FIA to dock Hamilton’s Japanese win?

Almost an entire week after the completed race in Japan and the win from Lewis Hamilton, we hear the disappointing news that the FIA may, not only remove the points he won, but also push him back on the grid for Shanghai.

This is another ridiculous suggestion that further demeans the title of F1 as a sport, and casts more light on the idea that the FIA are happy to bend rules and alter results for higher monetary returns.

You see it would be much better that Hamilton didn’t win those ten points in Japan as Ferrari would have Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen closer to Hamilton and Alonso and it would also mean the championship was much closer going to the final two races.

According to the BBC, footage taken from the grandstands is being reviewed by the FIA after the Red Bull driver Mark Webber complained of Lewis Hamilton’s “erratic” driving behind the safety car, and blames him for his accident and retirement from the race.

That erratic driving was rapid braking to warm the brakes, and rapid acceleration to keep the tyres warm, a practice all F1 drivers do, but that Hamilton was admittedly doing quite heavily.

That said though it is now almost an entire week after the race has been run and the next is about to begin, can you imagine that happening in Football (Soccer) or American Football for example?

What is even stranger is that the man who hit Webber during one of these sessions was Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel, and his comment is astounding, admitting blame and pointing out that he wasn’t even facing the right direction!

So it was his fault and he wasn’t looking forward, but let’s blame Hamilton..

Jenson Button leaps in there too and agrees that his driving was erratic. and comes away with a similarly erratic comment

Yes, that’s what all the drivers do, warming brakes and tyres and bunching up the pack, albeit Hamilton was doing it rather aggressively.

However the complaining is ridiculous. If the stewards and the FIA saw nothing wrong with his driving during the race why should they investigate it a week after the fact with a view to such a harsh penalty?

It seems that they may be examining the ruling of number of cars length between the safety car and Hamilton which, according to the letter of the law should be five car lengths maximum, a figure that goes for the gap between all the cars following the safety car, I wonder if they will be examining them all, and since they are looking at past races where are they going to stop? Last week? This season? Last season?

Do they want to keep the racing closer for the last two Grand Prix’s? Or is it the case in F1 that if you grumble and moan enough then you’ll finally get your way?

Sportsman conduct, honesty, integrity, and healthy and open competition in general seem to be out the door with F1 these days.