During the driver’s press conference for the upcoming Brazilian GP, Charlie Whiting has today responded to questions about the Mexican Grand Prix held 2 weeks ago.
Whiting, who is the FIA Technical Director, was keen to wrap up several talking points about the hotly-contested Mexican Grand Prix, following a series of Stewards decisions which were made after the race.
Despite Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen both cutting the track at turn 1 during the race, only Verstappen was penalised, with many wondering why Hamilton was not even investigated.
Whiting said: “We were going to ask Lewis to back right off to ensure he maintained the same distance he had going into the corner, but we could see from the data he had backed off significantly.
“Then we had the [Virtual Safety Car] followed by the Safety Car, and we [felt we] had no need to take any further action.”
In what was already a unique Driver’s Press Conference due to Whiting’s presence, a TV screen off-centre was used to fully analyse the incidents from the previous race, with Whiting commenting: “[Hamilton] backs off to 80% throttle to give that advantage back.”
Whiting said that the stewards felt Hamilton had no lasting advantage after the Safety Car had come out in response to the collision at the back of the field involving Gutierez, Ericsson and Wehrlein, which had forced Wehrlein to retire due to terminal damage.
Whiting also clarified the stewards’ decision regarding Verstappen, saying they believed that Max had gained a lasting advantage when overtaking Vettel in the closing stages of the race.
The stewards therefore issued a penalty to the young Dutchman, demoting him to 5th position.
Responding to comments surrounding Vettel’s targeted swearing during the closing stages of the Mexican GP, Whiting said that there were a lot of things that were said in the heat of the moment, but it was his and the FIA’s decision to accept Vettel’s swift apology, and he wished not to speak further on the matter.
Another hot topic after the race was moving-under-braking, a rule that was clarified after Verstappen’s defensive lunge at the Japanese Grand Prix, as Hamilton had tried to overtake him going into the final chicane after the 130R corner.
The rule had come into play again in the Mexican Grand Prix as Sebastian Vettel tried to defend from Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, steering left to close the gap into the corner before the two former Red Bull teammates made contact.
The Stewards felt that Vettel had broken the same new rule, and issued the Ferrari driver with a penalty – which was applied not just after the race, but also after the podium celebrations had taken place.
Vettel’s penalty demoted him to 5th behind the already-penalised Max Verstappen, which promoted Ricciardo into 3rd place.
In response to the FIA’s decision, Ricciardo said that once a driver had committed to a position under braking, it was hard to change that.
A conference of two halves
The Press Conference was split into two halves, with the aforementioned second half dedicated to addressing the Mexican GP controversies.
But the first half of the conference looked ahead towards the Brazilian GP, a race which would seemingly be the final home event for Brazilian driver Felipe Massa.
Hamilton led the tributes, with Massa sitting beside him, as he said that Felipe had been a great friend and rival through the years.
In his tribute, Hamilton even referred to their battle for the 2008 title in a controversial rain-soaked Brazilian GP.
It was a race which Massa had won, and seemingly with it the 2008 F1 driver’s title, only for Hamilton’s last-corner-last-lap overtake on a struggling Timo Glock on to seal the title win over Massa by 1 point.
Glock had stayed out on dry slick tyres, and as the torrential rain got worse he struggled to keep his Toyota facing forwards on the final lap.
Update, Nov 2017: F1 has finally released Glock’s final lap at Brazil on YouTube, which can be seen below. From Glock’s POV, it shows just how much he struggled to find grip in the torrential rain, on his last lap at Interlagos in 2008.
The 2008 finale is still considered by some fans, journalists & drivers as the most dramatic F1 finale in recent history.
Also in attendance for the Press Conference were championship leader Nico Rosberg for Mercedes GP, Red Bull drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, and Ferrari driver and four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel.
https://youtu.be/hKGGNX6IuuU
KPH car blog 