Rubens Barrichello and Patrick Head have defended the Brazilian’s decision to throw the William’s steering wheel out of the car after crashing during the Monaco Grand Prix.

The $50,000 wheel was subsequently ran over by Karun Chandhok, who was not happy with Barrichello, saying: “What was he doing? Charlie Whiting actually asked me about it. You see on the video that he just throws it.”

Article 30.5 of the F1 sporting regulations state:

A driver who abandons a car must leave it in neutral or with the clutch disengaged, with the KERS shut down and with the steering wheel in place.

But Barrichello defended his decision to chuck the wheel out of the car: “I threw the steering wheel because I wanted to get out of the car as soon as possible. After the shunt I was facing the wrong side of the track and the car was on fire.”

Williams co-owner Patrick Head concurred: “If you are standing in the middle of a 120mph corner, you tend to think ‘let’s get out of here as quickly as you can’.”

Sorry Rubens and Patrick, but playing the safety card doesn’t wash with me. If he was in such a hurry he wouldn’t have sat in the car for as long as he did after chucking the steering wheel. What he did was dangerous and inexcusable, and could have injured or damaged Karun Chandhok and his HRT. A fine would be a fair penalty in my view.