I Wrote This Article On My Formula One Blog. I Hope You Take It Into Consideration.

I wrote this article on my Formula One Blog. I hope you take it into consideration.

We know who won.

YOur day will come, Charles.

Daghe, Charles.

Avante

This isn't the F1 we love

History in the making, Unfair Rulings, and Big Disappointments

Formula One is a sport that many define as the closest thing to riding a rocket into outer space because of the downforce generated inside the 800 kg car, which is more than the weight of the vehicle itself.

Every time the drivers get behind the wheel, they defy gravity, which is very much compared to being inside a Space Shuttle.

This week, Falcon Heavy carried an extraordinary payload, a rocket full of satellites and between them, a Solar Sail, known as LightSail 2, the size of a loaf of bread which is the first spacecraft for the Scientific Community with nothing, not one engine, but the energy of the sun to propel it and promote space exploration.

Then, NASA on July 27th announced that we are going back to Saturn’s biggest Moon, Titan, to send a helicopter drone named “Dragonfly,” to uncover the fundamental blocks that gave way life to our planet.

That race is no easy feat.

The last time NASA accomplished this was during the Cassini-Huygens Mission, and until this day it remains the farthest aircraft to ever land in the outer Solar System.

Just like Cassini and Huygens, Formula One has a lot of things in common;

A lot of preparation and teams of two, but sometimes not both make it till the end.

This week we saw the youngest podium ever to win in Formula One history at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Amidst back grid positions, penalties for impending drivers and a theatrical ending, and why yes— even a fake document from a pesky fan, because you have to have it all in Formula One, FIA could not taken long to call on their investigation for this year’s winner.

Twitter

FIA on Twitter

“#F1 - Austrian Grand Prix - Documents 49 & 50”

Max Verstappen wheeled banged himself into Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on lap 69 which cost the Monégasque his first win. The Dutchman had earlier overtaken on Bottas from Mercedes right after saying his hybrid engine was losing power and as if a miracle, recovered.

The Finnish and teammate to Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes was having overheating issues, but kept the pace with the 21-year-old, said “made the most out of it. It was a bit more difficult than we expected, especially with the overheating of the engine, so couldn’t race properly – had to manage all those temperatures. That’s why defending was difficult and also attacking. But, yeah, got some good points. It was one of those weekends, but it’s not bad.” he added.

The FIA Regulations clearly state:

Article 27.4. : "At no time may a car be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically, or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to another driver or any other person.”

It almost seems as if they were quick enough to deliver a penalty against Sebastian Vettel who had nowhere to go when Lewis Hamilton kicked him out of track in Canada, and it showed. “I had nowhere to go,” Vettel said, as he broadcasted by Sky Sports. “Seriously, I had nowhere to go.”

Sebastian Vettel, superpositioned the FINISH order of the signs once he caught up to the two drivers, Leclerc, and Hamilton in Canada.

Yes, stewards, you can fool yourselves but not a man behind the wheel!

The rules stand clear on this one.

And although this year's rules were changed to allow overtaking to increase by 50%, it caused Vettel the race by 5 seconds which subsequently won Hamilton First Place. That same discrepancy and too much power in the stewards allowed the Monégasque to lose the track not because he could not win it but because of incompetence from the governing body.

A dramatic end indeed which translates it to another week in Formula One, even if Verstappen was able to break the 1-2 Mercedes partnership, FIA, you had one job, just one, and you messed it up.

What does that mean for the greatest single seat racing sport in the world? It means that even if Honda Racing waited nearly 13 years, for their big break by Verstappen, and Congratulations— for it must feel excellent that you got something handed to you unfairly well, the real winners here are the Fédération.

It means there is a big problem going on with Formula One.

Their penalty process or lack thereof has become a substantiated mess.

FIA forwent their own rulebook when it comes to the violations that are followed but happily look away when it pleases their stewards.

No wonder why Fans have taken it upon themselves into forging fake documents. They no longer have the ability to trust them or the credibility they used to have in this organization, and can you blame them?

Twitter

Will Buxton on Twitter

“This is a FAKE document. The race provisional classification was document 45. No decision yet folks.”

The whole system is wrong. Do they know how it works? It is their system after all, but it is broken, and it needs a complete overhaul.

Two hundred three thousand attendees today turned up in Spielberg to celebrate legend, Niki Lauda, where they saw a Turn named after him. Were he still with us today would he be proud?

This is a massive sport, with millions of fans visiting the circuits and audiences tuning in tandem online and through cable TV, cheering for their favorite teams, from Ferrari to McLaren, Red Bull, and Mercedes to name a few of the top favorites.

There are currently 20 male drivers in the series.

It isn't an easy feat to get licensed for Formula One; many think that the name helps, that it may be a ticket to get into Ferrari Driver Academy, but that is not true. You have to have talent.

And this year's alumni prove it; it isn't like any other group of drivers in the history of the Federation.

Without a shadow of a doubt, they are the youngest group Formula One has ever put behind the wheel and inside a helmet.

