Stewards contradicted Whiting’s advice

It has emerged that in penalizing Sebastien Bourdais for the collision with Felipe Massa that occurred as the Toro Rosso driver left the pits during the Japanese GP, the stewards directly contradicted the advice given to the drivers by Race Director Charlie Whiting.

The retrospective 25-second punishment meted out against the Frenchman caused outrage, especially as it had been thought that the post-race investigation would focus on Massa's role in the accident. Instead, the stewards opted to punish Bourdais, thereby promoting the Ferrari driver to seventh place and further reducing his deficit to Lewis Hamilton in the World Championship.

Replays of the incident show Bourdais tucked in to the right-hand side of the track as he left the pits. With his wheels on the edge of the track, Bourdais was then struck by Massa's Ferrari as the Brazilian sought to overtake.

Branding the decision to punish Bourdais as 'ridiculous', ITV's James Allen revealed in his post-race commentary that 'the team managers I spoke to after the race all said that FIA race director Charlie Whiting had briefed them in Singapore and again in Fuji that the car exiting the pits has right of way.'

If so, it would be the second occasion in four races that the stewards have ignored the advice given to the teams by Whiting after the Race Director assured McLaren that Lewis Hamilton's move past Kimi Raikkonen in Belgium was "ok". As with Bourdais, the stewards then imposed a retrospective drive-through penalty.

'If the teams cannot believe the race director, what hope have the rest of us and the wider public got?' asks Allen. 'The FIA styles itself as the referee in this sport, but surely it cannot afford to keep sending out such mixed messages.' Planet F1