FIA was LENIENT with Lewis Hamilton's opening lap penalty vs. George Russell | 2026 Belgian GP

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Hey, babes, it's Paris Hilton. So I was checking my points balance in the Hilton Honors app the other day, and yeah, I've got about a billion, which feels excessive, even for me. Just kidding. You can never have too many Hilton Honors points. And I want to do something iconic this summer, so I'm giving away all my Paris points. Just find somewhere you've always wanted to stay, then go to my socials or Hilton's and tell me about it. Just make sure you're a Hilton Honors member, and I might be sending you Paris points, because when you want points that make your summer even hotter, it matters where you stay.

**Soumil Arora** (0:30)
We are protesting because of unfair treatment on the Inside Line F1 Podcast, because we believe that the FIA has made a slight error in judgment because of which our beloved Lewis Hamilton has gotten a five-second penalty, which he probably shouldn't have. I know that's not the biggest story coming out of the Belgian GP in the grand scheme of things, because we have Kimi Antonelli winning his sixth Formula One race this season, and George Russell now almost being out of the title fight, among many other big things. But we have to start with this on the Belgian Grand Prix review episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast, because I, Kunal, am fascinated by all of this.
You were commentating on the live Hindi F1 broadcast in place with me this weekend on Fan Code, and you, Kunal, must also have seen the FIA's document explaining why Lewis Hamilton got the penalty, which just included reasons for why he shouldn't have gotten one, but he did. So what's up?

**Kunal Shah** (1:23)
What's up? Well, it's always tough, no? It's always tough being an FIA steward. It's always tough being in race control, especially opening lap scenarios. You know that title battles are on the line. You know that there is a legendary driver involved in the name of Lewis Hamilton, who otherwise is very, very clean in his racing. But you still have to keep all these factors aside, and you've got to make a decision. They, of course, decided that, hey, it was a five-second time penalty. But if it was not for the opening lap, it would have been a ten-second time penalty. So they were saying we were being lenient, given that opening lap has more cars going racing, and then whether more cars racing, there are higher chances to do this. And I'll put it this way.

**Soumil Arora** (2:06)
If anything, Kunal, if anything, I believe there shouldn't have been any penalty purely for that reason, because it's the opening lap.

**Kunal Shah** (2:12)
Yes, and this is where the question has to be asked. So for everyone tuning in, and we know there's lots of you tuning in live, we know there will be people who will be viewing this on demand as well, various apps and the podcast streaming solutions. So welcome everyone. But the outcome of an incident is not to be taken into consideration when it comes to adjudicating an incident. So in this case, the outcome was that a title contender, second in the drivers championship, 25 points away trying to chase down Kimi Antonelli, George Russell, beached at Lecombe out of the race. Was this outcome considered by the race control? They are not supposed to do it, but we are all humans out there. And one part of me always goes down to this phrase we've had, right? Soumil, since we've been growing up on motorsport tracks, let them race. And when you let them race, you are also allowed to have drivers make a sort of a mistake if it's not intentional, which the document said it wasn't intentional. So that's the dichotomy. On one hand, they're trying to preserve the legend and the clean racer, Lewis Hamilton. But on the other hand, they're saying, wait a minute, you get a five-second time penalty. And my question to you is, I know we've seen those on boards. I've seen them literally frame by frame. There is a mid-corner twitch Lewis has. He makes a correction. The document points at that correction. And my understanding, the limited understanding I have of rules, adjudication and Formula One, my understanding says that that twitch actually cost Lewis Hamilton a clean chit from that incident. That twitch meant that he was out of control. And that being out of control is what's written in the regulations. That in racing incidents like these, you shouldn't be out of control. You are responsible for keeping your car under control at all times. Do you think that got in his way?

**Soumil Arora** (4:01)