The FIA officials’ decisions during the French Grand Prix were nothing short of shocking.

Three not only substantially affected the outcome of the race, but could also turn out to be crucial to the outcome of this year’s title chase.

Coming into the race Lewis Hamilton was faced with a ten-place grid penalty for crashing into Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari in the pitlane in Canada two weeks earlier, but obviously he and the McLaren team were aware of it and they had worked out a race strategy to try and get him onto the podium at Magny-Cours.

However, these plans were scuppered when Hamilton was called in for a drive-through penalty a few laps into the race because the FIA stewards were of the opinion that he had illegally passed Sebastian Vettel’s Toro Rosso on the opening lap. This penalty cost him any chance of scoring points.

McLaren’s other penalty of the weekend came on Saturday when Heikki Kovalainen was docked five places on the grid for supposedly blocking Mark Webber during the first qualifying segment. This dropped him to 10th on the grid, with a much heavier fuel load than those immediately in front of him, which severely impacted on his chances of a podium finish.

By contrast, Raikkonen wasn’t sent to the pits after his Ferrari’s exhaust pipe broke halfway through the race. This piece of metal, which can reach 1000º C, was flying around wildly, only held by a sensor cable which eventually broke, sending the pipe flying into the air. Dangerous for spectators or another driver? Definitely, but no black flag with an orange spot for the Ferrari driver and the subsequent unscheduled pitstop.

Hamilton’s first penalty after his rookie error in Canada can't really be criticised, but his second on Sunday definitely can.

From the TV footage it can't unequivocally be deduced that he did gain an unfair advantage after straightlining the Nürburgring chicane, because it did seem as if he had already passed Vettel. Had it been so absolutely clear, then McLaren could have been told that Hamilton should let the German through, as often happens in such cases.

Instead, the stewards — none of whom had ever raced, let alone in an F1 car — had to resort to closed circuit footage and even then it took them 12 laps to come to a decision.

And what about Kovalainen’s penalty on Saturday? The incident occurred during the first qualifying segment (Q1) and it was abundantly clear that Heikki didn't impede Webber on purpose. Yes, the Aussie had to do another lap, but that didn't stop him from getting through to either Q2 or Q3, when he was eighth fastest. In addition, neither Mark nor his team complained afterwards, yet the stewards announced a few hours later that Kovalainen would be penalised.

Why they came to this decision nobody knows.

Without question Raikkonen should have been called into the pits to get rid of that flying piece of exhaust. This order should have come from race director Charlie Whiting, who's also tasked with looking after all safety aspects in Formula 1, because Ferrari certainly wouldn't have done it as long as Kimi wasn’t losing too much time.

Had this solid piece of hot metal struck a spectator or another driver it could have been ugly.

Yes, Raikkonen did receive a drive-through penalty in Monaco, but that wasn’t a judgment call: his mechanics were on the grid later than allowed. He wasn’t penalised for running into the back of Sutil, because it was a racing accident at full speed — different to the Hamilton incident in Canada — and that was a correct decision.

But all of the French decisions were questionable and Formula 1 cannot afford such dodgy judgement calls. Not only does it undermine the credibility of the ‘referee’, but at the end of the season nobody would like to look back at the French Grand Prix, wondering how much different it could have been.