F1 Officiating a Travesty

Soccer's World Cup is the only sporting event that exceeds the popularity of Formula One racing around the globe. It is also possible the only sport that comes close in terms of the greatest gap between the importance of the event and the quality of the officiating.

For the second race in a row, Formula One race stewards have assessed a penalty so late, and so incomprehensibly, that the result of the race was dramatically affected in a way no one can say it strictly fair.

At the European Grand Prix at Valencia, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was assessed a drive-through penalty for passing the safety car. It took the stewards twenty minutes to find the film which showed the infraction, discuss the situation amongst themselves, ask the team for its opinion (???!!!) and to finally assess the penalty. Then, according to the rules, Hamilton had three laps to comply.

While all this was happening, Hamilton opened a huge gap on the field, so his penalty didn’t cost him a place. However, Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, who were right behind Hamilton but didn’t pass the pace car, got held up and lost several places, which they never got back.

In this case the rule-breaker got second place and the drivers who followed the rules barley finished in the points.

Also, several drivers were ruled to have been speeding while the safety car was out. These teams were all penalized five seconds—a penalty which appears nowhere in the rule books.

Idiocy at Silverstone

During lap 17 of the British Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso tried to push past Renault driver Robert Kubica. Kubica didn’t give way, so Alonso was either forced off, or chose to drive off of the course, cutting the corner and passing Kubica.

The rule in this case is clear; if a driver passes another by going off the course, the driver must surrender the position.

The problem the stewards had here is the same problem they had at Valencia—it took far too long to assess and announce a penalty. By the time Ferrari was told it had three laps to bring its driver in, Robert Kubica had retired with mechanical problems, and a safety car came out to clean up debris.

Since there was no way to give the position back to Kubica, Alonso was assed a drive-through, a much harsher penalty. And because there was a safety car on the track, Alonso couldn’t serve the penalty for another two laps. When he did, he dropped from 5th to 16th—for a foul that according to the rules should result in losing one place.

If Alonso had been told to give the place back immediately, the whole issue would have been resolved on lap 18. Instead, he wasn't told until lap 27, and was then told he couldn't serve it because of the safety car on lap 28. He couldn’t come in until lap 30.

He should have been forced to give the position back immediately—after all, everyone with a TV could see that there was a penalty a few seconds after it happened. Even if he was given three laps to come in, the incident could have been resolved by lap 20. He still would have been in before Kubica retired.

Instead, twelve laps—again, twenty minutes—passed between the foul and the imposition of a penalty, and again, it cost a driver many places.

Confusion at Monaco

The rules themselves, which obviously the stewards only follow intermittently, are themselves a morass of internal contradiction. Look at the fiasco of Schumacher’s penalty at Monaco: no one knew which rules applied, which rules superseded which others, or which situation applied in the specific case.

The various people in Race Control didn’t know what to do, so they—literally—sent conflicting signals, and then again, invented a penalty to suit the unforeseen situation, because they couldn’t decide what the situation actually was.

This would be great comedy if it were the plot of a movie; when it is the reality of the most popular sporting event on the planet, it is the most painful tragedy.

Billion-Dollar Sport With Bankrupt Officiating

F1 is the most popular annual sporting series in the world. Teams spend tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars for the chance to compete. The teams provide the best available drivers with the best available technology—the teams, and the fans, deserve the best possible officiating using the best available technology.

Why can’t F1 afford a state-of the art camera system? Formula One Management boss Bernie Ecclestone makes tracks spend tens of millions of exclusive hospitality suites for his high-dollar guests. Why can’t the tracks buy a high-tech camera system, for modern instant replay?

As for the penalty mechanism itself: why, if there is a clear infraction, do the stewards have to ask the team if it wants a penalty? Why consult with the team at all? Inform the team! Tell the team about the penalty immediately, and make them serve it immediately.

Imagine how the NFL would work if penalties were assessed twenty minutes after the infraction. Imagine an NBA game where a player traveled and was arbitrarily evicted from the game. Imagine a World Cup match where a referee refused to award a goal when the ball clearly went in the net (oh, wait—that already happened.)

Like the World Cup, Formula One has no excuse for its shoddy officiating. The biggest sporting events in the world deserve the best officiating in the world, the best instant-replay technology, and the fairest assessment of penalties according to the rules, which need to be precise, simple, and unfailingly clear, with only a single possible interpretation.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author, and are in no way shared or endorsed by The Epoch Times. Feel free to rebut at: James.Fish@EpochTimes.com

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