The "What have we done to deserve this race?" GP of Dhabu Abi

[John]

Bottom post of the previous page:

Verstappen is really starting to get on my nerves.

[erwin greven]

And that is good.

[John]

And that is good.

Yeah, I agree. F1 needs villains. If everyone was a likeable chap like Ricciardo it'd be a bit boring. The show need divas.

[erwin greven]

Exactly. The Kyle Busch types! The Darrell Waltrip's...

[John]

Exactly. The Kyle Busch types! The Darrell Waltrip's...

The Schumacher. The Senna. The Biaggi/Rossi/Marquez.

All depending on which camp you're in.

[Cheeveer]

I see that Max has now himself confirmed he bashed wheels with Ocon in Abu Dhabi deliberately, as a form of payback for Brazil.

He has also confirmed that he will not do the 2 days community service if the duty he has to perform in any way is demeaning or takes the piss. I think Max needs to realise it is a punishment and he will be given something to do as decided by the FIA that will make him think twice before he starts pushing other competitors around in the future.

The rumours seem to suggest it will be as a minor track official at a minor race meeting somewhere, on a flag post or something similar. Perhaps running out on track to sweep other drivers debris up.

I would make him serve lunch and coffees at an FIA meeting in their offices. Making coffee for Todt and crew. Or a talk at one of the FIA road car initiatives.... maybe talking about the evils of road rage. Bring him down a peg or ten before he gets out of control with his antics.

He should do a seminar on the dangers of road-rage and drinking and driving. Like one of those tedious awareness videos. If he calls that "demeaning", he should'nt be let back in.

[PTRACER]

I see that Max has now himself confirmed he bashed wheels with Ocon in Abu Dhabi deliberately, as a form of payback for Brazil.

He has also confirmed that he will not do the 2 days community service if the duty he has to perform in any way is demeaning or takes the piss. I think Max needs to realise it is a punishment and he will be given something to do as decided by the FIA that will make him think twice before he starts pushing other competitors around in the future.

The rumours seem to suggest it will be as a minor track official at a minor race meeting somewhere, on a flag post or something similar. Perhaps running out on track to sweep other drivers debris up.

I would make him serve lunch and coffees at an FIA meeting in their offices. Making coffee for Todt and crew. Or a talk at one of the FIA road car initiatives.... maybe talking about the evils of road rage. Bring him down a peg or ten before he gets out of control with his antics.

I agree that Max should take a stand! The punishments are totally ridiculous, the FIA is treating them like children.

[Everso Biggyballies]

I must admit it is not a new problem, getting stuck into officials and drivers. As has been mentioned before look at James Hunt, Nelson Piquet, Senna and more, always happy to vent their frustrations and who IIRC did not end up in front of the beak for their sins.

But those were different times. Now the whole world is a bit too PC.

[PTRACER]

Piquet is one driver I was thinking of after Brazil (where Max shoved Ocon in the paddock, and the FIA put him over their knee and spanked him good and proper) - were there any repurcussions to Piquet fighting with Salazar?

[Everso Biggyballies]

Piquet is one driver I was thinking of after Brazil (where Max shoved Ocon in the paddock, and the FIA put him over their knee and spanked him good and proper) - were there any repurcussions to Piquet fighting with Salazar?

No, not that I can remember, but I think perhaps that year the authorities had bigger things to deal with.... Gilles had just died not long before, and Pironi had his horror smash in qualy at Hockenheim the day before. Pironi was in a pretty bad way injury wise although I believe he was never on death's door. And of course Tambay went on to win for Ferrari so there was a certain amount of feel good going on, not in a celebratory way, but something turning out well for Ferrari in what was a horror period. I think the fight scene was sort of swept under the carpet.

Of course back in those days there was no internet and no social media for issues such as that to become the huge controversies that they do now. Then it was on TV but we barely got replays of incidents.... and then we had to wait until Thursday to read about it in Autosport. Now with all the social media anything such as that just instantly explodes out of proportion.

There were remarkable similarities with the Piquet Salazar and Verstappen Ocon incidents.... Piquet leading and Salazar a lap behind crashing into him.

[White six]

Piquet is one driver I was thinking of after Brazil (where Max shoved Ocon in the paddock, and the FIA put him over their knee and spanked him good and proper) - were there any repurcussions to Piquet fighting with Salazar?

No, not that I can remember, but I think perhaps that year the authorities had bigger things to deal with.... Gilles had just died not long before, and Pironi had his horror smash in qualy at Hockenheim the day before. Pironi was in a pretty bad way injury wise although I believe he was never on death's door. And of course Tambay went on to win for Ferrari so there was a certain amount of feel good going on, not in a celebratory way, but something turning out well for Ferrari in what was a horror period. I think the fight scene was sort of swept under the carpet.

Of course back in those days there was no internet and no social media for issues such as that to become the huge controversies that they do now. Then it was on TV but we barely got replays of incidents.... and then we had to wait until Thursday to read about it in Autosport. Now with all the social media anything such as that just instantly explodes out of proportion.

There were remarkable similarities with the Piquet Salazar and Verstappen Ocon incidents.... Piquet leading and Salazar a lap behind crashing into him.

I reckon you could debate V/O for a lot longer than P/S. The latter was simple, Salazar did everything right, even checking where his (former) friend was, and then just missed his breaking point
Everyone thought what followed was great fun, would have been a shame to involve the stewards Probably the most famous single moment in F1 history ironically, at least to the casual viewer. James Hunt sounded like he would have gone further in the retribution than Piquet. Even Murray was a bit irate. The prevailing mood was that Salazar should be strung up so it's no surprise Nelson got away with it

A more serious point is that Nelson was the first witness to the state of Pironi's legs the day before