In all honesty, some of the rhetoric borders on taking the sport in to disrepute, and while Jean Todt has chosen to play a low key role thus far, if the Maranello outfit continues its sabre rattling action will have to be taken.
As for Alonso, whatever the rights and wrongs of Sunday afternoon, it appears clear that he has a personal problem with Hamilton that is causing him to lose sight of the bigger picture. It is somewhat reminiscent of the situation between Piquet and Mansell, and if Alonso is not careful his obsession will take over, dominating his every thought. While one can understand the Spaniard's nose having been put out of joint in 2007 we are now three years down the line and it is time to move on. However, it appears that Fernando cannot move on, which causes one to wonder whether his contempt for his McLaren rival is merely about issues on the race track.
All in all, this whipping up the fans and the media is not good, and both Ferrari and Alonso have benefited from safety cars and FIA rulings in the past, swings and roundabouts. While we all like a bit of controversy, this current episode is unworthy of all concerned.
However, we're probably wrong - we usually are - so let us know what you think about the various points raised in this Talking Point, be it the Webber crash and safety in general, the deployment of the safety car and Hamilton's penalty or Ferrari and Alonso's reaction.
Let's hear what you think.
Chris Balfe
Editor
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Anna Parker
I totally agree with your assessment. Alonso has a psychological problem with Hamilton due to him being matched and beaten by a rookie in 2007. He has never got over it and it is obvious that it is consuming him. What I find worse is that the Ferrari hierarchy are echoing Alonso's whinges and whipping up hatred and unnecessary conflict. I actually think it could be a serious security issue for Hamilton especially following the bottle being thrown on the track. Alonso, instead of unequivocally condemning this, has instead said he "understood it". I think that alone demands some kind of censure.
Hamilton's infraction was marginal, he served his penalty. What is at fault is the safety car rules, but the stewards have explained they came to a decision as quickly as was possible considering the other issues they were dealing with. And as has been said, Alonso has benefitted from the safety car twice this year, in Monaco and China, and not to mention Singapore 2008 so he has no right to complain!!!!
Alonso needs to move on - Hamilton is rightfully finding all this amusing - he has only expressed his admiration in the past for Alonso but Alonso in turn is a mass of seething hatred, jealousy and resentment when it comes to Hamilton.
Doug Armstrong
The only "fair" way to penalize Hamilton would have been to slot him in front of Alonso twenty laps later. The drive through was a joke. Seeing as Lewis appeared to have 2 versions of what happened in his post race interview leads me to believe he was not telling the whole truth about seeing the Safety Car when he did. (He has been known to have different versions of the same story in the past) There was also talk (in the media) about his "brake check" just before passing the Safety Car. Was this to hold up Alonso? If so it was brilliant and he got away with it. But if it can be proven that it caused Alonso any positions in the race and Lewis went on to pass the Safety Car then he should be DQ from the race results for such an un-sportsman like move. The whole thing was not racing and the FIA needs to adopt a better system of deploying the SC in the future.
Dick Baarse
The reactions from Montezemola and Alonso are pathetic ,this is a sport and as with football sometimes you are a little lucky and sometimes you are little unlucky with the desicion of the referee or stewards.
Gianluca Mattioli
Firstly, it is amazing to see Mark Webber walk away from his crash - really quite remarkable how safe the tubs are these days.
As a Ferrari fan it was a bit of a bitter pill to swallow on Sunday. Ferrari seemed to be the only team who really got knocked by the timing of the safety car, then they also appear to have been the only team with team mates running one after the other and so suffered stacking in the pit lane, making things even harder for Felipe, and then to see a Sauber blitz past in the last few laps due to a better strategy was the final straw.
All credit Sauber and Kamui - a brilliant drive and its good to see one of the more racier drivers showing how its done when possible.
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