“FIA Biggest Hypocrites” – Lewis Hamilton’s Italian GP Penalty Leaves F1 Fandom Dwindling Over “Unpunished” 4-Year-Old Incident With Charles Leclerc

Lewis Hamilton received a 5-second penalty during the Italian Grand Prix for a move he tried to make on Oscar Piastri. Hamilton fans have resurfaced a clip from 2019 where Charles Leclerc tried a similar move on Hamilton, only that time, no penalty was given. 

On lap 41, Lewis Hamilton tried to overtake Oscar Piastri on the inside going into Della Roggia. Unfortunately, he could not do so without making contact with Piastri’s front wing. While Lewis Hamilton did not suffer any damage, the rookie had to pit for a new front wing and went on to finish only 12th in the race. Lewis Hamilton received a 5-place penalty and still managed to get P6. Hamilton has since apologized to Oscar Piastri for the incident. 

Who remembers when this went unpunished…..

FiA biggest hypocrites of all time…..#ItalianGP 🇮🇹 #Monza pic.twitter.com/9yPu0wQhIe

— The Technician (@TheTechnician44) September 3, 2023

Complete joke. It should’ve been Piastri who got the penalty. What was he trying to do?

— 🦌 (@TroIledByAkumpo) September 3, 2023

Soon after the race, the Hamilton fanatics resurfaced a similar move Charles Leclerc made while defending against Lewis Hamilton for the lead of the race. The move was quite similar except for the fact that Leclerc was defending. In the instance that occurred this year, Lewis was attacking.

Edge of our seats 🍿😯#ItalianGP 🇮🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/um2nUaAZYv

— Formula 1 (@F1) September 8, 2019

Fans claim that the FIA is unfair towards Lewis Hamilton. These claims started to occur from the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix where Max Verstappen won the Championship. The fans did not seem to have a problem when Lewis Hamilton was dominating the sport.

Did Lewis Hamilton deserve the penalty at the Italian GP?

During the race, The Briton was in a much different strategy than the others. While most of the cars in the top 10 started the race in medium tires, Lewis decided to start with the hards. This allowed him to stay on track for longer without pitting. He then pitted much later for mediums while the rest of the grid had pitted earlier for hard tires. 

This strategy gave the 7-time champion the grip to make some easy moves against drivers who were on hard tires. One of the main rivals to Mercedes is McLaren. Both the McLarens were ahead of Hamilton after he pitted for mediums. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Sky Sports F1 (@skysportsf1)

The tire compound and the younger age of the tire allowed him to catch up to them quickly. On lap 41, Lewis Hamilton had his incident with Piastri. In the incident, Lewis lined up the rookie for an easy overtake while approaching the Della Roggio chicanes. By the time they reached the breaking point for the chicane, Lewis was ahead. However, he moved a bit towards Oscar while braking. This was the main cause of the contact. 

According to the rules, while overtaking or defending, the driver is not allowed to change their racing line while braking. It was a fairly simple move for Lewis Hamilton. Even Piastri did not fight him too much as he knew that he had the advantage. 

So considering the facts, we can say that the penalty was fair. We don’t see such mistakes from Lewis often. Let’s see if he makes any more mistakes in the remainder of the season.