Bourdais Fuji penalty against FIA advice.

What a joke! What was he supposed to do, pull over, get out of the car and wave at him as Massa drives by??? I love F1 but this **** is ruining it for me.

Once again the stewards have undermined the well respected and highly experienced Charlie Whiting. If they can't pay heed to his instructions to the teams, I suggest that F1 abandons their lame duck stewards and allow Charlie to make the decisions about penalties.

Who are these stewards? Do they just go out on Thursday before the race and pick a few random blokes off the street or something? Because they are pretty incompetent. It's about time we had the same professional stewards that attended every race. There is no reason not to do this.

Toro Rosso should protest the penalty. So what if Ferrari supplies their engines, Massa was at fault. Seb had another terrific drive wasted because of this biased call. F1 needs to step up, reverse the penalty and give Bourdais back his points. Total BS.

the 'retrospective' drive through penalty cannot be appealed. McLaren found this out after the SPA incident.
It looks like it is being used as a spice up the results joker to ensure that the championships go down to the wire.
A very harsh decision on Bourdais since he is fighting for his F1 drive.

That is incredible. What is Charlie Whiting getting paid for if the stewards don't listen? He's highly regarded and very experience so I would think they would comply with his advice.

This shows how big of a joke the stewards are

I just realized that I really love F1 cause i keep waking up at odd hours to watch this BS!I really didn't think things could get any worst than last year, but as a whole, 2008 will probably be more controversial.

I'm shocked, shocked, that their is underhanded dealing in F-1. Whatever happened to the ideal of unsullied sportsmanship. Really this looks to be such a blatant attempt to aid Ferrari. Stinks.

Bourdais Penalty was a gross blunder, by FIA, another example of rampant incosistencies and unprofessionalism. Its not the Global Credit Crunch but the "Credibility Crunch" that is hurting F1.
If only those in power find time from their "secret orgies" and focus more on "honest governance" of the sport rather than "random rule changes" in name of cost cutting, the Sport has some chance of surving both the "Credit" and "Credibility Crunch"

Nice to see FIA is trying to satisfy Ferrari for not excluding McLaren drivers last year. The whole F1 is ridiculous, punishing for driving hard (first corner incident...), trying to overtake, or not rolled the red carpet for Ferraris???? It should be the king of motorsports, not a tea-afternoon...
Bernie and Max should realize that WTCC, MotoGP, WSBK and even so WRC is here to destroy F1 to ruins, because they are wide open for people, provide lots of actions, and lacks stupid stewardings.
FIA = Ferrari's Intercontinental Association. Terrible

So it's becoming ever more clear that the FIA bias is not just AGAINST McLaren, but simply FOR Ferrari - at whatever cost to its own credibility and the sport as a whole. Massa made two egregious driving errors at Fuji and still goes home with two points - amazing.

FooAtari - "Who are these stewards"
I have determined that the names of the race stewards are - Larry, Curly, and Moe

Suppose that if in a football match that after full time a panel of judges decided that a certain player should have been sent off for a foul. So that player would not have scored his 2 goals because he wouldn't have been on the pitch. Therefore instead of your team winning 2-1 you actually lose 0-1 ! These 25sec penalties are just as absurd. They had at least 15 mins to come to decision on this while the race was on. Let Charlie Whiting referee the races while they're being run. He's got the experience and knowledge to make the right decisions in seconds. Like a good referee should be able to in any sport.

It was clearly an unfair decision, the vast majority can't all be wrong. If F1 carries on like this the major sponsers might become reluctant to keep ploughing their millions into it.With the credit crunch bringing budjets under close scrutiny, the other manufacturers might just decide to set up a rival series. Then it could all start with a clean sheet. Should this happen F1 could only blame itself for devaluing
the integrey of the sport.

F1 stinks at the moment. I'm surprised the Kubica didn't get a penalty for not letting Raikkonen past.

Why can't Whiting just make the decisions? At least he's been around the paddock for years and knows his a.r.s.e from his elbow.

These 'stewards' are a joke, there needs to some accountability. Who are they, and how are they qualified for this role??

you can "buy" anything these days if you've got enough euro's or yen or dollars.

2 things i'm astounded by in this article... 1) C.W as race director seems to be having his authority whipped away from under him at any opportunity by useless stewards, with nothing been done about it by the FIA - but I suppose there shouldnt be any suprise in that... 2) I actually agree with something James Allen has said...

F1 will not listen until we the public decide we have had enough, switch it off worldwide, and don't buy your tickets for next years racing. Refuse to buy products from sponsors and advise these sponsors of the reason behind your decision, then we wil lsee F1 declining. True to my word I didn't watch Monza, Then I thought sensibility had been restored, then this, I'll not set my alarm clock to get up for this crap

The million dollar question is - who allowed the stewards to defy Charlie Whiting's advice? Max Mosley?