Montoya-- that was BS

[Rogue Leader]

I'm not even a Montoya fan, but what a flaming sack of crap that was to DQ him because he doesnt have a damn sticker on his car. And as david hobbs said I believe to let him run that long with the dangers to the driver/car/team only to take him out of the race anyway, they lost a ton of money. If I were JPM I'd think at this point why the hell did I even show up.

FFIA and FBE and FMM :thumdown:

oh and FTG just for the hell of it....

[j_d]

I understand why stewards believe they need to "go by the book," however, to have allowed that much time to elapse before black-flagging JPM was, in my opinion, unexcusable.

As long as we're talking about a tremendous wait, what about the interminable wait for the medical car for RS's accident? I was apoplectic at that point. However, I did pick up the nice shout out for CCWRS and the speed of its safety teams.

[Rogue Leader]

I understand why stewards believe they need to "go by the book," however, to have allowed that much time to elapse before black-flagging JPM was, in my opinion, unexcusable.

As long as we're talking about a tremendous wait, what about the interminable wait for the medical car for RS's accident? I was apoplectic at that point. However, I did pick up the nice shout out for CCWRS and the speed of its safety teams.

yes I agree that was also ridiculous, espeicaly in a hard hit like that, turn the ambulance around drive backwards down the track, who cares, the safety car is out. Or at least have SOMEONE in the area that can hop the wall.

Williams got the **** end of the stick today on many fronts...

[oddlycalm]

F1 got several black eyes at the USGP. Allowing the racing continue with debris everywhere, the relaxed response to Ralph's crash, and black flagging Montoya after nearly the entire race was run are major failures.

In the case of the accident, Ralph and all concerned are lucky that the car didn't catch fire, or that he wasn't bleeding. Had either happened, the results would have been catastrophic for Ralph. As it was, a good portion of the crowd as well as the television audience was good and uncomfortable by the time the safety team made it to the car.

The accident response and the disqualifications of the Williams cars last week and today point to a triumph of rigid bureaucracy and regulation over common sense and good racing.

oc

[RacinM3]

Williams only has itself to blame. Even my club racer needs a tech sticker on it or I'll be black flagged. The team is responsible for the car they put on track, not the stewards. Again, the team f**ked itself, for the 2nd week in a row.

As far as them letting him go out and run most of the race before black flagging him, so what? Yeah, a lot of money was spent, but a lot of money was spent to get the cars to North America and it would have been a bigger waste to not run at all. At least they were able to get testing data out of the car under race conditions and learn something more about how to make it go faster. I bet if you asked team personnel behind closed doors whether or not they were glad to have run Montoya's car anyway, they'd say 'yes'.

Regardless of what David Hobbes (who I respect quite a bit) has to say.

[ilferrari]

F1 got several black eyes at the USGP. Allowing the racing continue with debris everywhere, the relaxed response to Ralph's crash, and black flagging Montoya after nearly the entire race was run are major failures.

oc

:cool: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

[FTG]

If CART had taken that long to get to Zanardi, he wouldn't be alive today.

[oddlycalm]

As far as them letting him go out and run most of the race before black flagging him, so what?

In the event there was an accident that resulted in serious injuries, or worse, with a car that hadn't been stickered by the tech inspectors and should have not been allowed on the track, the 2nd guessing would last for decades.

You'ere right of course, Montoya and the team would prefer to run the car.

oc

[eiregosod]

It certainly put the pressures that OWRS/CART are under under similar conditions into perspective, I am aware that the OWRS response would be to throw a red flag in such instances as resources to continue under yellow just arent there.

It was sad to see ralf there. with no marshall nor mediacal attention for a long time. Isnt IMS responsible for the marshalling of the event? Certainly not easy to provide such facilities on the front stretch.

The pit-lane was more than accomodating for the cars to run through so the medical team & track cleaners could work without interruption

[eiregosod]

as for Montoya, there are regulations, the sticker was applied 1.5 secs too late.

sucks, but then without strict rules, they're open to be abused........

[Dr. Corkski]

Aw...poor Puffy got caught cheating again. :)

But didn't he get DQed for jumping out of his car less than 15 sec before the lights went out? If Williams and Puffy were really that concerned about safety and $$$, Puffy risked more by jumping out of his car with so little time to spare, and considering the crap BAR got in Monaco (deservedly so I might add), Williams could have certainly pulled him in the second they knew he would have been DQed. But then again expecting those two to know anything in the rulebook would be like expecting TG to know how to build a racing series.

[Railbird]

"I haven't talked to the FIA people," Theissen said. "They will probably say that they were very busy with the incidents that happened on the track...but certainly we would have preferred to know immediately what was going on."

[j_d]

If CART had taken that long to get to Zanardi, he wouldn't be alive today.

I was sitting there thinking the exact same thing.

[Hard Driver]

My understanding was it was not the tech sticker. I though it was that he was still on the grid 15 seconds before the roll off and not strapped into his car. And the rule is that 15 seconds before the roll off the car must not be worked on and the driver can not be running off the grid.

If this is the case, I think the ruling was fair, otherwise the rule should not exist if you will make an exception for any driver or team working on the car less than 15 seconds before the parade lap.

As for how long it took. It does seem like a long time, but if the whole incident was presented to Williams and they wanted to discuss it before the DQ and such, then the process might have taken a while and Williams wanted to keep Juan running in case they could change the ruling. Who knows. So I am not tossing stones about that delay.

Howver, the safety team took forever to get to Ralf. That was not right.

[4wheeldrifter]

In hindsight, it may have made more sense for him to stay in the car, wave his arm, and have an aborted start. I guess they probably would have still sent the rest of the cars off on the recon lap, but then he wouldn't have been DQ'd for bailing 15 seconds before blast off. Then again, if the spare wasn't legal then I guess it wouldn't have mattered.