The mistakes by Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas and Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll into the first corner of the Hungarian GP led to the retirement of three other drivers and caused damage to a few more. This can have big implications in the budget cap era and Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has now suggested a novel way of dealing with this as quoted by Autosport
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0:00 - Teams Causing Crashes Should Pay For Damage Says Binotto
1:17 - Fast Feed
I'm your host Dillon Shelley and first up on Formula World:
Teams Causing Crashes Should Pay For Damage Says Binotto
Binotto started off by pointing out how crashes like these can have a huge effect under the budget cap
“I think there is value for discussions in the near future with the other team principals, FIA and F1. Obviously if you're not guilty, having such damage in the budget cap is something which is even more of a consequence now”
One suggestion after the Hungarian GP was to exclude the cost of repairing damage caused by other team’s mistake
Binotto explained why this might not be prudent
“Should we add exemptions? I'm not sure that's the solution. I think it may be very difficult to be policed”
He then signed off by offering an alternative solution
“I think that what we may consider is that if a driver is at fault, the team of the driver should pay at least to the other teams for the damages and repairs. That will make the drivers more responsible”
Fast Feed
Honda's technical director Toyoharu Tanabe looked back at how “they had said they wanted to finish the first half of the season on a high and have a good summer break before going into the second half” [As-Web]
However, “both cars were badly damaged [in Hungary]. Perez crashed out and Verstappen managed to come back under his own power [and despite the repairs, he] still finished 10th”
“For [them] at Honda it was not a happy ending, but [they] have two weeks off, which is a bit longer than normal. [They] will also rest [their] bodies and [their] minds for the second half”
Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner feels that Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas did “a great job for Mercedes in taking out both of our cars” [Racing News 365]
“A significant amount of damage, lost another engine with Sergio and then Max was hugely compromised”
“I have to say the mechanics worked wonders getting that car working again just getting some of the pipes straightened on it was an incredible response. But hugely frustrating obviously”, he added
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton thinks that his duel with Fernando Alonso “was a really great battle” [F1]
“I knew when I was approaching him, I was like, this is going to be the hardest, because he’s very, very tough, I would say probably one of the toughest drivers to overtake”
“It was very much on the limit – slightly over it at some points, but wheel to wheel racing is good, and I’m sure if I watch it back, it will just be close, and we both finished, so that’s how racing should be”, Lewis surmised
Alonso, meanwhile, suggested that “Lewis was making small mistakes in the last two corners – that’s [his] honest opinion” [Sky Sports]
“Because he had so much pace that you cannot take eight laps to pass with that pace advantage”
“And in fact, after changing a few lines, he got past Carlos [Sainz, for P3] immediately one lap later, so it was not difficult to pass in [his] opinion, but he took four or five laps to figure it out”
“In fairness to both Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll, they had incidents in front which forced them into action and they simply couldn’t respond in time”, suggested F1’s managing director Ross Brawn [F1]
He doesn’t “think it was a case of a massive misjudgement. [However], It robbed us of something we were all looking forward to – Mercedes versus Red Bull”
He also pointed out that Haas’ “Mick Schumacher delivered a fantastically feisty but fair drive, with his defence against Max Verstappen in a car that is well down on performance”
Should teams that cause a crash pay for the damage?
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