The Fastlane Motorsports Forum

Bottom post of the previous page:

The Mexicans also have a guy:

Paul Tracy?

kals wrote: ↑4 years agoPaul Tracy?

Yeah PT back in 2003

I always thought PT was Canadian, now I find out he’s actually Mexican

Following the protest of Renault by Racing Point, Daniel Ricciardo has been disqualified from the results of the Japanese GP

https://www.fia.com/news/decisions-prot ... grand-prix

kals wrote: ↑4 years ago Following the protest of Renault by Racing Point, Daniel Ricciardo has been disqualified from the results of the Japanese GP

https://www.fia.com/news/decisions-prot ... grand-prix

Protesting what is arguably the most 2019 F1 thing ever. I'm more intrigued as to how RP found out about it.

Edit: Ah, it says in the verdict. Renault are buffoons for displaying the cars breaking the rules on the dash of the wheel.

Edit 2: And someone in Renault snitching. Snitches get stitches!

John wrote: ↑4 years ago

kals wrote: ↑4 years ago Following the protest of Renault by Racing Point, Daniel Ricciardo has been disqualified from the results of the Japanese GP

https://www.fia.com/news/decisions-prot ... grand-prix

Protesting what is arguably the most 2019 F1 thing ever. I'm more intrigued as to how RP found out about it.

Edit: Ah, it says in the verdict. Renault are buffoons for displaying the cars breaking the rules on the dash of the wheel.

Edit 2: And someone in Renault snitching. Snitches get stitches!

Also, I was confused as to why only Ricciardo was DSQ when the original protest was against Renault. I didn't scroll down the FIA page to see Hulks DSQ was treated as a separate protest. Seems weird to separate them both out.

This video is of Ricciardo from pre-season testing. Watch the % figure in the top left of the steering wheel screen, it changes throughout the lap without driver input. If you pause the video at 1:45 you can clearly see it says "Brake Balance".



So two questions...

1) Why did Racing Point wait until Japan to protest?
2) Why have Renault only been DSQ from Japan?

kals wrote: ↑4 years ago 1) Why did Racing Point wait until Japan to protest?
2) Why have Renault only been DSQ from Japan?

1) There was some discussion on WTF1 about them being tipped off by a disgruntled employee within Renault. So I guess Racing Point didn't pay it any attention until it was pointed out around the Japan timing. Either that or someone was able to personally verify the system was in use during parc ferme or the gridwalk during the Japan GP weekend.
2) Has Renault outscored RP prior to Japan? Either way, they likely could not prove the system was in use prior to the Japanese GP (see point 1).

So I wonder who the disgruntled Renault employee is? Hmmmmm....

Auto, Motor und Sport ran a story that Racing Point was aware of this thing since August. A former Renault employee who worked on Hulkenberg's car tipped them off after joining Racing Point. I can only assume they needed time to stack up evidence or else they'd have protested the Monza results already. Let's face it, if you file a 12-page protest you have to know something in advance. It wasn't a case of "we think something stinks so please FIA take a look". They asked a question but they knew the answer already. The evidence was clearly strong enough that FIA couldn't reject it.

It appears that Racing Point developed their own of the system, presented it to the FIA for approval and were told it was against the regulations. That’s when they protested Renault.

kals wrote: ↑4 years ago It appears that Racing Point developed their own of the system, presented it to the FIA for approval and were told it was against the regulations. That’s when they protested Renault.

If true, this explains motivation and timing. Thanks!

kals wrote: ↑4 years ago This video is of Ricciardo from pre-season testing. Watch the % figure in the top left of the steering wheel screen, it changes throughout the lap without driver input. If you pause the video at 1:45 you can clearly see it says "Brake Balance".



So two questions...

1) Why did Racing Point wait until Japan to protest?
2) Why have Renault only been DSQ from Japan?

It's entirely plausible that some cars have the brake balance switch behind the steering wheel rather than at the front, and it's probably a matter of what the FIA can actually prove. Plus I'm guessing those results (up until Japan) wasn't a part of the protest and thus the FIA couldn't make a ruling about it.

And now Grosjean has come out to say that he was using the system when the team was Lotus back in 2015.