07/07/2014
NEWS STORY
Three-time world champion Niki Lauda has criticised the decision to delay yesterday's Grand Prix whilst barriers were replaced following Kimi Raikkonen's crash.
The Austrian, still bearing the scars of his near fatal accident at the Nurburgring thirty-eight years ago, and now Non-Executive Chairman at the Mercedes F1 team, believes the hour-long delay to repair the barriers is indicative of the over regulating of the sport.
"F1 is over-regulated," said the Austrian. "Stopping the race for an hour is wrong and is bad for the sport. It's all crazy. To stop the race for one hour because one of the barriers is damaged is ridiculous.
"Kimi made a mistake and hit the guard rail low. I guarantee no one will hit that spot again," he continued. "There are too many rules. A lot of people will go home or switch off the TV. It is not good for F1."
In fact, the accident, which was soon trending on Twitter, probably attracted some viewers, but by the same token, what with yesterday being Men's Final day at Wimbledon and the second leg of the Tour de France in England - it passes near Pitpass HQ today - probably did cause a few viewers to switch, though if they did they missed the mother of all battles between Alonso and Vettel not to mention a 'home win' for Lewis Hamilton.
Raikkonen, is understood to have suffered no more than bruising to his knees and ankle, amazing when one considers the impact of the crash to have been around 47G.
That said, we cannot help feel that in this particular case, Lauda has a point.