Which penalty?

[f1manoz]

A talking point of the last few months have been about the penalties used as punishment for drivers happening to break a rule, such as at the Nurburgring for Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard in France, when they were given ten second penalties for various infringements.

However, the futility of these penatlies has caused debate and I'd like to offer a compromise.

Instead of ruining a drivers race by bringing in for a ten second penalty (which in fact is more like 30 seconds considering entering and leaving pit), what about financial penalties that are issued after a race.

I think financial penalties would be just as good. As an example, pit lane speeding would have one of the heaviest fines, say $10,000 maybe. The white line incident in Germany (which I didn't agree with as nearly every driver crossed it) would have a smaller penalty, say $5,000. The financial penalty would also not destroy an exciting race (such as in Germany, although not France) and I think would be a better option.

Your thoughts?

[Wrex]

Where to begin with this one.

Let me put it too you this way, the guy in front is 2 sec (and two points) in front in the last race of the season when he stops. I pit a lap later ang go screeeeeeaaaaaming down the pit lane and make up my 2 sec, take the lead and the championship. Then I gratefully hand over my $10,000 (from the $40,000,000 I earned this year), and accept the fact I can no longer afford that extra Ivory back-scratcher .

3 things would result from this. (1) It would line the pockets on the FIA - like they need it (2) Much higher possiblity of injury or death in the pit lane (3) Something else for the Anti-Michael party to complain about.

A financial penalty would not work unless it was a 7 figure fine, and would be effect different drivers harsher than others, like $10,000 for Michael v's Tarso Marques.

If you have any other ideas I would love to throw a wet blanket over them

Sorry f1manoz, I can't see that working.

[Don K]

Do you mean a driver could make a jump start, and get away with nothing more than a financial penalty?
I wonder how many drivers would care to wait for the lights to turn green ...

[f1manoz]

Geez, that idea was shot down in a hurry

Oh well, back to the drawing board I suppose

But I was thinking along the lines that the drivers would be honest enough not to do what you shot me down with. But maybe the drivers just couldn't be trusted to abide by the rules if their race wasn't destroyed as a consequence.

[Wrex]

Originally posted by Don K
I wonder how many drivers would care to wait for the lights to turn green ...

I wonder how many would even slow down to make the grid

Originally posted by f1manoz
Geez, that idea was shot down in a hurry

Sorry mate - but I agree the penalty system needs review

[Gt_R]

dont you think $10,000 is too little, considering Michael and 2 other drivers are fined $2500 for just using wet weathered tires a couple of minutes before the race officials announce that the track is wet?

Which makes me wonder..why are teams only allowed to use wet tires when the track is announced wet? What if a team chose wet weather tires for a dry qualifying run? Does he get disqualified?

And i guess this shows that FIA do not really pamper Michael as much as some conspiracy theorists believe...

[Speed]

Originally posted by f1manoz
But I was thinking along the lines that the drivers would be honest enough...