Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Harte
It may be just me, but I come from the old school where we obeyed the rules or suffered the consequences. For example, strict driving standards were expected and adhered to, centainly by the vast majority. For example, drivers were exected to have good spacial awareness, and know where their competitors were and respect their space. This meant that drivers didn't dive down the inside of another car to overtake in the expectation that the other driver would be bullied off line. The rule was quite clear cut - if the following car had his front wheels ahead of the rear wheels of the car in front, then the corner was his and the front car gave him the racing line. If not, the following car backed off.
Likewise, there was no blocking allowed, nor "swerving" across the track by the car in front. These behaviours, as was the corner etiquette, were all part of the driving standards that we had to adhere to, and if we didn't, we wouldn't get a warning, we would have just got a black flag and been disqualified on the spot. So, we followed the rules, and in the years that I raced, I cannot recall any drivers in my races, saloons, being black-flagged for breaching driving standards.
As our races were far from processional, it is blindingly obvious that draconian penalty for fairly minor infringements do not mean that the sporting element was diminished. In fact, we respected each other as competitors and would scrap for position adding to the sporting vista for the spectators, and off track we supported each other when the need arose. My first overall win only came about because of the assistance of one of my main competitors, whose crew helped us, out in an open paddock in the poring rain, to remove my gearbox and replace the flywheel bolts that had sheared in qualifying. They also supplied the replacement bolts.
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As a race official I would have no problem with setting good driving standards, obeying rules, etc. However I ensure that as an official I do not act in an abusive or authoritarian manner with drivers. I am firm on what I expect but fair and often spend time being proactive to ensure rising problems are nipped in the bud before they happen.
Consequently I have few problems with competitors familiar with my adjudication or management. My meetings run smoothly with few problems and they get quickly and quietly sorted out.
What I see in F1 at the moment are penalties and a management system out of sync with the offences and that appals me. F1 should have the highest standards of management and officiating but what we have is officiating that is out of balance in the judiciary.
Having watched hardly anything in the last two seasons I was looking forward to the new power units and hopefully some interesting events, but its nothing like that at all and it irks me.
Its totally unnecessary.
You can still follow the rules and principles in a conducive way and still provide some discipline and penalties without this harsh or abusive nonsense.
It doesn't need to be this way.