FIA Triumphs Again

At the start of the 2010 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix last weekend in the legendary rolling Ardennes hills, the BBC's race commentator noticed that Felipe Massa's Ferrari was about 2-metres in-front of his pit box while he was sitting on the race grid. Following the hugely eventful race, nothing further was thought of or talked about regarding this incident.

However, some amateur footage has been seen on YouTube by fans sitting in the grandstand by the pit straight. Massa was indeed very far out of his box and no action was taken against him. He ended the race in fourth place.

Now the FIA has come out to condemn this and claim their shock that the race directors did not take appropriate action. They now also claim that this is a technical problem with the in-car transponders. A spokeswoman from the FIA told the press today that no action can be taken as the results of the race were already finalised and published. All they will do now is to see how they can prevent it from happening again.

What on earth is the role of the FIA? They are the governing body of all things motor racing. It is their job to: 1) make everyone's lives a bit worse, and crucially, 2) to set up and maintain every single guideline or "sporting code" with consistency and purpose.

I bring your attention to my race report of Spa where I mentioned that Vettel, who crashed into someone - who also happens to be a championship contender, who ended up retiring from the race while the young Vettel simply changed his nose and went back out - was only punished with a drive-through penalty. Michael Schumacher, the most experienced and the world's most successful driver, got a 10-place grid drop for the Belgian Grand Prix following his on-track battle with Barrichello which resulted in no accidents nor did it put anyone in any danger whatsoever.

Only problem I saw was now Rubens was scared out of his pants and spent the rest of the race weekend and the shutdown period whining about it. "A general nice guy" is what people say of him, whatever man. He is bitter as hell for being Ferrari's Number 2 driver. Why didn't he quit if he didn't like it? Anyways, just a brown moment for a whiner. No big deal.

Anyways, the FIA has once again shown how they are not doing their job properly. Especially after the BBC broadcast this to millions and millions of people. F1 footage from the UK is not only used for broadcast inside the UK but BBC is broadcast throughout Europe, and a lot of English speaking countries buy the rights to broadcast the BBC footage which is cheaper than hiring two commentators at each race.

We all saw it... And we all recognise the FIA is not consistent at all. We still enjoy the sport, but we do always keep the hope you will improve on this at some point.








Image source: YouTube