In the round-up: Yuki Tsunoda says he is penalised more often than other drivers.
In brief
Tsunoda says Russell move wasn’t “aggressive”
Tsunoda was given a five-second time penalty, and two endorsement points on his licence, for tangling with George Russell when the Mercedes driver passed him on the outside of turn one during the race.
“Russell was ahead of Tsunoda at the braking point, but Tsunoda appeared to brake a little later,” the stewards noted. “Tsunoda was on the dirty inside line and having braked later he then understeered into Russell. The stewards determined that Tsunoda was predominantly at fault for the collision.”
The AlphaTauri driver disagreed with the penalty and wasn’t convinced he’d made contact with the Mercedes. “I mean, that’s racing,” he said. “I didn’t feel like it was aggressive. I don’t think we touched in the end. But I’m the one who always gets penalties.”
Magnussen drops to 16th
Kevin Magnussen fell to 16th place in the final classification as he was given a five-second time penalty for falling more than 10 car lengths behind the car ahead of him at the final restart. The stewards noted he did so on multiple occasions as he tried to warm his tyres.He was not given any endorsement points on his licence. The stewards pointed out penalty points are no longer given for incidents which are not considered dangerous.
“Previously during Safety Car procedures, drivers have been awarded penalty points when not following 10 car lengths behind each other during the safety car,” they noted. “However this was during the safety car procedures when marshals and rescue personnel were on track and the penalty was issued under Art. 55.7 of the [Sporting Regulations], and is considered potentially dangerous, which is the reason behind penalty points.
“This case occurred during the race resumption and while there was a sporting consequence, there was no question of this being dangerous and therefore the stewards award no penalty points.”
Prema fined after wheels fall off Vesti’s car
Prema have been fined for unsafely releasing Frederik Vesti during Formula 2’s feature race in Zandvoort on Sunday. The Mercedes junior pitted on lap 11 but both rear tyres fell off on his out-lap at turn five.
Prema explained “the normal indicators of a successful wheel installation were not available to the team”, because the green light on the rear wheel guns was on “throughout the service”. The stewards fined Prema €2,000 (£1,700).
Novalak “chuffed to bits” with maiden win
Clement Novalak admitted he’s struggled to adapt to Formula 2 after clinching his debut victory in the series at Zandvoort on Sunday. It was the Trident driver’s second points finish of the season, and only Novalak’s second podium since making his F2 debut in 2021 – his other also coming at Zandvoort last year.
“We’ve struggled this year and to be honest I’ve not really adapted well to Formula 2, so it’s a very good feeling,” said Novalak. “It’s been a long time and I’m chuffed to bits to come away with the win.”
Novalak started 13th on the grid and profited from a well-timed pit stop and rivals’ retirements.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Drivers and team’s quotes after the race (AlphaTauri)
Guilherme Dezotoux, head of vehicle performance: 'As for Liam (Lawson), he did a very good job today, learning about the car and adapting to the conditions, which were constantly evolving. He made no mistakes and was able to build up the pace on dry tyres, which he was driving on for the first time in our car.'
Alessandro Alunni Bravi: 'This race marks the end of a difficult weekend for the team. We were not competitive in qualifying or the race, and this was the key element on which we will need to focus.'
The Debrief: Dutch GP (Aston Martin)
'It is a shame we did not optimise the race for Lance and the decision to remain on dry tyres in the early stages cost him a chance of scoring points.'
Guenther Steiner: 'I think we got right what we could, we steered clear of unforced errors in some tricky conditions. Our dry pace is not good enough at the moment however, but I think we got out as much as we could from the race – that is where we are right now.'
Four points scored in tricky conditions at Zandvoort (Williams)
Dave Robson, head of vehicle performance: 'The team did an excellent job to repair Logan’s car overnight and it was a shame that he was unable to finish the race. We are still investigating the cause of his DNF, but he suffered with a loss of hydraulics.'
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
To be on the safe side, @TPourchaire went to the medical center.
He's doing well 🙏🏼
— ART Grand Prix (@ARTGP) August 27, 2023
WTF does Newgarden need to do to get a penalty? Some want to wake up the stewards @IndyCar?
— Marino Franchitti (@MFranchitti) August 27, 2023
⚠ Agustin Canapino has served a stop-go penalty for hitting pit personnel. This takes him out of the top ten.#IndyCar
— RaceFans Live (@racefanslive) August 27, 2023
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
The final laps of the Dutch Grand Prix made DaveW wonder if the Drag Reduction System is needed at Zandvoort:
This track needs no DRS.
The Sainz-Hamilton-Norris battle at the end would have just been a walkover but they were all working like fiends to attack and defend lap after lap. So much better than seeing Hamilton and then Norris blast past on the straight listening to Crofty try to hype it up like it was going to be the best pass in history.
DaveW (@DMW)
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Malibu_Gp!
On this day in motorsport
- 40 years ago today Rene Arnoux scored his final win in the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort for Ferrari. McLaren’s TAG Porsche engine also made its race debut
Anthony Blears
28th August 2023, 0:19
How could they
? Remove all the other drivers?
