Hamilton feels ‘persecuted’
“Every time I give these stewards a chance, they give me a penalty“. Thus Lewis Hamilton commented immediately after the Hungarian GP on the five-second penalty he was given for speeding in the pit lane.
The Ferrari driver deactivated the pit limiter too quickly and was penalized for a very minor infraction. This is an objective fact and not a subjective judgment. Hamilton received an ‘automatic’ penalty and it is precisely this aspect that is highlighted by Johnny Herbert. According to Herbert, the seven-time world champion is wrong to be angry with the Stewards, to whom Hamilton has asked for more cooperation.
Herbert served for a long time as a Race Steward before being ‘stopped’ due to a conflict of interest since, in addition to being a Steward, he was – and is – also a commentator.
Herbert’s words
“The relationship between stewards and drivers is usually very good – Herbert said when reached by Casinostugan – the guidelines for drivers are well known. It is a relationship involving the FIA, the stewards, and the drivers, and reflects how drivers want the stewards to assess certain situations from the perspective of those driving. When something happens on track and, for example, a driver exceeds the speed limit, it doesn’t matter if it’s half a kilometer more: it’s a penalty“.
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“You can’t say it was just a bit of bad luck. You can’t, and you mustn’t, give a penalty to a driver you might not like. That’s not how it works. Because the guidelines exist. In the room there are four stewards, who work closely together. You can’t ignore the regulations and the guidelines, because that creates many other issues and annoys the drivers. A driver can’t blame the system. Consistency in applying penalties is fundamental. And it is precisely consistency that teams and drivers always want. And this, in my opinion, is what the stewards do very, very well“.
“The speeding penalty was Hamilton’s mistake, period. You can’t blame anyone else for this. And it is a judgment he completely got wrong. Now, would the Lewis from ten years ago have done something like that? Probably not. Why he completely got that judgment wrong, I don’t know. After all, there are no excuses. It’s not that the stewards have something against Lewis. It doesn’t work like that. He just has to stop making those mistakes that put him in that situation”.
