Formula 1: FIA illustrate much-needed consistency with Lewis Hamilton penalty

The FIA illustrated much-needed consistency with their decision to issue five-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton a three-position starting grid penalty for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton impeded the qualifying lap of Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen in the second of three rounds of qualifying for the ninth race on the 21-race 2019 Formula 1 schedule, the Austrian Grand Prix, at the Red Bull Ring.

By rule, the 34-year-old Briton, who went on to qualify in second place ahead of Raikkonen in seventh after both drivers still managed to advance to the third and final round of qualifying for the race, should have been issued a three-position starting grid penalty.

It took quite some time after qualifying concluded — in fact, quite some time even after ROKiT Williams Racing rookie George Russell was issued a three-position starting grid penalty for a similar offense — but the FIA made the correct decision to drop Hamilton three positions on the starting grid for this race.

This penalty resulted in just a two-position drop due to the five-position grid penalty that had already been issued to Rich Energy Haas’ Kevin Magnussen due to a gearbox change before qualifying.

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Magnussen originally qualified in fifth place for this 71-lap race around the 10-turn, 2.683-mile (4.318-kilometer) Red Bull Ring road course in Spielberg, Styria, Austria and is set to start in 10th, so Hamilton is set to start in fourth.

Nevertheless, this was a decision that the FIA needed to make to illustrate consistency, and they did exactly that.

The five-second time penalty that was controversially issued to Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in the Canadian Grand Prix and handed the victory to Hamilton despite the fact that he finished the race in second place ignited discussions about a lack of consistency and a lack of clarity in the rule book, particularly when it came to calls involving Hamilton.

It was started to look as though there were two separate rule books, one for Hamilton and one for the rest of the field. Hamilton got away with doing exactly what Vettel did to him in the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix on Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo, but he went unpenalized for it.

Additionally, a victory that should have gone to Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas in last year’s German Grand Prix went to Hamilton, as he avoided a penalty despite the fact that he committed a clear violation of the FIA International Sporting Code when he committed to coming into the pits but cut back across the grass to get back onto the track and take the lead. In the 2016 European Grand Prix, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was penalized for the same violation.

Amid what some might justifiably call favoritism toward Mercedes and Hamilton, theories were floated around that the decision to penalize Hamilton ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix was only made because of the pressure that was on the FIA to do so, especially after the disastrous Canadian Grand Prix situation.

The fact that Russell was penalized so soon after qualifying while Hamilton’s penalty did not come for quite a while longer heated up this speculation when Hamilton was finally penalized after a lengthy wait.

But even if Lewis Hamilton’s three-position starting grid penalty for this race was only issued because of this pressure, more power to the FIA for understanding and recognizing that consistency is key and that the rules must be enforced across all of Formula 1, not just in select circumstances pertaining to select drivers.