Azerbaijan Heroes and Zeroes

[John S]

And when he parked his car during qualifying at Monaco!!Wait I'd better not
give Lewis any ideas

But then they failed to sanction Rosberg when he used reverse in a run off zone during the last part of quali to safeguard his pole lap time. 

This is part of the problem; the stewards just don't seem to enforce punishments fairly at different races and in different years.   

However they must still punish dissent from drivers about their rulings.  Vettel continued to protest to the world media after the race - by inference that the stewards had got it wrong - by claiming he was not guilty of what they punished him for. Totally dissent if ever I've seen it.    

I note he has not since repeated these assertions of total innocence, obviously wiser heads in his team have realised he's on a hiding to nothing and shut him up.     

[lkjohnson1950]

The fans, the drivers, and now Sir Jackie have long called for permanent stewards so the rulings would at least be consistant, but the FIA uses the job as a gift to people they want to suck up to. They will probably dock him 5 or 10 grid spots somewhere down the road. I hoped that people like Todt and Brawn would inject some professionalism in all the FIA series, but it seems not. I know Brawn is not FIA, but he must have some influence.

[Alianora La Canta]

The fans, the drivers, and now Sir Jackie have long called for permanent stewards so the rulings would at least be consistant, but the FIA uses the job as a gift to people they want to suck up to.

Max Mosley tried a permanent steward in 2007 and 2008. The permanent steward was not only less consistent than the temporary ones in terms of judgments, but also managed to be more biased. Don't ask me how that was possible, but apparently it was. Max went back to all-temporary staff in 2009 after that failure.

Jean surely remembers that era well, and is unlikely to repeat the experiment.

(As to "rewarding people they want to suck up to"), it's not clear that this happens, or if it's reliably so. The stewards have to have certain qualifications to steward, including a "junior career" stewarding at local events and a F1-specific refresher course every 3 years (driver stewards are exempt from the former, but I think have to do the latter), and two of them are selected by their national sporting authority rather than the FIA. However, there has been reason to suspect that some specific selections (in both Mosley and Todt eras) have been done with boot-kissing rather than efficacious judicial work in mind.

[Dare]

I'm sure somewhere in the world they could find some
people that could be impartial. Football,baseball,NFL,NBA,etc
all do it.

[Monty]

The problem is that decisions will always be subjective and they have to be made by people who have opinions, bias and possibly even financial interests at stake. You only have to look at the differing opinions here to see how personal bias (generally sub-conscious) can colour decision making. Of course the stewards have multiple camera shots and some car data but it is still possible for 3 people to view an incident and then suggest 3 different causes!
Personally I think the rules need to be tighter. If everyone understands that unsafe and unsportsmanlike actions will receive draconian penalties they will probably make sure they avoid such actions.
On this occasion (irrespective of anything Hamilton may have been perceived to have done) Vettel's actions were unsafe and unsportsmanlike and he should have been black flagged immediately.

[Scott]

Actually I would have been fine with them black flagging him, as long as they didn't wait 20 laps until Hamilton had a problem.  Was pretty clear he did it on purpose.  The timing of the penalty in the race was very suspicious, and now, a week after the race they talk about further sanctions only because of the media attention.

It's over.  Vettel was a dick, but the stewards blew their chance to penalize him.  Anything now is just political.

[Alianora La Canta]

I'm sure somewhere in the world they could find some
people that could be impartial. Football,baseball,NFL,NBA,etc
all do it.

They could if they wanted to!

[Alianora La Canta]

the stewards blew their chance to penalize him.  Anything now is just political.

The rules require a review if new evidence is found. Not acting would also be political, if such evidence exists (and it technically needed to do for a review with even potential punitive consequences to be possible).

I am suspicious of the whole "private meeting beforehand", which is not in the regulations, could invalidate any judgment the investigatory team or International Tribunal makes and sounds like a prime instance of trying to brush things under the carpet that shouldn't be.

[Scott]

Vettel is very very very sorry.  No further action.

I'm good with it.   

On to Austria...

[Alianora La Canta]

So Vettel has an against-regs private meeting.

Vettel (and Hamilton) are given no further consequences (unless you count Vettel swapping some road car commitments for some junior series commitments, which I don't).

Are these events connected?

[Andy B]

So Vettel has an against-regs private meeting.

Vettel (and Hamilton) are given no further consequences (unless you count Vettel swapping some road car commitments for some junior series commitments, which I don't).

Are these events connected?

Seb was the only one being investigated so there would never have been any "consequences" against Lewis and even Seb now states that Lewis did nothing wrong so why did you feel the need to mention him?

The outcome is good and Seb admitting that he acted rashly and in a dangerous manner is good although a shame he could not have done that while at Baku and did so only under the threat of action from the FIA.

Done and dusted time to move on.

[cosworth151]

I think Vettel deserved a more severe penalty. Not for hitting Hamilton. That was unintentional. He deserved a ding for taking his hands off the wheel and allowing his car to go out of control. His car could have hooked wheels with Hamilton's car & put them both into the wall, possibly collecting others in the line behind them. It was a stupid, unnecessary risk brought on by a fit of anger.

That said, the time for action has passed. It's time to put the whole ugly mess behind & move on to Austria.

[Monty]

I always maintained that there should have been tough and appropriate action at the time (not after the race). I was also sure the outcome of the meeting would not involve any further penalties for Vettel; he is after all driving a Ferrari and they still basically tell the FIA what they can or can't do!
However, I feel this has again done irreparable damage to F1. Millions of people saw a driver make a really amateur mistake, gesticulate at the innocent party thus trying to absolve himself of his pathetic driving, then deliberately drive into the innocent party, get a ridiculously lenient penalty, then claim (and continue to claim) that he had done nothing wrong, then get called into another review and come out with no further penalty other than to say, with absolutely no sincerity, that he is now sorry. And this is the pinnacle of motor sport???

[Andy B]

I always maintained that there should have been tough and appropriate action at the time (not after the race). I was also sure the outcome of the meeting would not involve any further penalties for Vettel; he is after all driving a Ferrari and they still basically tell the FIA what they can or can't do!
However, I feel this has again done irreparable damage to F1. Millions of people saw a driver make a really amateur mistake, gesticulate at the innocent party thus trying to absolve himself of his pathetic driving, then deliberately drive into the innocent party, get a ridiculously lenient penalty, then claim (and continue to claim) that he had done nothing wrong, then get called into another review and come out with no further penalty other than to say, with absolutely no sincerity, that he is now sorry. And this is the pinnacle of motor sport???

Very well put Monty.

[John S]

Hear! Hear! Monty, couldn't agree more.