Opinion: F1 is Moving into a Dangerous Area with Racing Etiquette

A highly exciting Italian Grand Prix saw Charles Leclerc take a brilliant win in front of the Tifosi, giving Ferrari their first win at Monza since 2010.

His drive was phenomenal but there were a few questionable manouveres which he was lucky to get away with in my opinion.

Sebastian Vettel’s spin meant Mercedes could attack Leclerc from all angles. He was vulnerable to both the undercut and overcut from both Mercedes drivers.

Mercedes opted to pit Hamilton to try and undercut Leclerc, leaving Bottas out for another 10 laps. Ferrari responded to Hamilton and the undercut did bring Hamilton closer to Leclerc.

The key moment was when Hamilton got a good run coming out of the first chicane and Leclerc had to defend the inside going into turn four. Leclerc moved back over towards the racing line though and forced Hamilton off the track.

For people calling it ‘good, hard racing’, how is it racing when you can now get away with a warning for pushing your rival off the track.

It’s something that Aytron Senna and Michael Schumacher started and something that has been brought back to the sport by Max Verstappen and copied by many drivers.

Just as I said after Austria, I believe Verstappen got away with a penalty and I think Leclerc did here too. I don’t want to see drivers moving under the braking zone, and definitely not into the path of another car which is exactly what Leclerc did.

Imagine if you have two drivers going side by side into Copse at Silverstone and the driver defending decides to ease the driver on the outside of him off the track at over 160MPH+. Does that only warrant a warning now from the stewards.

Where is the line drawn? It seems you can do anything in the braking zone now. I have always been a fan of leaving at least a car’s width either side of you.

Great racing is if two or more drivers go wheel to wheel through a series of corners or are cutting back on each other, not escorting your opponent off the track.

Is every young driver, racing in single seaters now allowed to move in the braking zone and into the path of another driver? It seems that way, at least that’s what F1 is saying by only giving a warning.

The precedent has been set and until a big accident happens, you can now do this. In fact, the defending driver can get away with almost anything nowadays which is not right.

Michael Masi (race director) said if contact has been made then the stewards would have likely given Leclerc a penalty. But, I should not need contact to be made for a driver to be penalised. If a driver has to go off the track or swerve out of the way to avoid an accident (which is what Hamilton had to do) it should not be viewed differently to if there had been contact.

It does not end there for Leclerc. He went on to cut the first chicane without another warning or a penalty, despite Sergio Sette Camara receiving a penalty in the Formula 2 Feature Race for cutting the first chicane, and he then blocked Hamilton very aggressively going through the Curve Grande.

Again, I don’t think it is fair to react to the attacking driver’s move when going in a straight line. We have seen if before with Verstappen at Spa in 2016, Kevin Magnussen in 2018 at Suzuka or even this year with Daniel Ricciardo against Bottas in Canada.

One day, a Mark Webber Valencia 2010-esque accident is going to happen due to this or something worse. The FIA need to do something know.

All this comes after a warning was given which only bewilders me even more as to how Leclerc got away with it. Ferrari + Monza = very lenient stewarding perhaps. That’s up to you to decide.

Racing etiquette has been one of F1’s strong points, especially compared to other motorsport series. But now, that has changed.

The backlash the stewards got after Canada has prompted them to almost be scared of making a decision which might hurt the emotional side or a decision that the casual F1 fan won’t understand.

But, in hindsight the stewards decision in Canada on Vettel is justifiable but they don’t won’t to receive that backlash again because most people won’t understand the decision.

I don’t want to see what Leclerc did on Sunday with his late blocking and moving under braking, not because I don’t want to see good racing but because cars are going to end up in the fence and the drivers could get hurt.

Hamilton says he will drive differently because of this decision but I would much rather see the Hamilton we have seen since 2017 which has been clean, hard but fair on the race track. It’s one of the reasons I’m a fan of the way Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso drive because they keep things fair.

If you ever wondered why Alonso famously said “you have to leave the space” well now you know why.