Hamilton, McLaren retroactively disqualified from Australian GP?
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Last weekend's Australian Grand Prix, the season opener to the 2009 Formula One season, may have ushered in a new era in on-track competition, but the off-track politics are already back up to full swing.
Following the race, officials from the FIA convened to decide whether Toyota's Jarno Trulli had illegally passed McLaren's defending champion Lewis Hamilton behind the safety car. McLaren and Hamilton insisted the pass was illegal, but new evidence – namely radio transmissions between the two drivers and their pit crews – reportedly demonstrated indicated that Hamilton deliberately let Trulli by.
The new evidence was confirmed by a meeting of the FIA stewards in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where the second race of the season is scheduled to take place this coming weekend. Their decision? To take away Hamilton's and McLaren's points altogether, which may seem like a harsh punishment, but the stewards determined that Hamilton and McLaren had intentionally deceived the officials.
The adjusted rankings therefore bump Trulli up to third (in both the race results and the drivers' championship standings, since it was the first race of the season) and Toyota up to second in the constructors' championship, while McLaren remains outside the standings altogether as both their drivers were deemed not to have been classified in the race. Tune in on Sunday for our recap of the Malaysian Grand Prix, where hopefully the finishing order will actually be determined on the track and not in boardroom.
[Source: Autosport]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
geo.stewart 11:05AM (4/02/2009)
Boy, and ya'll poke at NASCAR. Formula One is more and more like WWE.
put the pre- and post race meetings on TNT (We know drama). more entertaining than the race
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Throwback 1:10PM (4/02/2009)
I could not have said it better myself. Please explain to me how you "intentionally let someone pass you behind the safety car"? Why didn't Trulli simply let Hamilton by again?
F1 has become a joke, races are now decided in boardrooms days after the race.
Tom Winch 8:29PM (4/02/2009)
@Throwback - "Please explain to me how you "intentionally let someone pass you behind the safety car"? Why didn't Trulli simply let Hamilton by again?"
Hamilton was instructed to let Trulli pass him by McLaren. After the race, Hamilton said in the post-race interview that he had been instructed by the team to let Trulli pass. During the first FIA investigation of the incident, Hamilton and McLaren told the FIA stewards that they had not let Trulli pass. Upon reviewing the radio recordings of both teams and the post-race interview, the FIA came to the conclusion that Hamilton and McLaren had deliberately mislead them by saying they had not let Trulli pass when in reality that's exactly what they did. The FIA is to be commended for rectifying the situation and promoting Trulli back to third.
From Formula1.com
Transcript of the radio transmission between Lewis Hamilton and his team:
Team: OK Lewis, you should need to make sure your delta is positive over the safety car line. After the safety car line the delta doesn’t matter but no overtaking. No overtaking.
Lewis Hamilton: The Toyota went off in a line at the second corner, ..., is this OK?
Team: Understood, Lewis. We’ll confirm and get back to you.
LH: He was off the track. He went wide.
Team: Lewis, you need to allow the Toyota through. Allow the Toyota through now.
LH: OK.
LH: He’s slowed right down in front of me.
Team: OK, Lewis. Stay ahead for the time being. Stay ahead. We will get back to you. We are talking to Charlie.
LH: I let him past already.
Team: OK, Lewis. That’s fine. That’s fine. Hold position. Hold position.
LH: Tell Charlie I already overtook him. I just let him past.
Team: I understand Lewis. We are checking. Now can we go to yellow G 5, yellow Golf 5.
LH: I don’t have to let him past I should be able to take that position back, if he made a mistake.
Team: Yes, we understand Lewis. Let’s just do it by the book. We are asking Charlie now. You are in P4. If you hold this position. Just keep it together.
Team: OK Lewis, your KERS is full, your KERS is full. Just be aware. You can go back to black F2, black Foxtrott 2.
LH: Any news from Charlie whether I can take it back or not.
Team: Still waiting on a response Lewis, still waiting.
Team: Lewis, work on your brakes please. Front brakes are cold.
Team: If we are able to use one KERS that would be good. If you deploy KERS please do so now.
