It frustrates me how many fans have argued against Lewis Hamilton’s penalty in the Spanish Grand Prix, last weekend. Yes, it was McLaren’s mistake and Lewis was blameless! However, F1 is a team sport and therefore drivers, mechanics, engineers and the other team member are in it together.
A member of the team did not put enough fuel into the car resulting in Hamilton being instructed to stop during his slowing down lap in order to provide a fuel sample. But the stewards saw the incident as a breach of the regulations and the team were therefore penalised with which the team did not contest against. Hamilton was stripped of his amazing pole position and sent to the back of the grid.
But this was not the first time that McLaren have made this error.
Motorsport Reflections 