Stewards Decision - Australian GP 

02/04/2009 

PENALTY IMPOSED ON DRIVER NO 1 LEWIS HAMILTON AND COMPETITOR VODAFONE MCLAREN MERCEDES

SUMMARY OF KEY CONSIDERATIONS

At the first hearing following the Australian Grand Prix the Stewards did not have the benefit of the radio exchanges between driver No 1 Lewis Hamilton and his Team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes nor did they have access to the comments to the Media given by Lewis Hamilton immediately after the end of the race.

From the video recordings available to the Stewards during the hearing it appeared that Jarno Trulli’s car left the track and car No 1 moved into third place. It then appeared that Trulli overtook Hamilton to regain third place, which at the time was prohibited as it was during the Safety Car period.

During the hearing, held approximately one hour after the end of the race, the Stewards and the Race Director questioned Lewis Hamilton and his Team Manager David Ryan specifically about whether there had been an instruction given to Hamilton to allow Trulli to overtake. Both the driver and the Team Manager stated that no such instruction had been given. The Race Director specifically asked Hamilton whether he had consciously allowed Trulli to overtake. Hamilton insisted that he had not done so. 

The new elements presented to the Stewards several days after the 2009 Australian Grand Prix which led to the reconvened Stewards Meeting clearly show that:

a.    Immediately after the race and before Lewis Hamilton attended the Stewards Meeting he gave an interview to the Media where he clearly stated that the Team had told him to let Trulli pass.

b.    Furthermore, the radio exchanges between the driver and the Team contain two explicit orders from the Team to let the Toyota pass.

The Stewards, having learned about the radio exchanges and the Media interview, felt strongly that they had been misled by the driver and his Team Manager which led to Jarno Trulli being unfairly penalised and Lewis Hamilton gaining third place.

Source & audio available at FIA

Join the forum discussion on this post - (4) Posts

The talk of the weekend was Brawn GP – resurrected from the ashes of Honda, the Brackley based team dominated the pack in both qualifying and the race, scoring an impressive 1-2 despite Barrichello’s many collisions and Button’s battle with the safety car. The pair seem unbeatable – but can they carry their successful form through the rest of the season?

One team who will be hoping their form doesn’t continue is Ferrari – who experienced a disappointing start to the season with a double DNF. The Ferrari duo were outpaced during qualifying and yet again struggled with their tyres – despite showing promising speed during the race. It could have been a podium finish for Kimi and Felipe, but reliability issues and an unfortunate meeting with a wall cut their races short. Many Raikkonen fans are now worrying that the Iceman is melting – last year we saw Kimi crash out of races with little explanation. However, Kimi doesn’t seem convinced it was his mistake – and with no comment on Massa’s retirement, do Ferrari know more than they are letting on?

Melbourne saw a bittersweet start to the season for McLaren and reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton. After a problematic qualifying session, Heikki’s race was cut short after a collision with Barrichello, while Hamilton was gifted 3rd place after a barrage of retirements and Toyota’s double penalty.

It seems that, yet again, the F1 standings are being decided by appeals and punishments – in just one week we have seen an appeal over a controversial diffuser, a 25 second penalty for a dubious incident under the safety car and a 10 place penalty for Vettel’s unfortunate overtaking manoeuvre.

How was Trulli penalised for passing under the safety car, when Hamilton did the same thing? Why is it that Vettel has been so harshly punished, while Rubens escaped unscathed from his first lap clash with Kovalainen? The new regulations are intended to encourage overtaking – and yet we’re seeing true racers penalised for doing their job. It’s time to accept that there will be accidents in the high paced world of motor racing – here’s hoping that this inconsistency doesn’t tarnish what’s set to be the most exciting season in years.

Nakajima and Piquet continued to add to the excitement of this race – with both of them providing spectacular but not so surprising crashes. Sebastian Buemi was more of a surprise – scoring points in his F1 debut. Bourdais carried on the success of the Sebastians with another top 8 finish, however Vettel’s luck ran out in the closing stages as his Red Bull fought with Kubica’s BMW, leaving them both down and out.

There’s not long to wait before round two at Sepang, Malaysia – and with weather forecasts of thunderstorms we could be in for another nail-biting race! It’s a track that Kimi knows and loves and I’m optimistic that we’ll see the return of our Iceman. Australia may have been a disappointment for us Kimi fans, but he’s keeping an open mind and so must we. Melbourne was just one race – there’s a long way to go yet!

Sarah Peacock

GoKimi forum member ‘kimi_the_icesnail”

The Maranello squad was surprisingly uncompetitive in Melbourne, suffered more than most from tyre wear and ultimately retired both of its cars with mechanical problems.

Montezemolo believes a clearer picture of the 2009 pecking order will emerge at Sepang and expects Ferrari to be closer to the pace.

Speaking in Modena on Tuesday, he said: “I expect to see the true balance of power in Malaysia on a more conventional circuit than Melbourne.

“The first race went a lot worse than we and I had expected.

“We made a few too many mistakes.

“But I’m convinced, indeed I’m quite certain, that there will be a strong response from our side, even though the cars are the same.

