The Good and Bad of Penalties

The F1 of this year has been so spectacular, thrilling from the day one, bound with its very own nature of controversy. As for the viewers watching on and off the television sets: bewildering; sometimes can’t help thinking ourselves as couldn’t carve for more. With the close racing comes responsibilities, with that comes the laws. The FIA stewards have a hectic time through the weekend to stop drivers breaching the code of conduct.

Owing to that, penalties fall in aplenty but unmercifully a few times. There have been repeat offenders getting scrutinised in the passing. It is clear that FIA’s crackdowns are to dissuade drivers from making dangerous maneuvers and to improve safety. It has got to a brimming stance when Grosjean was banned for Monza after triggering a first corner pile-up at Spa eventually ending races of Hamilton, Alonso and Perez.

The on-board view from Alonso’s car showed how frightening it had been which almost decapitated the championship leader. Thankfully no one got hurt in the carnage that had taken me breathless for a moment. Some felt the ban was harsh and the stewards were too strict at it, but in truth, Grosjean had been involved in several crashes since the season’s start and excuses wouldn’t help him this time around.

As from what he said, it can be understood that, he only cared about making up places. When Jacques Villeneuve once argued that modern Grand Prix drivers have little or no respect at all among each other, I completely disagreed with him but now with the likes of transgressors such as Grosjean and Maldonado I couldn’t agree more. The affable Frenchmen Grosjean has loads of talent under his sleeves and proven to be a worthy competitor in his second coming to the sport.

After all, these drivers get graduated from GP2 where wheel-banging is often the case on more evenly matched cars. They are under tremendous pressure regardless of which team they are at and to stick with the race seat for future is even a big fight of its own. These young drivers have got to rethink about their perspectives of safety in mind.

These drivers go frantic in circumstances where they do really need to perform well which has its own effects. Despite saluting their spirit for racing, they must keep the outcomes under control. If it goes on and on, the rule makers have no choice but to put more restrictions upon drivers which might withhold the spectacle as a whole I’m afraid. There have also been several racing incidents turning against the rulebook which is bit of a shame.