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Could someone explain what's going on here? I know very little about Formula 1, but this popped in my 'all' feed and I'm curious to know the context.
In F1 (and F2), you have to leave a car's width length to another car as long as it's sufficiently alongside you (half way or fully depending on whether inside or outside of a corner). Basically you can't force another car off the track.
Today were feature races for F2 and F1 in the Netherlands.
The top pic is from F2, where the driver on the inside (Martins) left just enough space for the driver on the outside (Bearman) when both cars were side by side. You can see the bit of Bea's car on the right.
Bea crashed and Mar got a 10s penalty for "impeding", which isn't even a thing in a race - you can impede in a qualification session or in the pitlane, but in a race the usual penalty is for either "forcing driver off the track" or "causing a collision" and usually is 5 seconds.
Bottom pic is from the F1 race. Camera is on Verstappen's car, who is a Dutch driver and thus a home hero. Here he also left just about a car length to the driver Gasly, in almost the same spot. Gas backed out, otherwise he would've crashed just like Bea.
It's a bit more nuanced, but by the same logic he should've got the same 10s penalty for impeding. Also this driver is fairly known for his "the other driver has to back off or we crash" moves and never gets any penalty for it.
Btw another driver in F1 got a black and white flag (last warning) for a similar move today.
So it's a bit weird. But note the "home team" part is a joke, I don't really think the sporting stewards were thinking that.
Also this driver is fairly known for his “the other driver has to back off or we crash” moves and never gets any penalty for it.
Then all other drivers should drive exactly the same way and then contest a penalty like Aston Martin did when a jack touched a car and AMR seemed to have all necessary evidence at hand at light speed.
To be faaaaair, Max knows how to do those moves just on the edge. Not sure if the others could pull it off.
Rather than other people drive so dangerously, I'd like to see more Hamiltons that don't back out of such situations anymore. Unstoppable force, meet unmovable object. And if they do crash, oh well, that makes for an interesting race and maybe eventually Max would get the message.
But as long as everyone else just drives in circles for points because they don't have a winning car anyway, and thus don't race anyone in a better car and just let the top dog(s) do whatever they want, it is what it is.
I was confused as well. If you're not rubbin', you're not racing.
I explained in a comment above.