Formula 1 disgrace

Firstly my appologies for posting on the racing thread but no one reads the other sporting forum's.

Formula 1 to me has become an absolute joke after watching the last two races.

In today's race Lewis Hamilton gets given a 25 second penalty for "gaining an unfair advantage from cutting a chicane" placing him third behind Massa and Heidfeld. After Lewis passed Kimi Raikkonen by the use of the chicane he let Kimi retake the possion and Kimi was clocked doing 6km per hour faster going over the finish line. If that is not surrendering the position I don't know what is. Kimi has clearly lost his nerve and not in the same league as Lewis, Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso (doing a great job in an inferior car).

In the European GP in Valencia Massa was clearly released by his pit crew into the path of Adrian Sutil nearly connecting him during his second pit stop. This offence carries a drive through penalty. The FIA stewards then decide the will only take action after the race and they give Massa and Ferrari a slap on the wrist and a petty fine.

I enjoy all sport and horseracing but it is becoming apparent to me that the powers that be in Formula 1 will do anything to ensure a Ferrari driver wins the 2008 drivers title. I personally can not remember the last time a Ferrari drive has been given a penalty for any indiscretion.

Formula 1 again is becoming a fiasco and I for one will no longer wast my Sunday afternoon's watching a so called sport which is clearly fixed.

Shrek i agree with you 100 %,and im not a sorry loser,but also a few years back the Monaco GP i backed Rubens Barrichello then driving for Ferrari.he was leading and then had to let Schumacher pass to win literally on the line.

Agree 100%.

I too watched the incident on the news last night and couldn't work out how the H**L he caould have the race 'taken' away from him when he quite clearly 'ALLOWED' kimi to 're-take' his advantage.

Surely a case for appeal if ever there was one!

Scandlous!!!

Gave F1 a miss some time ago. Williams then Ferrari and now McClaren. Boring to see the same teams winning year in and out. The premiership is like that as well now. Getting boring and I am hoping a few other clubs come through to make it more interesting.

When I first watched the incident I could not see anything wrong but after watching again I think Hamilton should have given hime more of a gap before overtaking again. Its all well to give the position back but to hop straight into the slipstream kind of defeats the object a bit and I think thats why they got him.

Like Chili I very much gave up on F1 betting a while back although I must say if they could guarantee a cloudburst every time I would get involved again - that was high drama.

I see Paddy Power are odds on he wins the appeal and gets reinstated

f1 authorities getting tough on mclaren for their espionage escapades,plus they always been biased towards ferrari

My feeling was that they should penalized Raikenen for going to slowly and holding up the Mclaren driver.

Same as Man Utd the other teams always looking for ways to do us in.

Hey Sylvester,

sympathies for the Hamilton part of your argument however teams looking to do Utd in...give me a break!!
They usually get the penalties for some reason...if teams are out to nail them as you say, the refs have ceratinly made up for that over the years

what race was it that hamilton ramned the ferrari up the arse in the pits? what comes around goes around,plus ive got a baseball cap with a horse on it:)

In Canada Hamilton did make a mistake and took himself and Raikkonen out of the race. Hamilton was given a 10 place grid penalty in the French Grand Prix and subsequently scored no points from this race. Surely that was sufficient punishment.

Even with all the penalties given against Hamilton this year he is still on top of the Drivers Standings. There is only one other driver in Formula 1 that can match him and that is Fernando Alonso. Neither driver drives a Ferrari and therefore the only way to stop a non Ferrari winning the drivers champion is by penalising Hamilton at every possible moment.

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren's F1 CEO, confirmed today that race control twice OK'd Hamilton giving back the position fairly only to penalise him later. Hamilton would have gladly let Kimi pass again as he knows the Ferrari's tyres do not perform as well as McLaren's in the Wet, proven a lap later with Kimi driving into a wall, the only driver to crash in these conditions.

Clearly most people who have a baseball cap with a horse on it know very little about Formula 1 but just follow like sheep to the popular choice.

Oi....Shrek...don't be too hard on Ferrari m8.
They are huge players in F1 like it or not and McClaren have not been the little angels y'know.

In the end though I'd like to see the best drivers compete reasonably fairly so that at the end of the season given the swings and roundabouts, we have a worthy champion.

Hamilton would be such a champion but so too either Raikonnen or Massa too.
Young Kubica will be a huge threat very soon too...