Ericsson to start from pits after penalty

2014 Italian Grand Prix

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Marcus Ericsson will start the Italian Grand Prix from the pit lane after incurring a penalty during qualifying.

Ericsson had qualified in last place but has been ordered to start from the pits after being penalised for driving too quickly past double waved yellow flags during final practice, Caterham confirmed.

“I’m disappointed with the result but we will certainly fight back tomorrow,” said Ericsson.

“This morning in FP3 we had a small problem with the engine before the performance run, so we didn’t get to do a proper run on the [medium] tyres and therefore we went into qualifying a bit blind, unfortunately. Everything worked fine in the afternoon, but we struggled to get the most out of the car.

“We need to look at the data tonight and see where we can improve compared to Kamui [Kobayashi].”

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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...

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13 comments on “Ericsson to start from pits after penalty”

  1. F1.6T
    6th September 2014, 15:16

    I’m afraid I don’t rate Ericsson one bit. At Spa Lotterer jumped in the second car and was quicker than him, the lad if FP1 (his name escapes me) was quicker and then Kamui jumps back in after missing the last event completely and he went quicker than Ericsson.

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      Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
      6th September 2014, 15:55

      Roberto Merhi.

  2. vjm
    6th September 2014, 15:32

    The slowest driver on the grid by far. Doesn’t deserve to drive even for a backmarker team,

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    Jake (@jleigh)
    6th September 2014, 15:35

    Oh, is this guy still here…

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    R.J. O'Connell (@rjoconnell)
    6th September 2014, 15:39

    Obligatory “He will start the race in Imola” line.

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    Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
    6th September 2014, 16:01

    Not that his penalty would make any sort of difference anyway as he is the slowest driver on the current grid and even Max Chilton is faster than him. I have no idea why Caterham would favour Ericsson over Kobayashi apart from the fact that Ericsson has more money. Still, at least Ericsson can stay out of other peoples way.

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    hunocsi (@hunocsi)
    6th September 2014, 17:21

    I also read that he received 3 penalty points for this speeding, which means he has now 5, the most of any driver in this respect.
    So at least he has that going for him which is nice.

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      Jules Winfield (@jules-winfield)
      6th September 2014, 20:04

      Does that make him the fastest driver, then?

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    WilliamB (@william-brierty)
    6th September 2014, 18:00

    I can’t help but feel Marcus is starting to pose the question: just how slow is too slow? Marcus was outqualified by chap that hasn’t driven an F1 car since 2003, and slower than a medium(ish) junior series talent getting his first taste of F1 and now comprehensively outqualified once again by a returning KK. With Caterham clearly seeing their second car solely as an income stream why care about performance level at all? I’d imagine the middle aged gentlemen who go around at the back in British GT, Ferrari Challenge Europa and in [WEC] GTE-AM are much richer than Marcus and his backers…

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      Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
      6th September 2014, 20:10

      @william-brierty True, but if Merhi can’t even get a super-licence (being the 2011 F3 champion, and 2nd in this year’s FR3.5), then Marcus is probably their best bet at the moment for that position.

      I wonder if extra weight is still an issue – only in Malaysia did I notice him getting close to Kobayashi, yet for two drivers to step in to a car they’ve never driven and be faster than him highlights this. Before 2010, Ericsson was as hot as Ricciardo at the junior levels (F3 and below), if not hotter..

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        WilliamB (@william-brierty)
        7th September 2014, 6:51

        @fastiesty – In wonder if multi-millionaire and AutoGP backmarker, Giuseppe Cipriani, is available?

    2. anon
      6th September 2014, 21:13

      By historical standards, Ericsson is a lot better than some of the pay drivers of the 1990’s – just compare him to figures like Rosset, Deletraz or Inoue for example.

      The former was so notoriously accident prone that his mechanics threatened to go on strike because they were fed up with repairing his car, Deletraz was once described by Autosport as “staggeringly slow” and was so slow in qualifying (seven seconds behind his team mate) that he’d have qualified on the back row of the Formula 3000 support race and the latter turned up to his first grand prix without knowing how to carry out a pit stop – which was why he was relieved he spun out before he needed to carry out a pit stop.

      It’s true that Ericsson is not the fastest driver out there, but by even relatively recent standards Ericsson is at least showing more competence than some of the drivers who have been given race seats.

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        WilliamB (@william-brierty)
        7th September 2014, 6:37

        All exceedingly true, particularly in Deletraz’s case, but motorsport as a whole is now infinitely more professional than the “bad old days” and I would argue, versus the standards of driving we are treated to not just in modern F1 but across motorsport, Ericsson’s pace, rather lack of it, is starting to stand out like a saw thumb. I could name perhaps fifty drivers more befitting of that seat, and in that respect he is fast becoming to F1 what Carmen Jorda is to GP3…

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