When blocking becomes too much

The action at the Italian Grand Prix has ignited much debate about what is fair defensive driving and what is overstepping the mark.

Derek Daly was the drivers' steward at Monza and he has been quoted saying that at the time the Michael Schumacher/Lewis Hamilton block at Curva Grande occurred, the stewards were busy looking into an incident involving Felipe Massa and Jarno Trulli.

Daly has said that he believes Schumacher's chop on Hamilton warranted a drive-through penalty at least.

Daly was a stewards' advisor at Monza © suttons

He's been a grand prix driver and I haven't, but I do find that slightly surprising.

How many times have you seen someone go down the inside of a rival at Curva Grande?

It's optimistic, surely, and simple to defend considering that all Schumacher had to do was take up the usual racing line a little bit early.

Jenson Button, behind the pair, said that Hamilton appeared to go for a gap that wasn't there.

It was also a move of questionable benefit.

Maybe Hamilton thought he had enough of a run on Schumacher to get inside him and clear the Mercedes before the second chicane, allowing him to move across and take the line.

More likely, though, even if Schumacher hadn't given him the chop they would have run around Curva Grande side-by-side and the Mercedes would have retained the all-important inside line for the Roggia chicane.

What needed to be done was the move Sebastian Vettel made stick on Fernando Alonso - around the outside, giving him the inside for the chicane.

But there are two obvious problems with this. First, you need a bigger speed advantage than Hamilton had at that point.

Second, would you fancy putting yourself at Schumacher's mercy on the outside of Curva Grande at close to 200mph? No, me neither.

Vettel's move on Alonso was ballsy and I think Seb was probably being disingenuous when he suggested in a post-race interview that maybe Fernando hadn't seen him.

More likely he was flagging up a moment he thought was close to the edge, in more ways than one.

Alonso is not dirty, but he's tough. He knew exactly where Vettel was, but if Sebastian wanted to go by him there, he was going to test his nerve, make him earn it.

If he'd managed to force Vettel into backing out of the throttle for just a split second, that would have killed the move stone dead, but Vettel passed the bravery test.

These guys are all superlatively good and they play to the limits.

Schumacher defended resolutely from Hamilton at Monza © suttons

Alonso, remember, is no stranger to the grass himself. Schumacher put him there at close to 200mph down the Hangar Straight on the opening lap of the 2003 British GP.

And Alonso deeply impressed Pat Symonds during that epic 2005 Japanese GP when he got wheelspin in seventh on the grass while passing Mark Webber into Turn 1 in his haste to get to the front.

It's not nice, but a wheel on the grass here and there doesn't tend to be a disaster, so long as it's not damp.

I'd suspect, though, that if Hamilton had tried to drive around the outside of Schumacher at Curva Grande, he would have seen more grass than Wembley Stadium.

More controversial than the Curva Grande moment, to me, was Schumacher's defence into the first Lesmo.

Quite a few times Hamilton got down the outside of the Mercedes into the Roggia chicane and almost - almost - got a car's length advantage, so as to be able to turn in.

Repeatedly, though, Schumacher would go late on the brakes and claim the line from the middle of the road.

Inevitably it compromised Michael's exit and, one lap in particular, Lewis got out much quicker and cleaner and headed down the inside into Lesmo 1.

It's a relatively short run and so, again, is difficult to pull off. Schumacher chopped right almost immediately, making the block much more blatant than the one at Curva Grande.

Having halted Lewis's momentum, he then flicked left again to take the ideal line through Lesmo.

Here is where the boundaries are blurred. Is that one move or two?

Having moved to defend, are you allowed to retake the ideal line?

If you are, then it becomes very difficult for the attacking driver to make a move stick and you could argue that what Schumacher did before Lesmo was not defensive driving but simple blocking.

The Schumacher/Hamilton battle continued for a while in Italy © suttons

I found one of Ross Brawn's radio messages to Schumacher particularly interesting - not so much the one about the one move, more the one reminding him to give Hamilton racing room at Ascari.

Generally, the thinking is that F1 drivers are experienced, they're big lads and they know what they're doing, so let's not over-police them.

But, from the moment it was known that drivers would have DRS and KERS in 2011, there was genuine concern over the increased danger that speed differentials would bring in trying to make on-track judgments.

That's why, at the start of the season, drivers asked that race stewards take a firm line.

The run out of the second Lesmo was a DRS zone and there's also an unsettling dip on the entry to Ascari. The approach is high-speed.

