It’s the morning after the night before and I’m pleased I gave myself a sleep to reminisce over those crazy final laps at the Mexican Grand Prix.
To be honest, it’s a very good job they happened otherwise coming up with any conclusions from those first 65 laps would have been near impossible.
As it is, Sebastian Vettel (predominantly), Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo gave me a nice juicy topic to address, their own hypocrisy over driving standards.
In the last 12 years or so any kind of robust defence of a position in Formula One has been met with an outcry from a driver who feels he has been hard done by.
As a result, every time two cars goes wheel-to-wheel, a sort of forensic analysis is now carried out to determine whether the car in front has done everything by the increasing book to ensure the car behind had a reasonable chance of making an overtake.
Did he move twice down the straight? Did he leave enough space for a car alongside? Oh, surely he didn’t move late and in the braking zone?!
Usually, one of these three criteria, and probably more, have been tested in some way and any driver stuck behind, unless your Sergio Perez (sorry Checo), gets some kind of assistance from the stewards to move in front.
Of course, in these days of DRS, most overtakes are indefensible and completed well before any possibility that two cars may actually get close together, but in Mexico, the thin air meant there was not as much gained in a straight line, therefore, moves had to be completed under braking. A weird concept I’m sure you all agree.
That meant the rules regarding defensive driving were put to the test and it couldn’t have been three better drivers to do so.
Verstappen, who has been at the centre of the debate ever since Hungary for his approach to maintaining position, wait for the driver behind to make his move and respond accordingly.
Vettel, who has been one of the biggest critics of any Red Bull driver to have gone wheel-to-wheel with him, whether it be Daniil Kvyat in China and Sochi or Verstappen at Spa, but mostly he’s been angry with the Dutchman.
And Ricciardo who, well, hasn’t actually done anything wrong but when it comes to offensive driving he’s not afraid to send one up the inside.
The story is, if you don’t know, Verstappen defended a move from Vettel into Turn 1 but misjudged his braking and ran across the grass thus keeping his position.
With no word from the stewards until just before the end that they would even investigate the incident, Verstappen held up Vettel a little bit allowing Ricciardo to catch up.
An angry German then strongly blocked the Australian’s attempt to pass him into Turn 4 a lap later, but in doing so moved while in the braking zone violating a newly introduced rule that he and other drivers had been calling for in response to Verstappen’s earlier mentioned approach to defensive driving.
The Dutchman was given a five-second penalty almost immediately after the race for his action at Turn 1, promoting Vettel to the podium and relegating Max to fifth. However, Vettel was later given a 10-second penalty for his moves on Ricciardo meaning the Red Bull man inherited third, Verstappen fourth and pushed the Ferrari driver back down to fifth.
Now, during the season I have tried to be consistent in my opinion over Verstappen. I felt his move on Kimi Raikkonen on the Kemmel Straight at Spa was too much at those speeds but have seen his actions under braking as firm but fair.
After all, if he makes his allowed move after the driver behind is alongside, the only driver going to be punted out the race or given a puncture is him.
However, I have also defended Verstappen because I know that given the situation, Vettel, Hamilton, Ricciardo and many others would likely do the same thing.
It’s their nature and if they have become so soft in their approach to hard racing that they wouldn’t then really they have nothing on the likes of Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna and other greats who had a killer instinct when shutting off their rivals on track.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8bQEpc5hpA
So sure the ‘senior’ drivers might blabber on to the media about how ‘what Verstappen was doing is wrong’ and how ‘action needed to be taken’ but it just slapped me as hypocrisy and that’s exactly what it proved to be with Vettel in Mexico.
And yes, there is a major problem with his foul-mouthed tirade towards Race Director Charlie Whiting too. He may argue it was ‘spur of the moment’ but when a player in football berates the officials he gets a yellow card if not worse.
So while Vettel’s punishment may have seemed harsh, it was totally justifiable but what about Verstappen’s?
Rewatching the footage, Vettel had already backed out of any attempt at an overtake when the teenager locks his wheel under braking so his position was no longer under threat. So in retrospect, the penalty for Max seems more as a consequence of pressure from Ferrari than the actual crime.
In the midst of it all, no-one remembers who won or finished second because they were largely absent, and they may remain that way if the Red Bull vs. Ferrari rivalry continues to intensify with two races left to go.