Team: OK, Lewis, this is the last lap of the race. At the end of the lap the safety car will come in, you just proceed over the line without overtaking, without overtaking. We are looking into the Trulli thing, but just hold position.
dezoris00 11:05AM (4/02/2009)
I am almost positive this sport is intentionally creating drama at this point to generate media attention.
Although I don't have radio transmissions to confirm.
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axlewood 11:11AM (4/02/2009)
rules are rules...and if you break them, you should get punished.
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tbyron 3:06AM (4/04/2009)
Bravo. I like Hamilton but if he did this, let him have it. BUT, the stewards and FIA have to be uniform about their enforcement of this stuff. A few yrs ago, this was the stuff that Schumacher did semi-regularly and was rarely disciplined in the unusual instance he was actually called on it. That sort of favoritism hurt the sport far more than Bernie & Max will admit.
JF 11:14AM (4/02/2009)
Motorsports + Politics = FAIL
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zamafir 11:47AM (4/02/2009)
That's why F1 doesn't appeal to me. Sure there's politics in LeMans in terms of weight penalties, etc, but at it's core it's a race, a team race. It's not owners who appear to own teams simply to get into political sparring matches. If i wanted to witness such antics I'd watch CSPAN. Punishing a driver based on a radio transmission after the race had concluded, pass. I'll stick to LeMans.
Tom Winch 8:40PM (4/02/2009)
This has nothing to do with politics, it's about righting a wrong.
DrewL 11:16AM (4/02/2009)
As much as I think the FIA is simply Ferrari Internal Assistance, this time they got it right. Here is the full radio transmission:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8q27gzS4C4
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Franz 12:48PM (4/02/2009)
I gotta agree with you. As an avid supporter of both Lewis Hamilton and the Mclaren team, I can say without reservation that they f*cked this up big time and have no one to blame but themselves. Why the hell did they lie about it?
Temple 1:33PM (4/02/2009)
I think there is no question that Hamilton lied to the stewards and got Trulli unfairly penalized. Not only is there recorded evidence (as shown in your link) and an admission by Hamilton to SpeedTV, but telemetry data showed he slowed down to 15mph.
I hate the FIA, hate Max, and am a McLaren and Hamilton fan, but he lied through his teeth. This is hard to defend.
adrian 2:19PM (4/02/2009)
@Temple
I agree Hamilton should of told them about the radio conversation but team told him to slow down to let Trulli pass because Trulli came of the track earlier at the time when the safety car was out I believe. Hamilton passed him which is against the rules.
judd 11:16AM (4/02/2009)
That's why I don't even watch their post race shows. It's a waste of time. How can it take this long to figure out somethings not right?
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pmalloy4391 11:19AM (4/02/2009)
wow... a bunch of cars playing follow the leader for an hour... (see this line works on f1 also!)
See, I am a nascar fan and just saying that sounded dirty. How can a fan of motorsports in general say such things about other motor sports
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Alan 11:19AM (4/02/2009)
Guess what the Australian GP is not over yet. Once the stewards reverse their decision regarding the rear difuser Alonso will have won the race with the Toro Rosso cars finishing 2nd and 3rd.
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speedball3 11:48AM (4/02/2009)
Let's hope not. That would be lame especially after all the petitions against the diffusers were rejected. But I think Barrichello made his come back after his dismal start w/a damaged diffuser...
Back on topic... I don't see this as being so horrible. They probably should have asked for all the evidence prior to making the decision, but it is good that they actually went and reversed the decision while penalizing Hamilton & crew for their deception.
Temple 11:59AM (4/02/2009)
The FIA won't strip the diffuser teams of points even if they overturn their original ruling that it is legal.
The teams will merely be required to change the diffusers and they will keep he points they scored. Its very similar to the Ferrari barge-board incident in the F2008.
Already it seems other teams are designing their own diffusers, Redbull and McLaren are said to be preparing their before F1 returns to Europe.
why not the LS2LS7? 12:24PM (4/02/2009)
Temple:
You're making a basic error here. You're assuming that the rules that apply to Ferrari also apply to the other teams.
Blackbird 11:39AM (4/02/2009)
Why don't they just skip the race portion and have F1 post the finishing order as they like...
Is F1 trying to get us to stop watching?
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