Jacques Villeneuve compared the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix to a rental kart race, Bernie Ecclestone in turn called it a “Amateur race”. The ‘old guard’ of the Circus rolls his eyes in front of a thrilling Sunday during which we even witnessed the negotiation between the Race Direction and the Red Bull wall to define the starting position of Max Verstappen on the occasion of the third and last stationary departure. “The problem with F1 today is that the rules change with every race. In a grand prix you can go beyond the white line and in the one after you can’t – he has declared Bernie Ecclestone interviewed by The Gazzetta dello Sport – the Circus is no longer what it once was. There weren’t so many rules then. When the light went out, we ran. Now the drivers are remotely guided from the pit wall or even from the team headquarters, they learn from others what they have to do. They shouldn’t get all this information, they should guide them. “
It has now become a habit to have to wait for a verdict from the Race Commissioners at the end of Qualifying or the Grand Prix. The Jeddah race was no exception, as both Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton have been called up by the Stewards to offer their version of the facts of a very controversial episode which led to contact between the two. “Hamilton came on me”, the words of Verstappen, “He braked me in front”, the response of the seven-time world champion who immediately over the radio underlined the ‘brake-test’ by the Red Bull driver against him.
The Commissioners punished the 1997 class with a ten-second penalty (plus two points on the License) as he exerted a pressure of 69 bar on the brake pedal and decelerated by 2.4 G. Verstappen wanted to let Hamilton slip out to use the DRS to his advantage on the next straight, but the Mercedes driver did not fall into the ‘trap’ set by his rival. According to Ecclestone, however, in this case Verstappen should not be sanctioned: “He was unfairly penalized. Max simply did what you could imagine him doing to get himself out. Lewis did not move, it seemed to me that he did not want to overtake. What the hell else was Max supposed to do?“. Words that coincide with those of Damon Hill, even the world champion in 1996 with Williams said of “Don’t see what Max did wrong” in that situation that led to damage to the front wing of Mercedes # 44 and damage to the diffuser of Red Bull # 33.
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