Mambo Kings
Super Anarchist
Rules are like laws. Most of the work is done by the judges, interpreting the law and establishing precedent.
The FIA did not define "worked on", so the teams and the stewards did. The clear precedence of previous decisions was that touching the car with a hand or a tool constituted a commencement of "working on" the car. It creates a clear definition that Stewards can monitor and teams can adhere to.
Most of us assumed that the rear jack constituted a tool, but in fact that precedent has not been established. In fact, far from it. The precedent showed that teams assume the front jack can touch the car for safety reasons but the rear jack was a grey area.
It would seem to me that the rear jack should not touch the car because it certainly saves time and reduces the 5 second penalty. However AM successfully showed that the rule doesnt say this and nor does precedent because they found video of 7 previous instances when the rear jack touched the car during a 5 second penalty without any additional penalty. (Brilliant testimony by the way!)
Ultimately (like most judges), the Stewards addressed a grey area by finding the decision they wanted to find , and by that time it was clear that bumping FA off the podium for an incident that was reported 51 minutes after it occurred was an unfair and hugely unpopular decision....so they grabbed the well presented lifeline offered by Aston Martin.
And chose to ignore the illegal hand that touched the car before the 5 second penalty was over . Mercedes or Ferrari also wisely decide not to report the hand long after any reasonable protest should have been lodged.
Last edited:
