"Mongo" situation in Portugal may have negative effect on Red Bull protest
On Thursday, ahead of the Hungaroring race weekend in Hungary, Red Bull Racing will protest against the penalty Lewis Hamilton received for the tap he gave the Dutchman at Silverstone. But will an incident involving Verstappen earlier this year throw a spanner in the works?
Mongo
The German Motorsport-total.com thinks that a situation that the Red Bull driver was involved in at Portimao may well have a retrospective negative impact in terms of the protest. "In the second free practice session for the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix, Verstappen was involved in a collision with Lance Stroll that has parallels with the crash at Silverstone. In Portimao, Verstappen was not the outside driver, but the inside driver. In other words, in the position, Hamilton was in at Silverstone."
The German medium continued, "Verstappen had little understanding at the time for the behaviour of Stroll, who moved to the inside, just as he did at Silverstone. On the pit radio, he raved: 'Is this guy blind? What the hell is wrong with him? Jesus! (LAUGHS) What an idiot. My car's damaged. What a mongo, I swear.'"
Does protest make sense?
It is therefore thought at the German colleagues that the protest will achieve little for Red Bull Racing: "Given the precedent of Portimao, it would be incomprehensible to many observers that Red Bull's protest is accepted on Thursday and that Hamilton might be punished even more severely. Because even though it was a free practice and a race at Silverstone: The circumstances of the accident are very similar."
The fact that horner said in portimao that if it had been a race it would have been a penalty against stroll as max was on the inside, should have been put to horner the last two weeks. Thats despite the fact verstappen never got close to being alongside on the straight leading into the corner - while Hamilton did at Silverstone. Amazed so many fans and idiot trolls like lh44superstar can't just put aside the blinkers and ask themselves how they'd have reacted if Silverstone happened the other way around. That camera angle of verstappen starting to turn in, stopping when he sees Hamilton, then turning in anyway, would have been used by all verstappen fans as clear evidence Hamilton was at fault. Both drivers had the opportunity to avoid the crash, both rolled the dice as toddy said here. If both had crashed out - which could easily have been the outcome - I feel certain the stewards would call it a racing incident but despite supposedly not being influenced by the outcome they have given Hamilton a penalty. I don't agree with that but they made their call and you can sort of understand the desire to offset the heavy penalty one driver got from their decision not to back out. If verstappen had somehow knocked Hamilton into a spin and sent him out while staying on track himself, I guess they'd have pinged him for turning in and causing the collision..
But do the Germans know the difference between FP and a race? And hitting the Apex or not?
This hype over an everday racing incident begs one to question what ulterior motives are driving this hype. Race stewards made a call to penalize Hamilton, which obviously was political, the one deserving the penalty had already penalized himself. There, judgement made, move on. Any deviations of decisions made at Silverstone would seriously compromise the integrity and competitive spirit of F1. Max can shake it off and repeat the same on the next race against Lewis and see if he can get away with it. RBR are looking for a red carpet to F1 victory for Max and that will seriously compromise the Japanese "monodzukuri" and what part of this does Honda want to be in? RBR have alot to lose and risking the FIA as well as F1 image, at what cost? They just need to be smarter in dealing with these issues.
Face the facts: Race stewards made a call to penalize Hamilton, and Hamilton didn't object ?
They just can't get over the narrowed gap n the exaggerated 1.8 mill cost blow. Somehow they get stuck to the should'ves n could'ves.... not what it is. Always 5alking abt races they could've won... whatever they cook up in their garage to pump themselves, somehow should be in reality... so bitter n complainers abt everything that doesn't fit their dreams...
Is Red Bull being of the opinion , Max & RB16B is the best meld for the 2021 Championship ? Why worry ?
Is there any racing league that you know of that says in the rules you must hit the apex on any given corner? Especially when you are the car driving on the outside while there is a car on your inside.
