2008 Round 12 European Grand Prix

The Circuit

I didn't like the Valencia Street circuit. It has a million twisty sections, but it is all surrounded by concrete barriers so the over-all effect is more than a bit "gerbil mazey".

The result of the twistyness means that the cars get strung out really quickly, and you end up with lots of shots of cars which are apparently running on their own. This is an accurate reflection of what was going on on-track, as there was depressingly little actual racing going.

Formula Ferrari

So what happened is that Massa's car was released from his pit and ended up a third of a car-length overlapped with a Force India car. The pit stop being only wide enough to accomodate a single Formula 1 car, Massa was obliged to back off and then follow Sutil out on track.

The regulations would interpret this as a dangerous release from the pit, however the stewards declined to deal with the infraction during the race, and shortly after the race they announced that since there was "no competitive advantage gained, the team would be fined 10,000 euros. And that would be it.

Of course this won't be it as far as the press is concerned. The stewards clearly decided to ignore the letter, never mind the spirit, of the regulations. Lack of a gained competitive advantage has never been an acceptable excuse in the past.

Even for me, a Ferrari fan, this was clearly a case where there is some kind of bias. I'd like to see the Ferrari team win, but I don't want them to win like this.

Oh well, I suppose that reading about this is still better than reading about Lewis Fucking Hamilton or Max Fucking Mosley.