Max Verstappen said he was “surprised” the stewards are investigating whether he impeded other drivers leaving the pits during the first phase of qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix.
The stewards are looking into his driving, as well as that of George Russell and Fernando Alonso, after a queue of cars formed at the pit lane exit at the end of Q1.Verstappen insisted he had done no different to his rivals. “It’s just everyone is trying to make a gap,” he said. “I saw a car passing five cars behind me, and then he tried to pass me as well. But I’m just trying to make a gap out of the pit lane, and that’s basically what everyone has been doing.
“So I’m surprised. Normally, I think everyone should then be called up for impeding because everyone, with this new rule, is driving very slowly in the pit lane. I don’t think I did anything weird or wrong.”
Since the Italian Grand Prix, the FIA has required drivers not to exceed a maximum time between two lines at the start and end of a lap during qualifying sessions. This has been done in order to prevent them driving slowly at the end of a lap to find space to start a full-speed run without interference from another car.
However Verstappen said the consequence of the rule is that drivers slow down at the pit lane exit instead, preventing rivals from overtaking them, to ensure they have a clean start to their lap.
“I think it’s all imperfect at the moment so we need to come up probably with something else,” he said. “But it’s hard.
“The thing I don’t understand is everyone is trying to make a gap now in the pit lane, which is the only place where we can do so, so I don’t really understand how you can be impeding someone.
“So for me I think we have to be a little bit more lenient with that, knowing that it’s a safe environment, we’re driving really slow, it’s the only place where we can make a gap because we drive out of the box and of course we are in the beginning of the pit and we don’t know what other people are doing. So you are constantly, of course, then trying to judge a gap. You don’t want to start a lap within three or four seconds of someone because that’s really bad for following.
“But then on the other hand if we wouldn’t have had this kind of minimum lap time done, maybe you have some impeding into the last sector again. So it’s all quite tough I guess, to find a good compromise.”
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Gusm.ai
29th October 2023, 1:31
The mess at the pit exit doesnt look like the “pinnacle of motorsport”.
It is not the point of being dangerous, but of making everybody looking silly.
Jordi Casademunt (@casjo)
29th October 2023, 1:14
It’s also really unsportsmanlike? I know that doesn’t seem to matter anymore, but stopping at the pit stop exit, when the cars behind might not have enough time to go around or even room to do so? It feels like they’re just screwing with everyone behind.
And Verstappen refers to the minimum lap time rule, but he did it first at Singapore where the rule wasn’t even being applied. Was he testing the waters there? Risking a penalty at a track where he was already struggling?
PeterG
29th October 2023, 1:13
TBH i don’t have an issue with it and think it’s actually better and safer creating the gaps coming out the pits compared to trying to do it on track as was the case before.
I mean think about it. Since they started doing it in the pits we haven’t seen the car parks in the final sector and there’s been fewer complaints about been impeded on track so I’d just leave them to do it this way.
End of the day drivers need to have a gap to get a lap in so there going to need to slow down to create it somewhere.
Bruno64
29th October 2023, 1:28
Looking at the on board video you can notice that some drivers (Alonso, Sainz, Magnussen) went really slow at the pits exit lane. That’s why Russel stopped at the pit exit and Max was driving very slow.
S
29th October 2023, 6:40
You seriously don’t have an issue with someone blocking the pit lane exit? Especially so when the session clock is in the final couple of minutes…?
They’ve got plenty of opportunity to make those gaps on track. There is no rule that says they must drive at the slowest possible speed on an out lap – they do so by choice.
And you’ve apparently forgotten the times that they’ve still had car parks in the final sector even with this.
Well, they don’t actually. But they do need be able to make it to the line to start their final lap if they’ve left their garage in time. Blocking the pit lane is the one tool the first drivers out have to prevent the later ones from doing that – and that is the primary reason they do it.
You couldn’t find a less sporting thing to do at that point of a qualifying session.
PeterG
29th October 2023, 14:17
They do so because the current tires force them to due to how quickly they start to overheat while been pushed.
If they drove any faster on the out lap the tires would be finished before they got half way round the lap.
If they had better tires that didn’t overheat so quickly & weren’t as thermally sensitive we wouldn’t see a lot of the issues on the out lap we have seen during the Pirelli era.
S
30th October 2023, 5:13
Then put a harder tyre on instead. Again, this is a choice.
I assume you are well aware of the rule which states cars must not be driven unnecessarily slowly? There’s no mention of tyres in that rule…
SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
29th October 2023, 9:26
But right now they overdoing it in the pits. I think the FIA should come up with a light system at the end of the pits during Q. Currently it’s red/green. I would advise adding blue.
Red: pit exit closed (like it is now)
Blue: pit exit open, but allowed to wait
Green: pit exit open, car in front forced to go
Blue and green can switch like on a highway (where it is sometimes done to control the traffic flow wherein green means 1 car is allowed to enter the highway). Have the light at the pitlane on green for 2 seconds. Blue for 3 seconds. Should be enough.
MadMax (@madmax)
29th October 2023, 12:56
A simple minimum speed of e.g. 30 km/h would do. Stopping or crawling with slow speed in the lane while on-purpose blocking the cars behind is impeding. Pretty simple.
David BR (@david-br)
29th October 2023, 15:30
impede v. delay or prevent (someone or something) by obstructing them; hinder.
Stopping anyone from passing you because you’re blocking the track or entry to the track is so obviously ‘impeding’ it’s ridiculous it can even be questioned. Only in Formula 1. At least changes the rules to ‘it’s fine to impede other drives if you’re sat in the pit lane waiting for a gap’ (maybe: who can tell the real motive though?).