1994 Season

[alesi95]

There have been many threads about this contreversial season but I wish to add a little more.

As part of my off season ritual I have been watching/studying past season races. Starting with the oldest race in my collection the 1994 Brazillian Gp I noticed something that had escaped me previously.

On the warm up lap 2nd place man Schumacher can clearly be seen overtaking pole man Senna on the back straight and speeds off some three or four car lengths ahead.

Some four months later ofcourse he is penalised for this and endangers his championship.

Proof then that lack of Stability in the rules is nothing new.

[Yoong Montoya]

Well, the stewards probably didn't think Schumacher would humiliate Senna like he did. Hence they didn't punish him.

Does passing on the formation lap really deserve a penalty anyway? It's happened loads of times and it was only ever punished at Silverstone in 1994. (I think the stewards were just toying with Benetton and Schumacher that race - they wanted their man Damon Hill to win the title so they decided to help him by penalising Schumacher heavily for a minor offence).

[Mr V]

Originally posted by Yoong Montoya
(I think the stewards were just toying with Benetton and Schumacher that race - they wanted their man Damon Hill to win the title so they decided to help him by penalising Schumacher heavily for a minor offence).

So, your saying that the stewards were British and wanted their man to win? How about 4 years later when Michael escaped a penalty at the same place?

BTW, Michael was heavily penalised for ignoring a stop and go, not for the parade lap.

[Mr V]

BTW, overtaking on the parade lap only usually happens when a car has been slow getting away properly, but then the (slow) car retakes its correct position. What Michael did was a blatent disgregard of the rules, something that doesn't usually happen.

[BootsOntheSide]

I don't think Mr V has quite got it right. As Schumacher had won 6 of the first 7 races, he was looking set to run away with the title, which, coupled with Imola that year, would've made F1 look decidely boring to the uninitiated, and have seriously reduced viewing figures.

That's why there was pressure to keep the championship chase alive, by any means neccessary, which is why Schumacher was disqualified from 2 races, and excluded from 2, when the Silverstone disqualification was only half-fair and the others were downright unfair.

[NiceGuyEddie]

Originally posted by Mr V
So, your saying that the stewards were British and wanted their man to win? How about 4 years later when Michael escaped a penalty at the same place?

BTW, Michael was heavily penalised for ignoring a stop and go, not for the parade lap.

He didn't escape a penalty. Ferrari found a loophole and used it.

[jetsetter]

Inconsistencies in the rules have & the way they are interpreted are unfortunately part of the sport regardless of the category & Mr. V is correct in that unless there are exceptional circumstances you shouldn't break from your position on the parade lap.

[Damon]

Hardly Boots, the FIA KNEW Benetton were running illegal systems that year, just couldn't prove it. If it was all about keeping the Championship alive why not do it again in 2002? 1994 was the only occasion Schu has been justly punished for blantently disregarding the rules. It sure as hell hasn't happened since.

[jetsetter]

Originally posted by Mr V
BTW, overtaking on the parade lap only usually happens when a car has been slow getting away properly, but then the (slow) car retakes its correct position. What Michael did was a blatent disgregard of the rules, something that doesn't usually happen.

Rule 136 of the FIA laws state that a driver should only overtake on the formation lap if the car in front has technical problems.

[Kex]

Michael deliberately overtook on both formation laps which is illegal.

But most of the blame is Benetton's for not having a proper understanding of the regulations. You cannot argue about a black flag, regardless of whether it is right or wrong to show it. Black flag means game over, no arguments.

[Damon]

Exactly, the initial punishment was a minor one in accordance with the minor offece (overtaking on the formation lap). The later, harder punishment was for the far worse offence of out right ignoring the stewards. This was more Brawn and Briatorie's doing than Schumachers though.

[alesi95]

During 1993 Prost was convinced the FIA were unfairly penailsing him to make the championship more exciting.
His jump start at Monaco and missing a chicane at Hockenhiem to avoid a spinning Ligier are two notable moments.

Incidently you may remember Ferrari were also suspected of running traction control at points in 94. At Aida they admitted to running a "power reduction" device. They were disallowed to run it during the race.

[Mr V]

Originally posted by alesi95

His jump start at Monaco and missing a chicane at Hockenhiem to avoid a spinning Ligier are two notable moments.

A jump starts a jump start.

With regards to the Ligier, iirc, that was Martin Brundle who went through the chicane backwards, and also got penalised

[Mr V]

Originally posted by alesi95
During 1993 Prost was convinced the FIA were unfairly penailsing him to make the championship more exciting.

Don't forget, this was also the guy who thought he was being penalised by HONDA, who he thought favoured Senna, dispite having only 1 failure to Senna's 5

[Adam43]

Originally posted by alesi95
Proof then that lack of Stability in the rules is nothing new.

I think the most likely 'cause' of this is that the Stewards in Brasil either didn't see it or didn't know it was a problem. Maybe because it wasn't as obvious as in Silverstone (?).

[Hazza]

I thought that the rev-limiter had to be dis-armed after ferrari asked "is this legal" or something, it was totaly fair i think, we're talking about John Barnard here...oh wait, ignore that.

also, 94 was the last year i remember them advertising f1 races on tv...
and talk about bittersweet! adelaide: Mansell winning the race which is just like...i mean how can you hate that? And Hill loosing the championship after (and i'll admit it, i think still) schumacher rammed him, but in circumspect it looks like he was desperatly trying to block hill, but we're not going to talk about this. But anyway, some of the races in 94 where desperatly boring, like San Marino, but then again, thats not boring - its horrific (i still have it on tape, i only watch it to show people how that Australian F1 broadcast music has allways been cool )

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by BootsOntheSide
..... .would've made F1 look decidely boring to the uninitiated,

and look what happened in the years which followed - if 94 was boring, you didn't even need to be uninitiated after that, only comatose......

[paulzinho]

Agree there!

[ASCII Man]

Originally posted by Mr V
Don't forget, this was also the guy who thought he was being penalised by HONDA, who he thought favoured Senna, dispite having only 1 failure to Senna's 5

The point wasn't because he thought that Honda were giving him unreliable engines but that Senna got all the latest engine upgrades alot sooner than him.

[Mr V]

If that was the case, then it did him a favour, Senna tested them to distruction and Prost won the WDC

[racer69]

A look back at video of the 1989 season, it does seem that Senna had a much easier job of overtaking Prost (well, except at Suzuka) than vice versa.

[RWC]

And honda had a press conference to show the world that they give identical engines to both drivers.Jeez,it was pathetic even then,everyone knew the electronics controling the engines could be modified even during the race no matter how they allocated engines.
I'm not saying it's wrong that they would want to favour a driver,just anoying that they thought we were all stupid.

[Yoong Montoya]

Originally posted by Aysedasi
and look what happened in the years which followed - if 94 was boring, you didn't even need to be uninitiated after that, only comatose......

Well, if it weren't for Schumi, 1998 would have been every bit as boring as 2002 unless you're a McLaren fan. I guess the 2002 domination was justice for Schumi after his bad luck in '98