Valencia here we come!

It’s not very often that the FIA court of appeal overturns a decision taken by its own race stewards. In fact, there was a time when appealing meant that you’d probably be hit by an even heftier penalty just for having the temerity to question the decision in the first place.

So I personally didn’t really hold out much hope for Renault this week at its appeal against the decision to impose a one race ban on it for allowing Fernando Alonso to leave the pits at the Hungarian Grand Prix with a wheel that hadn’t been properly secured.

These guys are difficult to deal with!

Now I agree that the penalty was harsh, probably too harsh, and that it had been taken in the immediate aftermath of a suspension component falling off Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn the day before and hitting Felipe Massa in the face, and also the tragic death of young Henry Surtees a week previously at Brands Hatch when an errant wheel hit him on the head.

Nevertheless, it is ridiculous to assume that Renault deliberately allowed its driver to leave the pits with an unsecured wheel. Human beings make mistakes and mechanical systems sometimes don’t work as they should. That is what happened in Hungary. The ‘spinner’ which locates on the wheel nut and locks it did not click into place properly. That is a mechanical systems failure. The guy who was attempting to click that into place was not the one responsible for giving the signal for the car to leave which, as the last link in the chain, he should have been. That is a procedural fault caused by human error.

This was the incident that made everyone get a bit hot under the collar

Renault was given a one race ban by the stewards, which meant that Fernando Alonso would no be able to take part in his ‘home’ race – the European Grand Prix at Valencia this coming weekend. At a time when ticket sales for some Grands Prix are declining in the wake of the credit crunch, the Valencia organisers were particularly unhappy with that decision, knowing that Spanish fans would stay away if their hero wasn’t going to be racing.

As it is, it seems that common sense has prevailed for once and Renault has had its ban overturned by the FIA International Court of Appeal in Paris and been given a hefty fine instead. The FIA announcement of the decision read:

“Renault admitted to the court that it breached the sporting regulations, in that it failed to ensure that car #7 complied with the conditions for safety throughout practice and the race, and that it released the car after a pitstop when it was unsafe to do so. However, it requested the court to reconsider the severity of the sanction imposed by the stewards.
Having heard the arguments of the parties, the court has decided as follows:
1. to allow the appeal and overturn the sanction imposed by the stewards in the contested decision;
2. to issue a reprimand and impose a fine of $50,000 upon Renault”

The Valencia organisers can now breath a sigh of relief and hope that the fans turn out in their droves. They’ve already been let down by the on-off return of Michael Schumacher, who was announced to be replacing Massa for the next few races, until the German discovered that a neck injury he sustained in a motorbike accident earlier this year was too severe to allow him to just yet. Pity they didn’t check that out before announcing his return. As it is, a lot of people have bought tickets for Valencia on the grounds that they expected to see the seven-times world champion there. But perhaps that was the intention – to boost ticket sales, or am I being too cynical here?

Sad Spanish – they might start following MotoGP!

Instead of Schumacher we’ve got Luca Badoer. Who? Badoer has been a Ferrari test driver for a long time. He is a very competent driver but he hasn’t actually raced for ten years. Ferrari’s other test driver Marc Gene, a Spaniard who won the Le Mans 24 Hour race for Peugeot this year, would have been a more logical choice. In the meantime, Massa is said to be making good progress and is aiming to return at the Brazilian Grand Prix in October.

Luca who? Bidet? Badoer?

What else to expect this weekend? Well, Lewis Hamilton is on a high from his Hungarian victory and is aiming for back-to-back wins. Nelson Piquet is history and will be replaced at Renault by test driver Roman Grosjean, and hopefully Brawn and Red Bull will rejoin their season-long battle for the title. The summer break is over. It’s time to go racing again.