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easy_rider911 said:
Thank goodness sanity has prevailed. I thought that maybe a 10 place grid penalty at the next race or a 10 second pitlane stop-go penalty would be applied. In the end, no punishment at all for Lewis. BUT, the fact that Vettel's 10 place grid penalty has been reduced to a reprimand means to me that there was doubt as to who to punish SO they didn't punish anyone.
@ed_moree: I wish I could understand Spanish Then I would happily read the Spanish media too.
I have referred to the articles on the BBC News website. IMO it tries pretty hard to remain neutral. No media is perfect but IMHO it is not anywhere near as biased as the British tabloid newspapers can often be.
With all due respect, I don't think it is normal, nor should it be normal, for the media to support its own national hero. The media should always try to stay neutral and fair.
Easy, I intended to respond to ed_moore but you took the words right out of my mouth !
I think this whole Hamilton's penalty story is mostly a political matter and a media buzz.
If we go back to the beginning, it came first from the site Autosport.com. From this sole article, the headtitles covering the subject varied very much on the different media, we didn't know exactly if Hamilton faced a "10-grid place" penalty, if he would lose "his 10 points from his fuji history", the BBC even talked about merely an "informal chat" with the stewards, etc. I have the impression that some more or less crazy rumours widespread from a single news, i.e the stewards were reviewing a new video of Hamilton behind the safety car.
I also have a strong feeling it is a political issue. Among the strange events during the last 24 hours there is Koveleinen stating in to the media his opinion about Hamilton's behavior behind the safety car and the allegedly recommandations to him from Charlie Whiting during this period of the race. Why now ?
Of course it is just my very 0.02$, I can be wrong, but for the moment I stick to it.
Besides I have a bitter feeling in my mouth about the FIA. It seems impossible to live a season final based solely on fair sportiness performance, politics always have to come in. Remember 2003 and the Michelin tyres suddenly illegal ?
On the ame note the spy sage is just a joke. Stealing information from each other is common place in formula 1. The only difference is this time compelling proofs have been found. Other than that it is just about dirty plays between big egoes (Dennis, Todt, Mosley) who absolutely want to be seen as they see themselves.
Sometimes I feel the FIA just does not care about the fans.
Were the stewards right not to punish Hamilton ? Of course they were. Because it is a mere race incident, as Kubica hitting the British (drive through penalty) or Vettel hitting Weber, or Montoya hitting Barrichello under the rain in Indianapolis 2003 (drive through, he retired short after and lost any title hope whereas there was only a 2-point gap with MS
). There are numerous examples like these and in each case no one had to be penalised in the first place.
Besides no one outside the F1 drivers can know what is right or not under these circumstances, certainly not the stewards. One solution is to replaced them by former F1 drivers but: 1) do they fell like having this occupation whereas they can enjoy life ? 2) how can be ensured of them being unbiased ?.
Of course when it is obvious one acted wrongly, like Massa exiting the pit in Montreal under red light, or put the others in danger, one should be punished but otherwise it has to be considered as race incidents and let the big boys express by themselves behind the wheels.
I also never understood why the media have to support their fellow country man, it has always been something beyond me. I am French and I can't stand the "mandatory" support towards Prost when he was a pilot or a team manager, or Sebastien Bourdais for the time being.
The Spanish press seems to be "incredible"
in this area, althoug I am sure there are generally speaking some remarkable newspapers, I have read great articles from Al Pais for e.g. !
The British press has the worst (the tabloids) as well as the best IMHO, for e.g. I love the Guardian !
I touroughly enjoy this unique asset to deliver deep-documented, rigourous articles while retaining this British "spirit" and sense of humour !
Finally, I have noticed increasingly numbers of attacks / negative comments towards Hamilton, practically as many as for Alonso.
But all greats F1 champions were admired on one side but attacked on the other, be it Alonso, Prost, Schumacher. One particularly used to be by some regarded as the vilain, then unanimously as a genius...once he past away the 1st May 1994.
P.S: sorry for the spelling mistakes and perfectible style but I don't have much time.