F1: Massa gets points for dangerous driving

I have come late to the conspiracy theory that says that Formula One's authorities are determined to make sure Ferrari wins. But recent weeks have turned me into at least a partial believer.

At Spa, Raikkonen ran Hamilton off the road. Hamilton was in front in the first part of the hairpin. Raikkonen cut in, and forced Hamilton onto the run-off for the second part. Hamilton's only choice was to stay on the track and hit Raikkonen. For sure, he did not have time to brake and slot in behind the Finn. No action against Raikkonen for forcing another car off the track.

Hamilton's move was deemed to have given him an advantage, even though he dropped behind Raikkonen and was twice assured that by doing so he had done enough to avoid a penalty.

After the race, he was given a drive through penalty, converted to a 25 second penalty because the incident happened in the last five laps of the race.

The FIA Court of Appeal found that the rules prevent an appeal against a drive-through penalty.

And so a month on, as F1 arrived in the shadow of Mount Fuji, it appeared that a new set of rules had been formulated.

But we are rapidly learning that there are one set of rules for Ferrari and one set for everyone else - and both sets only apply so long as Ferrari is gaining an advantage.

The principle beneficiary of the flexible application of the rules was Ferrari's bid for the constructors' championship - although in part that was due to that rare event an engine failure in a McLaren as Kovalainen's engine blew up. But Massa also benefits by pushing his principle drivers' championship rival to the back of the field and gaining two points by a succession of actions that were on the wrong side of the brave / dangerous line.

Hamilton made a mess of his start and Raikkonen shot off. With the two second row men alongside him, Hamilton jinked hard right, almost into the side of his team mate who took evasive action at the speed of light. Hamilton's foot was still firmly on the throttle when it should have been on the brake for the entry to turn one, and he went straight on. By that time he was, technically, in front of Raikkonen. Raikkonen - and a number of other drivers took evasive action and went onto the run-off area. They all streamed back onto the track, out of position but running fine.

Despite the description of the events as "carnage" by the official Formula One website, it was nothing of the sort. Some bumping at the back was hardly different to any other race but at the front, although there were several cars on the run-off area, there were no cars out of the race.

Massa spent his day driving like a lunatic, entirely lacking in any care as to who he punted off the track.

For overcooking the first corner, Hamilton was deemed to have forced Raikkonen off the track and given a drive through - so no appeal is allowed despite the flagrant disregard for any comparison between his action and that of Raikkonen at Spa in forcing Hamilton off.

A lap later, Hamilton was totally clear in front of Massa when Massa dived across a corner, all four wheels of the track, and harpooned the side-rear of Hamilton. Hamilton spun and restarted last, pitting to deal with damage and eventually finishing up out of the points. Despite the advantage he gained from leaving the track, Massa did not wait and allow Hamilton to pass: after all, Hamilton was last after clearing the incident. Ferrari strategists would have worked out that no penalty would be worse than having to drop to the back of the field. Massa received a drive through penalty - and ultimately a point by finishing eigth - for that.

On lap 50 of the race, Sebastian Bourdais who was racing Massa for position exited the pits, staying well inside the white line and clearly in front of Massa. Massa overtook Bourdais and forced him onto the kerb. As Bourdais touched the kerb off-line, his car lost direction for a moment and he was thrown into the rear of Massa's car. Both continued undamaged but Massa spun, causing a loss of about five seconds and which may have lost him a place later, and therefore a point.

The Massa-Bourdais incident was not even concluded during the race. It was immediately announced that the stewards would decide after the race. That telegraphed the likely reality: that a drive through would be awarded, converted to a 25 second penalty and the FIA has already got a an appeal court decision that such penalties cannot be challenged. From that moment on, there was only one decision that would be made: it would be in favour of Ferrari.

In the last minutes of the race striving to take the final points place Massa chased Webber down the main straight. Webber hugged the white line next to the pit wall leaving Massa almost the entire width of the track to his left. Massa dived to the right of Webber, leaving the track and driving with all four wheels across the white line that marks the right side of the track: worse, he had all four wheels on the no-go area of the hatching at the pit-exit and then on the pit lane. Whilst use of the pit lane is acceptable, the hatching is supposed to be sacrosanct for reasons of visibility at the pit exit. Then, as Webber lined up for the corner, and having still not completed his overtaking, Massa moved his wheels inside Webber's wheels forcing Webber to give way in order to avoid exactly the accident Massa had caused by chopping into Bourdais. Massa gained an advantage by leaving the track - but he has not been penalised for that.

McLaren clearly thought there may be a chance - however slim - that Massa would be because, in the last lap, Hamilton unlapped himself (taking Alonso by surprise because there is generally no point in unlapping on the last lap) and gave chase to Massa. That resulted in him finishing about 22 seconds behind Massa. Had Massa received the drive through / 25 second penalty that would have been appropriate for leaving the track in passing Webber, Massa would have been demoted to behind Hamilton.

Of course, that didn't happen.

It's simply shabby decision making, set up in such a way as to prevent appeals, and it stinks.

Massa's driving in Japan was out and out dangerous. It is outrageous the he has been awarded points as a result of Bourdais' demotion and equally outrageous that he did not receive additional penalties.

But this is forming a pattern. It's a pattern that stopped when F1 had a permanent steward but allegedly Max Mosely made his life so uncomfortable that the relationship was terminated. Since then, decisions in favour of Ferrari have become more common and more blatent.

Maybe it's time for all the teams to leave the series, and Ferrari, and start a new series. They could call it Fairmula One. And its primary objective would be stable rules and consistent decision making.