There was lots to enjoy in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix. Some fine overtaking, an excellent charge through the field from Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, and an exciting closing few laps as duels up and down the field, apart from at the front, came to a close.
Yet the weekend was marred again by Formula One’s overwrought rules and regulations detracting from the spectacle and making things to difficult to follow for fans at the track and on TV.
There was the farce of qualifying where almost a third of the field received a grid penalty for engine-related issues, while the race result was threatened because of tyre pressures not being high enough.
Worldwide television audiences were down five per cent to a reported 425 million in 2014, and the goings-on at Monza are unlikely to have people who did not see the race watching the highlights when they read about what went on.
Take qualifying, for instance. The problems Renault and Honda have had with the 1.6-litre V6 turbocharged engines are well-documented, but the decision to change parts on their problematic units — part out of necessity, part tactical — led to a lot of paperwork coming their way.
Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso, who run with Renault engines, picked up a combined 150 grid-place penalties, in a field of only 20 cars, due to parts of the engine and gearbox needing changing.
The headshaking statistic of the weekend was that the McLaren cars of Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso, who use Honda power, qualified in 16th and 17th place but received five- and 10-place penalties respectively for updates to their engines.
Poll: Should Lewis Hamilton have been disqualified from Italian GP?
Yet despite these penalties they started further up the grid then they had qualified. They moved up to 15th and 16th, thanks to the punishments for Toro Rosso and Red Bull.
It was baffling stuff, and trying to work out the grid on Saturday night was likely only to end up in a headache.
On Sunday, Lewis Hamilton dominated the race only to have it in danger of being taken away as a reading from a pressure gauge before the race showed the left rear tyre on his Mercedes-GP was below the minimum pressure limit set by tyre manufacturers Pirelli.
Common sense prevailed and the result stayed as it was. Changing the result after the race has finished is never a good thing and should only be done if a clear rule that created a performance advantage is breached. That could not be proven here.
More importantly, F1 is a show as well as a sport. People have paid money to watch an event at the track or taken time out to watch it on television.
They saw Hamilton win on Sunday. To then leave the circuit or turn off their television, only to discover they actually did not see Hamilton win and it was Sebastian Vettel in a distant second place who came out top, would have left a bad taste in the mouth.
Ferrari fans would have been happy their man won, but they did not have the moment of elation that comes with watching the person or team you are rooting for achieve it themselves.
Justice was done, but F1 has much to get right in the coming months.
The tyre issue should be clarified. The limit had just been set following the punctures in Belgium, but Pirelli, the teams and the FIA, motorsport’s ruling body, must work together to make it clear how the pressure limits will be checked from now on.
The huge grid penalties have to be scrapped. Trying to explain to a non-F1 fan how Daniel Ricciardo can receive a 50-place penalty in a race with only 20 cars is excruciating and an embarrassment to the sport.
Honda and Renault are struggling and are exceeding the limits on parts they can use, but humiliating them is not going to make them more competitive.
Watching Hamilton dominate at the front did not necessarily make for compelling viewing on Sunday, but it was a masterclass from a driver at the top of his game, making full use of one of the most complete cars F1 has ever seen.
Sadly, that is not what we are talking about.
Instead, F1 continues to be bogged down in rules and regulations. It needs to free itself from them and become clearer to the public if it is to seriously move forward.
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