It is the same in many sports. Cricket relies heavily on the ‘upstairs’ umpire to make decisions. Rugby and league are paralysed by fear of getting it wrong on the field so refer line calls to electronic umpires. Tennis endures shrieks from the prima-donnas when a call doesn’t go their way.
Is the same true in motor racing? When there’s an on-track clash or even the potential for one, are we jumping into in-race time penalties too soon? If we don’t issue such penalties, are we at risk of becoming paralysed by the fear of making the wrong call in the heat and smoke of the moment? After all, as Craig Baird* said a very long time ago after getting the best of Ed Lamont** at Bay Park***: “rubbing’s racing and winners are grinners”.
But does anyone want to see decisions in top level motor racing (and rallying) go the way of the America’s Cup, where races are decided in courtrooms a year after they end?
Have we perhaps forgotten that racing is also entertainment, and as such the punter – having paid the gate and put aside their domestic duties – have a right to feel entertained and also have a right to see a judgement call on the track ruled on at the time it happens?
I would never cast aspersions on our officialdom, because my personal view is that they get decisions right far more often than, say, our cousins across the ditch. But the trend these days seems to lean toward slapping drivers with huge time penalties that drop them from podium finishes of wins to fifth, sixth or worse. Drive-through penalties are no longer the ‘thing’. That takes a lot of the emotion out of the process, but it also robs the spectator of the spectacle.
Sebastian Vettel could be forgiven for losing his famous ebullient German sense of humour after events this week at Canada. Lewis Hamilton was putting pressure on Vettel in the second half of the race when the leader ran wide at Turn 3, and slid across the grass before rejoining. Fighting oversteer as he returned to the track, Vettel squeezed Hamilton against the wall as the Mercedes driver hit the brakes to avoid a collision, and the stewards handed Vettel a five-second time penalty that meant he crossed the line first but was relegated to third.
The ruling has been discussed, endorsed and condemned far and wide this week, and even prompted the great Mario Andretti to comment on Twitter: “the function of the stewards is to penalise flagrantly unsafe moves not honest mistakes as a result of hard racing. What happened at #canadagp is not acceptable at this level…”.
Over the years, the Tifosi have often called for the heads of officials who rule to the detriment of the red team in F1, and certainly it sometimes appears there could be just a teeny bit of personality clash behind a decision. Less so now that Bernie’s not directly involved but it underlines how careful officials have to be when there is both passion and money involved.
In local racing, there is also a feeling among some commentators that the quality and style of decision when there is an incident here doesn’t fit with what our racers will encounter offshore – that a move that gets slapped with a penalty here would simply be regarded as robust racing overseas.
Liam Lawson took one on the chin recently in Euroformula Open. In April, Lawson and Motopark team-mate Yuki Tsunoda clashed in a race start melee at Paul Ricard, Lawson going on to be second but getting a post-race penalty that dropped him to fourth.
Then it happened again, Lawson and Tsunoda tangling at Spa this month. He had tried one of his bold ‘around the outside’ passes and it didn’t work. There was no need for a post-race penalty in that case – both drivers retired and Marino Sato won.
On the same weekend, in British F3, race leader Neil Verhagen (I don’t know too much about him yet, seems to have some good form, considered a possible for Castrol Toyota Racing Series 2020) and CTRS graduate Clement Novalak were penalised out of a race for crossing outside track boundaries. That’s like sticking your four wheels outside the big fat white line as you enter the main straight at Manfeild. Sanctions are justified on safety grounds yes for sure – but there’s a fine line with calls like this and (sometimes, not always) the line comes down to how the officials have been briefed. If there’s been a decision high up the food chain to focus on such transgressions and punish the wrongdoers then the door is open to some pretty perverse outcomes.
It’s entirely possible to end up in an echo-chamber of condemnation in these situations and apply a stiffer penalty than natural justice would prescribe. Verhagen and Novalak ended up ‘placed’ fifth and sixth. What if that decision decides the championship against one or other of these two? What if that then decided their ongoing careers?
Fortunately, Novalak is absolutely on fire this year, and leads that championship despite the best efforts of the adjudicators.
Paradoxically, there are always those who appear freakishly lucky in some circumstances. Dan Ticktum, for example, has trodden a golden path through such incidents thanks to what appears to be some rose-tinted spectacles among British media. His wheel-banging ‘commitment’ knocked several drivers out of contention in European Formula Three last year, not least our own Marcus Armstrong. Arguing that it’s all part of a character-building phase is one thing. Harming the prospects of the championship leader at a pivotal point in the competition year is quite another. Funnily enough, Armstrong of course has stepped up to the new melded GP3-F3 championship; Ticktum has gone off to race Super Formula in Japan. Armstrong is fourth overall after two rounds of F3; Ticktum not looking quite as flash in Super Formula.
Perhaps, as Ticktum asserted shortly before abandoning his drive in the Asian F3 Winter Series, “the car’s shit”. Perhaps the karma monkey has settled on his back. Or perhaps he’s feeling the effects of racing in series where the officials are entirely immune to the glint and glimmer of his self-generated home-market PR.
So what do readers think?
- Are we going in the right direction domestically?
- Are decisions taken here consistent and fair?
- Are decisions taken here perfectly aligned with what our drivers will see when they head offshore?
- Has anyone reacted to a decision the way Vettel did this week?
Notes
* A damn fine racing driver
** Another racing driver, also creator of the old Auto Trader mag, which has hard copy back in the day
*** A cool wee race track near the Mount, now covered in houses
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