Statement from the Stewards Office

[Kat]

As many of you will have noticed we recently had a long discussion leading on from a stewards report expressing surprise about the lack of comment on one incident.

The discussion was actually very pleasing to see. The number one thing the stewards office wants to see is drivers being aware of mistakes and trying to learn from them. In the grand scheme of things we don't actually mind HOW those lessons are learnt, just that they are.

The incident in question was very complex and the discussion in question was very like some of the heated debates we get in the SO. We have to look at all aspect of any incident and sometimes experience just tells us that it was a racing incident, other times we have reams of discussion.

In this case the stewards quickly decided it was a racing incident, didn't call for it to be cited ( that is mentioned but no penalty ) and as they were in agreement I accepted their decision. The incident was probably closed a little quickly.. BUT having spent a lot of time looking at the incident during the discussions I'm happy that the stewards were right in their decision.

That said it is an incident that, on another day, could have resulted in a citation or a Level 2 penalty - and given the nature of the incident it's one of those rare ones which aren't as clear cut as would appear at first glance and with deep analysis could have gone either way.

In hindsite I should, perhaps, have cited it, but as the stewards didn't call for it, it didn't get cited.. but the drivers decided it probably warranted more of a discussion and that's a positive thing from the SO point of view.

Can the SO learn from this?

Yes I think so.. We've learnt that drivers are getting more aware which is a good thing. I also think it's worth me using citations more often - we no-longer have level 3 penalties ( which this incident probably would have been ) but citations are a good tool for highlighting incidents.

[Rouke]

Thank you Kat,

I'de like to add two things to try and round it off, first of all Kat did what she was suposed to do as CS, procedures where followed as per usual and there where no negatives pointed out in both the stewards office and HQ when the report got submitted before going official. Next was of course defending it and in the twf1 thread this was done respectfully on both sides, nice to see

Secondly, there's quite a few opinions, both public and private, allot has been said about it back and forth but at the end of the day there's two things that stand out:
1] a penalty was NOT given to Risto. i think its save to say that this is the least intrusive result anyone can hope for. regardless of a stance on the matter.
2] A 'possible' penalty regarding the nudge from Grant was also not given. Even Grant expected that one, but it didn't happen.

So to me this sounds like bullets where dodged on both sides and it evens out, nothing lost nothing gained.

i'm hoping with all this we can leave this behind us and move forward in the same manner as before, having fun and taking care of eachother on-track