did he or didn't he?

[monaco]

that's the question everybody will be asking after michael schumacher's car got (deliberately?) stranded on track, causing the other cars to slow down and potentially missing the opportunity at pole.

although the guilty verdict is already out on michael, where he's stripped of his pole and move to the back of the grid, we can't help but wonder what actually happened in this controversial event.

personally, i think the whole thing needs to be taken into consideration carefully. the racing stewards are definitely in a tight position, because whichever decision was made towards the incident, it is bound to get further dramatic. there was a lot of negative pressure from everyone else other than ferrari, in which they believe the action was disgracefully deliberate. however, i feel they jumped into their 'crucifiction' mode too quickly, and have swayed the final decision.

without proper investigation, many people have passed judgement and publicly commented on their conviction to the media. you got the likes of jackie stewart, alonso, flavio, montoya and kimi commenting on the event as though they were in michael's head. i don't agree with actions like that, because what can you expect them to say? however, regardless of how obvious the situation looked, it just wasn't their call.

ultimately, their influence was critical and i believe that's how the final judgement came about. the racing stewards have no choice than to punish michael schumacher. they actually eliminated the 'benefit of the doubt' of driver error! if i remember correctly, years ago ralf schumacher in a williams actually made an error at the exact spot, and had to use his reverse gear to move out of the corner.

it didn't help michael that his career has been marred with tons of controversial incidents. planetf1 took the liberty to dig them out for all to refresh their memories. it is unfortunate that the past ghosts are set to haunt him for the rest of his careers. it is also unfortunate that everybody is practically waiting for him to make a wrong move just so they can use the old ghosts to pound on him.

whether it was a legitimate error by michael or not doesn't really matter. he should have known they are going to come after him anyways.

what to say about the race tomorrow? the judgment basically killed the championship fight, at least for this race. no doubt alonso will win again. with the mclaren taking at least one of the podiums. fisichella looked strong, so i'll have him taking the last spot on the podium.



previous posts:
spain: renault in great shape
nurburgring: ferrari back in the hunt
nurburgring: nurburgring a real test
imola: renault lost imola
melbourne: renault completes hat-trick
melbourne: jenson grabs pole down under
sepang: sepang revealed more problems
sepang: engine changes dominate qualifying
bahrain: thrilling bahrain
bahrain: an exciting start to 2006


[tagged: ferrari, monaco, michael schumacher, formula 1]