Motorsport

He nearly took Verstappen out on Sunday.

I agree they've made a rod for their own backs but there are ways out.  First and foremost they have to decide what the action will be if there is reckless driving that results in contact between the Championship protagonists.  Then communicate clearly to everyone what the situation is so we all know the score.

Without FIA intervention I'd say we can be 99% certain that Max will choose doing all he can to encourage contact over letting Hamilton overtake him or finish just ahead of him.  Even if Lewis manages to get a full car length ahead we know Max just won't brake.  Hamilton's only hope for a clean race is to qualify in front, and hope Valtteri can act as a blocker to prevent Max spearing him into T1 or getting within range (which frankly could be 4 car lengths back) for a stupid lunge.

No in race penalty is sufficient for Max taking Hamilton out as even a DQ would still mean he's Champion.  This is where I agree there's a massive problem.

The right thing to do would be to call them both in on Thursday night and directly address the elephant in the room.  i.e. that the circumstances are unique at a title decider.  Cite Schumacher '97 as a justification and explain that if any Red Bull or Mercedes driver is considered wholly to blame for recklessly or intentionally causing a collision with either driver from the other team, they'll be DQ'd from the WDC & also lose their points towards the WCC.  Then remind them that you can't force another driver off the track whether you're attacking or defending.  Do that and you have to give the position back immediately and remain behind for until you pass the start line twice or get a penalty.  Brief the media that this is the situation so everyone is totally clear, then by all means 'let them race'.

If the situation is that whoever causes contact automatically loses all their points in both Championships, I think we'd immediately have a much cleaner fight.  Horner and Marko would have no choice but to ask Max to cool it because a DQ would mean they'd drop to fifth and lose out on $30m prize money.  

Unfortunately what'll almost certainly happen is the FIA will carry on giving ambiguous briefings to the press and drivers and hope for the best.  Then make it up as they go along when an incident happens.  Everyone goes home angry, entire sport in disrepute and another * title goes into the record books.

For me time penalties don't make any sense any more. Should be position drops that can accumulate and last into the next race if not used. 5 sec becomes a one place drop, 10 sec two places and so on, applied at the end of the race

Just get Nigel back as the full-time chief steward:
the-race.com/formula-1/why-alonso-needs-mansell-to-help-his-f1-rules-campaign/

He's wise to cheating via track limit violations and has the planet-sized ego required to make decisions, own them, and call out the straw man arguments from the teams and drivers for what they are.

Obviously, I'm being tongue in cheek but I do feel like the stewarding is lacking someone with the implicit authority derived from top-level success and someone who isn't remotely afraid to dress down the drivers and teams then front up to the media afterwards. Liuzzi was the driver steward on Sunday, hardly comparable force of character there. Massi doesn't have the authority and handles the media terribly.

Nigel isn't the right man because he absolutely does bear a grudge, and some fans are already vexed about imagined 'British bias' that's hardly worth stoking. Need a former driver like Nigel who was similarly tough but fair, has implicit seniority, and won't give a toss about making unpopular decisions, but also isn't British and has no complicated history...

Mika Hakkinen.

Just on this point Kimi had a 30s penalty applied after the race in Imola for a safety car procedure infringement (in lieu of a 10s stop go), and a further 20s penalty in Austria for last lap contact with Vettel (in lieu of a drive through).  Mazepin and Latifi also got 30s applied post race for failing to respect double waved yellows in Austria.

The precedent for post race time penalties is there, especially for incidents near the end of the race but it's the fact they decided 10s rather than a drive through equivalent that seems most suspect to me.  There's no legitimate reason for Max to suddenly apply the brakes that harshly when he's clearly checked his mirrors several times and knows Hamilton is somewhere immediately behind him. 

The intention is somewhat irrelevant anyway, he definitely did apply significant brake force, the telemetry shows this, and it's just ridiculously dangerous driving which at any other time would be somewhere between a stop go and a DQ.  It's taboo and one of the cardinal sins of racing for very good reason - if you can't trust the car ahead not to erratically brake on you can't race with them. 

The stewards could still have given Max the benefit of the doubt and said "we don't think you were trying to make Lewis crash into you, but unfortunately you did brake dangerously" so it's +30s because that's how dangerous it could have been.  Genuinely ridiculous that they effectively let it slide to level up the Championship.

It was similar to his Baku incident with Vettel in so far as there was an element of cat and mouse to it. However the key difference is on that occasion the telemetry showed that the car in front hadn't erratically braked.

Yes - from the official press release:

"In deciding to penalise the driver of Car 33, the key point for the Stewards was that the driver of car 33 then braked suddenly (69 bar) and significantly, resulting in 2.4g deceleration."

Nice to see Mercedes have seen sense and fucked off the Kingspan sponsorship.

I loved how the Daily Mail couldn't help but try and associate said sponsorship with Lewis Hamilton rather than his team at every possible opportunity over the weekend. I really do wonder what the reason for that was...

Most blameless I guess you mean.

Yes right result in the end and whoever does Mercedes PR crisis management has earned their cash. Admit fault, meet with victims, say sorry, make changes. Not actually that complicated, but does rely on a modicum of integrity and not immediately going defensive.

Compare and contrast with the UK government.

From what I read, the smoking gun for Kingspan was the inquiry finding emails that showed that the panels in question hadn't passed a required fire safety standard and Kingspan staff knew this and fraudulently used a test pass from a different product. There was also an intimation that they were very casual and jokey about doing this.

Could well have been the classic 'a few bad apples' but Kingspan are still accountable and it is insensitive to have their name proudly plastered on an F1 car.

This is a good move:

Hmm tricky decision, is there a way to get Sky's 4K picture but with with C4's commentary?

Ha.  I really like the whole Sky team except Crofty.  Even Rosberg and Di Resta have somewhat grown on me this year. 

Herbert's pretty bad, but I've got a soft spot for him because of his sheer grit and determination to carve out an F1 career with no real financial backing and two horrifically broken legs.   He also somehow retained a good sense of humour throughout.

A red button 'no crofty' feature will be ideal (in UHD).