the rules, if you don't like rules play somewhere else:bawl:
 
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