Anthony Davidson and Martin Brundle, Sky Sports F1 commentators, commented on the 5s penalty given to Lewis Hamilton for speeding at the Formula 1 Hungarian GP this Sunday (26).
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The Ferrari driver received his second penalty in two days of the event – and his fourth in the last three race weekends. The reason was for accelerating 0.1km/h faster than the 80km/h pit lane speed limit.
As a result, after finishing fourth, he dropped to fifth at the Hungaroring, and for Davidson, the penalty was unnecessary. “I’ve looked at this so many times and I can’t understand why he got a penalty. To me, he slows down properly. We have that sign on the left that sets the 80 km/h limit. I don’t see speeding there,” he said.
“Let’s look at the exit. Obviously, he knew he was under time pressure to get out in that battle with Antonelli. Again, to me, it looks like he releases the pit lane button right on the line. He knows what he’s doing when it comes to white lines and the right moment to press the button. Maybe it was just a mistake, being too close to the line, at the actual speed of the car, and they ended up being penalized for it. Who knows,” he continued.
“It’s strange that it only happened on that occasion. I don’t have enough data here and can only go by the sound of when he presses the button. To me, everything seemed perfectly correct on both entry and exit,” he concluded.
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Martin Brundle, also a Sky Sports F1 commentator, stated that the penalty was “severe,” but acknowledged that the rules need to be clear and objective. “It’s like being a quarter of a kilo under the minimum weight. You might feel hard done by, but in that respect, a rule is a rule. What concerns me is the Monaco case, where many drivers exceeded the limit by 0.1 km/h and, of course, there was all that confusion after the race,” he said.
“They adjust their pit lane speed limiters throughout the weekend; they aim for 59 and a bit more, if the limit is 60 km/h, or 79 and a bit more. They make a very fine adjustment. We see many penalties on Fridays, fines of a few hundred euros, for exceeding the pit lane speed limit,” he continued.
“But this is seen as a competitive advantage; and, seeing how small the margins are, as in Antonelli’s case, for example, if someone thinks ‘0.1 km/h is okay, then 0.3 km/h is also okay,’ suddenly you end up gaining an advantage. Therefore, there must be a defined limit. Whether it’s related to car width, car weight, or pit lane speed. It’s painful and severe, but those are the rules, provided he was actually at that speed, which was not the case in Monaco,” he concluded.
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