Charles Leclerc, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu have been cleared by the stewards for exceeding the maximum lap time limit in qualifying.
The Ferrari driver and the Alfa Romeo team mates avoided penalties after the trio were investigated by the stewards for breaching the maximum time drivers were permitted to take between the two Safety Car lines at pit exit and entry.The maximum time limit was brought in by race director Niels Wittich for the second time in three rounds in a bid to ensure drivers keep their speed up between laps and not create hazardous situations for rivals.
The trio exceeded the maximum time of one minute and 54 seconds in the opening phase of qualifying. Each was on their first out-laps in the session. They were among the final four drivers to leave the pit lane and start their first runs in qualifying, and all three immediately had to yield to rivals behind on flying laps, meaning they were forced to slow through various stages of the lap.
After investigating, the stewards determined that this was the reason why the trio had breached the maximum lap time and excused them as a result.
“All drivers stayed at or above speeds necessary to stay below 1’54 around the vast majority of the circuit,” the stewards noted. “However, in all cases the stewards determined that the drivers took appropriate actions to slow and stay to the side to the track so as to not impede other drivers, and in all cases, they did this significantly to allow four or more drivers to pass while giving those drivers a clear track.
“The stewards therefore determine that they did not drive ‘unnecessarily slowly’, and that evidently the reason they were all slightly above the maximum time was due to their appropriate actions and take no further action.”
It is the second time Leclerc has breached the limit but been cleared of wrongdoing by the stewards. As at Monza, Leclerc said prior to the stewards’ decision he exceeded the maximum time because he was released onto the circuit out of phase with the majority of his rivals.
“I think as soon as they look into it they will understand pretty easily I’ve been sent in the worst position possible in Q1 and I had to let cars past wherever I could,” Leclerc said before the decision was announced.
“I think I had 10 seconds to recover in sector two and three, but that wasn’t enough. I recovered five seconds, I was faster than the delta as soon as I let the traffic past but there was too much traffic.”
As when the maximum time rule was enforced at Monza, there were no noted incidents of impeding during qualifying. Both Alfa Romeo drivers were eliminated from Q1 with Bottas knocked out in 16th and team mate Zhou 19th, while Leclerc reached Q3 to secure fifth on the grid for Sunday’s race.
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S
23rd September 2023, 12:34
Oh, the shock of another clear breach of this rule being fobbed off with excuses…
Too slow is too slow. Go faster.
AlanD
23rd September 2023, 14:04
S, you seem to be arguing that drivers should be penalised for good considerate driving towards competitors.
S
23rd September 2023, 14:36
Is driving unnecessarily slowly really being considerate of others? Seems exactly the opposite to me – it’s actually very selfish.
What they all should be doing on a green racetrack is driving at reasonably competitive speeds at all times to reduce/eliminate speed differences between cars to the point where it actually creates no impeding problems at all.
There’s a pretty good argument for a maximum lap time equivalent to the 107% rule (which is also usually not applied in reality either.)
Suzuka’s maximum lap time this weekend is very close to 175% of the qualifying lap time set today….
That’s very generous, to say the least. Useless and even reckless might be apt terms, too.
Keep in mind that drivers regularly mention the danger of closing speeds in modern F1. They are the source of their own problems here, and are actively participating in creating an unsafe environment for themselves and each other.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
23rd September 2023, 21:00
There’s something wrong with the math, verstappen barely went under 1.29, how is 175% of that 1.54? We’re talking about 89 vs 114 seconds, even just to get 150% you would need 133,5 seconds!
The Edge (@the-edge)
23rd September 2023, 12:51
@S You misunderstand… they ‘were’ travelling at the acceptable speed, however due to the position that cars on hot laps were catching them, they had to either slow right down, or even virtually stop to get out of the way, so they did not impede the fast cars lap. This would obviously increase their lap time but is unavoidable, for example, slowing right down on a straight when you are on the dirty side of the track so you were passed there, instead of entering a sequence of corners where it would be impossible to keep out of the way when being passed
This has to be taken into account when deciding if a violation occurred, it would be ridiculous to penalize someone for NOT impeding
S
23rd September 2023, 13:18
I certainly don’t misunderstand.
Track position is an unavoidable factor in every lap time, and something that must be managed prior to – and during – each and every lap.
