Open Mic: Formula 1 Road Rules

There are couple of different sayings attached to rules, and they often reflect how you, the individual, live your life by them. There’s “Rules were made to be broken” for the fearless rebels. Then, there’s “Rules are the foundation upon which everything else is built” for those in favor of order.

Whatever the case, rules and laws are always there and must be dealt with. Typically, those rules are black and white: you’re either right or wrong.

That is unless you happen to be involved with the FIA, who seem to enjoy shading their regulations and consequences of breaking said regulations with various shades of gray. More often than not, a rules violation and subsequent punishment leaves fans scratching their heads, wondering about the reasoning behind the punishment.

In a separate B/R piece that also focused on Formula One rules, the author (Luke Johnson) proposed the idea that rulebook is fine; it’s just the ones who enforce the rules who aren’t.

I concur.

There really haven’t been rules imposed by the FIA that I’ve outright thought were stupid and/or dangerous. The only one that comes to mind was the ridiculous “one set of tires per weekend rule” back in 2005 (which I say to date helped cause the farcical 2005 U.S. Grand Prix, but that’s another story for another day).

No, I don’t think the rules have anything wrong or unjust in them; they just need to be enforced properly and consistently. And, grudges shouldn’t be retained against teams who may have violated those rules (more on that later).

Sometimes, I get the feeling that penalties handed down by the FIA are often picked at random from a hat. In 2006, at Hungary, Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso were both penalized in qualifying (for blocking I believe), and received two second penalties, to be added to their qualifying times.

That decision was a little unorthodox, but a rule was violated and penalty received. End of story. And yet, a few races later at Monza, Alonso is also accused of blocking (although much more controversially this time, but again I digress), and was instead forced to start tenth, at tenth (the back of those who made to Q3), his qualifying time irrelevant.

Huh? I thought blocking in qualifying got you a two second penalty? Say it with FIA…consistency.

Now, let us move on to the clouded realm of officials possibly being biased for one team or against another.

We all know that the Mclaren/Ferrari spy saga from 2007 left a bitter taste in many an F1 fan, with some us still harboring ill will toward Mclaren. I must say, I was actually happy to see Ferrari beat them afterward, since I don’t think a cheater should be rewarded.

But, Mclaren has paid its penalty, passed the imposed tests regarding their 2008 car, and moved on. Sure, some fans have the right to harbor a grudge against them (and that adds to the fun of being a racing fan), but the idea of officials being biased against them (or for Ferrari) is a very serious matter.

In any true sport, the outcome of a competition is left for the competitors to decide. No outside force and or sanctioning body has a say in the result; only the combatants do.

When people begin to think officials have an interest in hurting or helping one combatant (or driver and team in this case), then the word “fix” comes into play.

Formula One cannot be burdened in any sense by the idea that any races are possibly predetermined or that officials will do all they can to help or hurt teams and drivers of their choosing; such a case would give the sport a black eye that may never heal.

In the wake of the Spa incident, Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosely could have a big question on their hands: are stewards doing more than simply and objectively calling a race?

Prior to the penalty, Mclaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh asked twice if Hamilton had complied with regulations after letting Kimi pass. And twice, he was told “yes.” Hmmm…

I return to my take on F1 rules: I see nothing wrong with them. The ones making calls however, might have something wrong with them. And it’s a problem that needs to be addressed if the sport wants to maintain its integrity.