George Russell says one of the Brazilian Grand Prix stewards told him he had been “unfortunate” with the circumstances which led to his grid penalty for today’s race.
He was one of three drivers to be given a two-place grid drop for impeding a rival at the pit exit, under a new rule introduced this weekend.The rule states drivers who were backing off to create a gap to a car ahead must stay to the left-hand-side of the pit lane exit to let other drivers pass them. The stewards ruled Russell failed to do so in qualifying for today’s grand prix and the penalty has dropped him to eighth place on the grid.
All three drivers who were investigated for infringing the rule on Friday – Russell, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon – were penalised. However Russell said one of the stewards told him the circumstances of his incident had been “unfortunate.”
“It was a bit frustrating when the stewards said to me that I was basically unfortunate that Pierre accelerated and came up right behind me and that I did nothing different to any of the other drivers who stayed sort of middle of the track.”
Russell said was trying to avoid running over debris on the left-hand-side of the pit lane as he joined the track. The start of qualifying had been delayed by 15 minutes in order for the track to be cleaned.
“It’s difficult with all of the screws and bolts around the track,” he said. “I didn’t really want to be right on the left-hand side.”
He felt some leniency should have been shown given the circumstances and the recent introduction of the rule.
“I was just quite surprised how black-and-white they took it,” he said. “We’re adding a lot of new rules and every time we have a new rule, it always has an unforeseen consequence.
“I appreciate why they’re doing it, but I definitely felt it was a bit harsh considering it’s the very first time that rule was implemented. But we’ve just got to suck it up and move on.”
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bosyber (@bosyber)
5th November 2023, 7:25
What I find most difficult is how inconsistent the stewards are with leniency towards the circumstances. You’d think they’d be able to have a sort of checklist for that by now between them, send it by whatsapp to all of them all over the world or something, dunno. I am sure I underestimate the difficulty, but this is supposed to be a professional sport.
drmouse (@drmouse)
5th November 2023, 9:08
Was he on the radio saying that there was debris on the left? If there was still debris there, running should have been delayed further, it’s not safe to run it like that, and he should have been calling for the session to be paused.
That said, he does have a point, though it isn’t the one he was trying to make. The race director’s notes said that drivers could go slowly to create a gap, but must stay to the left while doing so. It doesn’t say they must move to the left to let other drivers past. Therefore, any driver who was going slowly there should have been penalised equally whether they held another car up or not.
Facts&Stats
5th November 2023, 10:57
Good analysis of the RD’s notes.
But I guess the penalty is for ‘impeding’ as per the rulebook. There needs to be another car to be penalised.
I’m not sure if drivers can be penalised solely on a RD note infringement; it probably always requires an underlying breach of the rulebook.
drmouse (@drmouse)
5th November 2023, 11:26
I’m pretty sure the rules say that competitors must follow the race director’s instructions. The rules about a maximum time between safety car lines, for instance, is only a race director’s instruction but they can be penalised for failing to follow it.
Facts&Stats
5th November 2023, 12:45
Also that one is also investigated as a breach of the F1 Sporting Regulation (art. 33.4).
BLS (@brightlampshade)
5th November 2023, 10:16
I don’t know how slow they’re actually going, but can’t you have an opposite pit limiter to stop them going below 100kph
(Not entirely serious idea)