Toto Wolff interview on C4 was actually really good. He seems like a bloody good bloke, and he immediately said Max should have been allowed to race, and the podium should have stood.
I think the stewards have really dropped a bollock there.
Having now seen the Max pass I'm fully in agreement with the stewards.
You can't just cut the inside of a corner, therefore straightlining it with your foot down like that. It's not fair on the other bloke who's having to drive on the actual track to get round. Even the official Formula One video game penalises you for cutting corners! It's like what I used to do on Gran Turismo at the start of a race to get ahead of everybody.
I really don't understand the furore over it tbh. It's a pretty slam dunk and easy decision to me. Probably why it only took the stewards a few minutes to give the decision and were able to bin him off the podium.
Because drivers had been off the track all weekend and a lot gained an advantage doing so but zero punishments were handed out. The very last one got a penalty.
On the corner Max was punished for the FIA had said Track Limits in play but numerous cars in Practice, Quali and the Race went wide there with all 4 wheels over the white line, Max was the only driver to get punished for it. So he is rightly pissed off.
Not sure if its the same corner or not but there was another where track limits where in play but nearly every lap Lewis did on Friday and Saturday, he had all 4 wheels over the white line and never got as much as a warning for it. The FIA are really shit when it comes to track limits, sometimes they are stamp down hard on it and others it a wishy washy mess that no one knows what they can and can't do. Easy to solve. Start of each race weekend - Decide the corners where track limits are in play. P1, 2 & 3 you hand out warnings for going over them and from Q1 start dishing out the punishments. Pointless saying track limits in play and then only decide to use it at the very end of the race weekend. You have basically told the drivers they are fine to do something.
In a Quali lap it can gain an advantage...hence why they put Track Limits in play. Certainly at the new tracks where the run offs are tarmac. As I said, easily sorted though. Once they decide where they want the limits put the rules in play from P1 and no driver can moan if they get done on the final lap of the race weekend.
I think they did it at Austria last year, might have been the final corner. On the Friday drivers were getting warnings all over the shop and Q1 saw a few laps wiped out but from Q2 no one went over the limits and in the race the same. This year they dropped it though.
Oh and on Sunday a lot of the replies on here where the "in the moment" type. Watching it live...a last lap battle with an overtake that looked stunning then in minutes it is taken away (felt for Max as he stood in the Podium room a good 5 mins after the decison and no one had told him and Kimi stood in the corner ready to pounce on his 3rd place hat). Even the initial comms made out it was a mistake, within 30 mins it was clear he had gone off track limits and technically the stewards call was correct but against the backdrop of the race and the rules over the weekend it just felt lke the wrong call.
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