“I trust the team and I know that they are working very hard. We’ll see the fruits already by next Sunday.”

Montezemolo said the epic season-long duel between Ferrari and McLaren for last year’s world championship had allowed rival teams to leapfrog them.

“There’s no doubt that we’re paying the price for the 2008 championship, which was fought until the last corner of the last lap of the last grand prix,” he said.

“Like McLaren, we had to develop our car right up to the end, while the others were able to begin work on completely new projects several months earlier.

“Let’s not forget that this year’s car isn’t an evolution. So those who had the extra time were able to gain a head start.”

Montezemolo also called on F1’s authorities to swiftly clear up the controversy over the rear diffuser regulations, which he said was damaging the sport’s credibility.

Ferrari is one of the teams protesting the ‘double decker’ diffusers used by Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota, which are thought to be worth up to 0.3s per lap.

“I want clarity over the regulations,” said Montezemolo.

“It’s not good to start a season with such important question marks.

“Either these diffusers are legal, in which case that must be stated and proved quickly – even though we and many other teams don’t think they are – and then we will adapt.

“Or else they are not legal, in which case also we must be told as soon as possible, because those who interpret the regulations and aren’t going by the rules create an inequality in performance that is unacceptable.”

Source - ITV

It was only one race and things can turn around very quickly. Also last year Melbourne was not that good place for us and then one week later I won in Malaysia. Again things can turn around very quickly. The weekend overall was a very disapointing experience. We did not score any points and we did not have the quickest car on the circuit. There is a lot of work to be done, but I have a great team behind me to change things quickly.

It was one of the toughest weekends I have ever had in F1. We lost some valuable time in practise and it was a painful setback. Every lap counts, especially now when testing is so limited. It’s always hard to say how much we lost, but for sure it did not help. Probably the best thing for us was that the KERS system worked well at the start, but I did not get a clear path to take full advantage of making up positons. It was not enough go gain places, but the feeling to use KERS is great. Our speed was not as competitive as we expected beforehand. I was not so surprised to see the Brawn GP at the front. We already saw in testing that they have been very quick. Now there are new favourites at the top. Obviously it’s going to be very tight and very challenging fight for the championship and that’s very good for the sports.

Before going to the season I said, that we need to see how things are after the first two races. Malaysia is more of a normal circuit to judge how competitive we are. I think the championship is wide open. This was only the first race of the season and whilst it would have been nice to start the season well, there are many races remaining. It’s too early to start making predictions. The picture will become clearer only after the first 4 or 5 races.

Now we go to Malaysia, which has always been good place for me. It’s a proper circuit compared to Melbourne. Due to the cars being so different this year, it’s very hard to know just where we are compared to our competitors. I just love to race at Sepang. It’s a very challenging place, the weather is hot like in a Finnish Sauna and it really demands a lot to get good weekend there. We have a lot of work to be done after Melbourne, but we will do our very best to win the race again.

Source - Kimi’s Official Website

Join the forum discussion on this post - (3) Posts

Bridgestone Potenza slick tyres made their grand prix return in the Australian Grand Prix where Jenson Button made the perfect debut for the Brawn GP team by using a medium-medium-super soft tyre strategy to win the first race of the season run to Formula One’s exciting new regulations.

Button took his race win leading team-mate Rubens Barrichello and Panasonic Toyota Racing driver Jarno Trulli across the line, however Trulli was later penalised for passing whilst behind the safety car, and fourth across the line Lewis Hamilton (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) was awarded third. Barrichello used the same strategy as Button, whilst Hamilton started on the super soft tyre and twice changed to the medium. The latest specification cars and Bridgestone’s slick tyres meant an exciting and challenging 58 laps in Albert Park with the different performance of Bridgestone’s two compounds one of the talking points of the event.

Q&A with Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development
How was the first race of 2009 from Bridgestone’s perspective?
“Firstly, congratulations to Jenson Button and the Brawn GP team for winning and Rubens Barrichello for coming second in an exceptionally exciting race. Congratulations too, to the FIA for the new regulations and the teams for developing such exciting and quick new cars. This was a significant race as it shows that the changes for 2009 have made a big difference for Formula One. Bridgestone’s slick tyres and our new allocation philosophy gave competitors a lot to think about and some managed better than others. Tyre strategy was crucial to making up places, and the key to getting a good result here was having a good setup with the super soft tyre as the performance of this tyre dropped off very quickly. The medium tyre was very robust and allowed good strategy and setup options for teams.”

What did you think of the different tyre strategies used?
“This was the first race for teams with our new tyres so there were many different approaches over the weekend. From Saturday’s data we knew that the super soft tyre was around 1.2 seconds faster than the medium over its first flying lap so those who started on the super soft had a good advantage at the beginning. However, those who used the super soft for their last stint benefitted from the improved track surface due to rubber laid during the race. We predicted that the super soft tyre would be around 5-6 seconds slower if it was used from the start of the race until half distance, which is why we did not see many long stints on this tyre.”

It was difficult beginning of the 2009 campaign for the Scuderia Ferrari at Melbourne today. Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen were both forced to retire the race and thus Ferrari travels to Malaysia without any points at all.

