What happened to "Complete the race unassisted" rule?

Question

There was much hue and cry when Schumi was assisted by a marshal back into the race after a spin. Yesterday Hamilton was lifted off the gravel pits with the help of track side machinery and he rejoined the race. His resting position in the gravel was not dangerous to other drivers at that time. So what happened to that rule? Is it scrapped or did Lewis get an extra privilege?

Answer 1

The "complete race unassisted" rule was superseded by the "car in a dangerous position rule" (technically, that's the explanation, although it didn't look any more dangerous than Liuzzi's position and his car can't have been too damaged to restart after just going off into the gravel backwards). In practice it was superseded by the "Bernie makes the best commercial decision on the hoof" rule, (which has precedence over all other rules and also accounts for why the times from the "first" and "second" races weren't aggregated, as the rules demand...couldn't allow a Spyker a 33s head start).

Answer 2

I'm not sure it's fair to say the section has been hijacked. Yes, many of the questions belong in the Pets section or in other categories. An "equestrian sports" section would be nice. However, no one is being prevented from posting legitimate horse-racing related questions. Part of the problem seems to be that people just aren't asking them. So, if we want more horse-racing questions, we need to ASK more horse racing questions. (I'm as guilty as the next person, BTW.)

Answer 3

It is not the same situation. Everyone who was on the gravel was allowed to restart because of the conditions. I think since the pileup was caused by the weather conditions, the drivers were not to blame. If you saw the replay of the incident from the drivers camera you would have seen that there was zero visibilty with all that rain and water spraying directly into their line of vision. Even the safety car almost went off on that corner.

Answer 4

I wondered the same thing. Maybe, given the danger of the situation, getting a car out of there was more important at the time.

Answer 5

This is a old rule it was abolished last year by FIA so Hamilton didn't get any privilege . It was totally legal .

Answer 6

that confused the life out of me too and i was there! i think it was due to the restart issues. the rain was torrential and cars were going off everywhere. kimi couldn't even make it up the pit lane.

Answer 7

I'm not sure if getting helped out of the gravel constitutes "help" or not. In indy cars they are allowed to be helped out of the gravel, and return to the race (I can't remember who it was, but it happened today).

I do know that in NASCAR, you can not be pushed on the last lap. Being pushed on the last lap does constitute "cheating," and results in disqualification.

Answer 8

I jumped up and down hollering when I saw that because I can't stand that little punk Hamilton and it looked like totally ignoring the rules for his benefit. And I still think it is, it's complete b.s. But the explanation I got was that because of the red flag, the race was rolled back one lap (which is normal), and he was still on the road at that point. Also, he managed to keep his engine running, and so could be put back on the track. If he'd stalled, like Nico Rosberg did, that would have been the end of it. I don't know. Still sounds like a lot of crap to me, I'm just happy Larry Hamilton got as many points as I did yesterday, which is ZERO. How you'd like that, you manufactured little piece of marketing garbage. Hahaha

Answer 9

it's more profitable to the fia if he finishes so they turned a blind eye. i spent the whole race praying that he'd fly off the track and smash up his car

Answer 10

i am totally confused too !

one time they said this the other time another thing, after this WHAT ?