pokerman wrote:
minchy wrote:
Something that I don't think has been mentioned in this thread yet is how this, or any other incident like it, will affect the bookies and gambling.
I don't gamble myself, but bookies take bets on f1 and if it is classed as a sport the odds and bets should reflect that. Look at match fixing in almost any other sport (soccer, American football, cricket etc) if any player is deemed to have done something deliberate to affect the outcome of the match (and also the odds) they have huge sentences imposed on them. Match bans or sometimes even live times bans, losing their jobs in a team, fines from the governing body, fines or even prison time from courts for fraud or similar.
What if someone in a bookies put an instant bet on how many laps Hamilton would be behind Occon? In a sporting situation this would be a genuine bet, but if Occon then let's Hamilton through can the gambler argue with the bookie that it was deliberate letting the other driver through? What if someone put a £1,000,000 bet on the Hamilton would pass Occon within 1 lap? Could that be seen as Occon in on the bet and was indeed 'match fixing'?
I guess my point is if this kind of thing is allowed in f1, then maybe it can no longer be called a sport as we know sport to be. It be a form of 'sports entertainment' like pro wrestling.
Who cares about gamblers and why would they be gambling on theoretical situations?
Ok Poker, let's forget about the gamblers. As I said, I don't gamble myself and I also couldn't care less about them. But let's first look at potential ramifications in f1 because of this - there is big prize money involved in f1and what if Mercedes beat Ferrari to the top spot by 1 point? Could Ferrari bring up this incident and protest because a Force India let a Mercedes by and by doing so cost Ferrari millions? There's no question that he did let the Mercedes by rather than simply not defending, so is that fair to Ferrari?
As for Ocon letting a driver by, I don't know of you follow cricket or read about the culmination of undercover investigations into the sport about 10 years ago? If not, here's a quick summary.....
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakista ... ng_scandalIf the FIA or local authorities look into f1 in the same way, it could be considered lucky for Ocon that his team and Mercedes have admitted to pre-planning the move should the situation arise.
My final point still stands if this is an acceptable thing to happen in f1, it will no longer be a sport, just sports entertainment. Which of it wants to be is fine, but if that is the case, they should simply embrace it and not hld onto being an actual sport. It's almost like Chelsea playing a non-league qualifyer in the first round of the FA cup, should they just sit down on the pitch and Chelsea score what they want or should they actually do their best to try and compete with them?