Coulthard and Herbert disagree on the crash between Massa and Hamilton

For the third time in the last four races, the Grand Prix was marred by an accident between Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton. This time, the stewards ruled that the Ferrari driver was responsible for the collision with his McLaren rival, a decision not understood by the São Paulo native, a sentiment shared by David Coulthard: “I simply can’t understand how Felipe could be judged responsible. As drivers, we’ve always been told that the car behind is responsible, so in my opinion, the stewards misinterpreted what happened,” can be read in the Scottish driver’s column for the Daily Telegraph.

Johnny Herbert, the fourth commissioner during the Indian Grand Prix, justified the decision to penalize the Paulista: “The decision to penalize Felipe Massa for his collision with Lewis Hamilton rests on one fact: he could have avoided it,” explained the Briton in the columns of the National. “I know that Massa is upset by our decision, but I think we made the right one. After watching different camera angles and studying the data available to us, it was clear that Massa knew where Hamilton was, he knew Hamilton was on the inside. By moving to the right, he left the door open for Hamilton. However, Massa then closed the door, leading to the accident. There was nothing Hamilton could do to prevent it, he did try to back out of his maneuver, but it was too late and the contact occurred. If Massa hadn’t opened the door, then it would have been another story. If there had been a collision, the fault would have been on Hamilton’s side.”

However, David Coulthard believes that the responsibility for the accident lies more with the 2008 world champion: « I don’t want to pick on Lewis, far from it. I have supported him in similar circumstances […] and after everything that has happened over the past weeks and months, he deserves to be left alone, but in this case, I feel he is definitely the most responsible. »

For the Scot, Hamilton simply attempted a desperate maneuver: « If Lewis had come from so far at the approach of a tight hairpin, where the braking zone is perhaps 100 meters and lasts a few seconds, then I think Massa would have been right to yield, but at the approach of a left turn negotiated in fourth, at nearly 150 or 160 km/h? Where the braking zone lasts no more than a second? I don’t think Massa can be held responsible. »

Coulthard also points out the inconsistency of the stewards’ decisions, as this is not the first incident between the two drivers: « Making such decisions is a real challenge in a sport as complex as Formula One, but it’s almost as if – with Lewis having already received so many decisions against him this year – they are trying to balance the scales. It’s a bit like in football, when a referee sends someone off in controversial circumstances and the crowd gets on his back, he is more likely to send a player off from the other team. »