Grand Prix

F1 Fans Unearth George Russell And Max Verstappen Collision As Lewis Hamilton's "Harsh" Penalty Is Questioned

Russell escaped penalty at Baku for an incident with Verstappen whereas Hamilton attracted a heavy penalty for his incident with Perez. What's the difference?
Saajan Jogia|
F1 Fans Unearth George Russell And Max Verstappen Collision As Lewis Hamilton's "Harsh" Penalty Is Questioned
F1 Fans Unearth George Russell And Max Verstappen Collision As Lewis Hamilton's "Harsh" Penalty Is Questioned

Lewis Hamilton's penalty during the Belgian GP Sprint Race has been the talk of the town lately as the controversy has caused fans to mostly blame the FIA for being harsh. The incident occurred on Turn 15 when Hamilton's Mercedes collided sideways with Sergio Perez's RB19 during the sprint race. 

The contact caused Perez to exit the race while Hamilton secured a P4 but the 5-second penalty saw him drop to P7. The incident also attracted 2 points to Hamilton's racing license. Fans have been calling the punishment harsh and biased.

Many have been comparing the incident to similar instances where the FIA has not punished F1 drivers despite cars colliding with each other. One such instance was from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at Baku where George Russell made an excellent start in the race and dived down straight into the inside of Max Verstappen's RB19 at Turn 1, creating a light contact with his car.

It didn't end there. The cars came in contact again at Turn 2 quite heavily which caused a hole in the RB19's sidepod, only to see a close call at Turn 3 again. The incident caused considerable damage to the Red Bull, leading Verstappen to conquer P3. The race ending was followed by a short verbal argument between Russell and Verstappen.  

Despite the incident at Baku being more severe than the incident at Spa last weekend, neither George Russell nor Verstappen have been charged any penalty. I think there wasn't even an investigation on the matter and it was let off as if nothing happened. 

Fans on Twitter have been scratching their heads about why both incidents were treated differently by the FIA, despite the nature of both events being so similar. Motorsport engineer, Bryson Sullivan, has made all the valid points. He even says that, "Mercedes should take a page from Aston Martin’s book and present the stewards with other examples of 5-second penalties."

Sullivan went on to say that, "We are not prejudging the outcome here, but instead trying to understand the salient differences between these two cases that would result in an immediate penalty for one and not the other."

One fan points out that usually, punishments are a lot lenient in the first lap vs the 6th lap that Hamilton was involved in.

While many were of the opinion that Russell should've been penalized in Baku, here's one fan who makes sense by saying that both incidents are not similar. 

Here's a fan who says that both incidents are liable to attract penalties.

One fan went in an entirely different direction, pointing at Steward Derek Warwick who among other stewards charged Hamilton with the punishment. Warwick has been accused of being racist for his comments back in 2016 when he supposedly called Max Verstappen "The next great white hope." Read more about it here. 

One fan reasoned that the incident didn't force Verstappen to end the race, unlike the incident involving Hamilton where Perez had to retire. 

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Saajan Jogia
SAAJAN JOGIA

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