We saw Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, and Lando Norris set some impressive records in Austria this week.

Ferrari driver, Charles Leclerc, 21, winning pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday, while Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton 5 time World Champion, was given a three-place grid penalty which forced start him in the fifth position on the grid for impending Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen.

He went as far as saying “We’ve been chipping away at it, but right from the get-go we noticed a bit of a deficit to the Ferraris,” Hamilton said.

“We thought it would be a bit closer than it was, but they eked out some more time in P3 and then going into qualifying.”

“We definitely underestimated how fast they would be, I would say, and I think ultimately on the straights.”

“They really kill us on the straights.” because the Monégasque was leaving him in the dust by a quarter of a second.

Raikkonen gave a middle finger salute at the five-time world champion as Lewis overtook him. About the incident. "He blocked me, simple as that," Raikkonen said.

It is known that Hamilton can get tricky on those laps and get off the hook with penalties, FIA notwithstanding has looked the other way and handed them to other drivers like Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari's teammate to Charles Leclerc, who after the Canadian Grand Prix was given a five-second penalty, which ultimately cost him the race to Lewis Hamilton.

During the Austrian Grand Prix, his luck had not changed.

The air pressure line to the engine was acting up, and the mechanics had to shield his car from view while Leclerc had to leave him behind to go on the circuit. Vettel had to stay on the vehicle for as long as he could.

“The car was obviously broken so we couldn’t fire it up and go,” he said.

“We fairly quickly made the decision to change, but it’s not so easy to take the bodywork off... “We done everything we could be we couldn't get it done in time," he continued.

“There's nothing you can do inside the car. It's nobodies fault, but we need to understand what happened and make sure it doesn't happen again...

“At that time it's nobodies fault, I knew most likely that if we fixed it, there would be one run, so I tried to focus solely on that.

"As much of a pain it is, it's good to see that the other car came through and got pole.

"I'm happy for the team, obviously not happy for my side. We'll have a good day and a good race tomorrow."

Following Vettel’s comments Mattia Binotto, Ferrari F1 team boss said "It is an engine problem, "We had miscombustion on one cylinder, but it's yet to be understood.” which indicates they will be taking Vettel’s engine back to Maranello, Italy ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix.

This is Charles Leclerc's second career pole position after qualifying in Bahrain GP back in March but missed out due to a cylinder malfunction where he allowed Mercedes a 1-2 win, to Hamilton-Bottas overtaking in his last ten laps.

The Monégasque, who was repeatedly proving his driving credentials with speed, in Spielberg, started his driving career, karting at a very young age.

This time, however, was a different story, qualifying to leave the Mercedes in the dust by a margin, with Max Verstappen from Red Bull right behind him following his karting days from 2012.

Twitter

Alan Dove on Twitter

“One for .@wbuxtonofficial First podium shared by Max and Charles since this race I believe”

This time It seems almost as if "Chal Lelerc," as he joked on Twitter earlier in the day to the Formula1 page when they jokingly @mentioned his name "Lelerc" on a Tweet, was testing a rocket, because he broke the circuits record by 1.03.003 mins, broken the year prior by Alfa Romeo's Kimi Räikkönnen by 1:06.957 mins.

"The car felt amazing actually," said Leclerc during the FIA conference. "In FP1 I struggled a little bit, but then we did some changes, and from FP2 it was quite good and a big pleasure to drive this car on the limit. It just felt great, and I'm very happy to bring the pole position back home - but tomorrow we need to finish the job."

Not in vain, he calls this his favorite circuit since in 2017 he won his first cup while he raced for Prema Racing in F2. It's safe to assume that after this loss and the stewards unfairly ruling he will continue to push to get that #1 Championship Title he deserves.

No offense to the winner, Max Verstappen but that ruling was uncalled and the stewards got it wrong.

FIA did give an opening for Ferrari to appeal but Mattia Binotto, Ferrari's Team Boss rejected to appeal "to support the sport."

"What's Ferrari's opinion and position - we still believe this is a wrong decision, that's our own opinion, we believe that Charles left the entire space, he had no fault, a collision has happened and he has been pushed and forced off the track," Binotto continued,

"We believe these are clear rules, which we may appreciate or not, and these are exactly the same rules which have been applied in past races.

"Having said that, we respect fully the decision of the stewards, they are the judge and we need to recognize that, and more than that I think that as a Ferrari fan - and I'm an ultimate Ferrari fan - I think it's time for F1 to turn the page and to look ahead.

"As we often said, we should leave the drivers free to battle, so we may not be happy of the decision, we are not supporting the decision, but somehow we understand the fact that we need to move forward, and overall I think that's good for the sport and good for F1."

Binotto may be looking to move forward from this one, but the fans won’t, and if by 2021, FIA has not devolved from how their rulebook has immiserated fans worldwide, then, RIP Formula One.

Verstappen won the race by 2.724 seconds.

Congratulations on your big “win.”

Photo credits:

Reuters, Getty, and AFP