Ferrari Mailing List: Re: F1 SPOILER

[Dennis Liu (BigHeadDennis]

Rick, one thing to keep in mind.  And please correct me if I'm wrong, since
I'm sure you know much more about this than me.

The "blocking" decision was made by the local race stewards - the ITALIAN
race stewards.  Is there a home team advantage?  Quite possibly, or even
probably.  Let's see - the final race that 7-time World Champion Michael
Schumacher will ever run at Monza, for Ferrari (which, to Italians, means
more than the Yankees do to New Yorkers x 10), in an almost-dead heat for
both the driver's and constructor's world championships, with no race at
Imola next year, and what native Italian racing enthusiast WOULDN'T decide a
close decision in Ferrari's favor?

The thing to keep in mind is that the decisions made by local stewards are
often against the wishes of the FIA itself, and certainly piss off Bernie
and Max from time to time.  IIRC, a recent decision made by the local
stewards at a race was subsequently overturned by the FIA.

Now, this is not to say that the FIA wouldn't prefer a close battle to the
end of the season for the two championships, but it's nothing like the
NASCAR structure, where one body - or more accurately, one family - makes
ALL of the final decisions.  So while "Formula 1" may want to see a close
battle, I don't think this decision can be attributed to that.

As to my personal opinion as to whether Alonso was blocking, well, it's
certainly well within the gray area.  He was on an "out" lap, Masa was on
his hot lap.  If the clock wasn't ticking down, Alonso would have gone off
line and allowed Masa by, and rightfully so - any driver on an out lap
should not be blocking a driver on a hot lap.  Accordingly, when there is a
close call, I think the inference has to go in favor of the impeded driver.

Do I really think Masa was held up?  Nope.  But the rules are the rules, and
he and Ferrari are battling for every point, so he did the rational thing
and made a protest.  I don't know that I would have done it, were I in his
shoes, but I can't blame him for doing it (e.g., teams protesting the
mass-damper system, dual-brake pedals, various aero bits, etc.; the rules is
da rules).

And Lashdeep, I gotta disagree with you.  Sure, it's easy to play the "well,
it wouldn't have mattered anyway" game, but keep in mind, had Alonso started
in 5th, he may have found himself in 2nd or third behind MS, rather than
having to work hard to carve his way through the field.  And since he'd only
be down 1 or 2 points, he may well have settled for that, given the margin
he still would have had and the few remaining races.  Which would mean he
wouldn't have been as hard on the engine, so it may not have blown up -
remember, drivers can and often do turn down the wick and go into "cruise"
mode.

Vty,

--Dennis 

-----Original Message-----
From: LS [mailto:lashdeep [at] yahoo.com] 
Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2006 9:45 PM
To: Dennis Liu
Cc: The FerrariList
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] F1 SPOILER

Isn't that the evidence of a true and dominating world champion? Making the
whole thing look like a joke? Federer sure did the same thing later this
afternoon.

I think MS did a great job (not surprising). If Alonso had finished on the
podium, I think the penalty may have weighed in, but a blown engine is a
blown engine. Maybe he would've blown it earlier as he would've started
closer to MS (5th instead of 10th) and thought he had an even better chance
of winning.

LS

--- Rick Lindsay <rolindsay [at] yahoo.com> wrote:

> Warning....
>    
>    
>    
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>    
>    
>    
>    
>    
>    
>    
>    
>    
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>      I just wonder how good the race MIGHT have been if Masa and the 
> Italian race stewards hadn't pulled that "No fair! I was blocked - 
> even thought the draft cut my sector-iii time." trick.  This was 
> almost as blatant as Michael's "oops, I didn't do a good turn."  
> Without interference, the Renault would not have had to push quite as 
> hard
> (read: elevated rev limiter settings) and there might just have been a 
> fair fight to the finish.
>      Yes, I am an F1 marshal and I know it is all show business - but 
> I'd still like to think there is hope for an element of sport 
> remaining...  Today did nothing to convince me of that.
>    
>   rick
>   308GTB, SL500, Disco II
> _________________________________________________________________
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