Felipe Massa, DNF:
“We knew the Brawn GP cars would be unbeatable today, but all the same, we thought we could have a good race. The start was great, but after five or six laps, we ran into trouble with the soft tyres, to such an extent that we had to pit early. We then switched to a very aggressive strategy, which with hindsight turned out to be the wrong one, as shortly after the pit stop, the safety car came out on track.

“I found myself third, but after the restart, I had less than ten laps to try and make up ground on those who were behind me, but with more fuel. At the second stop, we filled it for the finish, but then I was very slow and finally, I had the problem which forced me to retire.

“In my opinion, apart from the Brawns, we are competitive, but we have to work perfectly to get to the front. Here, it is very difficult to get the tyres to work, partly because the track surface does not provide much grip. The solution for Malaysia? Work and work hard.”

Kimi Raikkonen, DNF:
“When I ended up in the wall it was my mistake. A shame as, given what happened later, I could have finished second. We lost valuable points but we will try and make up for it starting right away in Malaysia. There, we will get a clearer picture of the situation because this circuit is not very indicative of performance. The KERS worked well at the start, but there was not much room to go anywhere. If we did not think it gave an advantage, we would not use it. Definitely the main problem was in managing the tyres, but we also need to improve our overall performance.”

Stefano Domenicali:
“This was definitely not a start worthy of Ferrari, from any point of view. We were lacking on the reliability front, with two cars forced to retire. Our performance was not up to the potential we had expected after our winter testing: we struggled to manage the tyres. Furthermore, our strategy choices did not work out, especially in the case of Felipe. To sum up, it was a day to forget from the result point of view, but to remember well so as to try and analyse everything we failed in, in order to improve immediately.

“From that point of view, it’s good we have a race coming up immediately next week in Malaysia. It will give us the opportunity to react as long as we draw the right conclusions, calmly but also decisively. Australia does not seem to have been a happy hunting ground for us these last few years: the circuit is a bit untypical where it could be that the pecking order is not so clear. It will be more evident in Sepang, but we are well aware that, apart from one team that was untouchable today, there are numerous other strong competitors.”

Luca Baldisserri:
“We opted to start on the softer tyres, a gamble that did not pay off today, because, given the huge degradation suffered by both drivers, we had to bring the first stops forward. We then went on two different strategies: with Felipe, in hindsight, we went the wrong way, especially as the safety car period did not help. Apart from this, we must admit that today, our performance was not up to that of many of our rivals. We must work out why and react quickly, starting in Malaysia.”

Bridgestone’s super soft tyre provided Jenson Button with the grip he needed to get pole position for the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne as the Brawn GP team made its grand prix qualifying debut in perfect fashion.

Button took pole with a lap of 1min 26.202secs in hot weather at Albert Park, edging out team-mate Rubens Barrichello by just over three hundredths of a second. Track conditions were improved from Friday, with more rubber down, but teams and drivers still struggled to find the best compromises with the exciting new cars and Bridgestone’s slick tyres.

Q&A with Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development

What was significant about today’s running?
“Today was very significant for Formula One as Brawn GP have achieved pole position with Jenson Button in their first grand prix, so congratulations to them. The past two days have been very difficult for teams and drivers as they are learning about their new cars and our new tyres on the variable track surface of Albert Park. We have seen many different tyre wear characteristics, even from the same cars, which highlights the many different setups being tried. The performance life of the super soft was improved today, however it was mainly used with low fuel so we would expect better performance in any case. The medium continues to look like a strong race tyre.”

How difficult will strategy be with the new allocation philosophy?
“Tyre strategy should be very difficult and this is the desired outcome. We have heard drivers say that the super soft is too soft for here and the medium is too hard, and that is by design. In conjunction with the desires of the FIA to enhance overtaking opportunities, we are not bringing optimum tyres here in terms of their performance, instead we are bringing tyres which make the teams and drivers think hard before they use them. When to use the medium or the super soft tyres in the race is not the only consideration, as the setup of the car has to be a compromise in the race to allow it to work with both tyres. It will be a lot of work for the engineers and drivers, but should provide a lot of entertainment for the spectators and viewers.”

all times unofficial

* denotes driver penalised five places for gearbox change; ** denotes driver with times deleted for technical infringement

Weightings:
1. Jenson Button 664.5kg
2. Rubens Barrichello 666.5kg
3. Sebastien Vettel 657kg
4. Robert Kubica 650kg
5. Nico Rosberg 657kg
6. Felipe Massa 654kg
7. Kimi Raikkonen 655.5kg
8. Mark Webber 662kg
9. Nick Heidfeld 691.5kg
10. Fernando Alonso 680.7kg
11. Kazuki Nakajima 680.5kg 
12. Heikki Kovalainen 690.6kg
13. Sebastien Buemi 675.5kg
14. Nelson Piquet 694.1kg
15. Giancarlo Fisichella 689kg
16. Adrian Sutil 684.5kg
17. Sebastien Bourdais 662.5kg
18. Lewis Hamilton 655kg
19. Jarno Trulli 660kg
20. Timo Glock 670kg

Full results, sector times, speed trap  here