It's one way conversation, mainly sounds like he gives his opinion. If questioned about the call he quotes what the rules says and how he sees situation. I don't think he breaks the rules or integrity.

Lol so we can't have stewards from a driver's country anymore?

More evidence of his fragile mental state. The first time he said it, it made sense because he had been dumped in a very personal manner by Wihuri. This time he sounds like he is tilting at windmills. Why is he paying attention to what people write about him on the internet? Close the shit room door already.

It puts the mental strength of other number 2 drivers into perspective. Irvine had tremendous mental strength - he went to Ferrari knowing and accepting that he was Schumacher's inferior, never tried to change that or get on his level, and yet still had the mental fortitude to do the best he could and help Ferrari win their first (WCC) title in 20 years, even with Schumacher missing half the season.

Here's a weird story.

Finnish media were getting the drop on who was getting penalties long before they were announced, they reportedly were getting their intel from Mika Salo, who was the race steward. It's a big no-no apparently.

Worth bearing in mind at this point that Mika Salo does not get on with the one major Finnish driver he raced against in his career, who also just happens to be one of Bottas' advisors. I'm confident there's no pro-Finland conspiracy going on

Oh look, it's the know it all miserable Australian on his high horse again thinking he knows how things are for real.

Maybe I have seen more Finnish F1 broadcasts than you and know by the fact that Salo is openly doing this and has been doing this for years already. Now some people foubd it out and thinks that this is a scoop or scandal which it isn't.

And yes, I know rulebooks are biiig books that only the most talented Australian engineer alone could understand that reading it from front to back takes tremendous amount of time, especially if one decides to read it all for one simple penalty and takes his time to listen the complains from the team they are trying to serve it.

Nearly every sporting rulebook is just like you, Scotty. Thick, boring and annoying as fuck to follow. It just so happens to be that in other sports it doesn't take half an hour to give penalty and they rarely are changed afterwards. And that's a flaw that should be fixed already. Salo announcing already handed penalty faster than F1 coverage is not his problem, F1 should announce them faster, which has been said multiple times on multiple occasions with different drivers and different breaches.

Why did they fall out?

Is it like a Schumacher/Frentzen girlfriend stealing thing?
Or a Hamilton/Sutil "what's REALLY going on here guys?" thing?

Dude, if you can't see how wrong it is that one of the race stewards is texting his mates in the media about the decisions that are handing down before being announced then I'm afraid that you are maybe the thick one.

There is no way that that should be happening at all and opens up all kind of criticisms, not the least the idea of impartiality. You may think its just notifications of penalties...but did you stop to consider what else he maybe telling people about confidential rulings and investigations that he is privy to??

In short, messaging his mates in the media about penalties breaks trust. And that's why it is wrong.

I'm not sure on the specifics but they were title rivals in British F3 in 1990 and even back then, relations were quite strained. Two different personalities - Salo's a no-bullshit, straight-to-the-point guy whereas Hakkinen's more laconic. Also I imagine there was a bit of tension from Hakkinen getting a lot more backing in his career