If I thought Marco had done that intentionally, I'd be calling for him to be banned from the league. In my report, I even stated that his not realizing he was in neutral didn't justify a penalty.
The moderating team are of the same opinion. It is not UKGPL policy to penalise drivers for making mistakes, drivers are only penalised for making bad decisions that compromise other drivers. In this case the shunt was precipitated by a genuine mistake, a missed gear, not a decision to attempt a move that was infeasible.
His unsafe rejoin (very slowly and straight into the middle of the track, forcing Bastian's evasive manoeuvre and their contact) was worth penalizing, in my view (but not the moderator's). I really don't get how they thought that was Bastian's fault.
This is a difficult one. The UKGPL rules (see
here) state:
It is the responsibility of any driver who is returning to the track to make sure they do not interfere with other drivers.- Rejoining drivers should stay off the racing line and give way to faster cars until they are fully up to speed. Rejoining drivers should not attempt to keep anyone behind them until they are fully up to speed. Any driver who rejoins a race and, owing to negligence, causes another car to crash or take severe avoiding action, will be penalised
The racing line is on the outside exactly where Marco was obliged to rejoin the track. He couldn't be expected to get back up to speed on the grass. The exit of the corner and where Marco rejoined the track are practically the same and are both effectively a standing start so it is not as if Marco was rejoining the circuit where the other cars were already flat out.
Did Marco's rejoin directly affect Bastian? Not in the opinion of the moderating team, Bastian did not have to swerve or take avoiding action. Admittedly Marco could have stayed left, perhaps worthy of praise if he had, but not worthy of a penalty if he didn't. However Bastian had more momentum and took the opportunity to try to pass Marco. Having made the pass Bastian cut back in too early, he should have waited until he saw Marco's car in his mirrors before he moved over.
So the penalty for Bastian was for cutting back too early, it was nothing to do with Marco's rejoin. Bastian can appeal if he feels the moderation was harsh.
The point I was trying to make was that lots of people were offering "solutions" that had nothing to do with the situation as it happened. Changing the grid, or having no-passing zones, won't stop someone from simply not accelerating when they are expected to.
A perfectly correct and valid point too! The moderators looked carefully at the distances the drivers were behind each other at the Shell marker board in the braking zone. Although there was some correlation between between separation distances on the approach and whether or not the driver hit the car in front; the main factor was the acceleration/turning/braking phases. The cars in the acceleration zone were more likely to hit the car in front (Greg, Axel) because they were anticipating the car in front would move. The cars in the turning zone had a chance to react and avoid contact because they were not about to hit the throttle. The cars in the braking zone had an opportunity to brake earlier and avoid contact. Driver skill was also a significant factor.
However once all the cars had closed up, warp would inevitably have an effect and cars started to be exploded all over the place. It is not possible for cars to be moving slowly within a few centimetres of each other without the risk of warp registering an overlap. So it is important to maintain a car's length separation at all times, even when driving slowly. Hence the advice in the mod report. For a good example of how to negotiate the carnage look how Andreas did it.
The simple fact is these cars accelerate faster and brake faster than any others in GPL so they have to be driven accordingly. Circuits with slow corners (Rouen, Montjuic, Snetterton, Monaco etc) exacerbate this problem. Hopefully Silverstone won't be a problem.
The moderating team welcome these debates as we are only interested in improving the quality of the racing for the benefit of everyone. So please continue to feel free to contribute. However it would be regrettable if this resulted in drivers having arguments and disagreements that detracted from the enjoyment of the racing. Before reaching such a stage it would be better to trust in the moderating team to make the right decisions.
