Jenson Button Penalty at Hungarian Grand Prix
During the Hungarian Grand Prix today, we saw Jenson Button receive a drive-through penalty for radio communication between himself and his team (McLaren) after he suffered with a pedal issue.
The problem started for the driver on Lap 5 when we saw Bottas making his way past Button and quickly we realised there was a problem as the rest of the pack were quickly making their way past.
Radioing his team he said – “pedals going to the floor, pedals going to the floor…“
Followed with – “game over, game over guys…“
Just when retirement was on the cards his team replied – “Jenson, stay out, stay out…“
After the team told him ‘what to do’ and gave him a switch change he then came into the pits for a stop / tyre-change.
Considering he was now at the back of the pack – he then received a drive-through penalty for radio communications between himself and his team after suffering with the issue.
Once he had taken the drive-through penalty, Button wasn’t finished, he then radioed the team to say the following – “Quite interesting really, I think Charlie needs to read up on what’s safe and what isn’t“
This radio ban is now getting out of hand – this was clearly a safety issue as in effect, he didn’t have full ‘control’ of the car as the brake pedal wasn’t working, another thing which the stewards should have considered is that he was already at the back of the driver line-up.
After the race Button made his opinion clear, ending with this – “Well, when your brake pedal goes to the floor, I figure that’s a safety concern. I don’t think you should get punished. This could have ended up in an incident.“
There needs to be a balance – teams should be allowed to tell their drivers what to do when there’s an issue like this.
I don’t agree with drivers being told what to do at each corner or what setting is best for the conditions however when it’s an issue like this, they should be allowed.
The Formula 1 Girl 🙂
xxx
Image – Autosport