Schumacher should've been penalised......

Former Formula 1 driver Derek Daly, who was part of the FIA-appointed stewards’ panel at Monza, says he now believes Michael Schumacher should have been penalised for the blocking tactics he used trying to keep Lewis Hamilton at bay during the Italian Grand Prix.

Schumacher and Hamilton had a long and fierce battle – initially for third place and then for fourth after Jenson Button moved ahead – which lasted from the restart on lap four all the way to lap 27, when Hamilton finally made a pass stick.

In the course of the duel Schumacher became increasingly muscular in his defensive tactics, until he was advised by team principal Ross Brawn over the radio to leave Hamilton more racing room following a warning to the Mercedes pit wall from FIA race director Charlie Whiting.

Schumacher repeatedly made the one permitted move to the inside of the track to keep the door closed on the run to the Ascari chicane, and then would move back to the outside just before the braking area to line up for the corner, and did the same thing on the short straight between the second chicane and the Lesmo corners on lap 20.

There was also a tense moment on lap 16 when Schumacher squeezed Hamilton onto the grass in the Curva Grande as the McLaren started to pull alongside turning into the 180mph flat-out bend.

Hamilton chose not to criticise the seven-time world champion afterwards, and Schumacher received no official censure from the stewards.

But in a statement released on Tuesday, Daly – who was the driver representative in the stewards’ office for the Monza weekend – says he has reviewed Schumacher’s driving and now believes the “blatant double block” at Lesmo on lap 20 warranted a drive-through penalty.

“On lap 20, race director Charlie Whiting asked the stewards to look at an incident between Felipe Massa and Jarno Trulli at the second chicane,” said Daly.

“While looking at the slow-motion video of this incident, I missed the Schumacher/Hamilton incident that happened at that moment.

“When I looked at it again at home, I believe that Schumacher should have been given a drive-though penalty.

“He was warned repeatedly and this style of driving is not what you want the future generation of drivers to perfect.

“We as stewards probably let Charlie down with this one.”

For many years the limits of acceptable defensive driving in F1 were a matter of etiquette rather than strict rules.

But Article 20.2 of the 2011 FIA sporting regulations states that “manoeuvres liable to hinder other drivers, such as more than one change of direction to defend a position, deliberate crowding of a car beyond the edge of the track or any other abnormal change of direction, are not permitted”.

However there is some debate about whether the ‘one move’ element of this rule allows a driver to blend back onto the racing line before a corner following an earlier blocking move to the inside. Schumacher’s lap 20 move was an extreme case in point because the short straight between the Roggia chicane and the first Lesmo accentuated the ‘zig-zag’ effect.

Daly’s contention that it constituted a “blatant double block” shows that, for him at least, a strict interpretation of the one-move rule should apply.