In my view, the current penalty guidelines have given rise to the era of "lidicrously robust defence", in that the driver being overtaken doesn't appear to concern himself that a car might be alongside because it is so unlikely that the required degree of overlap could be achieved that it makes it unlikely that anyone would attempt a pass!
When I started this lark, I don't think that we had the penalty guidelines, just the etiquet rules, and it seemed to work just fine.
I think the Penalty Guidelines were introduced for Season 15. My web site backups, in which have amendments to the Penalty Guidelines, only go back to Season 18 but the mod report for the
S15 66F1 race at Zandvoort describes the incident between you and Evil as a “Blatant Rear End Shunt – 2 places lost” which is the terminology used in the Penalty Guidelines. So it looks like we have been using the guidelines successfully for 25 of the 40 seasons. So the era of "ludicrously robust defence" has been going on for quite a while.
Rather than say the rules encourage a robust defence, I would say the rules place the onus on the following driver to make a clean pass.
Also, I think that fine tuning of percentages are meaningless for the drivers in question, they just give the moderators a yardstick.
Agreed, the purpose of the guidelines
is to give the moderators a yardstick so we have consistency. However, the drivers need to be cognisant of the guidance otherwise they will not understand why they have been penalised.
To me a substancial overlap would start when the overtaking driver can get his front wheels level with the rear wheels of the car in front AT TURN-IN. And here may I say that if I had Yannick breathing down my neck and dodging out for a pass I would assume that his "alien braking patch" would have taken him well alongside. I would take a wide line.
Judging from the overhead view
here, having the front wheels aligned with the rear wheels would equate to a 25% overlap. So are we in agreement about everything except the degree of overlap?
It is necessary to come down like a ton of bricks on those drivers who just stick their nose in the gap, waiting for the guy in front to turn in and trip over it. The car on the outside invariably incurs the wrath of the GPL Crash Engine.
Agreed
In my view, racing exclusively in 55mod, it's only safe to attempt a pass when the other bloke is already on the grass!
Agreed, drivers need to be extra careful with the 55mod. But you've confused me a bit here because now you seem to be suggesting that the onus should be on the following driver to make a clean pass rather than on the lead driver to yield.
I’m not against changing the guidelines but I think we need to be careful not to base any changes on this one incident. If we consider a situation where 2 drivers are approaching the Parabolica at Monza or Tarzan at Zandvoort. It is reasonable for the lead driver to expect, and be prepared for, an attempted pass; in which case if he doesn’t leave room he can expect to be penalised. However, is it reasonable for the lead driver to always bear responsibility for leaving room even in corners which are not considered natural passing opportunities?
At the end of the day the guidelines are just that, guidelines. So 25% or 50% overlap is a bit arbitrary. It is up to the moderator to take into account any mitigating circumstances, which I think has been done in this case. After all in real-life F1 there are numerous occasions where the stewards take no action even though the commentators consider a driver to be at fault. Hamilton on the outside of Alonso at Spa for example. Interestingly a similar incident between Perez and Russell was only avoided because Russell backed out (whereas Alonso didn’t).
In this case I think the ruling is correct given that the move was speculative and on a part of the track where overtaking is rare and that Pete was trying to race Doni.
If I understand the debate correctly, are we only talking about amending the % overlap in the Ambitious Overtake guidelines or is there something more fundamental to consider? Don't forget there are plenty of other Penalty Guidelines that put the onus on drivers not moving over e.g. in
Side by Side Contact. So the % overlap is not the be all and end all.