Deciding that they ‘would have’ made the lap in time without other factors being involved is really just an incredibly ignorant and potentially dangerous interpretation of the rule. It doesn’t change the reality that cars are going too slowly on a green race track, and that’s exactly what the rule was created and introduced to prevent.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
23rd September 2023, 13:18
You could also argue that they should have gone faster in the first place to make allowance for that to happen. But this shows why I don’t like the rule and why imho we don’t need it. Just let them go as slow as they want but hand out penalties as soon as they impede anyone.
S
23rd September 2023, 14:02
I was going to mention management also, but (mistakenly) assumed it would be common sense and not need to be said.
This rule is fine, but there was already a rule. A discretionary and subjective one based on the wording “unnecessarily slowly.” And we all know that F1 drivers regularly drive unnecessarily slowly, they just never get penalised for it.
Given the race director and stewards have (and always had) the power to penalise for this, they didn’t need another rule.
All they need to do is use penalties to create better behaviour patterns, But they never do.
And the reason for that, of course, is that on the rare occasions when they do try to, people wig out and complain that there are too many penalties. Take Austria, for example.
Nothing changed there except that the existing rules were applied (reasonably) properly for once.
I’ve said it way too many times here, but reading the F1 sporting regs and FIA sporting code and then watching F1 in action leads to a complete disconnection.
AlanD
23rd September 2023, 14:39
S: This rule is fine, but there was already a rule. A discretionary and subjective one based on the wording unnecessarily slowly.
Yes, that was the real problem, that the original rule was very fluffy, so then you have the legal teams arguing about precise wording. I’m not sure the new rule solves the problem though, because there doesn’t seem to be a “one size fits all”. I think we can agree that blocking a car on a hot lap is unacceptable, regardless of what minimum speed you are doing, but if you are keeping well out of other driver’s way and not impeding anyone else, then why does it matter how slow you are going? Why shouldn’t a driver go slow but safely and without obstructing others if they think they might have a slow puncture, or they are going through a complicated reset on the steering wheel, or they are just making sure the cars on race laps will have plenty of time to catch and pass them down a straight and not catch them in the twisty bits?
I think the grey area was when neither driver was on a hot lap. We’ve seen too many cases where one driver slows it right down so he has a lot of clean air ahead of him for his flyer, but backs everyone else up, and then weaves or speeds up if they try to overtake him. I think that should still count as impeding. To take an extreme example, when MV blocked the pit lane, it was clearly impeding, even though the Mercs could not possibly be on hot laps.
S
23rd September 2023, 15:01
Doing 50kph in a place where other cars are doing 300kph+ IS unnecessarily slowly.
Even doing 250kph in that same place can be a massive hazard, and everyone knows it.
There’s no problem with the wording, only with the lack of application. It is never penalised, and so teams now instruct their drivers to take maximum advantage of that fact.
I suggest you look up the Memo Gidley/Matteo Malucelli crash from the 2014 Daytona 24 hour race for a prime example.
Yes it can happen in F1, and may only be a matter of time until it does. There have been plenty of close calls just in recent years as it is.
That’s not grey to me. No more than hot pink or candy apple red is, anyway.
MichaelN
23rd September 2023, 15:22
S is right that the race director and stewards have always had the power to penalize people who are taking the mickey. As is obvious, the teams rule the show, and the FIA obliges by sending them officials they know will play along.
If the FIA was serious about their rules, they would send someone who would penalize every driver who thinks it’s cool to trundle along a live F1 track at 40 km/h and give him an involuntary time-out. It would instantly stop this behaviour. No matter what they say about having to manage tyre temperatures and the like, they’d all much rather start the lap on sub-optimal tyres than be forced to watch someone race in their car.
F1 isn’t managing the issue; they’re just lucky. Like they were lucky it took 7 years for another driver to bump into a recovery vehicle. And then that luck ran out when the speeds turned out to be much higher.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
23rd September 2023, 21:19
With the 7 years gap I guess you’re talking about liuzzi on nurburgring 2007 before bianchi accident in suzuka 2014, makes sense, I saw liuzzi’s one these days and he barely hit it, but they didn’t consider it a problem till the fatal crash happened, and even then there was another episode recently with a crane on track and gasly who complained and got a penalty, don’t remember where.
So I agree something could happen eventually with these incredibly slow speeds in out laps\in laps.