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Consistency

FEATURE BY GLEN CROMPTON
28/07/2009

Before I type a single word of this article, I want to make a couple of things absolutely clear.

I regard the loss of Henry Surtees' life as a dreadful tragedy and in no way wish to politicise this loss. In fact I would like to take this opportunity to offer my condolences to Henry's loved ones. And as for Felipe Massa, my stomach turned as I regarded footage of his incident during qualifying at the Hungarian GP. I extend my best wishes to Felipe and his loved one and sincerely hope that his recovery goes well.

I have stated the above because I cannot write what I am about to without referring to both incidents and I do not want idiotic hate mail suggesting that I am diminishing the seriousness of either incident

So Renault has been banned from the next Formula One Grand Prix event because it did not correctly bolt Fernando's front-right wheel on during his first pit stop at the Hungaroring. That is the decision of the stewards at that event.

I have to admit that I am miffed. I do not think I am alone in regarding such a penalty as draconian and perhaps without precedent. In my decades of watching F1, I cannot recall a team ever having been excluded from a subsequent event as a result of an improperly fitted wheel which later parted company with its car, and I have certainly seen plenty of them part company with cars for this reason.

In the worst case I can remember, Michele Alboreto's Minardi shed a wheel in the Pitlane during that dreadful weekend at Imola in 1994 and when that wheel finished its upward journey, it descended back into the pitlane and injured a Ferrari mechanic. There was no race suspension for that one.

But back to the present day. In a nutshell, I am nothing short of astonished that Renault, as a team, has been excluded from the next GP. Why? Because Renault, according to the steward's report, has been adjudged guilty of a crime that MIGHT have caused a catastrophe.

In its own right and taken in context of the recent loss of Henry Surtees' life followed by Felipe Massa's horrendous injuries at Hungary, I find it difficult to begrudge anyone their instinctive reactions to what that wheel leaving Fernando's car might have caused. But the fact is that it did not cause anything other than Fernando's retirement. And I would hope that FIA appointed stewards are not emotively reactive.

However vile it may seem, I am compelled to point out at this juncture that Henry Surtees did not lose his life because a wheel was improperly fitted to a car. The wheel that struck Henry was the result of another car striking a barrier in its own crash which resulted in a wheel detaching from the crashed car and bouncing back onto the track. This accident absolutely proved that a stray wheel is potentially lethal. What it may also have proved is that FIA regulations concerning the tethering of wheels to the chassis of open wheeler race cars are still lacking.

That which exacerbates my fury at the Steward's decision to exclude Renault from the 2009 European Grand Prix is that on Saturday the 28th of July, Felipe Massa was struck and seriously injured by a component jettisoned by Rubens Barrichello's Brawn. There is no uncertainty about this. A coil spring from Rubens' car struck and seriously injured Massa. I have just finished reading Doctor Iain Corness' article on Pitpass in which he confirms my fears that Felipe may never return to the cockpit of an F1 car or any other race car for that matter.

And yet I find no indication that the Brawn team are to be excluded from the next Grand Prix.

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