Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has urged Formula 1’s stewards to be more diligent when it comes to applying penalties for impeding in qualifying.
Yuki Tsunoda was given a three place grid penalty for impeding Wolff’s driver Lewis Hamilton. However Lance Stroll was cleared after being investigated for impeding the Mercedes driver and the stewards decided not to look into an incident between Hamilton and Fernando Alonso during Q1.Wolf believes Hamilton failed to progress beyond Q2 because he was impeded by other drivers.
“I think Lewis had really good pace all week and insofar it’s really painful to see that, because of traffic, you’re not making yourself going into Q3, which you would have deserved,” he said.
He said other teams are not doing enough to ensure they do not impede their rivals. “I think also the impeding is pretty ugly to look at. I don’t know whether it’s become a bit of a pattern because people simply don’t care or not get penalised.
“I mean, if I see the impeding from Alonso in Q1 that’s clear impeding and there was no further investigation. So some need to open their eyes.“
Stiffer penalties are needed to encourage teams avoid holding up their rivals, said Wolff.
“I think the answer is penalise. Penalise, penalise. If you know you don’t go to prison when you cheat at tax, you cheat at tax.
“I don’t understand why these things are not penalised. This was clear impeding with some drivers in Q1. Tsunoda is a nice guy, but he impeded Lewis in his quick lap, he didn’t move from the dry line. You can see he dived on the inside and it didn’t look like it’s cost much but going from a dry line into wet line, back into a dry line, cost. I think a tenth would have put him into Q3.
“So we need to be harsh with penalties and then people will again look in the mirrors.”
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BasCB (@bascb)
26th August 2023, 21:26
That was the one where Hamilton came upon the back of Alonso behind 2 other cars, right? I think that by now there have been at least 2 prior similar cases where it happened and the stewards ruled the car “blocking” really did not have much chance to go anywhere.
melanos
26th August 2023, 22:47
Specially in a drying track, you can easily lose control of the car if you leave the dry line. Well, TW can say whatever he feels like. This is motor racing, Herr Torger Christian Wolff.
Dex
26th August 2023, 22:34
Remember this mr. Wolff when one of your drivers finds himself in the same situation, and please call for a penalty. I mean, it did happen to your drivers before, and I don’t remember any statement like this. If I can be blunt, if you have a mouth that doesn’t mean that you have to use it.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage (@davedai)
27th August 2023, 2:38
That’s right! After All Capone went to jail for cheating on tax , no-one since has cheated on tax. 🤔
Moi
27th August 2023, 8:41
Some people don’t cheat on their taxes out of a sense of civic duty and common human decency.
Totally lost on Toto of course.