Sebastian Vettel has been receiving a lot of attention recently… not a whole lot of it positive. For two consecutive race weekends, he has been involved in accidents that warranted the attention of the stewards. Both times he escaped punishment, despite many fans believing that he was to blame. It’s quite easy to see why the stewards let him go.
Drivers that are chasing down the championship title basically have immunity from the rules. I write this article knowing that I am likely stating the obvious to the vast majority of you reading. There have been several comments and posts from fans on social media repeating the same argument.
If we look back just two weeks ago to the first lap crash at the Singapore Grand Prix, we can see the immunity in action. The collision took out four drivers, which should warrant action from the stewards. While some people placed the blame on Max Verstappen or Kimi Räikkönen, most fans and experts blames Vettel for the incident. Yet when the stewards discussed the incident, they ruled that they weren’t able to place the blame on any one driver.
Now at the Malaysian Grand Prix, we saw Vettel and Lance Stroll tangle during the cooldown lap post-race. It didn’t impact the race results in any way, but it did gain the attention of the stewards. While the majority of fans blamed Vettel for the crash, the FIA gave the same ruling as they had in Singapore.
Now, some fans (or rather conspiracy theorists) would claim that Ferrari is paying off the FIA or the stewards to rig the decisions. I’m just going to go the simpler and far more likely route, which is that the stewards simply don’t want to penalize a title contender.
It’s not a new theory, but it’s a very likely one. Given the state of the previous Formula One championships in recent years, many have argued that the seasons have been… less than entertaining. This puts the sport under a tremendous amount of pressure to produce a close championship battle, with the hopes of retaining the fans that seem to be quickly turning away from the sport. With the pressure on the sport, the FIA isn’t likely to effectively end the title battle by handing out a penalty.
Although I do believe that strictly enforcing the regulations is the only fair way to govern the sport, I do like to see the championship battle remain possible. And I understand that it’s unfair for the smaller teams not to get the same treatment, but I do feel that having the stewards look the other way for accidents involving the championship contenders is being done with the best intentions for the sport.
What do you think? Would you rather see the rules enforced fully or see the championship battle stay alive?
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company. Assumptions made in any analysis contained within this article are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the author.