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
28th August 2023, 1:22
No… simply clone Lance 19 times and purchase all the other teams. Then Lance could legitimately win a hard fought championship.
slowmo (@slowmo)
28th August 2023, 0:49
If you’re being penalised regularly then you probably need to review your own actions. The fact was his tyres were shot and he was behind at the apex, he should have conceded the corner a lot early rather than trying to push the other driver wide.
Nick T.
28th August 2023, 2:39
I agree. I am not a fan of Yuki, but the guy has been given some of the most BS penalties I’ve ever seen. The one with Zhou might rank near the top among the worst ever.
Nick T.
28th August 2023, 2:42
Let me be clear, I think he earned the Russell penalty, but the impeding penalty was ridiculous. There’s no way most drivers are being given that penalty.
S
28th August 2023, 3:27
I’ve noticed many times that Tsunoda gets hit with penalties that other driver do not. He’s absolutely got a fair point here.
This wasn’t enough of a contact to be labelled as any other than a racing incident IMO – especially considering the particular context and that so many other similar events go completely unpunished with other drivers.
The precedent seem to be that if Tsunoda is involved, it deserves a penalty – and if he isn’t, then “we’ll think about it…”
t
28th August 2023, 4:02
Haas engineer Ayao Komatsu protested against Direk Warwick penalizing Magnussen in Hungary 2020, Direk Warwick was unaware of Charlie Whiting’s stated rule exposed to the media.
After that, only Haas got an orange ball.
There were a total of 1200 track limit violations in Austria and it was impossible to check them all. While most drivers were given their penalties after the race, the penalties for Yuki and Ocon were issued during the race.
He was punished before Sainz and Hamilton, who were reported by radio.
I can only think that there is an order to give punishment.
During the penalty for stepping on the white line in the pitlane, Norris and Latifi stepped on it, but only Yuki got it twice.
AlanD
28th August 2023, 11:41
T said “There were a total of 1200 track limit violations in Austria and it was impossible to check them all”
which is why I think the fair way to police this would be to automate it. It would be possible to put a sensor in the nose of the car and another in the track at strategic points around the circuit to detect if the driver has exceeded track limits, and to make this an automatic penalty rather than something the stewards need to discuss. My preference would be to say that if you trigger the track limit sensor, you are rev limited for the next 20 seconds to simulate having to crawl out of the gravel trap.
Todfod (@todfod)
28th August 2023, 6:57
Agree with the COTD .. this track just didn’t need DRS. Watching a good defense is far more interesting than this push to pass system during races.
AlanD
28th August 2023, 11:46
Tod, I was surprised that Hamilton just couldn’t find a way past Sainz and suspect that if the whole race had been run without DRS that it might have been a bit of a snoozefest. I think the original idea of DRS was that cars cannot run close enough any more to be able to pass using slipstreaming, so DRS was intended to fill that gap. I don’t think the concept is that wrong, just the way it is implemented on some circuits where it is virtually push to pass. Perhaps if it disengaged once cars were side by side it would give more exciting racing, instead of letting the passing car sail off into the distance with its DRS flap open.
slowmo (@slowmo)
28th August 2023, 12:08
There were very few instances I saw of the move being done on the straight before the braking zone on this circuit. That’s a fair criticism usually but that wasn’t the case this race. Both Norris and Hamilton were unable to pass Tsunoda despite having cars over 1s a lap faster and DRS.
Jere (@jerejj)
28th August 2023, 7:23
Well, they indeed had contact & he’s the one who caused it by not surrendering the battle when he should’ve.
I couldn’t disagree more with the COTD, lol.
Zandvoort is among the, maybe, five least overtaking-friendly circuits, so DRS is definitely necessary & the few slightly easy-looking passes had nothing to do with DRS, but other factors, mainly car, tyre differences, or perhaps even setup differences.
AlanD
28th August 2023, 11:51
Jere, I thought Zandvoort was interesting because of the banked corner, where Alonso in particular seemed to be good at finding an alternate line. The problem with so many tracks is that there is only one racing line through the corners, and the straights between those corners are too short to do anything about it, so the only thing we are left with is DRS passes on the straights.
Simon
28th August 2023, 16:06
@jerejj disagreeing with a COTD? That must be a first. Colour me all shades of shocked…
A M (@amam)
28th August 2023, 11:17
I kinda agree with Tsunoda. There seems to be certain drivers who the stewards are quick to penalise, while others, they seem to turn a blind eye to their transgressions. For instance, Max pushing Gasly off track wasn’t even noted by the stewards.
slowmo (@slowmo)
28th August 2023, 12:10
That’s just champion and challenger privilge, they’ve never really penalised the championship leader and challenger properly ever in this sport. Seems to come from a desire to not to be seen as tampering in the championship which ironically then looks like they’re absolutely manipulating the championship.
Erkr
28th August 2023, 13:54
Stroll is another one that often seems to escape reprimands
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
28th August 2023, 12:04
100% agree with COTD.
We saw plenty of good racing & real, exciting overtaking without DRS yesterday & all DRS did was make several passes far too easy.
When you have something that all too often makes it look like cars are moving over to let the car behind past then you are doing something wrong!!!!!!
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
28th August 2023, 16:51
I wonder if he’ll be penalised for complaining about the stewards giving him too many penalties.