PlanetF1

Hill: Driving standards above board

Saturday 16-February-2013 07:21

Damon Hill believes F1 racing is cleaner these days than in the past, thanks partly to the self-policing amongst drivers.

Although last season there were several controversial instances, which most notably resulted in Romain Grosjean's one-race ban, dirty racing has become a thing of the past.

The days of deliberately crashing into a rival, a move that resulted in Hill's nemesis Michael Schumacher being excluded from the 1997 Championship, are gone, replaced by strict stewarding and self-policing.

"There was a time when it was very controversial," the 1996 World Champ told Pitpass.

"There were drivers who overstepped the aggressiveness threshold and appeared to be condoned or even encouraged to drive in that way.

"I think today that there's a little bit more self-policing that goes on with the drivers.

"I think that the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers' Association) they get an opportunity to air their grievances with driving standards and I think there is peer pressure involved."

He added: "There's a line over which you don't want to see drivers go and I think they've been pretty good with the stewards in finding the balance.

"You don't want to neuter the competition, you want to see some brave moves but just running off the track because you can is not really racing, it's just blocking. It's not use of skill, it's use of belligerence."