Incident 2k9 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Morbid Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The big difference between those you mention
> and
> > Maldonando, is that none of them had to bribe
> > their way back into racing, after being banned
> > from major events due to unsafe driving. He
> > crippled a marshall under yellow flag
> conditions.
> > It is only because high level officials in his
> > country intervened and dropping a sweaty wad of
> > cash, that he was ever allowed into Monaco
> again.
> > There is a difference between being tough and
> > actually maiming people.
>
> By that same line of thinking, Villeneuve and Ralf
> Schumacher were responsible for the death of
> Graham Beveridge, a marshal at Melbourne in 2001.
> At least one had to have been driving unsafely to
> cause that, and I don't know of any punishment
> that was given to them.
>
> Riccardo Patrese was blamed for the death of
> Ronnie Peterson, was banned for like, one race and
> then began to have the lengthiest career until
> Barrichello surpassed him.
>
> And then there was the death of Paolo Ghislimberti
> at Monza in 2000, which came due to a collision at
> the second chicane between both Jordans.
>
> You can put all of these down to unsafe driving,
> but none of these drivers really faced many
> repercussions in the aftermath. You cannot
> therefore claim that Maldonado is any worse, and
> it was known that the reaction to ban him from
> Monaco was rather knee-jerk anyway.
>
> Maldonado is a terrific driver. It's a shame that
> he is a bit crash-happy, and if he tempers that
> this season he's on for some excellent results.
There is a big @#$%& difference between that and 1) swerving/brake testing/braking too late under normal racing conditions and a subsequent freak accident happens with a loose wheel (RS/JV), 2) being blamed for something that is obviously is false, 3) something that again is a freak accident under normal racing conditions, that only happened because the marshall was out of his assigned positon.
If there is a yellow flag situation, and you ignore that, you are deliberately risking other people's lives to gain a competitive advantage. If you do it at Monaco, you are almost 100% sure that there will be marshalls on track while you do it. He mowed down a marshall under yellow flags at Monaco. The other things don't in any way come close to comparing. They actually used the video of that crash as a teaching tool to new marshalls at Monaco. So the analogies are simply not apt.
To compound matters, he didn't even do it in race conditions. He mowed down the marshal during a practice session. Seriously, what justifies ignoring yellow flags under practice??
It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2013 02:11AM by Morbid.