Posts Tagged ‘youtube’
YouTube footage may alter the course of the F1 championship
October 4th, 2007
Bare with me if you have no interest in Formula One racing, as that isn’t really the point of this post.
As you may know, the season is drawing to a close (two races left) and it was a tight battle for the championship between two drivers; Lewis Hamilton being one of them. By the end of Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix, Hamilton was firmly in the driving seat (excuse the pun) to take the championship in his first ever season thanks to a dramatic win. No mean feat!
Right that’s the background, now onto the good stuff. His victory, and therefore the 10 points he received which propelled him ahead in the championship race, has now been called into question by Motor racing’s governing body, the FIA, because of…wait for it…evidence that came to light on YouTube.
The incident, which was filmed by a fan in the stands and posted to YouTube following the race, was not picked up by the race stewards or the TV coverage, and Hamilton would have got away with it had it not been for that pesky cameraman in the stands.
I think this a great example of the effect that User Generated Content, and social media in general, is having on the wider world. I know footage has come to light of problems at sporting events in the past, but as far as I know this is the first piece of footage that could effect the outcome of a major, and very lucrative, competition.
Just in case you are interested, the footage shows Hamilton decelerating dramatically, forcing the driver behind to slow down and cause a crash.
If found guilty Hamilton could lose the 10 points he gained for winning, though a more likely punishment would be demotion by 10 places on the grid for Sunday’s penultimate round of the championship, making a win virtually impossible and putting Hamilton’s championship victory in doubt.
The irony is that video has now been removed from YouTube, because of…yes you’ve guessed it, a copyright claim by Formula One Management.
Shane Richmond at The Telegraph has the story.
Technorati tags: formula+1, user+generated+content, youtube, lewis+hamilton