Lammers denounces penalty points: "It's ridiculous"
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Lewis Hamilton made two test starts where he was not allowed to, and that gave him a five-second penalty on two occasions. Afterwards it also became clear that he would get two penalty points on his licence, but these were later withdrawn. The penalty during the race was according to the rules, but those penalty points went a bit too far and Jan Lammers has a very clear opinion about it.
Childish approach
"I find all these punishments ridiculous too," Lammers said on the Formula 1 podcast on NPO Radio 1. "That is such a childish approach. Like when you don't do your homework, you're not allowed on your phone for a week. Get lost, they're all adults and you just have to create a good culture in which you can say: 'Guys, stop doing this, because that's not how we treat each other', and you name it."
Clear language from Lammers, who also criticised the penalty points for not doing so objectively, in contrast to regulatory violations. "You never get those penalty points objectively. Either you give too much punishment or too little. You know in advance that it is not going to happen realistically. There are no whole processes about the decisions. You just get one or two penalty points. Yes, who decides that? At what point is that determined?"
Super license should be enough
According to Lammers, a super-licence is in itself sufficient proof of screening, because it is quite a process to obtain such a license in the first place. "Then a driver is already screened and you already know from someone that they are not doing crazy things. For example, an F1 driver has to be sworn in when he drives that way. Then you know in advance that you don't have to give them penalty points as well. I think that is total nonsense."
And Lammers then draws the comparison with a university: "If you go there, you don't also get to bring home penal work, do you?" Yet there are exceptions, as Pastor Maldonado is mentioned in the podcast, who used to make rather odd moves in races. Lammers had a simple solution for this: "You can take a measure."