Soft stewarding sets bad example

"Between Turns 5 & 6, Car No. 5 was impeded by Car No. 11 during his fast lap. As a reaction to this, Car No. 5 deliberately forced Car No. 11 off the track."

The above is an extract from the GP2 stewards' statement after Arden International driver Johnny Cecotto Jr moved over on Russian Time's Sam Bird on a straight during qualifying for the opening round of the series in Malaysia last Friday.

As a result, Bird had no option but to drive onto the grass.

The same statement later concluded Cecotto "gave an unacceptable reaction to being impeded by another driver".

The punishment? Exclusion from qualifying, relegating Cecotto from 14th on the grid to 26th. And that's it. The only factor cited in mitigation was Bird had inadvertently impeded Cecotto.

Forget the identities of those involved - a driver was found guilty of deliberately forcing another car off the track in anger and got away with a shockingly light punishment. He should have been parked for the rest of the weekend for the absence of self-control.

Watch the footage and where Cecotto is looking as he moves towards Bird and there can be no doubt as to his intentions He ceased to be driving a racing car for a few moments. He was piloting a weapon.

The problem of under-reacting to inexcusable on-track incidents is not exclusive to GP2 by any means. It is one that abounds in motor racing at all levels and is not taken seriously enough by the powers that be.

Cecotto got away lightly at Sepang © LAT

Deliberate retaliation of this kind is the lowest of the low as far as driving infringements go. The incident in question was not in a race, it came during a qualifying session on a very wide straight, so there is no possible excuse for it, no matter how frustrated Cecotto was by his lap being ruined by Bird (who himself earned a three-place grid penalty).

It isn't just the ethical angle, there is also a very serious safety concern. It's a fundamental of circuit safety that accidents should be minimised, so drivers potentially creating them with such moves is unacceptable.

That, in this case, Bird wasn't travelling as fast as he would usually would be and was able to rejoin safely is not the point. The precedent is set. If you deliberately force another car off the circuit, your punishment is to be sent to the back of the grid, irrespective of the consequences.

More concerning is that circuit safety is driven by where accidents are likely to happen. Super-fast corners have a lot of run-off and track safety workers, be they medical personnel or marshals, are placed accordingly. Bird's car ended up off track in an unusual place, and that's always a concern.

So the incident created the circumstances for that great fear - the freak accident. Looking only at Formula 1, the most serious ones are the ones created by unusual conditions, Felipe Massa getting a spring in the head in qualifying in Hungary four years ago, for example. There was no deliberate agency in that accident, but in Malaysia there was.

Had he been travelling at higher speed, Bird's car could have ended up being pitched into a roll by uneven grass, struck a barrier a car would usually get nowhere near... all bets are off when a car is forced into such a position. And it doesn't just endanger the men in the cockpits.

That's what makes the way stewards at all levels react to such incidents essential. Many deny this, but there is a clear trickle-down effect. You see evidence of this on track at all levels, even down to the kinds of club categories I have competed in, where occasionally you come up against a young karting graduate who buys into the idea that if you're not being excessively forceful, you are a soft touch.

Bird was also penalised at Sepang © LAT

Aspiring F1 drivers watch grands prix, GP2, Formula Renault 3.5, etc and will inevitably take driving standards there as their cue. There is nothing wrong with forceful racing, but this over-stepped the line by a mile.

The message from Sepang was simple. Forcing another driver off track is pretty bad, but not the abhorrent act that it should be regarded as.

What Cecotto got was effectively a 12-place grid penalty. He was able to recover to score points for fifth in the Sunday sprint race.

By contrast, James Calado was hit with a 10-place grid penalty for his crash during the sprint race.

It was a foolish mistake and one that could have had far more serious consequences, as it turned his car into an unguided missile flying up the grass and across the track at 90 degrees to traffic. To get an idea, think Takuma Sato/Nick Heidfeld in the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix.

The penalty was perfectly legitimate, but the offence was an order of magnitude less concerning than what happened with Cecotto two days earlier. A 10-place penalty for that mistake seems reasonable, but only if the other, more serious offence, is hit far harder.

This did not happen in a low-profile championship. It happened at a grand prix meeting, with live television coverage.

The message that the stewards sent out is that what Cecotto did was bad, but not that bad.

What they should have taken the opportunity to do was to show that there is no place in motor-racing for that kind of irresponsible and reckless behaviour.