There was evidently nervousness about that and the coded message seemed to be, 'Chop him there, son, and we'll have you...' In fact, Michael didn't need to. The straightline speed of the Mercedes was such that even with DRS Hamilton again couldn't clear Schumacher by enough to turn in ahead of him. It was the same story as the on pit straight.

All Schumacher had to do was run down the left-hand side of the road. The entry to Ascari was too quick for the McLaren to get up the inside.

Some have criticised the governing body for the Schumacher warnings, pointing out that they were a luxury not usually enjoyed.

You can see their point. But, equally, the likes of Charlie Whiting and Herbie Blash have been around F1 since Noah was a lad. They knew what they were looking at.

And what they were looking at was one of F1's most experienced and talented individuals, with a speed advantage, instinctively placing his car to deny an opponent.

It's an art as much as the incisive pass.

They didn't want to spoil the show, but they got the message across that they were watching. I don't think we should get hysterical about that.

Things much worse than we saw at Monza have gone unpenalised when they should have been stamped on.

Schumacher and Hakkinen came close at Spa in 2000 © LAT

Take a look at YouTube footage of Schumacher trying to defend his Spa lead from Mika Hakkinen at Spa in 2000.

The lap before Hakkinen's memorable pass, Mika's McLaren gets what looks to be a decisive run on Schumacher's Ferrari up the Kemmel Straight into Les Combes.

Schumacher sees him coming, moves right and places the Ferrari in the middle of the road, just to the left of centre, inviting Hakkinen to make up his mind.

Michael watches and when Mika chooses the inside, he jinks the Ferrari to the right again. Hakkinen is forced to back out of it and they narrowly avert potential wheel-over-wheel contact.

The speed there is almost 200mph and Hakkinen takes his left hand off the wheel and gestures in annoyance.

It was an awful bit of driving and Hakkinen, his car already heading right, could so easily have flown into the trees bordering the circuit.

The next lap was enough to send cold shivers down the spine. It's the same scenario, but this time they are about to lap Ricardo Zonta.

Zonta is in the middle of the track and Hakkinen is once again tucked in behind Schumacher's Ferrari.

Zonta, looking in his mirrors, would have seen the Ferrari, but it's highly debatable whether he'd have seen Hakkinen, who's behind Schumacher trying maximising the double tow.

This time Schumacher is forced to decide whether he's going to go around Zonta on the left or the right.

Ricardo is right of centre and so Michael goes left. In an instant Hakkinen shoots right and inside the pair of them.

In Mika's situation, with a little imagination, you'd have been thinking, 'Zonta hasn't seen me here and when he sees Michael going left, he's going to go right...' Whether it was bravery, lack of imagination or blind fury at what had happened a couple of minutes previously, Hakkinen kept his right foot buried and gave F1 one of its most memorable moments.

Schumacher's Hill move in Canada in '98 was memorable for the wrong reasons © LAT

Not a man prone to emotion, Hakkinen could later be seen talking to Schumacher, mimicking car positions with firm hand movements and a wagged finger. Michael was nodding. He knew.

It's not always him, though. Take a look also at Canada '98 and Schumacher attempting to pass Damon Hill's Jordan, also at around 200mph.

It's the usual scenario, with Schumacher tracking Hill to maximise the tow. Damon goes right, then as Michael jinks left, Hill moves to cover him.

It also puts Damon back on the optimum line for the following chicane. Schumacher flicks right and comes up alongside, at which point Hill moves right again.

Schumacher is caught off-guard and averts disaster by also swerving right, almost losing the Ferrari in the process. He clatters it across the chicane kerbing.

That too, was an awful bit of driving that should have been penalised. At the time the thought occurred that Hill executed such harsh defence so badly probably because it was so out of character and unpracticed!

Still, it was none the better for that and so easy to imagine a Ferrari cartwheeling into the pitlane.

By comparison with those two incidents, what we saw at Monza was child's play.

Talking of children, there's a valid fear that they will emulate the behaviour of their heroes.

When you see eight-year-old tadpoles, crash helmets as wide as frail little bodies, climbing onto open-wheel karts with no belts, no rollover bars, no body protection and dreams of being the next Schuey, you do start to think.

This at the same time when the health and safety police in Huyton - Steven Gerrard territory - are telling kids that they can't bring synthetic or leather footballs into the school playground because they're too dangerous. They have to use sponge ones...

Meantime, a school in Devon banned football altogether when the kids all started diving and cheating after witnessing last year's World Cup!

Which just goes to emphasise the point about kids mimicking what they see. Short of every grand prix coming with a 'don't try this at home' disclaimer, I don't know the answers.

Ironically, such are the safety advances made, that F1 is probably safer than junior karting these days. Policing it properly is a difficult balance.