Stewards right to avoid hasty decision over Leclerc’s damage – Vasseur

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In the round-up: Vasseur approves of stewards’ decision not to show Leclerc the black-and-orange flag straight away when he picked up wing damage.

In brief

Vasseur praises stewards’ handling of wing damage

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur said the FIA was correct not to demand Charles Leclerc pit immediately to have his broken front wing attended to during the Mexican Grand Prix.

Leclerc sustained damage when he tangled with Sergio Perez on lap one. Ferrari told their driver later in the lap not to pit for repairs, and his front-left endplate fell off three laps later.

Vasseur said Ferrari “didn’t have time” to consider whether to bring Leclerc in “because I think that when we saw it, we tried to have a look at what’s happened and he lost part of the front wing, the end plate, one lap after”.

Last year Haas were forced to pit Kevin Magnussen on three separate occasions due to broken endplates. Following discussions with the teams, race control now handle these situations more leniently.

Vasseur approved of the stewards’ decision to consider the matter after the race. “You have the pro and cons on both sides but if they take a decision, they are not able to listen to us and to listen to our position. If they postpone the decision for sure the podium is done and it’s done.”

Haas “expected a little more” from recent upgrades

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Haas introduced a major upgrade, which included a new floor, to the United States Grand Prix in the hope of improved performance. Although the team’s drivers did confirm they felt they had a better car during the grand prix, they failed to score at Circuit of the Americas and also in Mexico City last weekend.

“The key learnings are that we maybe expected a little bit more from the upgrade, but then it’s still a little bit up and down because Austin was a sprint weekend with not a lot of testing, and Mexico had such high altitude,” said Haas’s team principal Guenther Steiner. “We didn’t have enough total downforce last weekend, so I still haven’t come to a full conclusion but the expectations were a bit higher, although it’s giving us the right direction for next year.”

At this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix their long-time reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi will be making potentially one of his last appearances in the team’s garage since he has a full-time IndyCar ride for 2024.

“Pietro is a part of the family at Haas, and everyone is very happy about him getting a full-time drive in IndyCar because then at least he can go out there and compete at a very high level,” Steiner said. “If he will be a part of the team with us next year depends a bit on the calendar and what matches up or not, but as I said he’s part of our family, so if possible, we’ll try to keep him on board.”

Unusual issue leads to relocation of Indian F4 races

It has taken over two years for the Indian Formula 4 championship to be turned from idea into reality, and this weekend’s inaugural round has had a last-minute venue change.

The season was supposed to get underway in Hyderabad, on the street circuit used by Formula E, but the opening races will now be held on the permanent Chennai track where teams have been testing this week. An unusual reason has led to the relocation.

“This is due to a force majeure event that has been invoked due to code of conduct that has been prescribed for elections in Telangana,” the series said in a press release. “We would like to respect the rules and regulations of the election commission, and hence, have come to the decision of shifting the venue.”

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Comment of the day

Red Bull had a “bit of an issue” with starts earlier this year, but now claim it’s been fixed and Max Verstappen’s rocket starts in the Mexican Grand Prix are proof of that. So how could it have been done?

Tyre temperature is the biggest variable you can adjust. Carcass and surface temperatures, so the loads over the warm-up lap and the final burnouts getting to the line plus the rear brake temperatures. While you wait until the last car is on the grid and the red light sequence, the heat is transferring.

The other big thing is the clutch. I wish I knew more about this… I think there is some fine tuning going on at every practice start from the pits and the launch for the formation lap. Maybe they learned better how to apply this calibration to the actual race start. Also maybe the hydraulic actuators had an issue and didn’t perform precisely or consistently enough to the driver input.
Or maybe the drivers couldn’t see the red lights and they are wearing corrective lenses now.
Dusty

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Joe Jones, Rits and Tara!

On this day in motorsport

Mika Hakkinen won his first world title at Suzuka in 1998
  • 25 years ago today Mika Hakkinen won his first world championship title

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Author information

Ida Wood
Often found in junior single-seater paddocks around Europe doing journalism and television commentary, or dabbling in teaching photography back in the UK. Currently based...

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9 comments on “Stewards right to avoid hasty decision over Leclerc’s damage – Vasseur”

  1. Profile Photo

    SteveR (@stever)
    1st November 2023, 2:35

    “This is due to a force majeure event that has been invoked due to code of conduct that has been prescribed for elections in Telangana,” the series said in a press release. “We would like to respect the rules and regulations of the election commission, and hence, have come to the decision of shifting the venue.”

    Okay, and what does that exactly mean? Is it possible, today, to actually say something clearly?

    1. Nick T.
      1st November 2023, 5:01

      Yes, that’s comic levels of intentional, utter gibberish.

      Personally, just because they were unfair and overly cautious and aggressive in calling in the Haas cars twice, I wouldn’t like to see that continue just to give some minor justice to Haas. There’s too much of continuing to make poor decisions because a precedent has been set. The FIA and race directors should have the integrity and flexibility to admit when an in-race decision has been wrong or less than ideal.

    2. Profile Photo

      Diez Cilindros (@diezcilindros)
      1st November 2023, 7:34

      I also have troubles to understand it.

      I guess there are elections in the region in a short term and current government can’t perform any “big act” that could influence the people. In local and regional elections in Spain you can’t perform an opening ceremony of anything (community centre, railway station…) with an election within a 90-day (IIRC) period. And I guess in India you can’t bring a big event like F4, with politicians and running candidates onto the podium “appearing in the pictures”.

    3. MichaelN
      1st November 2023, 20:35

      According to The Hindu:

      A senior official from the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI) said that the upcoming elections in the State played a key role in the racing league not getting permission to host the event.

      “The elections are coming up and that played a major part in IRL not hosting the race in Hyderabad. Crowd gatherings are not allowed during this time is what we are told by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and we are following the instructions penned down by them. It’s a very tricky situation and we can’t do much,” the source said.

  2. Profile Photo

    Neil (@neilosjames)
    1st November 2023, 6:44

    25 years ago… nice little ‘feel old’ moment to start my day! Still one of my favourite F1 memories though, well worth the early wake-up.

    1. Profile Photo

      Unicron (@unicron2002)
      1st November 2023, 7:18

      I had the exact same thought!

    2. Profile Photo

      Red Andy (@red-andy)
      1st November 2023, 13:18

      I remember it well – as I recall, ITV missed the crucial moment (Schumacher’s puncture) due to being on an advert break at the time, which was something they seemed to do infuriatingly often.

  3. Profile Photo

    DB-C90 (@dbradock)
    1st November 2023, 9:58

    One wonders if it was Kmags car or Sargeants whether or not they would’ve been allowed the same latitude as Ferrari.

    I know they reviewed last years decisions but I still believe that cars further down the order get nowhere near the same treatment when it comes to potentially dangerous car damage.

    1. AlanD
      1st November 2023, 11:16

      It is always hard to tell the scale of these things, but when the cameras showed the piece of debris lying on track, it seemed to be much bigger than I expected, and not the sort of thing you’d want to run over or have fired back at you from the wheels of the car in front. With hindsight, I think it was obvious that damaged wing had to drop off somewhere, and no-one could predict if it would land in a safe or dangerous position, so really the team should have put other driver’s safety first and called in LeClerc immediately. That was an avoidable safety car.

Comments are closed.