It's as much the precedent it sets as the punishment or lack thereof. In being a relatively minor punishment, you risk teams just working it into their calculations like they do engine penalties.
The answer to that is because the FIA has become weak. They're too scared of the big 3 to deliver an actual beat down to any of them. The result is the undermining of the sport's integrity. F1's always been about pushing the limits of the rules, but this is the first time I can think of when a team has been caught cheating and kept a championship. Benetton were never 'proven' to have used traction control in 1994, Mclaren won nothing in 2007, Ferrari won nothing in 2019.
I'm just upset that the fine ISN'T factored into the cost cap! I mean, if you're putting in taxes, catering, shipping, energy & rent.. Why not fines? That would make it an ACTUAL punishment, as if they don't drastically underspend the next year.. They'll be pushed from a minor overspend into a major overspend and risk losing the driver AND manufacturer championships!
Even at that all engines had a form of traction control built in that was technically permitted. The technical rules prohibited measurement of what gear you were in which was the basis of traction control systems however if a driver were to stamp on the throttle the rev limiters couldn't prevent all the power being sent that quickly causing engine detonation. Teams were allowed to take an atmospheric pressure measurement (Mexico and Imola very different circuits) and adjust fuel rates for the altitude. Benetton worked out that at 1bar of pressure in the air box and 12000 rpm you were probably in first gear, at 1.1bar and 12000rpm you were likely in another gear. All a driver had to do was Clarkson the throttle and the ECU would limit fuel to prevent the engine going boom. Benetton used engine protection coupled with cleaver measurements to work out what gear the car was in and form the basis of a "legal" traction control system.
Lottery winning odds and all that, but hey... history books won't care about such details, so congrats to the lucky winner of the weather and traffic lottery. Hopefully the weather delivers a few more surprises over the rest of the weekend.
Max Verstappen, all the entitlement and selfishness of young Vettel and Schumacher, but with none of the charm.
Which is why I really don't like him, I didn't like Vettel with the whole finger thing but a few years down the line I think he's a class act, that's never going to be the case with max as he's just a complete **** and fits in with red bull perfectly.
RBR does have a twattening effect on its drivers... that combined with Jos being a grade-a prick in his own right and trying to live vicariously through Max I don't think Verstappen would change even if he left RBR. I do sometimes wonder what Sprogmacher would've been like had Michael not cabbaged himself and had been more active behind the scenes, like Jos is with Max. Would he have been less... meh... and/or would he have been another grade-a ****trumpet...
I doubt it would have made that much of a difference to Mick's attitude, people always said how nice and personable Michael was away from the track. I don't recall that being said much about Jos.
I get the impression he has a very fragile ego. That everything he does is to prove he's "the" man. I wouldn't be surprised if he cried himself to sleep each night if Daddy Jos clocked him .2 of a second slower getting changed into By all accounts Jos has been said to have a temper on him.
