Another penalty for Gutierrez after Maldonado crash

2014 British Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Esteban Gutierrez will have another grid penalty for the next round of the championship following his collision with Pastor Maldonado.

The stewards said Gutierrez was “predominantly at fault” for the tangle with Maldonado and gave him a three-place grid penalty for the next race in Germany.

However Gutierrez said Maldonado should have given him more room.

“When I tried to overtake him in turn 16 [Vale] he braked and did not leave me enough space,” said Gutierrez. “I was already beside him and could not avoid a collision with him.”

“I feel very sorry for the team, as this is not the way a race should end.”

Gutierrez arrived at Silverstone with a ten-place grid penalty following his unsafe release from the pits in the previous round. He also had a five-place penalty for a gearbox change, though it made no difference to his eventual starting position.

2014 British Grand Prix

Browse all 2014 British Grand Prix articles

Image © Sauber

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

25 comments on “Another penalty for Gutierrez after Maldonado crash”

  1. Dion (@infinitygc)
    6th July 2014, 19:19

    That’s unexpectedly lenient, I expected a lot worse!

    Not sure if that’s a good thing, though…

  2. Did they stop giving penalty points on driver licenses? I saw a lot points being awarded in first 3-4 races and then suddenly it stopped.

    1. yyyeeeaaahhh
      6th July 2014, 23:05

      I’m wondering too, it’s been a few races now that they lose places but we don’t hear about points ; and there doesn’t seem to be any website following this

  3. Sauber is doomed with these drivers.
    The car isn’t great, but a better driver would have scored already.

    1. I think a driver like Hulkenberg, Perez or Bottas would have probably scored with this car at Monaco (as Sutil and Gutierez should have done), but it would take a WDC-class driver to get anywhere near the points elsewhere. Even today they only looked close because Massa, Raikkonen and Rosberg didn’t finish.

      Personally, I’ve always had a liking for the Sauber team, but this year they seem to have gone where the money is, as far as drivers are concerned, and it completely backfired on them. I feel bad for the team, but I honestly wouldn’t miss either driver if there were to be fired tomorrow.

      1. Totally agree, I like the Sauber team a lot, but this is sad. I hope neither driver returns next season. Sauber must do better than this.

      2. Though I like sauber as a team but I lost all the respect to them once they announced their driver line up for 2014. And I am being proved right weekend after weekend by their drivers.

  4. I think that’s tough on Gutierrez. Maldonado went to overtake the Marussia at the same time Gutierrez lunged in to overtake him. Can’t we call that a racing incident?

    1. Racing incident at most. I’d say Maldonado’s fault though, as Gutierrez had already gone for it before Maldonado moved.

      One of the worst decisions this year.

      1. And actually, the more I think about it, the more this goes against the Canada decision with Perez, who effectively made the same type of move.

  5. It was just 3 into 1, Maldonado on Bianchi and Gutierrez on Maldonado. Bit harsh I think.

  6. If I’m remembering the incident correctly it looked like he had a choice between running into the back of Maldonado or going for the space on the inside. Not sure if I agree with the grid drop – points on licence or reprimand might have been fairer. Not sure.

  7. This guy has got too go he is average it is funny. I mean Calado is as good as this guy if not better look at their GP2 season together

  8. Gutierrez makes Chilton look like Ayrton Senna. He’s embarrassing. He’s far too slow and gets involved in far too many incidents. His contretemps with Maldonado was ridiculous.

    1. i wonder if Van Der Garde will be driving soon? Gut is very close in performance like Sutil and already there we can notice that the lineup is too slow. i want Garde to be given a chance or kick them both out and replace with frijns and garde

      1. Sirotkin or De Silvestro are probably closer to that seat than Van Der Garde.

        1. But they can’t risk getting two rookies at a time so they need an experienced fast driver to lead the team which is what Hulk did last year. The I year sutil is failing miserably in doing so. So VDG is faster than these two and has an experience of onevseason in F1 and he too gets a decent amount of sponsorship if I am not mistaken.

  9. Interesting. Maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way due to the drivers involved, but didn’t Maldonado change his line in the braking zone? I would have blamed him more for the crash (of course, Gutierrez initiated the move, so it was his job to do it cleanly).

    1. @kaiie no, you are correct. A stupid decision by the stewards once again.

      If it were up to me I’d have given Maldonado a 5-place grid penalty and 2 penalty points. It may seem extreme, but that is my view.

      1. Except Maldonado didn’t change lines, he just turned in earlier than Gutierez expected, and since he did leave him enough space its hardly his fault. For once I don’t think Maldonado was the cause of this. If they’d said racing incident I’d say its fair enough, but if the blame has to be put on either driver I’d say they made the right call

  10. It looks as if Maldonado was making a move on Bianchi at the same time Gutierrez was trying to make one on Maldonado. Maldonado was more focused on what was ahead rather than behind him but to be fair it seems Gutierrez was coming in far too quickly due to him locking up and thus busing the Lotus to help slow his car down.

  11. Seems another marginal one to me. The door was pretty wide open and it was front wheel on front wheel in the end. Maldonado could and probably should have given room, and could still have avoided the second part of the crash by bailing out of the corner (GUT was pretty much on full lock by then). Wheel to wheel racing only happens when the driver being challenged allows it to, and I would rather see penalties that promote that.

  12. Only Chuck Norris can Maldonadoize Maldonado. Gutierrez tried, he failed.

  13. Fritz Oosthuizen (@)
    7th July 2014, 9:28

    Back to Sauber. I have always supported the team but with this line up……. Get anybody even Rubens from rerirement.

  14. Mark in Florida
    7th July 2014, 12:07

    Once again Maldonado is involved in a crash. To me it looked like he saw Gut coming and jacked his car around at a weird angle to block him. Maldonado has shown good pace in the past but his decision making process when reacting to other drivers is what is killing his driving career. Too bad for Gut though, got to close to the black hole that is Maldonado and disappeared.

Comments are closed.