Barred Honda
The big news rocking the Formula One world: The BAR-Honda team has been banned from the next two F1 races for running an underweight car two weeks ago at the San Marino Grand Prix. (Another story here; here is the technical explanation of what happened.)
It wasn't just driver Jenson Button who was nailed. (He finished third at San Marino, but his car was 11 pounds lighter than minimum.) Neither he nor his teammate, Japan's Takuma Sato, will race in the next two GPs. Both were disqualified retroactively from San Marino.
The BAR-Honda camp, meanwhile, is "appalled" at the penalty. FIA, the sports governing body that had sought a year-long ban, said BAR-Honda had been treated "rather leniently."
Over in NASCAR-land, the F1 action makes those 25-point penalties look pretty weak. Can you imagine NASCAR keeping the entire Roush crew out of a race or two? Or Hendrick? DEI? Yates?
That's pretty much what F1 is doing.
Comments (3)
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I like it, straight from the theme song for Baretta:
"Don't do the crime if you can't do the time."
Posted on May 5, 2005 10:26 PM
I gotta say, though, that they're leaning awfully hard on BAR with this one. F1 is rife with electronic gizmos that magically conceal their cheatin' heart. The sanctioning body is never quite able to catch up with the traction control and launch control and control control devices that are hidden on these cars.
But it's kind of like shooting fish in a barrel, I guess, when something as blatant as weight is involved.
NASCAR looks like a slack country cousin compared to this Euro clampdown.
Posted on May 6, 2005 10:40 AM
I was just amazed at the brutality of the punishment. Remember how Richard Childress freaked out earlier this year when Harvick's crew chief got a four race suspension? Can you imagine what he might have done if NASCAR had suspended both Harvick and Jeff Burton?
The mind reels.
Posted on May 6, 2005 12:09 PM