Formula 1 Jam

FIA have in their website, made available the full verdict and the evidence against Lewis Hamilton and McLaren. The important points of press release include:

During the hearing, held approximately one hour after the end of the race, the Stewards and the Race Director questioned Lewis Hamilton and his Team Manager David Ryan specifically about whether there had been an instruction given to Hamilton to allow Trulli to overtake. Both the driver and the Team Manager stated that no such instruction had been given. The Race Director specifically asked Hamilton whether he had consciously allowed Trulli to overtake. Hamilton insisted that he had not done so.

The Stewards, having learned about the radio exchanges and the Media interview, felt strongly that they had been misled by the driver and his Team Manager which led to Jarno Trulli being unfairly penalised and Lewis Hamilton gaining third place.

The audio clip of the conversation between Lewis and his chief engineer was also released to the press. The parts of the conversation under the microscope were:

Lewis Hamilton: The Toyota went off in a line at the second corner, …, is this OK?

Team: Understood, Lewis. We’ll confirm and get back to you.

LH: He was off the track. He went wide.

Team: Lewis, you need to allow the Toyota through. Allow the Toyota through now.

LH: OK.

LH: He’s slowed right down in front of me.

Team: OK, Lewis. Stay ahead for the time being. Stay ahead. We will get back to you. We are talking to Charlie.

LH: I let him past already.

Team: OK, Lewis. That’s fine. That’s fine. Hold position. Hold position.

You can find the press release here

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Lewis Hamilton has been disqualified from the 2009 Australian Grand Prix after being found guilty of providing misleading evidence to the race stewards. Jarno Trulli’s penalty was also revoked after the race stewards examined new evidence, believed to be radio communication between the drivers and the teams.

The statement from the race stewards according to an autosport article reads:

The Stewards having considered the new elements presented to them from the 2009 Australian Formula One Grand Prix, consider that driver No 1 Lewis Hamilton and the competitor Vodafone McLaren Mercedes acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the Stewards at the hearing on Sunday 29th March 2009, a breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code.

Under Article 158 of the International Sporting Code the driver No 1 Lewis Hamilton and the competitor Vodafone McLaren Mercedes are excluded from the race classification for the 2009 Australian Grand Prix and the classification is amended accordingly.

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Autosport is reporting that FIA is set to re investigate the events that happened that led to Trulli passing Hamilton under the safety car. Stewards from the Australian Grand Prix will reconvene to evaluate further evidence not available at the time of the original inquiry – which took place after the race.

Hamilton had apparently indicated to them that Trulli had passed him when he was checking the dash of his steering but later told reporters that he was instructed to let Trulli past via the radio.

If found guilty, Hamilton could be punished severely. The decision will be announced tomorrow.

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Autosport is reporting that Trulli has been penalized for overtaking under a safety car.

This means that Lewis Hamilton will now be promoted to 3rd and Trulli thanks to the 25 second penalty will be out of the points.

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The FIA have started to backtrack over their decision to make changes to the points system for the 2009 Formula One season. The new rules have received a lot of criticism from drivers and teams alike.

The Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) gave the FIA a statement explaining that changes as large as these could not be implemented without unanimous support of all the teams involved.

The FIA have responded with the following statement:

On 17 March, the FIA World Motor Sport Council unanimously rejected FOTA’s proposed amendment to the points system for the Formula One Drivers’ Championship. The ‘winner takes all’ proposal made by the commercial rights holder (who had been told that the teams were in favour) was then approved.

If, for any reason, the Formula One teams do not now agree with the new system, its implementation will be deferred until 2010.

So looks like the point system is going to remain the same as last year.

Personally I was looking forward to the change in the rules to spice up the racing a bit more. It now looks like we will have to wait and watch what will happen in 2010.

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Formula One racing’s governing body, the FIA, has approved the change prioritizing race wins over points for the Driver World Championship. According to the new rule the World Drivers Champion for 2009 (and later) will the be the driver with the maximum number of race wins. In case of a tie, the champion will be decided by the point system.

The FOTA proposal for the 12-9-7-5-4-3-2-1 point system was vetoed by the FIA at the motorsport council meeting earlier in the week. The medal system suggested by Bernie Eccelstone was very similar to the final decided system albeit without the medals.

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With less than two weeks remaining to the start of 2009 season of Formula One, it seems like a good time to start talking F1 again. F1Jam.com is back after an hiatus to report, discuss and argue all that is Formula One.

As sweeping changes are introduced to the cars, rules and teams… looks like the only thing remaining as it was, are the fans. In the next two weeks, F1Jam will give you all the details you need to know before the start of the 09 season.

Let the madness… begin!

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